bullet casting

[merkelerk]

I noticed in an earlier message that you are using a dipper to pour your lead into the mold.
Since that is the case, you don't want to leave any dross on the top of the molten lead surface as I had suggested.
It will land up in your bullets.

I use a bottom pouring pot so the dross always stays on top.

 

[irishwoodsman]

I also use Lee molds. They are cheap enough to experiment with and they give me good results. I always clean my molds before use, brake cleaner works well. I then get all inner surfaces covered with a good coat of soot from a candle, a drop of oil on the sprue plate hinge and then set the entire bottom surface (with the mold closed) in the lead pot touching the molten lead. When the molten lead no longer cools and sticks to the mold, I know it is hot enough.

My first 2 or 3 casts usually go back into the pot (mold too cool makes a wrinkled bullet) and then its good to go. I also keep an old terry cloth towel on the bench about 24 inches away from the pot. I keep this towel soaked with cold water. Not damp, SOAKED. As I cast, the mold gets hotter, when the bullets start to get frosty, I will set the bottom of the closed and empty mold down on the towel for a second or two. This cools the mold a bit and then I cast some more. Keeping the molten lead and mold at the perfect temperature is key to casting bullets. You can turn the pot up to max temperature to speed the melt, but dial it back to about half way once the lead is melted. This is the time that I prep the mold (clean and soot), this gives the melt some time to cool.

Mold temperature too high = frosty bullet but easy to knock out of the mold
Mold temperature too cool = wrinkled bullet that is difficult to knock out of the mold

A frosty looking bullet will work fine and shoot straight but a wrinkled bullet will be under weight and not a good shooter. I always drop my bullets straight from the mold into a bucket of cold water. This quenching will harden the bullet but only if the lead is alloyed with a bit of antimony (quenching and hardness discussions are as heated as 9mm vs .45ACP discussions). My reason for quenching is simply to cool the bullets while providing a place to keep them. I used to drop them onto a dry soft towel but I would always run out of room for them, pick some up to transfer to a box and burn myself on the one hot rascal in the bunch.

Keep in mind that with water around while you are casting, you will be visited by the tinsel fairy so wear long sleeves and protect your eyes. Better yet, be very careful to never get water in the pot of molten lead.

I always knock the sprue into a separate metal pan while I'm casting. Don't toss them back into the pot until your pot is close to empty and needs re-filling. This is the time to dump them in to avoid splashing and contamination. After the sprue, add lead to the pot, let it melt and then flux.

Flux is the sorcery and voodoo part of bullet casting. If there are 500 bullet casters in a given area, there will be 5000 different flux formulas tried, discarded and then tried again. Keep it simple. The goal of flux is to remove impurities and in some cases, de-oxidize some alloying metals to return them to the melt. I use a long handled stainless steel spoon to stir and also to scrape the pot walls (the scraped off crud will float to the surface of the melt and can be skimmed off with the spoon). For flux, I toss a pea sized ball of candle wax into the pot. This will instantly melt and flow out over the surface of the lead. Stir it in/push it down and it will carburize and float to the surface. I also use a long wooden dowel to stir, this dowel turns to charcoal in the molten lead and brings impurities to the surface while grabbing the oxygen off of the oxidized alloying metals (if present) . Once the melt has been fluxed and skimmed, I do it once more with the little wax ball, this time I don't skim the crud off but allow the slag/dross to entirely cover the surface of the molten lead. This acts as a barrier, reducing oxidization of the melt.

I am likely doing it all wrong and would be called any manner of nastiness by some, but after thousands of bullets cast and sent down range with excellent results, I'll accept the name calling.

ty merk, alot of great info) mac

 

[tfranktoo]

Merkalerk your process of casting bullets sounds almost exactly the same as mine!!! My favorite source of lead for casting bullets is used wheel weights. There is enough antimony in them to harden them when you drop them into a bucket of cold water. My fingernail will not scratch the surface of the bullet but just slide off of it.
God Bless, Frank.

 

[geraldsd]

I quench cast as well. I love to cast my bullets. Right now it gives me solace as there is such a problem with availability. Have a great day, all.

 

[Elmo]

The best way to make good cast bullets is to use two melting pots that have temp adjustment and use a lead thermometer to assure that both are the same temp.. Use one to cast from and the other to preheat melt. Have both adjusted to the same temp and when you run low in the pot you are casting from transfer metal from the pre heat pot then replace the metal in the preheat pot. This lets you cast continuously with any temperature deviation of the lead in the casting pot. A major cause of variations in diameter and weight of the cast bullets comes from a varying temp in the casting pot. If you add cold metal to the casting pot it drops in temp and this affects size and weight. Also you have to wait for the temp to come up and your mold gets cold.

 

[swampdoctor]

I started bullet casting in 1977 and when it came time to add gas checks I decided to drill a hole in the base of the bullet and use a tiny self tapping screw to hold the gas check on. Then about 6 or seven years later a Buddy of mine started coating the bullets base with five minute epoxy instead of using gas checks. He was using 190 grain cast bullets in his 300 WinMag and loaded to jacketed bullet velocities for super fine accuracy. So I also began to coat the bases of my rifle bullets with epoxy and I have not needed gas checks in almost thirty years. Besides I hated to have to buy gas checks which continued to get more and more expensive until I quit buying them altogether.

 

[bvd1940]

I started bullet casting in 1977 and when it came time to add gas checks I decided to drill a hole in the base of the bullet and use a tiny self tapping screw to hold the gas check on. Then about 6 or seven years later a Buddy of mine started coating the bullets base with five minute epoxy instead of using gas checks. He was using 190 grain cast bullets in his 300 WinMag and loaded to jacketed bullet velocities for super fine accuracy. So I also began to coat the bases of my rifle bullets with epoxy and I have not needed gas checks in almost thirty years. Besides I hated to have to buy gas checks which continued to get more and more expensive until I quit buying them altogether.

Hi there id spud, I am in Blackfoot, sure picked up some good info on casting slugs on this thread and just wanted to thank all posters for the thread.:thinking:

 

[Shadowdog500]

There is a ton of information on the the cast boolits forum. www.castboolits.com

Weeble

+1, you will find what you need there.

I used to cast my own, but gave it up after I Tinseled my garage. Luclilly I turned away before the pot full of lead blew out of the pot. If you do cast your own make sure no water gets in the pot, it flashes to steam and throws most of the lead in your pot airborne which mostly comes down as tinsel like strands.

If you have a good supply of wheel weights you are in business. Lyman has good equipment. I had an old star lubesizer but it is a pass through design and don't do gas checks.

Chris