Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 28, 2015 12:18:01 GMT -5
I got a great Christmas gift this year. I have been putting off buying casting stuff because i keep finding guns i want. So mom n dad hooked me up with a 20# Lee bottom pour pot and some handles for my RCBS 270SAA mold for Christmas!!
Later my wife and i were talking about it and i said i wanted to powder coat my bullets and she told me i could use the nice toaster oven we got as a wedding gift 8 years ago and have barely used!!
So now i get to expand on my reloading/ shooting hobby. I'm excited.
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Post by sixshot on Dec 28, 2015 12:27:01 GMT -5
Good for you Joe, now you're headed down a slippery slope that will just keep going & going but you'll have a ball.
Dick
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Post by bulasteve on Dec 28, 2015 13:03:58 GMT -5
Ok, am laughing my you know what off right now ! I swiped the toaster oven I got my inlays last yr that they haven't used, and such..a step ahead of you Joe ! Mold here from Lee for 400gr .475 bullets, etc.. Stay the course..
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Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 28, 2015 15:10:57 GMT -5
Heck yea! Toasters are so easy to get cause no one uses them hardly. It's microwave or oven for us.. Or pop up toaster.
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Post by contender on Dec 30, 2015 22:51:11 GMT -5
Sounds like you had a great Christmas! Welcome to the fold!
Well, Miss Penny has a nice, larger toaster oven that she likes to use. I've been given "the warning" if I even consider using it for my PC bullets. But that's ok,, as I've bought a few for as little as $1 to as much as $5 just for PCing my slugs.
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Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 30, 2015 23:13:08 GMT -5
Sweet! I like dollar stuff!! Here's a few from the first group i cast tonight. Bunch of crud on the top. But maybe it was supposed to be there or i had it too hot? Little puddles Pretty clean break for the most part.
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Post by fanofthefortyone on Dec 30, 2015 23:32:41 GMT -5
That's more crud than I get, but I just started myself so I'm not sure. 1 pot full on the RCBS is a table spoon or a bit more. Ronnie
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Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 30, 2015 23:44:30 GMT -5
Yea not sure if thats just the alloys floating to top or if it was just dirty ingots. A buddy made the ingots out of wheel weights so it may have had some bad ones in there. I dunno. The bullets dont look bad. Just made a mess of the pot.
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Post by fanofthefortyone on Dec 30, 2015 23:46:18 GMT -5
Did you flux and skim? Ronnie
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Post by Cholla on Dec 30, 2015 23:47:27 GMT -5
Sweet! I like dollar stuff!! Here's a few from the first group i cast tonight. Bunch of crud on the top. But maybe it was supposed to be there or i had it too hot? Little puddles Pretty clean break for the most part. Congrats on your new hobby! RCBS has never been a big name in bullet moulds, but in my experience the quality of their moulds is on par with those produced by the custom mould makers. Just this morning I whacked a javelin with a hollowpoint version of that same bullet you have pictured. It is hands down my favorite and most used .45 mould. Regarding your pictures: Of the four bullets laying on their sides, the two on the left are culls because the driving bands didn't fill out as attested by the rounded driving bands, re-melt them. On the third bullet from the left, is that a shadow on the base or a dent? If it's a dent, toss that one back. On cast bullets, the further back on the bullet the defect is, the more detrimental to accuracy the defect will be. What sort of lead or lead alloy are you using? The colorful dross on top of the melt is likely caused by oxidization. The melt needs to be fluxed by tossing a marble size chunk of candle wax, bullet lube or something similar, and stirring vigorously. Actually it's a good idea to flux at the beginning of your casting session and scraping off what rises to the top after fluxing. If you haven't already you really read up on casting. Any of the Lyman manuals are great as is the RCBS. The go-to reference source online is From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners I know I'll be drawn and quartered for saying this, but I would forgo powder coating in favor of traditional lubing and sizing until I had a good handle on casting and had fired at least a few loads. The subjects that consistently float to the top of the PC swimming pool are the variety of colors available, the lack of smoke when firing indoors, and ease of application, but not so much accuracy. I read every PC accuracy thread I see, which are few and far between, and accuracy seems to be hit and miss at best. However, if ever the big names in bullet casting such as Pearce, Venturino, Fryxell, Taffin, the cast bullet bench rest competitors, et al, ever give the wholesale nod, I'll jump in. Best of luck with your new endeavor and please keep us posted! CHT Oh yeah...just to whet your appetite regarding your 45-270 bullet, this morning's take with said bullet:
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Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 31, 2015 0:14:51 GMT -5
Did you flux and skim? Ronnie Yea but i guess i did it wrong.
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Joe S.
.401 Bobcat
Posts: 2,517
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Post by Joe S. on Dec 31, 2015 0:15:45 GMT -5
Thanks for pointing that out cholla. TEK said same thing but i didn't understand what he was telling me. I see now.
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Post by sixshot on Dec 31, 2015 2:57:08 GMT -5
Try using sawdust for your flux, stir it well after your alloy comes up to temp. & then skim it off. What you get will be dross. Dross is trash, it can be rust, dirt, etc. Now put in more sawdust & stir it but leave it in your pot, that way your tin won't oxidize, you don't want to lose your tin, its the most important thing you have going for you & it will be floating on top & you'll skim if off if you're not careful. Leave that layer of ash on top to protect your alloy. As mentioned, your first 2 bullets were either too cold or your mould was too cold because of the rounded edges. You want them square & sharp, especially the base, thats the last part of the bullet to exit the barrel, it has to be good! Also you need to adjust the flow coming out of your pot, you don't want it slow & you don't want it too fast, you'll need to find a sweet spot & leave a good amount of sprue on top because as the bullet cools it will draw alloy down into the mould & give you good fill out. Casting & lubing with conventional lube might be a good idea if thats what you want to do. Good bullet lube has worked great for well over a hundred years. The reason some of the people above don't use PC bullets is some are too busy to cast because of their writing so they use commercial cast slugs. Others might have personal reasons for not writing about PC bullets but I'm pretty sure most if not all of them have experimented with PC, its here to stay no matter what anyone says. If you decide to PC you can buy a Lee die to size with & not have to go to the expense of buying a lubrisizer press which can easily cost you $100 or more, plus the cost of each die. And the cost of good bullet lube can run $3-$5 a stick. A lb. of powder coat paint will cost you less than $10 & will lube several thousand bullets, up to you. Welcome to casting, you'll love it!
Dick
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Post by Cholla on Dec 31, 2015 4:26:10 GMT -5
Dick,
Great post with more good info for Joe. A couple of points regarding PC-ing and the writers...
Pearce & Venturino have written volumes on the subject of casting, lubing etc., for Handloader magazine. In fact there's hardly an issue that doesn't have something by one of them on the subject even it they simple cast bullets to test in a particular firearm. While I'm not sure Fryxell writes for a living, he has single handedly written more than anyone single person of whom I am aware. I consider these three experts on the subject, and I certainly could've missed it, but I've seen nothing on the subject PC-ing by any of them. If it were an improvement over traditional lubing, I have no doubt one of these authors would have covered it, and who knows, they may yet. That PC-ing here to stay is absolutely true, however.
Regarding equipment and its cost, it all boils down to your expectations of the projectiles you cast. If the reason to cast is for inexpensive plinking bullets, then the least expensive equipment, material and methods will probably do. But personally I've never seen the point in striving to cast flawless bullets only to cut corners when lubing and sizing. Lubrisizers can be had day in/day out in the $70 - $75 range on the Cast Boolit site while dies run $15 - $20. Heck I have a couple of RCBS lubrisizers I need to sell! Realistically, unless you insist on buying from Midway or one of the other supply houses, a stick of lube cost $2.25 - $2.50 and a stick lasts forever on handgun bullets.
If I were just starting out and didn't want to be out a lot of money, I'd buy a Lee push through sizer kit and tumble lube with their liquid alox.
CHT
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Post by tek4260 on Dec 31, 2015 6:55:17 GMT -5
+1 on the Lee Push Thru sizers.
The Lyman/RCBS sizers have slop in the ram that's minute, but it's enough to "pull" the bullet to one side or the other and make the "nose" not concentric with the centerline of the bullet. I've found that if I roll the bullets on a case lube pad, then run them through the Lee sizer before actually using the lubrasizer, that this can be avoided. In essence I'm using it to lube only, and it doesn't yield bullets that have the nose pulled off center. The ram doesn't deflect since there is no pressure of sizing the bullet. It's only lubing.
Plus I'm also using a flat nose punch that someone on castboolits sells or used to sell.
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