casting question ?

[kevin beers]

Im wanting to start casting my own bullets.Can anybody tell me anything to get started,what not to do lol! how to do it lol !I understand you have to lube the mold before you pour your lead? What works best? Cheap alternative?do's and don'ts Im a rookie at this so I'm all ears and want to learn.Any help will be much appreciated !

 

[Robert Egler]

One thing NOT to do is melt lead in the house. And don't stand directly over the melting pot either. Basically avoid lead fumes.

You have to get the mold hot before your pour the lead. There are differing ways to do this.

I lube my mold with paraffin just before I pour the lead. I'm sure others with more casting experience will add more details.

 

[Grullaguy]

I do not lube my moulds other than at the index pins and sprue cutter. For that I use a little dialectic silicone grease and then I wipe off any visible grease. I don't have a lead furnace and do all of my casting in small steel pot with a metal handle. It is heated on a small propane burner salvaged from the warming plate of an old gas barbecue.

When you start casting, your balls will be all wrinkled and may not be properly filled out. Just keep filling the mould until the impurities burn out and the mould heats up. Keep a rhythm going and watch where the sprue cuts to verify temps. Smeared sprue cuts indicate you need to slow down a bit and hard to cut sprues indicate that you can speed up a bit.
If the mould will not drop good bullets after 20 or so tries, you can smoke the mould with a match or lighter. I prefer not to do that though and would rather cast from a clean mould.

 

[longcruise]

I understand you have to lube the mold before you pour your lead? What works best? Cheap alternative?do's and don'ts Im a rookie at this so I'm all ears and want to learn.Any help will be much appreciated !

Don'ts:

1 Don't cast with bare hands! :redface:

2 Don't cast in shorts! :redface:

3 Don't cast in sandals! :redface:

4 Don't cast near liquids!

5 Don't use an unstable heat source for your pot!

6 Don't drop your cast balls on a cloth containing anything other than cotton. :redface:

7 Don't overlube your mold! :redface:

8 Don't apply stuff to your mold that is meant to make the bullet "drop out" easily (these will change the size of the ball!) :redface:

9 Don't use a metal device of any kind to hit your sprue plate to sheer the sprue off!

10 Don't knock your sprue off too soon! :redface:

11 Don't drop the bullet from the mold before it is cooled enough to hold it's shape! :redface:

12 Don't use any of your wife's/girlfriend's/mother's cooking utensils in the process! :redface:

13 Don't go too wild in purchasing equipment! (see below)

14 Never melt lead in an aluminum pot! :redface:

Note: Items followed by a "redface" are gleaned from first hand experience. :redface: :haha:

Dos"

1 Do lube the alignment pins and the sprue hinge very sparingly and about every 25 castings. Overlubing will have lube running into the cavity and will give you wrinkled mis-shapen bullets.

2 Do cast in an open air environment for both safety and comfort.

3 Do wear gloves and an apron. Welding gloves are an excellent choice.

4 Flux frequently.

5 Do plan to cast as many bullets as possible per session. You will find that you can cast over 100 bullets in just the time that it takes to get up to temp and have your mold casting. Once there, you may as well "git-r-done".

6 Do volunteer to cast for friends in exchange for extra lead. Don't be bashful, you are saving them a buch of dough.

7 Do find other sources of info on casting other than this forum. The instructions that come with a Lee mold are invaluable.

Notes on equipment:

1 All you need to cast is a heat source, some lead, a dipper, a cast iron pot, some bullet lube, a piece of harwood to whack the sprue plate with, a pair of gloves, and a mold.

2 An excellent heat source is a garage sale Coleman stove. Once employed in casting, never use it for cooking.

3 it can be a waste of your money buying expensive dedicated "pure lead" from local gun shops or the internet. Go to your local metal recycling site and buy there.

4 I don't use a lead thermometer, but I should and plan to get one soon. Takes out a lot of guess work.

There are others that have not come to my feeble mind! Others will chime in.

Casting your own can reduce your shooting supply cost by about 1/3!

 

[larry wv]

Very good. :thumbsup: Larry

 

[Rifleman1776]

I don't lube anything on my molds.
Unless you are willing to spend big bucks on a Lyman bottom pour, I suggest you get a Lee melting pot that is not bottom pour.
Follow all safety instructions you see here and elsewhere. Good ventilation is critical unless you want to become the next character in Alice in Wonderland.
Use plenty of heat.
Use only pure soft lead for round balls.

 

[longcruise]

Great advice, except that I would be cautious in not lubing aluminum mold blocks. They can get quite sticky!

 

[Stumpkiller]

Nice work Marmotslayer.

A gozillion years ago I split a pick-axe handle and now I use about 14" off the end of that as my sprue opener on those sizes too large to just push open by hand.

To lube the hinge pins I use a tiny sliver of beeswax. When hot it is a slick oil that stays put pretty well.

Make sure you leave a good sprue since the cooling lead will pull a level pour down into the ball - making a cavity.

 

[kevin beers]

Thanks for input I appreciate any help ! Will a electric burner get hott enough to do casting or do I have to do in with gas? Can I use the gas burner on the side of my charcoal grill? Its not on the grill where we cook are steak but on the side for a pot or pan? And can I use just a old pan or does it have to be cast iron?

 

[Rifleman1776]

Thanks for input I appreciate any help ! Will a electric burner get hott enough to do casting or do I have to do in with gas? Can I use the gas burner on the side of my charcoal grill? Its not on the grill where we cook are steak but on the side for a pot or pan? And can I use just a old pan or does it have to be cast iron?

A propane burner is plenty hot. I often use and old Coleman camping stove for big pots. Unlikely and electric cooking burner will do the job. Try it, I could be wrong, but do outside.
Visit the flea markets and antique shops around you. You will find cast iron stuff cheap that you can use.

 

[ohio ramrod]

For getting started I recommend an electric pot so you can control the temp. As for "lubing " the mold I just use a bit of bees wax. :idunno:

 

[longcruise]

Will a electric burner get hott enough to do casting or do I have to do in with gas? Can I use the gas burner on the side of my charcoal grill?

My very first castings were done on the top of a gas burner on the kitchen stove. My First rifle (TC Hawken) came with a starter kit that included an iron round ball mold (made by Lyman). I used a small kitchen saucepan and a gravy spoon. :haha: (see ref to not using the women's stuff! :shocked2: ) It gets hot enough but you really don't want the mess in the kitchen.

Your side burner on the gas grill should get hot enough but it's going to make a mess of splatters also. It just happens no matter how careful you are! Last used coleman stove I bought was $2.00 at the garage sale. Well worth it to keep my other stoves, etc. clean.

I should have expounded on my comment about using aluminum. I used an aluminum pot for quite a few years until I read about a guy having his lead go right through the bottom of an aluminum pot that was 1/4 inch thick (as mine was). Turns out that the melting lead leaches aluminum out of the pot. Not going to effect the castings, but over time the aluminum becomes microscopically (sp :shocked2: ) weakened. I took a very close look at mine and sure enough, by looking very closely I could see a webwork of extremely fine cracks. I immediately acquired a cast iron pot and never used the aluminum again. Well, for casting that is. I use it now as a water pot for cleaning.

One other note, I do have a Lee bottom pour electric pot that I expected to be my ultimate casting accessorie. Not! It is a pain to keep clean and the pour spout is a pain to keep flowing and or from not flowing when "closed". It just sits on the bench now. Others may have other views on it but, that's mine!

 

[mazo kid]

You have received some very good info! I lube my alignment pins and sprue cutter pivot with Bull Shop Lube. Just a tiny bit will do it. This keeps molds, especially aluminum molds from wearing and getting grooves on top of the mold block from the sprue plate scoring it. I used to lube with beeswax, but over time it builds up a sticky residue so I stopped using that. It is easy to clean up though so that may be a low cost alternative. When you get a new mold, clean the cavities with a solvent and soapy water. This will shorten the break-in time. I might add, DON'T get any lube in the mold cavities!

 

[freekforge]

WEAR safety glasses or a face shield i had a very painful experience the other day just a 1/4 inch to the left and it would of been worse had i been wearing glasses it wouldn't of happened.

i lube my molds with paraffin or high temp. lube i only lube the indexing pins and sprue plate.
i started out using a ladle made from a small propane bottle with a handle brazed on. it doesn't take a lot of money to do this stuff. now i use an electric pot which makes things easier and i really recommend them.

 

[longcruise]

WEAR safety glasses or a face shield

There's one of the most important accessories you must have!

 

[kevin beers]

Thanks ! Probably saved me a lot of headaches,mistakes !Can you explain the break in time?Will my castings be jacked up or is the mold just hard to get open? How do I know when to open the mold to drop the casting?Mybrother has old lead water pipes.He said you can scratch them with your finger nail.have you ever used lead from old lead pipes ?

 

[freekforge]

you know when to drop them when the sprue hardens over in the beginning but in a long casting session you may have to wait a few more seconds. if you are using lee molds the break in time is very short. i've used lead pipes and they work very well because it is really soft. if you melt the pipe joints it will add hardness to your mix.

 

[Grullaguy]

You will have to melt the lead pipe down and pour it into ingots first. A lot of crud called dross will float to the top when you are melting and you will have to skim it off. After skimming, toss in a couple of birthday candles with your lead. They will smoke and probably ignite if your lead is hot. Stir the lead and even more stuff will come to the top and need to be skimmed off. This is called fluxing.
You can ladle your lead into muffin tins and let it cool. Clean your melting pot and then when you add your newly made ingots, you are ready to start casting.

 

[Idaho Ron]

i've used lead pipes and they work very well because it is really soft. if you melt the pipe joints it will add hardness to your mix.

Your spot on. The joints should be cut off with an ax and melt the pipe separate. Melt the joints down and mark the ingots. If your shooting round balls the joints will be fine. If your shooting conicals do not use the joints. The pipe should be in the 5 to 7 BHN range. Perfect for conicals.

 

[RC]

speakin of....I had one of them soft lead "insulators" the kind they ran wire thru..about 4"x4" maybe 2' long..I pounded-- chiseled --hacksawed beat on heat up..good lord! finally I took it over to my chop saw,,with an old blade..zing zing zing..right thru like butter.. :grin: jus in case ya was wonderin....and if ya has 2 different caliber guns,,boy you can make a bunch in a hurry, sometimes mold gets too hot, i jus switch off an keep right at it.. :thumbsup: