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Post by marlin35 on Nov 13, 2023 17:36:38 GMT -5
Just finished my first ever casting session of 200 452460’s. To say I’m hooked wouldn’t be enough. How long should I let them set before lubing and sizing? I was thinking 3 weeks.
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Post by bigbore5 on Nov 13, 2023 19:39:57 GMT -5
Lube and size now before they get harder if your alloy has antimony in it. If no antimony,it doesn't matter much.
I wait a month before shooting antimony containing bullets to let the dendrites form and the bullet to fully harden. Non antimony alloy doesn't have to wait.
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Post by marlin35 on Nov 13, 2023 19:48:30 GMT -5
This is wheel weights air cooled with a little pewter added. There’s probably not enough antimony to matter is there?
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Post by bigbore5 on Nov 13, 2023 20:20:13 GMT -5
Yes there's alot in wheel weights. Water dropped they can reach nearly 30bhn. You want 10-14 bhn.
Air-cooled, cast at about 700 degrees, your alloy will be around 14. It's been the standard for many years now.
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Post by LeverGunner on Nov 14, 2023 1:38:57 GMT -5
Welcome to the club. I size and lube when I'm in the notion. Wheel weights do get somewhat harder, but they don't get so hard you can't size them. I've sized bullets that were still warm, and I've waited 2 years. Just depends for me.
Likewise to the sizing, I've shot them fresh out of the sizer, and I've shot them after having set for 2 years. I haven't noticed any difference. If anyone has noticed a difference in accuracy or leading, I'd like to hear about it.
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Post by marlin35 on Nov 14, 2023 7:11:00 GMT -5
Welcome to the club. I size and lube when I'm in the notion. Wheel weights do get somewhat harder, but they don't get so hard you can't size them. I've sized bullets that were still warm, and I've waited 2 years. Just depends for me. Likewise to the sizing, I've shot them fresh out of the sizer, and I've shot them after having set for 2 years. I haven't noticed any difference. If anyone has noticed a difference in accuracy or leading, I'd like to hear about it. Thank you! I had a lucky break, I was using a spoon that I thought was silver to dross my pot, and it started to melt so I freaked out a little. After some research I found out that it was pewter, which explains why my bullets started casting so well after I lost a little of the spoon to my alloy. I was thanking my lucky stars it wasn’t zinc. |
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gnappi
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,611
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Post by gnappi on Nov 14, 2023 11:51:26 GMT -5
:-) Spoons made of pewter? lucky you! I get my stainless lead pot stirring spoons with wood handles in thrift stores. Generally they already have slots cast into them for flow if not the drill press fixes them :-) Anyway, I do my casting, powder coating, and sizing in separate sessions, generally spaced apart by quite a bit. When I used wax based lubes I water quenched, left them for weeks, months, or even years before lubing and sizing. If you have a hardness tester you can experiment with whatever process you wind up with but my hardness tester for all of my adult life has been my thumbnail... if I can easily scratch it, it's too soft, OTOH if I can't I'm GTG :-) I read that fingernails have a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs scale, and getting that converted to BH is hard to find, but here's a hand from WiKi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardnesses_of_the_elements_(data_page) |
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Post by LeverGunner on Nov 14, 2023 13:44:13 GMT -5
I've never heard of pewter spoons, thanks for the heads up.
A lot of people will tout sawdust as the preferred fluxing agent. I've used it, as well as candle wax and beeswax. I've found beeswax to work the best. When you compare the way the melt acts after fluxing, sawdust fluxed lead is more sluggish, and doesn't fill out as well. Whereas beeswax fluxed lead flows better and fills out better.
I do use sawdust when I'm rendering wheel weights into ingots, and I often use candle wax too when rendering. Once in a while, I'll use either in my casting pot, especially if my lead is a bit dirty, but 95% of the time I use beeswax in my casting pot. I prefer ladle casting.
When cleaning the melt in my pot, I'll throw in a double pea-sized amount of beeswax. Let it melt for a minute or 2 (it usually doesn't flame up, but it may) then stir it all through the melt. I use a stainless table spoon with a wooden handle attached. Scrape the sides and bottom of the pot. Turn the spoon upside down and push air and some of the liquid flux/carbon down into the melt. Do this for about 30 seconds, maybe even a minute (I have to force myself to do it long enough). Since I ladle cast, I have my ladle in the pot during this process and I use the ladle to stir air/flux into the melt, I also scrape the ladle with my spoon to remove as much of the scum as possible. Then skim the grey dust off the top and you're ready to cast.
Once in a while, sometimes during casting if it's getting to be an issue, but normally just every couple casting sessions, I'll scuff the ladle over with a wire brush to remove the buildup of scum.
When casting, one of the crucial things is to leave a generous sprue puddle, but that doesn't flow into the adjacent cavity or over the sides of the mould blocks. Lead has a strong capillary action and will pull lead from the bullet when it overflows, thus causing rounded driving bands and bases.
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Post by marlin35 on Nov 14, 2023 18:14:13 GMT -5
I would post a picture of my bullets but it keeps saying the file is too big. If anybody knows how to get around that let me know because it would be easier for y’all to give me constructive criticism if you could see what I got going on.
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Post by bigbore5 on Nov 14, 2023 18:37:52 GMT -5
I've had some bullets look wrong, but shoot great. I've also had bullets look great,but shoot wrong.
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Post by LeverGunner on Nov 14, 2023 19:52:11 GMT -5
I use postimages.org/ for image hosting for forums. It's easy and free. I've uploaded pictures as big as 35 MB and it does just fine. Upload, then select "hotlink for forums", copy and paste it in the text box here and...  |
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Post by marlin35 on Nov 14, 2023 22:56:29 GMT -5
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Post by LeverGunner on Nov 15, 2023 0:19:12 GMT -5
Those are some very good looking bullets. Nice and crisp, filled out. Looking excellent!
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Post by LeverGunner on Nov 15, 2023 0:19:24 GMT -5
Had a double post... so I'll add, glad you figured pictures out too!
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Post by marlin35 on Nov 15, 2023 6:48:23 GMT -5
Had a double post... so I'll add, glad you figured pictures out too! Yes, thank you for your help! As the bullets go, sometimes I would get air space between my ladle nozzle (Lyman) and the mold and the lead would “glug glug glug” into the mold resulting in an unfilled out bullet. Those got thrown back into the pot, and my point in saying this is that there really is no substitute for experience because most videos or books simply cannot describe that to the reader/viewer. I appreciate this forum and the wealth of knowledge here. |
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