Share Your Tip Of The Day

[Rockindaddy]

I have been casing boolits for many years. Always had Lyman moulds. When Lee moulds came along I started using them. Lee offers so many great shapes and styles of projectiles. As my Lee moulds have been used a lot I noticed a galling on the tops of the mould from the sprue plate. I found that #600 paper cleans and polishes the underside of the sprue cutter that is steel. Its a but tougher to clean up the top of the mould to keep it flat. So to eliminate the sprue cutter from scratching and marking up the top of the aluminum surface of the mould I would spray graphite. Using oil messes up the whole casting process. If you want bullets with lots of flaws; oil your moulds! Graphite without an oil base works great! The sprue cutter plate glides over the mould top. I found that ZEP liquid graphite in the spray can works great!Attachment 308207Attachment 308208

[nanuk]

I use a lot of poly baler twine around my acreage, camping, and fishing, etc.

using the large square bale twine in place of rope. This stuff is tough, and more strength than usually needed.

to keep it from getting everywhere, I take a plastic pail of appropriate size, cut a small X in the lid, run the twine (Remember to use the Center of the roll) up through the cut X hole, and snap the lid back on.

pull it out, and cut off what you need, leaving only a bit hanging out. Keeps it well organized.

when camping/cleaning up, I just cut it off what ever it is tied to, and burn it in a fire pot. it disappears.

Sure beats trying to undo knots and rolling up small diameter rope/cordage.

I always buy the orange stuff, so it is easy to see.

[Walstr]

no matter how great it sounds don't put kitty litter on the top of your lead in a bottom pour pot. It just makes a mess.

Roger that! Pine sawdust is da best flux, and when smokin', serves to "Smoke the mold." as a natural release agent...
Wally

[Walstr]

When smelting lead from COWW, etc., avoid some comforts.

I got lazy & decided I didn't HAVE to go into the backyard to smelt in the shade with mosquitoes, soo I setup on our concrete patio. What a luxury, chairs, iced tea'n all.

Impatience rose in me whilst waiting for the puddles to start forming. (I filled a 10" Dutch Oven pot w/COWW) Now I was movin' right along skimming steel clips & dross. I reached into my bucket of culled COWW only, grabbed a handful, tossed'em into the pot, took 3 steps for some iced tea & BAMM, it erupted then rained molten lead. I was not touched. Shut off the Propane.

I was dumbfounded, surprised & angry, starring at the concrete patio. ***. Barb (my wife of 47 years then) returned from shopping & walked out to me to offer a popsicle she bought me as a treat, asking "What exactly is that on the patio, looks kinda pretty, what is it dear? Lead I said. Oh well then, hurry & wipe it off before company comes over later. Riiight.

I retrieved my knee pads & continued starring at the lead gripping the NOT smooth surface. I peeled off large patches easily, but the other 40% were embedded droplets. Shall I pause the story for those to share THEIR solution? Nah, no one here is that stupid to cause this mess.

After some trials, I was nose to the concrete with a 1# Propane torch, re-melting the droplets into balls, then lightly swiping them away to cool. Worked like a charm. Put stuff away, showered, dressed & greeted my friends. Sore, & pissed at myself, I gladly partook in libations to soften my self inflected PTSD (Patio Technique Stupid Decision).

To this day Barb gets a lil kick out of pointing to a remote embedded "silver" droplet I overlooked, to report "Ya missed one dear!"

[Minerat]

It sticks to brick too. I just told her it as a defect in the bricks and got the look. You know, stink eye. I some extra bricks so just replaced the nice silver ones.

[Horseman]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

[dondiego]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

If there were to be ANY moisture from a wet pocket, condensation, or even a moth in the WW's and you add it to a molten pot you will get the Tinsel Fairey!

[SciFiJim]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

The inherent risk is caused by including moisture with the wheel weights. It could be water from washing them, condensation from cold weights in a humid environment, or even am unnoticed bug that has crawled into the weights. I mitigated the risk some by putting the new weights on top of the trash and clips in the pot and letting them get hot enough to drive off moisture before stirring them in to the melt.

-edit
dondiego commented while I was writing my response. We said the same thing, make very sure your wheel weights are dry before submerging them in molten lead.

[Walstr]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

The later responses here are on target & exactly what I made happen, to myself! I will not ADD to a smelting pot in the future. Thanks for elucidating on my experience. Good luck friend.

Wally

[dondiego]

If it looks like a bear but smells like a woman, run like hell.

.......and vice versa!

[nelsonted1]

This thread is dead almost.
I was at a high power match in the 1980s. A shooter in front of me was in standing position. First shot the barrel comes out of the rifle, does a flip and a half and lands next to him missing his brother who was spotting him. He stood frozen with the stock pointing straight up with the forearm split in a Y all the way to the magazine well. He had a cut running across his forehead over both eyebrows. Luckily, he didn't get brass stuck in his forehead or eyes. He was badly shook up to the point he was frozen in position.
The gunsmith who built his brother's new M1a got wind of the disaster and drove to the brother's home. On the shooters bench he had a bottle of AA5. He picked up the bottle and asked what was this about. The brother with the wrecked gun said it was 2495 but it wasn't, it was 42 grains of AA5!
There was a couple of things that would have made it worse like getting hurt. Or using it in the new M1A his brother just got from the gunsmith instead the hand-me-down. A good thing was the rest of us learning a very, very good lesson.
THe lesson was, I think, don't keep powder you aren't loading near your bench. Put all the powder not being used away BEFORE! you do any kind of reloading. I am in constant fear of pulling a mistake like this. I could be him. Mistakenly using the wrong powder could be catastrophic.

[BorderBrewer]

Lubrisizer dies fit perfectly in plastic 12 gauge shotgun shell boxes for storage.

[fn1889m]

This tip will not help everyone. But it will help someone.

There are always rows for five cartridges in each shell box. Coincidence - not. It is a universal constant, like the speed of light. I used to go brain dead when making cases one at a time on my turret press, and realized I had no memory of charging the last two or three cases, necessitating disassembly only to discover that they were (almost) always charged.

My solution is to charge five cases at a time, line them up, and check the powder level before the next steps in the reloading process. Once charged, each case can be processed individually to completion and inserted into its happy place in the row of five. This stops the brain dead muscle memory of reaching for an empty case and inserting it into the shell holder without charging. Muscle memory helps in repetitive tasks. But not reloading, at least not for me. I need to interrupt the otherwise helpful rhythm or pattern when I charge the cases, so I am forced to be conscious of what I am doing. I have had to build systems so I do not divert my attention in other critical activities, as well. (Story about learning to drive omitted.) I probably have ADD. It can be a superpower in OTHER activities, but not reloading.

I think I could get the same results if I charged ONLY on the turret press with a charging die. But I am convinced that shell boxes come in rows of five for a reason, and I do not want to mess with a universal constant. What if we changed the speed of light or the atomic weight of hydrogen?

Anyway, my tip to avoid skipping a step is to charge in groups of five cartridges at a time. There is a reason cartridge boxes have been made in rows of five for over a hundred years.