I am having a heck of a time casting with the soft lead I recovered from stick on wheel weights. I am using an NOE mold trying to cast a .363 200gr bullet for use in an Enfield no2 revolver. I am using a PID controlled Lee 4-20 pot to cast.
When I first bought the mold I followed the NOE instructions and cleaned the mold with Dawn dish soap and heat cycled it on a hot plate five times. Also lubed it up with 2 stroke engine oil once up to temperature. Once that was done I cast a pot full of bullet using Clip on Wheel Weights because at the time I did not know I needed to use very soft lead. All the bullets were coming out perfect almost immediately. I was pleased. All I've ever used before this mold were Lee molds and they all needed much longer break in.
I have now learned that I need soft lead for the 38/200 cartridge. I can not get the mold to cast perfect bullets like it did with the clip on wheel weight alloy. I keep getting wrinkles. Not the massive wrinkles you get from a cold or oil contaminated mold, but tiny little folds and shallow waves on the surface. These mini wrinkles can be spotted from the tip of the bullet to half way to the base. The bases and lube grooves/driving bands all come out crisp and wrinkle/wave free.
Another problem with these bullets is that they seem to be coming out 'dirty' for a lack of a better word. Most of the wrinkle bullet comes out mirror shiny except for small hazy/milky spots that don't seem to have any consistency, such as always on a certain side of the bullet. I have cleaned this lead using the same methods (wood shavings and paraffin wax) I used for the SOWW alloy that cast without problems.
What I have tried to solve this issue is to disassemble the mold completely and clean it out with Dawn again, and this time I left it in acetone overnight to be completely sure there is no oil contamination. I have slowly added Pewter and cast a dozen times between each addition to the pot until the bullets and sprues are no longer mirror shiny once cooled. Cast fast to make the mold hot. Even measured the temp of the mold to 300c (572f) at one point, but did not go farther as I don't want to completely over heat the mold. It's a nice mold. I took the melt temp all the way to 450c (842f) to try and force the bullets to frost, and even at that temp with an overly hot mold that was start to stick, I was getting the wrinkles and dirtiness I mentioned and no frosting. I didn't want to push the alloy and hotter.
I am at my wits end. What am I doing wrong?