first casting, a masterpiece? or tragic art?

[skizzums]

okay folks, this is going to be a long a photo-heavy thread, as some of you know I have been stockpiling lead, but never casted outside of a couple spoonfuls outta the pot whn melting wheelweights, so I got a lee tumble lube wadcutter mold and mike from texas was kind enough to send me a fantastic old school lee 358 mold. so I ordered my lee 20# dripper from graf's and it showed yesterday. got outta work about four, jump outta the car, ran and set-up my pouring area, the omly knowledge of casting was tidbits here and there from this forum btw

purty, huh? so I acquired some tin solder form harbor freight and found a pewter ashtray at the thrift store, I decided to make my alloy first in a separate pot rather than try to do it in the lee pot, no reason, just felt more comfy that way, so I did 7pds of WW, 3pds of pure and the stick of 96% tin solder, which I figured would be about 2%


let that get hot and fluxed, then pre-heated the lee for a few minutes before adding the liquid lead to the bottom pour

so, now I am ready to roll

[skizzums]

I kept the molds on the side-burner to keep them hot, smart right?

after getting the drip screw set up, which really was the only slightly difficult part, I alternated molds from the hot plate and dropped the bulets in bullet of ice water with towel(saw it somewhere)

heres the first hundred bullets I got done before getting interrupted by my brother coming over to play with an oil filter silenced .22(that's a story for another thread....prolly not)

seeing thee let me know which ones were pouring beter or worse and apparently, it likes to have the lead at 6-7 and the mods uber hot

[skizzums]

so after getting back to it, I realized quickly that I would never save enough money in bullets to buy a new spinal cord, so I had to change the set-up a bit

after about 2 hours of pouring and 300 or so bullets, this is the mess I was left with, still awaiting the morning

so, are the bullets perfect? probably not, but I am not authorized to make or deny claims like that, but I wil say I pleasantly surprised with how easy and enjoyable the process was, even if a long one, surely I have some ugly ones that ill find, but overall I am happy and accomplished

[skizzums]

only questions I have at this juncture, is what do you clean your mold with? and how do you drop your bullets? oto a wet towel, or something metal, I am just not sure how to drop them w/o getting banged up except the wet towel method or just into a bowl of ice cubes or something

[Beagle333]

They look really good to me! My first ones weren't even shootable.
Welcome to the addiction!!!

[David Bachelder]

I do not water drop. I drop the bullets into an aluminum pan and let them air cool.

[Beagle333]

How you clean it depends on what you got on it? I usually just hose mine down with RemOil until the next use, then scrub em with Dawn and a toothbrush before I preheat.

I drop my bullets onto a dry dishcloth on top of my plywood casting table. I don't have too much trouble with em getting dinged up. I occasionally see a little dent on the side of the nose of some of the really soft ones, but not often.

[skizzums]

okay, I thought about dishcloth dry, but was afraid the heat would burn it up, didn't just wanna drop in pan so not to get dinged up, ill try a dry towel next time

toothbrush, that's it!!!! I used a bore brush for about 1 second and realized quick that aint right

I really loved that mold that mike gave me, has a very slight bevel at base and just poured clean and pretty, do not like that TL WC at al, makes uglies, the grooves aren't symmetrical and it has a weird kinda mushroom head, cant wait for that MiHec to get on, but I am going to need a 9mm mold soon, I have so much 38spl im just giving it away at this point. thanks guys

ima try ether and firm toothbrush for cleaning, but I will probabay cast another 500 tomorrow sice I got the day off

next stop, harbor freight beaglegun

[reloader28]

If you think your happy now, just wait till you shoot them.
I hate bevel base bullets, so I reamed it out of my mold.

The Lee 358 125 RF is an excellent 9mm bullet. Works great in 38spl too.

[FrankenMauser]

I drop bullets onto a folded chunk of old sweater (cotton/wool blend), set up to let them roll to the other end of a cardboard box or pan. When the pile is big enough for bullets to be dropping on bullets, I put a smaller piece of the sweater on top of the pile, and let the bullets roll off the sides. (And repeat as necessary, until the box/pan is full or I'm done.)

It really isn't a big deal. Unless you're dropping your bullets too early, they won't really be damaged by dropping them in a pile.

I got into the habit of protecting everything I cast, after dealing with the bore-rider bullets for my .444 Marlin. When you have a bullet that's designed to be fired as-cast and conform perfectly to the chamber and throat of the rifle, even the tiniest ding can cause problems. Plus... I don't like dinging my gas check shanks on any bullet - it slows down the 'check seating process.

[skizzums]

alrighty, about to get back at it, rain has stopped here

[Mike / Tx]

Hey, hey, hey, there ya go....I told you I wasn't taking excuses with that mold. It ain't a classic by any stretch, but it does dump some good bullets.

If you will check with NOE molds, he sells a really good lead thermometer for less than you will probably find elsewhere. It will go a long ways with helping you get those TL type bullets to cast well. It's all in balancing the mold and the alloy temp with them, have the mold too hot and you get a mess, same with the alloy. Personally I find somewhere in the 685 degree range is a good area to be with them. Also it does help to sweeten with just enough tin to get the lines to fill out completely. Usually with straight COWW alloy i use about 8" to a foot of 95-5 solder to the pot. Can't really tell if thats it or not with yours or not. Could be your just running a bit hotter than necessary.

On my pot I usually would set it to only about 4 or 5 and it would get up to right at 700 before I would adjust it back down just a touch. You also have to watch it as the alloy drops as it will just keep on getting hotter as you go.

I know a lot of folks don't really like those BB type bullets, but the ones you got there should shoot really well from either a 38 SPL or 357. Just keep the velocities down and you will be fine. I have run them through a couple of GP's and an old Colt, and even a few through my 8" Contender. They shot so well there for a while I was considering shooting in a little monthly silhouette deal they have out at our range. I just couldn't see wasting all that lead though on steel critters.

Oh and one other thing that might help out. I usually hold those two cavity Lee's straight up in the air when I close them. Either that or set them on a piece of aluminum I keep under my pot so that they alight easier and straighter when closed. You can try it while they are close to see what I mean. You don't have to get rough and tumble with them at all either way, they just seem to close really easy that way. You might also note that there isn't any bang marks on that one either, you know when things are right when you can shove that sprue plate over with a gloved hand to cut the sprue then when you open the mold the bullets should just fall right out.

For a catch pad, I simply use some cotton towels we get from work as rags. They are marked kitchen towels on the boxes, and they work for that too. I use a small rectangle cornbread pan or cake pan about 6x10 or the 8x8 sizes to dump into. They ar a dollar each at the dollar or 99 cent store. I fold one of the towels up so that I have a soft bottom, then I lay another one across that with the long end hanging out on my side. When I start pouring, I raise that end up to move everything away from the drop zone. As they pile up, I will pull the rag so that some of them slide off the end and just keep pouring till I am outta room or lead.

[Beagle333]

alrighty, about to get back at it, rain has stopped here

Dangit! Now you got me wanting to go back out and cast too!
(rain stopped as well)

[243winxb]

oops

[243winxb]

I wonder what the odds are on a bird flying overhead, taking a dump in that pot? A direct hit would have lead exploding all over the place. Other wise, nice setup. [IMG][/IMG]

[skizzums]

had a much better cast today, just brought the lead temp down a notch, added another pound of pure to the ratio and kept the molds hotter, even the TLs came out nicely

not sure how many i did, nor do i care to count them(your welcome to though!!)

[musher]

That jackleg arrangement with the pot sitting on a bulletin board perched on a flimsy walmart basket looks like a disaster waiting to happen. I would get a proper table before trying again.

bullets look nice though.

[skizzums]

all my stuff is jacklegged, you should see my guns!!!

[Beagle333]

That's a good lookin' batch of bullets! You're a pro in under 24 hours!

[skizzums]

thans buddy, ive been patting myself on the back all day, got a 356 lee 124-tc here about wednesday, then ill get really crankin

its amazing how far a ten pound pot of lead goes, seems like youll never see the bottom of the pot, but i guess i cast about 500 rounds in about 3 hours maybe? i really lost track of time though, coulda been less

[Mike / Tx]

That's a good lookin' batch of bullets!

Absolutely !! Good Job...

its amazing how far a ten pound pot of lead goes, seems like youll never see the bottom of the pot,

Yep you can go a long ways with those 150'ish grain molds, but bump it up to a 250(+) grain bullet, and throw in a 4 - 6 cavity mold, and your done with it pretty quick.

[FrankenMauser]

Yep you can go a long ways with those 150'ish grain molds, but bump it up to a 250(+) grain bullet, and throw in a 4 - 6 cavity mold, and your done with it pretty quick.

Yep.
I can cast my .32 caliber 115/122 gr bullets and be tired and/or bored before I empty the pot. - 60 bullets per pound.

But, step up to the single-cavity 437 gr bullet molds... and you're adding ingots before you even have a pile of bullets to show for it. - At one ounce apiece, there's an obvious 16 bullets to the pound (plus the loss of alloy to sprues).

[skizzums]

alright mike/tx, i will hopefully be holding up my end and getting these on some paper tomorrow(in the sub-freezing temps of GA in spring)

hopefully i will be getting some on cans, pots, water jugs and phone books as well

[skizzums]

thanks again for the mold, i really like it and it will see lots of use, i know they will feed well in the levergun, so it shall now be my full-time range round

[skizzums]

so i sat down, weighed out my powder, primed mand filled the cases, about to seat the bullet somethings missing here

BULLET LUBE!!!!