casting 30 cal rifle boolits HELP

[oley55]

I see the talk about Inclusions ...
I don't see any mention of ... Fluxing the pot ...

I get the alloy melted in the pot , add a little Marvelux ...stir well
Add a teaspoon of wood shavings ... cedar wood from a pencil sharpener ... stir some more
Add a little beeswax to the mix ... stir with little wooden stir stick ...
Keep skimming all the trash that floats up ... still see inclusions ?
Repeat the three step flux .... you have to flux the casting pot to get the inclusions out ...
I use a 20# pot and will flux at the beginning and flux again @ 1/2 way pot level ...
Good fluxing keeps the inclusions out and production goes up ... Trust me on this one !

I honestly think Lee has cut TOO much metal from their blocks ... the last one I bought needs more mass , they cool down too fast in an uneven way ... that just makes it harder for all of us to cast good boolits .

Don't give up the ship , you have to learn and casting boolits is the only way . Looks like you have casting by the tail and on a downhill drag ...
... Keep On Keeping On
Gary

GW, a question on your fluxing technique. Are you skimming after each method or are you only skimming after the final flux with beeswax?

Reference stirring with a wooden stir, I generally keep some paint stir paddles on my work bench that I have split into three with a utility knife. I have read more than a few times where floks recommend stirring with a wooden paint stir, but my problem is even though well aged, my sticks have WAY too much moisture in them. Enough so that they are dangerous to dip into a pot. I meaning boiling spitting lead dangerous. Could maybe have something to do with actually living on a saltwater marsh in Florida, but then it can't be any worse than Baton Rouge, LA....

[GasGuzzler]

Thermometer is likely off 10%.

[gwpercle]

Yea I'm pretty hooked on this casting thing, to the detriment of my range trips/time it seems. I surely do enjoy the ease of do overs with cast boolits and a heck of a lot easier and more fun than pulling boolits, or so me thinks.

Are you fluxing your casting pot prior to starting a session ...
If so , how are are fluxing the pot .
Those pesky inclusions shouldn't be in the cast boolits and I'm at a loss as to why they are there if the pot has been properly fluxed and skimmed . Bottom pour pots like to give you problems ...
They don't like me ... I tired of fighting mine , gave it away and went back to open top pot and Lyman Dipper ... I can see what's going on and it's easier to flux the pot .

[oley55]

Thermometer is likely off 10%.

only if the boiling point of water at sea level is not actually 212F, referencing my having had calibrated my lead thermometer in rapidly boiling water.

[oley55]

gw,

yes, when I start I flux with fine sawdust collected from one of those programable wood carving machines (mostly pine). stir n scrape n stir and then skim. The I toss in a pea sized chunk of beeswax stir n stir and then skim. Stirring n skimming via a SS tea spoon with an extended wooden handle.

I don’t usually flux again until I add new lead. When I toss in the rejects n sprues I’ll lightly flux with just beeswax.

Just because I could, late last night I filed/rasped down a charcoal briquet into dust and tried a quick flux. No idea if it really worked or not, but didn’t make nearly as much smoke. But making charcoal dust is a seriously messy endeavor all in itself.

[oley55]

this from Mk42gunner;

Since you are using a 4-20 you might try ladle casting, I probably dipped half the boolits I cast when I was using mine. An RCBS Lead ladle works great.

and this from gwpercle;

Bottom pour pots like to give you problems ... They don't like me ... I tired of fighting mine , gave it away and went back to open top pot and Lyman Dipper

got me thinking. so I broke out the Lee 4 pounder pot, used the same alloy drained from the 4/20, lightly fluxed once with a bit of beeswax, prewarmed the mold at the 4 setting (versus the 5 setting normally used). heated the lead to 680-700 degrees and immediately began casting near perfect boolets pressure casting from a Lyman ladle. I cast these 28 bullets with virtually no rejects and in a quarter of the time it took me get as many keepers from the bottom pour.

They are not absolutely perfect but watching me with a ladle would remind most anyone of a monkey and a football. The only other thing I did different was I smoked the mold with a butane lighter. Wish I hadn't smoked the mold so that I could say with certainty whether magic time was from ladle casting, but sitting here right now I'm looking pretty wide eyed and amazed.

No doubt, some more trial an error ahead (non-smoked, just poured and dipped from the 4/20) but dang...........! Thanks guys!!!

[charlie b]

Congratulations!!! Looks like you will be doing some shooting soon