Partial Pour on a Six-Cavity mold?

[PBSmith]

I've got a Lee six-banger but am doubtful about being able to fill it with my limited casting equipment. Have a larger ladle but small diameter 11-pound furnace. That combo just won't allow filling of the ladle.

If I trying filling 2 or 3 of the cavities with the small bulb-type ladle, am I going to get the mold hot enough to cast decent bullets? Bullet is the 195-grain group buy version of Lyman's .358 RN cop bullet.

Thanks

[Yodogsandman]

Try it and see if it works. I would pre-heat the mold a bit on the side of the pot, first.

[GLL]

I use an RCBS ladle on 6-cavity molds on a regular basis with no problems !
A hot plate and speed are your friends though ! Never pause to admire your work.

Jerry

[nemesisenforcer]

Yeah. The heat will transfer throughout the mold eventually. It's metal, it's what it does.

The empty spaces of the cavities themselves won't be a problem if you go hot and fast so they don't have time for their surface areas to bleed heat before the next pour.

[imashooter2]

I found it very easy to fill 3 and 3 with two dips of a Lyman dipper using a Lee 360-180-RF group buy. I suspect your slightly larger mold will be just as easy.

[wv109323]

I think you will need to pre-heat the mold. I think without pre-heating you will have a lot of rejects before the mold gets up to the correct temp.

[williamwaco]

I find that starting from scratch with a room temperature Lee six cavity mold and a Lee 20 pound bottom pour spout.
If I fill it and empty it as fast as possible and not even looking at the dropped bullets it will take around 12 to 15 pourings to get the mold up to temperature. I expect it will take at least twice that many in your case.

So: You can make it work but you need to start with a very hot mold before you start pouring alloy.

[Vinne]

Just break down and buy a ladle large enough to do the job. It will make you casting easier, faster and more fun.

[imashooter2]

Preheating is easy. Just rest the mold across the top of the pot while the alloy melts. Takes pretty much zero extra effort and the first cast is keepers.

[dikman]

Granted that I only use 2-cav molds, but I fill the mold and let it stand for quite a few seconds, with the lead in it, before emptying it. This lets the heat bleed off and heat up the mold. I do this a couple of times and find that it brings the mold up to temp. pretty quick. These first castings are obviously thrown back into the pot.

[clodhopper]

It will probably work just fine.
Six cavity molds will get to hot quickly in you do not pace your self, or cast alternanting between a couple of molds.
You will never know until you try it.

[country gent]

You can cast only certain cavities easy enough pre heat mold to temp will help alot. Only filling 3 cavities of a 5 cavitie will slow warm time casting otherwise. To maintain heat evenly or more even fill every other cavity from handles to far end pour a large sprue as this will help hold heat longer. While we fight to fix sticky cavities leaving a bullet in unused cavities would help hold heat once warmed up. If its just because ladle is small fill 2 or 3 refill ladle and fill rest of cavities it will slow you down a little but not much. The rcbs ladle holds a fair amount of lead has a nice spout and well desighned shape that may work good for this. Mine has the spout opened up to .205 dia hole now and give a great pour into the cavities. With a little enginuity and a trip or two to hardware stores ( plumbing sections) parts can be found to make a ladle of the size you want. Look at pipe caps foor a starting point.

[Forgetful]

I was having some issues with a 5-round gang mold, and decided I should get thermometers for the pot and mold. Reading your OP, I realized I could be using one of my torch nozzles on the side to keep my molds hot. I have two nozzles, one gives a jet, and the other gives a wide flame. The wide flame is good for plumbing, and I just realized I could use that one for the molds. Keeping a camping stove propane tank on the side with that on a low flame should allow me to heat the whole mold up gently until it's in the correct temp range, and just bring it back over the flame for a couple seconds between pours.

[bangerjim]

Forget laying the mold on the pot. Not uniform enough heating from what I used to experience. And slow. Get an electric hotplate and put your molds on there. And get them to FULL CASTING temp, not just hot! Then you can fill ONE cavity if you so desire, with perfect drops. No big whoop. I have done it many times when ladle casting. Alternate cavities while casting to keep temp up and even in the mold blocks.

And keep moving......you can always look at them after......and re-melt any duds. With a fully heated mold from a hotplate, you should not get many duds.

bangerjim

[Wayne Smith]

Go to your local thrift store and get a 1qt SS kitchen pot with cover if possible. Get a Coleman camp stove, new one burner or older two burner, and melt your lead with this and ladel from it. You will need gas, either liquid or propane. I use a 20 lb propane bottle.

[JeffG]

You can definitely dip more lead if one pass doesn't fill all of them. No biggie, just don't waste time doing it.

I've got a Lee six-banger but am doubtful about being able to fill it with my limited casting equipment. Have a larger ladle but small diameter 11-pound furnace. That combo just won't allow filling of the ladle.

If I trying filling 2 or 3 of the cavities with the small bulb-type ladle, am I going to get the mold hot enough to cast decent bullets? Bullet is the 195-grain group buy version of Lyman's .358 RN cop bullet.

Thanks

[Forgetful]

Some of my molds have a sprue plate that doesn't easily allow me to partial pour, because it will overflow into the other cavities... One ladle just barely fills two 675gr cavities, and when the pot gets down to about 70% I can't get "as-full" ladles. An option I'm considering is using mold putty to create a dam around each sprue but I figure it would knock off every time I open the sprue. Either that or use a large pot so I can use a larger ladle. The cavity is too large to use the bottom-pour because it won't fill fast enough.

Having used the mold thermometer, it definitely solved the problems for me with my 5 and 6 round molds. It wasn't hot enough. I would get them ready, and when I thought it was where I thought it should be, I checked the temp. It was still way too cold for casting. I bring them up to 325F at a minimum and pour once to get rid of the duds and based on rhythm it'll hover between 375 and 425. When it gets that hot I'll slow down a little or take a break. I put a brick next to my pot so I can rest the mold on the lip of the pot while I'm on break. I plan to make a copper shelf to rest the mold on without detracting from the available space inside the pot for ladling. Basically attach a hotplate, no sense in having a separate hotplate.

This weekend I went back to the 675gr mold and had some fillout issues. After eliminating temperature problems (something you can only do with thermometers) I tried a little bit more tin in the alloy.. (I'm talking an extra 20 grams for a 20lb pot) and that solved the fillout. The alloy was already in my calculated target range but you lose a little tin here and there... adding in "just enough" as needed seems to be the trick.

[robg]

im with dikman i let 1st fill of mold sit there for a couple on minutes to warm the mould ,some times it will take a couple of fills to get to temp.i also alternate acouple of molds when casting . and run pot quite hot .