‘New Casters’ . . . forensics of a casting session

[Bull]

Thank you

I am just gettin started, and I will keep referring back to thiss.

[Kavein]

I’ve been casting for about 10 years now, and I’ve learned more here than you could imagine. Since I’ve found Cast Boolits my production is higher and the quality is vastly improved.

Thanks Much

[BNE]

Sticky material for sure.

Question about the cut timing. I was taught (on this forum) to look for the “goat azzes” and make them consistently. You suggested cutting later and having a smooth cut. Why? Does it affect accuracy?

When I wait too long I tend to leave a “bump”. I always assumed that was not good.

[OS OK]

Sticky material for sure.

Question about the cut timing. I was taught (on this forum) to look for the “goat azzes” and make them consistently. You suggested cutting later and having a smooth cut. Why? Does it affect accuracy?

When I wait too long I tend to leave a “bump”. I always assumed that was not good.

It's hard to define pistol accuracy since typically we 'non professional types' tend to shoot patterns, small associations of group looking things like something you can cover with the palm of your hand at 10 to 15 yards freehand. I think weight variation cast per cast makes little difference unless you are working accuracy of a pistol caliber carbine, I'm sure we could measure that well enough but I am obsessed with making a clean looking cast and having a smooth sprue cut on the base makes me happy.
I know that there are pistoleers here that put a frehanded shot group all in the size of a half dollar or less but I speak in general here about pistol accuracy...ok?
A smooth cut makes the weight variation the least comparing cast per cast whether or not you have a little bump...so long as they are all the same, consistent.

In PC'ing these cast with bumps, it may make it tough to stand a narrow diameter cast to bake, might make them too tipsy to push a tray into the oven without tipping them over and causing a ruckus but there are several ways to handle this, one is to bake all spread out on the pan. Each to their own there...

I had a new Lyman 4 cavity 452374 RN 225 gn. that was a real bugger to time the sprue cut. If too soon, I would pull lead from the base of the cast as I've shown before and if I waited too long it became almost uncuttable, it took a very firm smack with the mallet to get a clean cut...it was maddening and I could not work out a timing cadence.
Then...once I noticed the shape of the sprue cut looking at the bottom of the sprue itself...notice the straight length of the sprue below the cone shaped fill hole where the cut is made at the bottom surface of the plate? It is straight for about 3/32" or so forming a column that I had to shear off...not cut in the sense of cutting with an edge of the sprue plate but actually shearing a column of lead there!



Well...this is untenable. It was time to get the die grinder and a cone shaped diamond grinding stone out and make that sharp edge of the sprue. Here's a picture where I've almost got the cone ground down to the edge at the bottom of the sprue plate and forming a sharp edge...



Big difference now...smooth base on the casts and they stand for PC baking without tipping over and making me even crazier than I already am! ...

[OS OK]

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