I Hope To Meet With Lead Casting Folks

[Whughett]

I've used a ton of wheel weights over the 45+ years I've cast bullets for my Sharps .50/140, I've never had a problem. Steel floats up after the melt. I skim it and the cross off. Then skim the dross off one more time. I put. Small cube of soap in after the second skim, and mix it in good. Then I start pouring to heat up my mold. After about 5 pours, the mold is hot enough to pour a complete flawless bullet. I add back in the partial bullets from first pours, mix well, and pour until I'm done. Any extra I have in my left furnace, I make small ingots. It's easy, but you can get burned if you screw up.

I used wheel weights for cf bullets for a time Had an in with the manager of a Tire Kingdom. Eventually gave up as much as for the smell burning rubber dust and the labor of trying to sort the various pieces of debris out. The finial straw was discovering a ring of “crust” lining the bottom third of the pot. Zinc??? Had to chip it out with a screwdriver. Even experience any contamination like that. ??

 

[Versanaut]

A bit late to the party here. I'm in Florida myself, almost due east on the other coast. There is a lot of great advice in this thread. So I'll leave all that to what's been said. Some Florida advice though....

Cast all the roundball you think you'll need for the year in the winter! Rains less often and the outside air/humidity are all the more bearable!

And second... Pay attention to the older neighborhood roofs. After any tropical event, folks tend to get the roof fixed with insurance help. Make friends with the roofers. For a cold one on a hot day, they will set aside the old vent boots (pure lead) for ya. Usually 2-3 per roof. Will warn ya now though... The leftover tar is a bear to clean up and stinks. You can 'smelt' it off, hot, sticky, stinky, messy (another winter sport) or try to freeze it off.. the later requiring renting premium freezer space with the Mrs..

 

[Eric Krewson]

Almost all my lead is range lead from a range where they only shoot B/P guns, I throw it in the pot dirt and all, melt it, skim it and flux it several times and start casting. I can tell the pure lead from the wheel weight lead by how much the bullets are deformed in the berm, if I have a lot of what I call splatter lead (pure) I separate it from the wheel weight lead.

I have about 100 pounds of this lead stockpiled.

 

[Buckskinquin]

Thanks for the heads up on commercial flux, what do you use instead of it? I just got my first casting set up ( used from a friend ) and I really want to start learning to cast my own conicals for my ROA & my .50 1:24

Frankfort arsenal has flux and mould release. Both work excellent!

 

[Buckskinquin]

I looks like I may have made a connection with a participant in the group:
Bullet Casting & Reloading - Powder Coating Free Zone on facebook.
A guy who is about one hour from me!

How deep SE are you? I’m on Hilton Head.

 

[waksupi]

I used wheel weights for cf bullets for a time Had an in with the manager of a Tire Kingdom. Eventually gave up as much as for the smell burning rubber dust and the labor of trying to sort the various pieces of debris out. The finial straw was discovering a ring of “crust” lining the bottom third of the pot. Zinc??? Had to chip it out with a screwdriver. Even experience any contamination like that. ??

Never clean scrap lead in your casting pot.

 

[waksupi]

Almost all my lead is range lead from a range where they only shoot B/P guns, I throw it in the pot dirt and all, melt it, skim it and flux it several times and start casting. I can tell the pure lead from the wheel weight lead by how much the bullets are deformed in the berm, if I have a lot of what I call splatter lead (pure) I separate it from the wheel weight lead.

View attachment 150565

I have about 100 pounds of this lead stockpiled.

3View attachment 150566

If I was down to 100 pounds, I would panic! I have enough lead to tip my county half a bubble off level! Probably around 3000#.

 

[jefair1]

Thanks for the heads up on commercial flux, what do you use instead of it? I just got my first casting set up ( used from a friend ) and I really want to start learning to cast my own conicals for my ROA & my .50 1:24

I use some beeswax for flux. Works great.

 

[59sharps]

I use crayons and candle remains for fluxing.

 

[Ninering62]

I've used a ton of wheel weights over the 45+ years I've cast bullets for my Sharps .50/140, I've never had a problem. Steel floats up after the melt. I skim it and the cross off. Then skim the dross off one more time. I put. Small cube of soap in after the second skim, and mix it in good. Then I start pouring to heat up my mold. After about 5 pours, the mold is hot enough to pour a complete flawless bullet. I add back in the partial bullets from first pours, mix well, and pour until I'm done. Any extra I have in my left furnace, I make small ingots. It's easy, but you can get burned if you screw up.

It makes no sense to me at all to pour 4-5 molds to heat it up, only to have to remelt down the bad bullets, instead of using a torch or the furnace etc to pre heat the mold to make the 1st pour a good usable bullet.

 

[Whughett]

It makes no sense to me at all to pour 4-5 molds to heat it up, only to have to remelt down the bad bullets, instead of using a torch or the furnace etc to pre heat the mold to make the 1st pour a good usable bullet.

Just a note, but I do believe most mold producers will advise against using a torch to heat a mold. I’ve read that somewhere in the past 40 years or so. I’m impatient so with aluminum molds I’ll pour once or twice to heat the mold. Less bothersome than waiting for other means to heat.

 

[Joemolf]

I do not smoke molds ,just make sure they are grease free and I do that with a little brake cleaner (outside carefully) after brushing some Dawn soap cleaner and rinsing in cold water .A clean dry mold heated to temp on a (HOT PLATE) maintains mold temp and they drop easy with no (EFFORT) If casting conicals ,not everyone uses just round balls /flint locks, I do both find filling mold easier compression casting using tin 20-1 /30-1 . Lube grooves /base are nice sharp and accuracy will improve !/Ed

I read recently that adding a small amount of zinc helps with sharp edges? 44-40 as example with a xtra wide bullet lube grove

 

[Joemolf]

Anything really wrong if pure lead is heated over say 700 degrees? I have a lee pot setting of 2 or 3 gets it around if not over 700 I recently found out LOL. Smaller molds I found work best. Single or double cavity vice a 5 cavity mold.

 

[Mikekj]

I read recently that adding a small amount of zinc helps with sharp edges? 44-40 as example with a xtra wide bullet lube grove

Maybe tin? Surely not zinc.

 

[Ninering62]

Just a note, but I do believe most mold producers will advise against using a torch to heat a mold. I’ve read that somewhere in the past 40 years or so. I’m impatient so with aluminum molds I’ll pour once or twice to heat the mold. Less bothersome than waiting for other means to heat.

Thanks for your reply

 

[stikshooter]

Anything really wrong if pure lead is heated over say 700 degrees? I have a lee pot setting of 2 or 3 gets it around if not over 700 I recently found out LOL. Smaller molds I found work best. Single or double cavity vice a 5 cavity mold.

Run pure hot ,works for me, my Lee 20lb goes to 8 and thats what it set at/Ed

 

[stikshooter]

I read recently that adding a small amount of zinc helps with sharp edges? 44-40 as example with a xtra wide bullet lube grove

Tin not zinc I keep it zinc free!!!

 

[Whughett]

I read recently that adding a small amount of zinc helps with sharp edges? 44-40 as example with a xtra wide bullet lube grove

Think you mean tin. Tin allows the lead to flow more easily and fill out the mold details. It doesn’t add hardness.

 

[waksupi]

I read recently that adding a small amount of zinc helps with sharp edges? 44-40 as example with a xtra wide bullet lube grove

Zinc will turn lead alloy into unpourable oatmeal.

 

[stikshooter]

Think you mean tin. Tin allows the lead to flow more easily and fill out the mold details. It doesn’t add hardness.

It absolutely adds hardness It is exactly how magically my pure lead turns into 20-1 /16-1 hardness , from a BHN of 6 to a BHN of 10 according to my Cabin tree BHN hardness tester by adding tin into pure at the above ratios ! And not for nothing if I want harder I can bump the hardness to 20-22 BHN by doing nothing more to the above alloy than water quenching . I've done it for many(MANY YEARS) a necessary requirement of rolling your own PP 530 grain Rockets for long range for my TC Renegade 1-18 twist Rice barreled launcher