Hello All,
Just wanted to share a little information regarding my intro to bullet casting in the hope that it might help someone else in my position.
I decided to get into casting for a 45/70, 45 Colt, and 357Mag. Trying to keep costs down in the beginning, I bought the Lee 10lb pot, Lee 45/70. 45Colt, and 358 molds, some wheel weight ingots off ebay, mold release and flux from Midway, plus a few other things. Well, last week I finally got everyting in and decided to give it a go. I have the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, plus a few reloading manuals that have a chapter on bullet casting, and after reading everything a couple of times felt like I was ready to go.
First attempt - 45/70. Bullets came out wrinkly even after casting 100 the quality didn't seem to improve. I had read to boil the molds in water and dish soap, but it didn't seem to have helped. To add insult to injury, bullets dropped at .454. Seemed like I had to beat the hell out of the mold to get bullets to drop, even though I used the mold release spray.
Second attempt - 45 Colt. Bullets came out wrinkly, seemed no better than the 45/70 except that they were all .451-.452 which was at least better.
OK. Now I have decided I made a big mistake buying Lee molds. Problem must be the molds and not the novice caster, right? Ordered a set of Lyman handles and a Lyman 45/70 mold, all the while wondering why I just dropped another $100 on this casting thing when I could have bought a lot of commercial cast bullets instead and just go shooting.
Fast forward one week - Lyman moulds arrive. After reading that mineral spirits is good for cleaning the oil off, I clean with mineral spirits and toothbrush, confident that I'm now well on my way to dropping nice, well formed bullets.
Third attempt - 45/70 with Lyman moulds. Just as bad as attempts #1 and #2. Now I'm really kicking myself. I'm probably out close to $300 including the lead, supplies and 4 molds and not getting anything useful. Still thinking maybe I should have just bought $300 worth of stuff from Missouri Bullets and gone shooting already.
After a couple days worth of reading about wrinkly bullets, I had decided to try the following things:
1) Soak molds in Mineral spirits for 24 hours. Did with all, and liberally brushed with toothbrush periodically as well.
2) Clean w/ alcohol when finished to remove anything left from mineral spirits.
3) Lightly soot with match, and skip the mold release spray I used before.
4) Flux pot more often using some beeswax I bought of Ebay to try pan lubing.
5) Let molds heat on rim of pot longer to make sure they are pre-heating.
Following the above steps, I went back to my Lee 45/70 mould and made about 100 or so nicely filled out, non-wrinkled bullets, of which I rejected only the first 4 or 5. Found out what frosting is, and how to adjust my pace to keep things from getting too hot. Bullets now filled out better and measure .457, so I may have to work on that. Repeated tonight with my Lyman 45/70 mould and had equal sucess.
So, for anyone else out there like me who gets discouraged, remember to keep trying and pay attention to the things you read. I'm not sure which of the above things made the most difference, but I'm happy with the results.
Thanks for reading my long-winded post and thanks to all for the wonderful resource this board is!
PS - Was casting inside my garage due to rain outside, with main door open about 2 feet and side door open for ventilation, and a raccoon walked in just as I was finishing up. Thought it might get exciting for a moment, but he ran out the open overhead door pretty quick.