Casting ??????????
 

I started casting with my 357 an 45 colts and all went well with only 2 grns variance in weights and .002 in dia. Dia was attributed to the moulds (LEE) I had 453 s and 455s .and 357-359 . So thinking ... Self you can do this ...... I bought a 324 and a 309 . tried out the 324 out and had a terrible time getting good bullets I had to get the mould HOT like 400 degreesto get good bullets . So is this normal with the "smaller" dia bullets or just a quirk of this 1 mould ? I only got about one in 7-8 in the handle side cavity and about 6 for 10 in the forward cavity . These are Lee 2 cavity moulds "just to get into it" budget . Also how much "harder" are bullets that are water quinched than their air cooled counter parts ?

RE: Casting ??????????
 

You might be better off to move your question over to the muzzleloader section..

RE: Casting ??????????
 

If you are using multi-cavity moulds from Lee, you will get some variation in diameter and weight from each cavity. 002" variationis too much. 2 gr of difference isn't bad for pistol bullets.

Lee moulds need a little tweaking and breakin to get tem to cast well. go here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=654 and do exactly what it says to do, it takes a little time but is worth it. I do this tweaking on all of my Lee moulds when I first get them.

If that doesn't work and you are still not filling the moulds out, try running your melting pot hotter and preheat your mould by casting several bullets in quick succession or setting your mould blocks on top of your melting pot for a few minutes. If this still doesn't work, add a bit of tin to your pot- I use about a 1' length of 50/50 soldering wire which is usually enough to get even skinny rifle bullets to fill out. A lot of references say to use about 1lb of 50/50 solder for every 10 lbs of alloy, especially wheelweight alloy, but I find this to be overkill- the tin is only meant to make the moulds fill out, and its expensive.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

I find that to cast good bullets, a mould has to be quite hot. Generally, the more massive the bullet, the harder it is to get to fill out well. I like my moulds hot enough that it takes three to five seconds for the sprue to harden in the sprue plate hole after removing the ladle from the plate. The more tin you have in your alloy, the lowwer the temperature that you can get away with & still have good filled-out bullets with sharp edges on the lube grooves and bases. The biggest bullet I have ever cast is the Lyman 57730 570-grain Minie bullet for the .58 caliber. But I plan on making some .735" round balls for my Jaeger soon.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Ich ferstehen sie hier nicht. EsIst nicht ein fragge fur nur muzzleloadern.....

RE: Casting ??????????
 

The 357 an 45s were from 3% antimony "floor" shotand I had good bullets from no 1 in the pot warmed moulds . Upon reflection it my have been my alloy.I had some battery post and terminal stuff for decoyanchors that may have been the pan flat that I used . If that is what I did would that explain the results?

RE: Casting ??????????
 

I have a couple of suggestons to try.

1. Get yourself into a cadence. Count out loud at first. Try to do each operation at the same count. Try this-it really works.

2. Yes your mold needs to be hot.

3. Just pick one cavity and cast from it. Do not try to cast from both cavities. I am sorry to say that you will have variances when using more than one cavity in a Lee mold.

4. IMO water quenching just speeds up the hardening process. It does not necessarily makes the bullets harder, it just makes them harder-faster. I do not water quench-I size and lube my bullets. So IMO water quenching is just "WORKING" the lead too much.

5. If you are not getting a full fill out then try a little Tin in your alloy. Personally I do not have a problem with fill out once I get my mold up to temperature, but that is just me. And i think it has to do alot with my cadence. I really believe in the cadence. For reloading and casting-I believe consistency is KING.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

I do not think this would explain it. I honestly believe it is in your technique. I have made some really beautiful bullets, from some very crappy lead. Tom.

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All good points and sugestions I will try them .Thanks

RE: Casting ??????????
 

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is to make sure that you have fluxed well. I have found that my bullets have turned out much better out of my Lee moulds when I have fluxed the heck out of the lead. Also, with the Lee moulds, they do need to be pretty darned hot to get things filling out consistantly.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Thanks to all again . I poured some 45s this am and wieghed against known comercial recast bullets ( could've saved me some time and blood pressure surges) and found the "new" alloy to infact be my anchor junk as the bullets weighed in at 235 as opposed to 252-256 . That said and as long as it was already hot I added 1-1 pure lead tossed all from troubling alloy in and got out the new 309-160 mould and the 324-170 mould andwashed both . Dawn , boiling water,carb cleaner , electric motor cleaner , Q Tips then smoked .
Viola !!!!!!!!! The 309 drops perfect the first time both cavities and the 2nd 3rd then the damned phone " honey why are you making bullets in my kitchen ?". " your not here to tell me I can't ?" Ok so I dropped about 50 that all looked pretty good so I switch to the 324-170 thinking problem solved . NNNOOOO, just a finiky mould that has to be hot its best drops are the 1st 1 after the frosted (too hot?) bullets .

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Nothing wrong with too hot/frosty bullets so long as you let the sprue harden and don't tear it. I usually take a wet towel and use it to cool the sprue plate- just don't get any moisture near your pot!!

What diameter is the .324 mould dropping them at? I have one that dropped them at .323" or so which was absolutely worthless to me considering that that the tightest groove diameter in any of my 8mms was .3235" or larger. There's ways around that too, but I ended up buying a custom mould that drops bullets out at .326" or better.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

I see you have mentioned something about using battery lead.Stay away from battery lead.Most battery's now days use calcium in there lead and does not mix and cast very well.also if you use wheel weights,watch for the presents of zinc in some weights.When melting down the weights keep the temps low because lead will melt before the zinc will and you will be able to remove it along with the clips.
For more info and advice about casting bullets,go to
www.castbulletassoc.com
I have read and have tried using a peice of lead free solder in the pot.This will provide better casting because of the tin in the solder.This was used in my w/w mix.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Ah!

Wasnt sure what the lead free solder was made of, so it is made of tin? That's good news since only a few places still sell the 50/50 and 60/40 wire/bars.

BTW, You're from Hartford? You're only about 10 miles away from me:)

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Briman , Mine drops .324's with all my grace . Its good for my 8mm but too big for my 32 remmington . I can't find a .322 sizer I can afford . Do you still have the under sized mould ? would make an offer .

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Do you use a lee push through sizer or do you have a Lyman 450/4500 or RCBS lubrasizer?

You can get a sizing die set for .321" for a lubrasizer, and its no big feat to lap it out a thou.

Lee will also make a custom push through sizer, the price isn't too unreasonable if I remember correctly.

RE: Casting ??????????
 

Using the Lee push thrus for now . I have that cheap gene , hard for me to "want" to spend for the lube sizer then pay for the dies when the lees are so inexpensive . This is really just a dinking around hobby sort of time spent . I did consider getting the .314 and reaming it out to .322 I have access to a reamer set that would do it . Funny how we adopt these somtimes beat up ugly dinosaurs then wat to get them going and shooting with the best of the new . I'll figure out the sizing issues , and I have the casting bugs just about whooped I need to make notes for me on the mould boxes so as not to get all run a muck again .

I'd have thought with all the 32 win spec. around that sizing for 321 would be more available. The rem and win are the identical cartrige save that the rem has the rim turned off to a rimless case .

RE: Casting ??????????
 

I use a lubrasizer for odd sizes that I can get sizing dies for such as .325" and .266." I think the Lee push through design is not only cheaper by vastly superior to a lubrisizer for a couple of reasons- the bullets self align and always run straight through a lee sizer (getting them to size straight in a lubrisizer isn't always easy., The Lee sizer is much faster to use, and you don't have to worry about which top punch to use for each bullet.