casting bullets

[navaman]

well, i just got through casting some minnies awhile ago and i got a couple of questions. i was using a lee 4lb. melting pot and ladling the lead out by hand. i bought the lead at a plumbing supply house and i spent a lot of time skimming stuff off the top. is that usual? i made sure to heat my mold real well but the bullets just don't look as pretty as the store bought ones. is that usual too? there was also a gold colores film left in the pot and on the ladle. what do you think that is. if it ever quits raining here i'm planning on going to the range to try these minnies out. also it was not as economical as i thought it would be. i got 38 good bullets out of that 5 lb. lead brick. :hmm:

 

[jtmattison]

:hmm: I don't know what you were skimming off there. I never used plumbers lead.
If your mold cavities are smoked and your lead temp is correct you should be able to turn out bullets that look as good or better than store bought.
You only got 38 bullets out of five pounds of lead? That seems a bit low without doing the math. There are 7000 grains to the pound. Divide that by the weight of your bullet to figure how many you should get per pound.
Example:
230 grain roundball
7000 divided by 230 = roughly 30 balls per pound.

HD

 

[navaman]

yeah. i'm at a loss. i just can't understand it

 

[Keppy]

You said you got 38 good bullets. So you have a lot of lead left. Was the lead you bought new or used lead? If used there can be some garbage in it. You use a ladle which I think cools your lead down a bit. The gold stuff was probably tin. I have a lyman cast bullet handbook and has lots of info. You should try to get a book or maybe try a search on the web. Your having a lot of trouble and without being there its hard to trouble shoot. The bullets that you have made can you scar them with your finger nail? If so its most likly pure lead. I have LBT tester so I know what hardnest it is if I have it with me. But if I buy lead from a unknown source that is a fair test for hardnest is the finger nail test. It should scar easy.

 

[navaman]

it does scar real easy with my fingernail. i bought the lead from a plumbing supply house. it was a 5 lb. ingot. maybe i should say also that this was the first time i used this pot. i got 38 360 grain minnies. i just came back in from the shop and i looked closer at the bullets. actually they don't look that bad. it could be nothing. i'm a green hand ,you know :haha:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

When your lead melts down stir a peice of paraffin wax into it, there will be smoke and flames so this is best done outside of course. This is 'fluxing' the melted lead and will bring impuritys to the top so you can skim it off. Use a piece of wax about the size of an acorn. Use more if you have really dirty lead.

 

[MikeFromON]

I too am using a Lee melting pot and I had the same question about the gold film on the molten lead surface. I was working in my unheated garage in about 20 degree F weather and I thought maybe the colder temps might have had something to do with it. I was using plumbers lead I got from the scrapyard, and I had fluxed and skimmed it before I started casting. I had inadvertently heated the lead to it's boiling point and I had to back it off before casting, so I was thinking maybe it was some sort of lead oxide. Are you sure you got a 5-lb. ingot? 360 times 38 equals 13680 grains, or just a little under 2 lbs. I have to ask what happened to the other 3 lbs.? I cast 33 Minies of 356 grains each with about a half a pot of molten lead, or roughly 2 lbs. and only 3 of them were throwbacks. I leave 1/4" of lead in the pot to make melting in new stuff easier. It is really hard for me to scoop out that last little bit with the kitchen ladle I use too.

 

[MikeFromON]

Did a Google on the gold film. It appears we are heating our lead way too hot:

"When the molten lead is hot enough, about 200°C hotter than its melting point, a gold-colored film will form on its surface."

So we are heating our lead up about twice as hot as it needs to be. I usually crank my pot all the way up to 9 to start the melt then back it off to 6 or 7 for the casting. I think I will try turning it down to 4 next time. Here is a link to the source:
[url] http://www.csicop.org/si/9911/willey.html[/url]

The quote is about halfway down in the "Molten Lead" section.

 

[boar]

When I get down to the last, I pour in in a little half of a iron ball, that is a half spere, The lead will pour out and leave the dross behind, then I doump it out. When I am done casting I put used motor oil in the cast iron lade, this keeps it good till next,do this outside as it smokes a bit till ladle cools off. I flux mine with beewax. Dilly

 

[MikeFromON]

I use beeswax as a flux too. I really enjoy casting my bullets and balls and I want to get into casting other stuff, like statuettes or something. I wonder if there is anything else that is actually useful that a can cast from scrap lead. What about lead spoons and cups :rotf: ?

 

[navaman]

you know, i had a feeling it was too hot. shoot! what i would i do without you guys? can't wait to go buy some more lead tommorrow :winking:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Make sure you are getting pure lead. Plumber's lead is often 70:30 mix. lead and tin. You don't want the tin in your balls for shooting, or bullets, for that matter.

 

[MikeFromON]

I just tried the fingernail test on one of my Minies and I was able to gouge it quite deeply. I then compared it with an R.E.A.L. that I cast from wheel-weights and I was not able to produce nearly as deep a groove with my nail.

 

[wszumera]

Were you using pure lead? I usually get colors and dross when casting Lead/Antimony/Tin mixes that are more centerfire than muzzleloading.

Clutch

 

[Keppy]

Sounds like your on the right track. Sounds like its pure lead.The stuff you get off the top after you flux and mix it good is normally tin or stuff you don't want for ML's. When I casted for my silhouette shooting I want a bullet around 16 to 18 on my hardnest scale. You don't have a tester but if you see one or know someone that has one, you would be looking for a hardnest of 4. Not to steer you to another site but a new topic "casting roundball" came up on this site. Hobbles has a site listed. I clicked on it and it could be of some help also. I have found that sometimes your going to have those days that nothing pours right and they come out looking bad. But I fine that its not my equipment, its me getting in a hurry. I just casted 150 54 RB's last nite. I had culled out 15. I also had 20 that had small flaws in them. But they are ok to shoot. The rest are good looking. I find that with my type of shooting they work just fine. Keep us posted we'll help you stay on track.

 

[boar]

The best lead I ever had I got off my brother, he was a seaman, he got me some that came off the ships cables, it was real soft. At present I have enought lead to retire me. Old lead pipes are good to use if you can get them. Dilly

 

[navaman]

thanks alot . my trip to the big city got postponed to get my lead. on my nelter how high should the temperature be? i think i had it too hot last night.

 

[Keppy]

I have a Lee pot that I use to cast with. I have a cooking therometer that I use to check temp. I run my pot at 750 to 800. But I adjust it to what ever it takes to make it flow and cast. As you do it more you will be able to tell if it to cold or hot.

 

[navaman]

thanks, Hacksaw. :hatsoff:

 

[Keppy]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned. We often forget the hazards when melting lead or doing anything around lead. Make sure its WELL ventilated around the area your working in. I run a small fan in my workshop when casting. :winking: