I have finally got to casting my first batch of bullets for 44/40 but have a few questions.
It took me a while to figure out what temperature to have my lead melting pot (Lee 4-20) (setting 5) which meant I had some bad casts to start, and unfortunately I also over heated my mold at first by leaving it in the lead to heat it when I first thought the mold was the issue, the result was messy to say the least, and now I have a couple of flecks of apparently non meltable slag stuck in the inside of my mold, how do I remove it.
Eventually I figured it out, but by then the crap stuck to the inside of my mold was causing casting errors, nothing major, but it is visible, but my question is how much is that going to effect the bullet? (If it matters these are for a revolver at typical revolver distances)
Then I tried to pan lube them with 50/50 bees wax and crisco, but I found that the lube was extremely soft and messy, am I doing something wrong? I was able to fill the lube grooves but there is extra lube all over the bullets, they are a mess, there is lube on both the nose and the base of the bullets. They have not gone through the sizer yet. Is the extra lube an issue?
Lube on the nose will gum up the seating stem and make a mess of consistent seating depth and crimp.
Best bet is set the home brew lube project aside and pan lube with a proven lube such as Bullshop NASA, , sPG or DGl. Melt the lube in a double boiler set the bullets in a shallow baking pan and just pour enough lube to cover the lube groove.
Sounds like you need to dump the pot, clean the crud stuck to the sides. Then remelt and flux the snot out of the next batch. A casting thermometer will help assure good bullets as you will need to adjust the temperature setting as the level in the pot changes
Ranch: What do you use for flux?
Joe I use the flux stuff from Midaway/frankfordcarsenal. Depending on the crud in the alloy fine sawdust stirred in and smoldered off will work. A wee bit of paraffin wax works to, but you have to be careful about getting to much or it leaves an oily residue that can really bugger things up
Dipping the mold in the molten lead to heat it is tricky; there is a narrow window of a few seconds before the lead sticks in all sorts of inconvenient places...
Better to leave the mold resting on the top edge of the melting pot.
(Take care not to set fire to the wooden mold handles. Don't ask my how I know..!) ::)
If pan-lubing with 50:50 beeswax and Crisco gets to messy you need to up the percentage of beeswax to make the lube harder.
I use remnants of candles to flux my lead.
Regarding lead or crud sticking to the inside of the mold: First try removing it with a wooden scraper of some sort.
If that fails move on to something like a copper or brass scraper. Finally resort to a flathead screwdriver or knife.
Quote from: Ranch 13 on April 19, 2025, 07:45:25 AMLube on the nose will gum up the seating stem and make a mess of consistent seating depth and crimp.
Best bet is set the home brew lube project aside and pan lube with a proven lube such as Bullshop NASA, , sPG or DGl. Melt the lube in a double boiler set the bullets in a shallow baking pan and just pour enough lube to cover the lube groove.
Sounds like you need to dump the pot, clean the crud stuck to the sides. Then remelt and flux the snot out of the next batch. A casting thermometer will help assure good bullets as you will need to adjust the temperature setting as the level in the pot changes
The issue is that this is for black powder. Most commercial bullet lubes are not designed for black powder.
Quote from: Ranch 13 on April 19, 2025, 10:53:42 AMJoe I use the flux stuff from Midaway/frankfordcarsenal. Depending on the crud in the alloy fine sawdust stirred in and smoldered off will work. A wee bit of paraffin wax works to, but you have to be careful about getting to much or it leaves an oily residue that can really bugger things up
I was using shaved paraffin, it made an impressive fireball but didn't seem to do much else. I was just stirring with a ladle then just scooping off the crud as best I could.
I did notice though that despite ordering "pure" lead from a reputable supplier I seemed to get a lot of crud, and sometimes when the ingots melted I got a rainbow colored sheen on top of the lead. Was it contaminated or is that normal?
I also lubricated the underside of the sprue plate and locator pins with parafin the way Lee recommends. Not sure if that was an issue or not, last night I read something about not doing that because it tends to get in to the mold cavities and cause wrinkled bullets. The bold was an Iron Lyman mold.
Quote from: Cap'n Redneck on April 19, 2025, 11:53:40 AMDipping the mold in the molten lead to heat it is tricky; there is a narrow window of a few seconds before the lead sticks in all sorts of inconvenient places...
Better to leave the mold resting on the top edge of the melting pot.
(Take care not to set fire to the wooden mold handles. Don't ask my how I know..!) ::)
If pan-lubing with 50:50 beeswax and Crisco gets to messy you need to up the percentage of beeswax to make the lube harder.
I use remnants of candles to flux my lead.
Regarding lead or crud sticking to the inside of the mold: First try removing it with a wooden scraper of some sort.
If that fails move on to something like a copper or brass scraper. Finally resort to a flathead screwdriver or knife.
My handles did get very hot, I actually left the mold in the lead for minutes at a time! I thought that's what I was supposed to do to heat it.
9245 those lubes I listed are championship winning Blackpowder bullet lubes, and they do work with smokeless and the phony smokeless with fake smoke added powder. My preference is the Bullshop NASA
I just finished casting for the season. I never plan on saving any of the early casts as it takes several pours to get the mold up to heat. So into the pot they go to be melted down for the next pour.
Did you smoke the inside of your mold before beginning casting? It makes the bullets drop out with just a tap.
If you have an old long handled spoon you can insulate the handle, or set it in a wood handle, and use it as a scoop to drag the dross off the top. I use a pea-sized pellet of wax to flux, then clear the dross off the top of the lead pool.
Quote from: River City John on April 19, 2025, 06:37:17 PMI just finished casting for the season. I never plan on saving any of the early casts as it takes several pours to get the mold up to heat. So into the pot they go to be melted down for the next pour.
Did you smoke the inside of your mold before beginning casting? It makes the bullets drop out with just a tap.
If you have an old long handled spoon you can insulate the handle, or set it in a wood handle, and use it as a scoop to drag the dross off the top. I use a pea-sized pellet of wax to flux, then clear the dross off the top of the lead pool.
I did not smoke it initially, though I did make a point of holding it in the smoke cloud from the burning paraffin, in either case though the bullets either just dropped right out or came out with a tap or two with a hammer on the mold.
Another NO-NO is hitting the mold with a steel hammer to dislodge the bullets.
Use a wooden mallet or a piece of hardwood and tap on the hinge bolt of the handles.
The sprue-plate hinge bolt must be lubed VERY sparingly to avoid lube seeping into the mold cavity and causing wrinkled bullets. I prefer to run my molds dry.
Quote from: Cap'n Redneck on April 20, 2025, 06:03:47 AMAnother NO-NO is hitting the mold with a steel hammer to dislodge the bullets.
Use a wooden mallet or a piece of hardwood and tap on the hinge bolt of the handles.
The sprue-plate hinge bolt must be lubed VERY sparingly to avoid lube seeping into the mold cavity and causing wrinkled bullets. I prefer to run my molds dry.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is wrong with the hammer? I wasn't tapping hard enough to mar anything, it was about as hard as wrapping your knuckles on a table, it was a very light (cheap) framing hammer. I assume though that I was doing something obviously stupid? I did not have a chunk of wood handy less than about a foot long chunk of 2x4, seemed ungainly so I just grabbed the hammer. Is it the force that is the issue or just the metal on metal? I only did a hundred or two drops at most.
Well, I consider a bullet mold to be a precision instrument, and it makes me cringe when I see or hear about people using a hammer to open the sprue-plate and / or dislodge the bullets from the mold. I believe the mold manufacturers also recommend using a wooden mallet / dowel, and only tap on the hinge bolt, not the mold blocks themselves.
I will use a wooden mallet on the sprue-plate only when the lead is too cold to allow me to open it by hand. I wear insulated leather welding gloves.
There are clamp-on extension handles for the sprue-plate on the market.
Or an extension can be welded on to the sprue-plate for more leverage.
Just be careful not to warp it if welding.