First cast

[Carrier]

Well got around to giving it a go today and results are less than stellar. I put in 5 pounds of pure lead bars and .25 pounds of tin to give the 20 to 1 ratio. However I think I’m not running the heat at right temperature and therefore have the parts to make a pid controller coming. Here are some pictures of the bullets. For some reason I can’t load up anymore and will try in a new post.
But what the hell is this **** on the spoon and in the pot? I used a pea size piece of beeswax at the beginning and everything was fine. After about a half hour into casting and about half of the lead I stated with this stuff started showing up. It’s a crumble stuff that looks like sulfur and would smoke a bit when stirred.

[ericandelaine1975]

Did you flux the lead before you started casting?

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[Rcmaveric]

Owe my.... i dont know what would cause that. If there is enough lead in the pot for fluxing then i would hit it a few times with borax.

Seen that before in another post. They guy accidentally left his pot on overnight with kitty litter. I am not sure if we knew what did it. Looks like some impuritys expanded into a cryataline structure. When you flux with borax it will do something similar but but it will atract and trap impurities like a true flux. Pine saw dust is also another true flux. Waxes are a reductant and not a really a flux.

I flux a couple time with Borax then i flux with wax during casting.

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[Kraschenbirn]

Kinda looks like plain ol' PB02 (lead dioxide) to me.

Bill

[ericandelaine1975]

If you drop a small cube of wax in and as soon as it melts light it then stir from bottom up. Once the fire goes out the trash will be on top. You have to keep doing it until no more comes up.

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[marlin39a]

I'm just back from casting 50 lbs of Noe 358-158-TC . I flux twice each pot, and go to town. 9 lbs range lead with 1 lb Linotype .

[Carrier]

Could the pure lead that I supposedly bought not be so pure?

[GregLaROCHE]

Where did you get your lead from? Was it from a reputable source or did you just come by it from someone who just said it was lead? If a little bit of zinc found it’s way into the mix. You are sure to have problems. How hot was the pot and did you preheat the mold?

I flux with sawdust stirring it to force the chared part to the bottom and mixing. When it is all chared, I add maybe a teaspoon of beeswax and stir all again. I then leave the crust that has formed on the top to seal of the air from the hot lead to keep it from oxidizing. I’ll flux one or two other times during casting.

Try it again. Most people get better results with practice.

[Rcmaveric]

Thats not zinc. The green and red crystaline/crud growth is anyones educated quess.

Yes there were alot of impurities in that "pure lead". Impurity accumulation is common in lead pipes if that was the source. Doesnt matter where i get my lead. It still gets fluxed a few times with Borax. Just make sure.

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[Carrier]

Got the lead and tin bars from as local metal supplier who also has a commercial reloading operation and is the main Lee distributor up here. I melted the 5 bars of lead then melted the partial tin bar then put in a marble sized piece of beeswax to flux. I thought that since the bars were of a “pure source” that there shouldn’t be much **** in it.
Guess I was wrong and should have fluxed it several times.
I’m not sure of the exact temperature as it is a Lee production pot. I had it set at 7 on the dial and preheated the mold as I’ve seen on this site. Later this next week I’m going to reheat and flux the hell out of it and see what happens. I will have a submersion temperature probe to hook up to my Fluke temp meter so will be able to get a better idea of the lead temperature.
What is the ideal lead temperature for casting the 20 to 1 lead tin for these hollow base 405 grain bullets?
Though most of the hollow base bullets had some flaws in them I’m pretty happy with what I did end up with as it seems to be harder than the 500 grain flat base were to cast.
The 405 grains were weighing between 394 and 398 at .460”to .461”.The 500 grains were weighing between 495 and 498 at .460” to .461”.
So much to learn with this.

[Rcmaveric]

750* F seams to be about what most cast around. I start there and go up till i get good bases fill out. I normally cast around 900*F. I think my thermometer is more of a reference and not so much of a true value.

I wouldnt be too irrate with your supplier. Accidents happen.

I prefer to smelt my own.

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[lightman]

I'll second the suggestion to flux more. Hollow base and hollow point bullets are more of difficult to cast than a flat base bullet. They can be a challenge for a beginner. I cast at 720-730º. That temp works well with wheel weight alloy and the speed that I cast at. It takes practice to get everything to work right for you.

[Carrier]

This is one Of the 500 flat base and one of the 405 hollowbase. Most of them have a flaky look to them not sure if that’s due to the moulds or lead. Going to clean the moulds up and then give it another try this week.

[Rcmaveric]

Was reading about antimony a minute ago because of another thread. I read that antimony reacts to sodium bicarbonate to create red crystaline growth. Its the type of oxide it produces. If you keep heating it it the crystals turn black. Maybe you dont have bad lead. Just got a one off chemical reaction that turn all the antimony into its oxided state. If it is antimony oxide be extremely carefull with that.

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[Rcmaveric]

I cant tell from the pictures. They do look good to me though.

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[Carrier]

Was reading about antimony a minute ago because of another thread. I read that antimony reacts to sodium bicarbonate to create red crystaline growth. Its the type of oxide it produces. If you keep heating it it the crystals turn black. Maybe you dont have bad lead. Just got a one off chemical reaction that turn all the antimony into its oxided state. If it is antimony oxide be extremely carefull with that.

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That’s exactly what this stuff looked like. It was even glowing red when it was black. Then when I spooned it out it turned a puke yellow colour. There was supposed to be no antimony in the lead or tin bars. The only things I did was melt the lead bars, melted some of the tin bar, stirred with a stainless spoon and put some beeswax in it. It’s got me wondering as how that came about. I took out about 6 or 7 spoonfuls of that stuff and I’m sure there will be more.
I think what I’m going to do from here on is get a iron skillet or pot and use my turkey frier base and melt all lead in it and then pour into ingots and then put those in the Lee pot.

[Grmps]

try http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...g-screen-shots

[robg]

Just skim off the crud ,those boolits look OK to me if the bases are true they'll shoot fine.

[Carrier]

try http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...g-screen-shots

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