Making Round Ball

[Iche Iia]

I saw a friend making his own round ball at a living history thing that we were doing today and of course I had heard of it and knew what it was but it was the first time that I had a first hand view of anyone doing it.......I was hooked as soon as I watched the first ball come out of the mold.

SO, I've ordered a Lee .490 mold, I'm searching now for a cast iron ladle and I think I know where I can get a good supply of lead. My question is about the flux. He was using a commercial brand but I've heard of bees wax or even gun grease.

What's best, home brew flux or commercial?

 

[wattlebuster]

I have good results useing beeswax and a plus is its cheap. Make sure you use gloves and good ventilation. lead WILL burn when splatterd and the fumes wont do you any good. Good luck :thumbsup:

 

[Iche Iia]

Thanks for the quick response. In using the bees wax, I'm guessing that you only need a small amount in the ladle, maybe just enough to put a thin cover over the lead?

 

[necchi]

If he was just melting small amounts of lead in a ladle, it was likely just for demonstration of a simple early way a trecker or woodsman may have done it.

A better way is to melt 3-5 pounds in a bit larger iron pot and dip out of that melt several times, casting 50-100 at a time.

The amount of bees wax, even a bit of crayon, for a 3-5# pot of lead is about the size of a pea. Once the smoke clears stir, the pot and skim off this "dross" of impurities.

 

[Jayhem]

The easiest and cheapest substance to use for fluxing is parafin wax (candles) and you can get a pair of white, scent-free candles at the dollar store for $1 which will last most casual shooters years.

 

[saber]

bees wax paraffin will do just add a bit to pot and light with a wooden match also e-bay has used and new what ever you need for molding and use at very chep cost also lead

 

[HOGGHEAD]

I use Marvelux. It just works great. I have used wax and Beeswax and saw dust, but after I used them I added a little Marvelux and more impurities came out of the lead. So I just think the Marvelux works better. But that is good enough for me. Tom.

 

[longrifle78]

I'v been casting for around 15 years with good results and have never used any flux.

 

[Billnpatti]

With almost no exceptions, lead will have oxides that need to be removed before casting. Some lead may also have dirt in it and that, too, needs to be removed before casting. I have been casting for almost 40 years and my flux of choice is a pea sized bit of candle wax. It is extremely cheap and does a very fine job of getting out the undesirable stuff from your melted lead. Let your pot of lead reach casting temperature and then carefully drop in a pea sized bit of wax. Stir the melted wax into your lead. This will bring the dross to the top where you can skim it off. Do this where you have plenty of ventillation. Just blowing it around with a fan is not proper ventillation. I prefer to do my casting in the garage with all doors open and a fan drawing the vapors away from me and blowing them out the door. To keep down the noxious vapors when fluxing, you can ignite the vapors as they come off your pot as soon as you stir in the flux. Always protect yourself by wearing goggles or safety glasses to keep lead splatter out of your eyes. Also wear long pants and shoes when casting to protect your legs and feet from lead spills. I like to wear a long sleeved shirt and a pair of light leather gloves to protect my hands and arms. Lead is plenty hot and will leave a bad burn wherever it hits your exposed skin.

Take care and have fun.

 

[123.DieselBenz]

A pinch of sawdust or fine wood shavings works great too . . . use a wooden stick to stir it with, it will char a little, but works great.

During fluxing expect smoke!

Remember to lube the sprue plate on the mold too, I use some stuff called "BullPlate" from The Bull Shop!

 

[Bill Hall]

I'v been casting for around 15 years with good results and have never used any flux.

Yep. About 35 years experience here. Tried fluxing just to see if there was a difference. Didn't do a thing but make smoke and cause a little surface oxidation (dross). Scales don't lie. Targets don't lie. Oh well.
Bill

 

[mazo kid]

Remember to lube the sprue plate on the mold too, I use some stuff called "BullPlate" from The Bull Shop!

Plus one on the BullPlate. A tiny bit goes a looooong way!

 

[paulvallandigham]

I think it depends on what kind of lead you are melting as to whether flux is going to help at all. When we were scrapping lead from the backstops at the range, and it was filled with dirt, sand, rocks, etc. fluxing was a huge help. We melted that stuff, skimmed off all the floating big stuff, and the use a pea sized piece of beeswax to flux the remaining lead. A lot of find sand-like particles came to the surface and were skimmed off.

Now, once we cleaned the lead, as described, and poured it into ingots, THOSE ingots acted much as you describe. Very little junk coming to the top with the fluxing, and just a blue sheen to skim off.

My father made a HUGE stack of ingots at one time, and they lasted for many years. Towards the end, the stuff was covered with wind blown dust, cobwebs, and all manner of debris. That stuff Did benefit from fluxing- altho I would have preferred to simply take a hose to them on the patio.

Dad was reluctant to let his lead get anywhere near water, for fear that some small drop of water would remain someplace, and get into the lead pot, where it would explode molten lead all over him. We went through that "adventure" just one time, when some of that junk lead apparently had some water in it- and Dad didn't want to experience that level of excitement again. :shocked2: :surrender: :hmm:

The reason I recommend casters first melt junk lead into ingots, is so that when they get around to casting balls or bullets, the lead is Clean, and free of debris, so that it matters little if you flux or not. I am glad that you have had such similar success casting clean lead. :hatsoff:

 

[TexiKan]

Last Sunday I cast over 100 balls. Did it outdoors, on the patio. I have one of the production ball-like ladles with a nipple pouring hole. Nice to use because it feeds directly into the mould. However, in all the years I have owned it and the blocks, I have had to perfect a wrist bending, backhanded way of pouring hot lead....I am left handed and I use my left hand to pour the lead. The ladle design is right handed! Now I know there isn't much call for a like-made item in left hand, but I sure would appreciate it after casting 50 plus balls! I know, I know--just use a standard spoon like ladle!

TexiKan

 

[paulvallandigham]

Lyman makes a "Dipper" that has screwholes on both sides so you can change the handle position to make it work for either RH or LH pouring. I don't have one, and my father bought his 55 years ago when it was only made for a RH user. The working part looks more like an egg, with a quarter of its top cut off, and a v-lip on the end to help focus the pour ala ladles.

Otherwise, you are stuck looking for a stainless steel gravy ladle that can be used to pour molten lead. Just have a bucket of water to cool the ladle down in periodically so you don't burn your fingers, or alter the handle so you hold onto something that doesn't convey heat so well.

 

[CaptainKirk]

You might want to consider a melting pot with a bottom-pour spout. Many of them have provisions for left/right handle mounting.
Personally, being right-handed, I prefer the RCBS ladle to a bottom pour spout. But then, I'm right-handed.....

 

[123.DieselBenz]

Just cut the handle off, and weld it on the other side.

 

[bangfxr]

I have both an electric smelter and a cast iron pot and poring ladel for rondys. The molds I have are .530 and .570 by Lyman and they are good I will run 8 balls and remelt them to insure I have good warm mould to cast balls. I cast mine out of old battery clamps that I clean all the manure out and pore it out to make disks 3" by 1/4 " thick. I have a piece of a wood shovel handle cut down to swing out the sprue cutter.

 

[fyrfyter43]

I have one of the production ball-like ladles with a nipple pouring hole. Nice to use because it feeds directly into the mould. However, in all the years I have owned it and the blocks, I have had to perfect a wrist bending, backhanded way of pouring hot lead....I am left handed and I use my left hand to pour the lead. The ladle design is right handed!

Order one of Lyman's dippers. I'm left handed and sure appreciate the fact that it can be changed from right to left-handed. There are 2 threaded holes for the handle, and a plug for the one without the handle. It runs about $20, so it's not much of an expense to make casting a lot easier.

 

[flintlock10]

I have a Lee production pot that works great. I use a .490 Lee double cavity aluminum mould and I cast 10 lbs of round ball at a time. I run about 6 or so cycles through the mould and then re melt them just to heat up the mould cavities. I'm experimenting with patch material and could use some pointers on what thickness of pillow ticking to use with these round balls.
I was using triple 7 FFG and found that the groups at 60 meters were poor. A friend suggested that I go to FFFG triple 7 as it gives him better consistancy on the target. I bought two cans and I'm seeing promising results so far.