lead balls

[brubincam]

just dug out my old steel ball mold.cleaned it with alcohol smoked it balls come out ringed on bottom half....i cleaned it and smoked it all day no good balls to show....i used it several years ago....took a while to get it going then....im about to throw it out and get an aluminum mold they are easier to use...but i dont know what is wrong with my mold..because of this and steel molds when i get it rolling i keep going all day then have enough for years...am i doing something wrong or did my mold just go bad..no rust.. :curse: :curse: :curse:

 

Sounds like, to me, you changed lead types, gone from wheel weights to pure lead. For the first five or so casts, let the ball sit for about 30 seconds and then toss it back in the pot. A steel mold takes longer to heat up than an aluminium one. Once you have the mold heated, you then want to let the ball sit for about 15 to 20 seconds so it can solidified properly. Steel molds hold heat better and it takes abit for the lead to cool properly before you can cut sprue and extract the ball.

Believe it or not my instructor for electronic repair taught me the properties of lead and tin in a soldering class. Nothing worse than a cold soldered joint. Unless its twisted wires wrappped with cellophane tape!

Just :m2c:

 

[brubincam]

thanks ill try letting the ball set longer in the mold next time i try..thanks for the help.... :thanks:

 

[brubincam]

fooled with the steel mold again today..4hrs later ...30 balls and they are questionable....going aluminum,,,,steel mold going the way of the LONE RANGER...to the dump...to the dump...to the dump...for the cost o fooling with it and electric...icould just buy them.... :m2c:

 

Gee I just finished pouring three hunred plus balls in my steel dixie mold ( thirty five years old and still within .001 of round ). Did you try lapping out any rough spots in the mold? I prefer my dixie mold to the modern molds with the sprue cutters on them as I can our faster and keep the mold at even temp and go back and trim them latter. If you do get an aluminum mold with a sprue cutter I recommemd that you DO NOT use a mallet or hammer on the sprue cutter.Use eithre a vice grip or a seperate handle on the sprue cutter. I had a good friend who :imo: poured over 5000 balls with one and he used a mallet and by the time he was done his mold was over .025 egg shapped because the alunimum was distorted in the indexing pin area from hitting the mold that many times.

 

[cayugad]

I've used a LEE aluminum mold for many years. All I've ever used for cutting the spur was a hickory handle from a hawk. I give it a sharp rap and cut the spur and then tap the hinge bolt for the release. I have never noticed an odd shaped ball in the batch. I will say it does not take a hard rap to cut the spur if you do it ASAP after the mold is cast.

 

fooled with the steel mold again today..4hrs later ...30 balls and they are questionable....going aluminum,,,,steel mold going the way of the LONE RANGER...to the dump...to the dump...to the dump...for the cost o fooling with it and electric...icould just buy them.... :m2c:

30 balls , 4hrs. ? I don't know how much your time is worth , but they sound like some mighty expensive balls :: . I can't understand why some guys still cast balls , when swaged balls are reletively inexpensive and from what I've read are generally superior to cast balls :results: . :m2c: (don't cast your balls before swine :blah

 

[TANSTAAFL]

just dug out my old steel ball mold.cleaned it with alcohol smoked it balls come out ringed on bottom half....i cleaned it and smoked it all day no good balls to show....i used it several years ago....took a while to get it going then....im about to throw it out and get an aluminum mold they are easier to use...but i dont know what is wrong with my mold..because of this and steel molds when i get it rolling i keep going all day then have enough for years...am i doing something wrong or did my mold just go bad..no rust.. :curse: :curse: :curse:

Heat, keep trying to find the heat sweet zone. When casting with iron molds, I keep two or three going at once just fine when I get them up to casting temp.

 

[brubincam]

would you believe it? i was thinking last night what i could be doing wrong.....my little brain ::got to thinking...i was smoking my mold with candles i picked up at a rondevue......cleaned my mold this morning at day lite smoked with regular store bought candles..works like a champ now.. :shake: :shake: :shake:..i cant see what the differance could[url] be...made[/url] couple hundred this morning.. :thanks:

 

[Slamfire]

That'll learn yuh, PC candles, indeed. :crackup:

 

[quigleysharps]

What temp are you casting at...out of curiosity?

 

[sidelock]

I've used a LEE aluminum mold for many years. All I've ever used for cutting the spur was a hickory handle from a hawk. I give it a sharp rap and cut the spur and then tap the hinge bolt for the release. I have never noticed an odd shaped ball in the batch. I will say it does not take a hard rap to cut the spur if you do it ASAP after the mold is cast.

I have been using my AL RB mold for years and using a hichory hammer handle my Grandpaw hand made about 1940 to rap the sprue cutter (while still hot). Nothing gone wrong yet. :results:

 

[sidelock]

fooled with the steel mold again today..4hrs later ...30 balls and they are questionable....going aluminum,,,,steel mold going the way of the LONE RANGER...to the dump...to the dump...to the dump...for the cost o fooling with it and electric...icould just buy them.... :m2c:

30 balls , 4hrs. ? I don't know how much your time is worth , but they sound like some mighty expensive balls :: . I can't understand why some guys still cast balls , when swaged balls are reletively inexpensive and from what I've read are generally superior to cast balls :results: . :m2c: (don't cast your balls before swine :blah

It aint the cost---- its the fun----like makin yur own rifle or bag or ramrod. I was recently given 600 swaged RB but my deer or elk this year will fall to my cast load. :m2c: