Lyman Mold Problem

[Rich/WIS]

I have a Lyman DC 452374 for the 225gr RN. It casts a nice bullet but I start having a lot of frosting problems after even a short run of bullets. I have my Saeco pot down to almost 600 deg and the frosting just keeps getting worse. I have noticed that these are small blocks compared to RCBS molds and am wondering if that is the problem, or is there something else going on. The alloy I am using is WW, or at least I think it is, it was from my brother-in-law, he gave it to me years ago when he quit casting. All he ever used was WW and it is cerainly hard enough to be WW. Anyone else have this problem or have any suggestions?

[selmerfan]

Sounds like the mold is getting too hot. Not to state the obvious...

[GabbyM]

do you have a thermometer in the pot? It's dial may not be calibrated very close and your alloy is much hotter than you think. If it was really only 600 degrees you'd not have enough heat.

Frosted bullets are good. As long as you aren’t getting shrinkage.

[gunplumber]

ive been casting 500 gr and 405 gr 45 boolits normally at 750 degrees, i tried turning down to 700 and 650 on different casting sessions and my frosting got worse. both of those molds when new threw rejects for the first 100 casts even after seriously degreasing with dawn and brake cleaner several times.

[mooman76]

You have to have heat for frosting so if the frosting bothers you turn the pot down some more. Your mold picks up heat as you go so it is already getting hot and then you turn it down some but the mould has already gotten hot and hasn't cooled down yet. Each mold is to itself. Some like more heat and some less.

[Nick10Ring]

I've been casting for years. When I get frosting I:

1) Turn down heat. Try to finde exact temperature.

2) If you cast for other calibers,try casting with 2 molds during the session.
This will give the mold more time to cool.

Nick10Ring@aol.com

[HATCH]

Try keeping the pot the same temp but take a pause between dumping the boolits and pouring more lead.
Consider it a cool down time. Also you could get a piece of metal (12x12x1) and place the mold on the piece of metal between pours. You could use some ingots. Basically you are using it as a heat sink.

I pretty much cast with my pot wide open or close to it. I do cut the temp down when I get down to a 1/2 pot.

My fav mold is a lyman 358477 4c. Basically I can cast with the pot wide open and never get frosted boolits. If I don't heat the mold up prior to casting, it only takes about 4 cast to get it up to temp. I let the lead sit in the mold for a couple mins.

[John Boy]

Rich, turn your pot temperature down so the sprue puddle frosts in 5 seconds. Then you will have pretty bullets!

[Catshooter]

Rich,

Welcome to the forum.

What makes you think that a frosted boolit is a bad thing? I don't think so, have been casting frosted boolits for about 40 years. They work just fine.


Cat

[MtGun44]

+1 on why worry about frosting?? Means absolutely nothing, fiddle around getting
rid of it if you like, but you will gain nothing in actual performance. I suppose that
shiny, unfrosted may be a nice appearance goal, but I tend to have 100% frosty and
love the nice fill out and sharp edges.

Bill

[bhn22]

Frosting doesn't hurt anything. If you're overheating your mould, slow your pace down a bit.

[Rich/WIS]

All good advice. Had a blinding flash of the obvious too, the alloy temp is probabaly not falling very fast when I turned down the temp. Next time I will try some of these tips and add an ingot also, melting the ingot should take some heat out of the alloy and bring pot temp down.

[Bret4207]

It might be worth your while to read up on BruceB's Speedcasting method. It works-

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=57105