Dropping lead into water

[45man]

Your lead is not pure. Water dropping does nothing to pure lead.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Are you using distilled water? Maybe you are getting mineral deposits from the water on the surface of the bullets.

 

[andy52]

At one time all commercial shot was dropped into the water in shot towers, I wouldn't think it made one bit of difference.

 

[alcessapiens]

Metal contracts when cooled. The hot bullet hits cold water and very quickly is cooled on the outside. This prevents radial contraction and leaves you with a somewhat larger bullet. I cast a .575 PH minie into cold water then pass it through a sizing sleeve. The end result is nice, consistent bullets. My lee minie casts consistently to size so I don’t drop it into water. I use this for .437 RB that, if air cooled, are a bit tight but just right in water.

 

[Sun City]

Screw the water drop! Drop on a fluffy towel!

 

[SlidePicker]

You didn't change the dimensions of the bullets. Even a small trace of antimony, arsenic, or a few other elements that don't exist in "solid solution" in lead at room temperature are in solid solution in hot bullets right out of the mold. Chilling them quickly traps it in that state, but it's unstable. The antimony, etc. quickly crystallizes out of the "solution," but at the low temperature the atoms can't diffuse quickly enough to form their normal relatively large crystals and form many more tiny crystals. Those pin in place layers of the lead matrix that slide across each other when deformed, making it much harder. Harder bullets are harder to push into rifling than softer ones.

 

[HSmithTX]

Get a few big sponges, float them on top of the bucket you are dropping bullets into and enough of them to fill the top of the bucket, drop the bullets on the sponges, they will sizzle and roll off into the water as the sponge tips, you can briefly touch the bottom of the Lee blocks on the sponge when the bullets/balls start looking a little frosty also and take a hundred degrees or less out of it. With a 6 cavity and a big pot you can cast 1000 per hour easily, 1500+ once you get the rhythm of casting and dropping and cooling the blocks to keep them at the right temp. Sizing will be very consistent, they will be beautiful and shiny too. I would caution everyone to never ever have an open anything of water anywhere near a pot of molten metal, it goes really bad at an unbelievable pace when water gets in the pot and it doesn't take but a splash to make it far more exciting than you ever bargained for.

 

[Eterry]

I'm guessing your lead wasn't 100% pure. Most isn't.
I don't think it got larger, only harder. I, in a moment of insanity, loaned my Lee minie mold to a friend. He cast some bullets for his musket and brought me a bucket of them. Remember, I'd used this mold for several years, they fit my Musketoon great.

I could tell they were harder than my minies. No way would they fit in my Musketoon, I called him and he confirmed he used straight wheel weights.

The insanity was because he kept my mold a year, finally had to go see him to get it back.

I've dropped plenty of .357 cast wheel weight bullets in water. They indeed were harder than air cooled.

 

[Blitz]

What probably happened is that the water was cold enough that it caused them to cool too quickly from the outside in. As it cooled at a quicker rate, the lead on the outside contracted, sucking in the lead on the inside, which pulled a vacuum and made a void on the inside of the bullets. Of course, given the normal volume of lead, but with a void in the center, it takes up more space and you end up with a larger diameter than if you had allowed it to cool more slowly. I bet if you sawed some of them in half you would be able to see the void.

I make (or more accurately chemically modify) plastic for a living, and out extruder runs strands of plastic through a chilled water bath to cool them off before running them through a cutter that then pelletizes the strands. With plastics that swell a lot when molten, the strands look almost like straws because the outside has cooled so quickly that they created enough vacuum while shrinking in the chilled water bath that they pulled a void in the center.

When I cast some plastic balls , I will be certain to cool them slowly.
Thank you.

Buzz

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

I drop round balls in water all the time while casting.
No problems loading here.

 

[Blitz]

You didn't change the dimensions of the bullets. Even a small trace of antimony, arsenic, or a few other elements that don't exist in "solid solution" in lead at room temperature are in solid solution in hot bullets right out of the mold. Chilling them quickly traps it in that state, but it's unstable. The antimony, etc. quickly crystallizes out of the "solution," but at the low temperature the atoms can't diffuse quickly enough to form their normal relatively large crystals and form many more tiny crystals. Those pin in place layers of the lead matrix that slide across each other when deformed, making it much harder. Harder bullets are harder to push into rifling than softer ones.

Your last sentence is the conclusion I was alluding to in my post.

Buzz