Need Help Casting Round Balls

[jboyer]

I am trying to cast some round balls and am having difficulty. I'm using a Lee Production pot and double .490 Lee Mold. I've tried setting the pot at different heat settings. I've also tried laying the mold on top of the pot to get it hot. It seems like setting the pot on the highest setting seems to work the best but I always have ripples or wrinkles in the balls. What do I need to do different? I'm wondering if I don't have my mold hot enough and the lead starts to set up before the mold is completely full. Help. :surrender:

Jeff

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Are you getting a good stream of lead out of the pot? When mine gets partially plugged it doesn't fill up the mold fast enough. GW

 

[Coot]

You need hot lead, a hot mold, and a quick flow of lead. If your pot is on the highest setting, your lead should be hot enough unless the pot is defective. Larger molds (doubles, big calibers) need more heat up time than smaller ones & alum molds heat up (and cool off) faster than steel ones. As per Grey Whiskers, check that your pot is not partially obstructed giving you a slow flow of lead. Hold the mold close to the pot spout when pouring so as to give the molten lead the least possible time to cool in transit to the mold. Also, are you using pure lead? Some alloys need to be hotter than pure lead but are too hard to make good roundballs. There was a recent thread on casting minnies that has good advice.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

whats the best temp to cast all lead ball?

 

[mmahlock]

I'd recommend about 600 deg F. Note that it melts at 327.5 deg F. so you have to get it hotter than just melting.

I've found that when casting balls one the lead is hot enough, I need to fill the mould and let it set for a minute or two to heat it up thoroughly and even then the first few are not worth keeping. Once the come out looking good the trick is to keep up a good pace so that the mould doesn't cool ( it doesn't take much to throw things off ) Also, the ambient temperature where you are casting has a significant impact on casting. Below 65 or so I've had to recast about 50% as opposed to above 75 where I've had almost 99% good balls.

Keep trying and you'll hit your stride. Dont' sweat tossing bad ones back into the pot, their just lead and no one is keeping score.

 

[n8dawg6]

all of the wrinkled boolets i have are when the pot temperature is too cool or the mold itself is too cool.

sir michael is right on . . . the trick is to keep a pace going. for me, the first couple of boolets always come out w/ some wrinkles . . . however, you have to keep going. really keep the pace up and get in a groove, its hard work (youll work up a sweat). but its fun. once i'm in a rythmn and im pouring and dropping bullets at a pretty quick clip, they start coming out a lot better.

most of my casting is done w/ aluminum molds and an old, old lee production pot. i leave the lee pot set on around 8 or 9 the entire time. its also helpful to invest in a thermometer, you can see just exactly how the temperature in the pot fluctuates, and when its hot enough to pour.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You can open the hole from the pot where the lead comes out, and you can also open up the holes into your two cavity mold to allow more lead to enter them faster. The Lee Mold are aluminum Alloys, and both heat up fast and cool down fast( er) than a iron or steel mold would do. Try putting the mold into the molten lead between pours to heat it up.

Heat transferrance is always more efficient when you have the two metals in contact, rather than leaving air between them.

You do have to get HOT lead into the mold, and you need a large sprue on top of the cut off plate on the mold block, holding it to the spout of the pot until the color changes as the mold cools off, and a small dimple appears in the middle of the sprue puddle. The lead drippings can be picked up with needle nose pliers and dropped back into the pot, along with the sprues, and wrinkled balls.

Casting is hot, sweaty work, when done right. You should not be working in a cold room, where the only source of heat in the room is your lead pot. That allows the mold to cool too fast, and cools the lead too fsst, too. I used to cast in a cold basement shop, and had to put an electric space heater at my feet before I could get a consistent run of good bullets out of the pot. I recall working about 4 hours and threw back more than 300 bullets before the evening ended, with only a handful of bullets that were keepers. I think I got the space heater into the shop the next night.

 

[d.thomson]

when casting with pure lead you can heat it to warp 8 if you want, the hotter the better. The only time you have to worry about being to hot is when you are casting with aloyed lead( if it is to hot you get a frosted look on your casting). so heat it up and put your mould in the melt untill no lead sticks to it , and pour fast steddy streem leaving a larg sprue puddle on top. This should take care of your problems. Just my 2 cents. Regards Dave T. :winking:

 

[Bob Riegl]

:hmm: I use a Lyman thermometer and I set the temp around 650-680 on my Lee Production pot. When your lead is melted and after you have fluxed, take a large screwdriver and carefully rotate and juggle the pouring stop rod (?). It has a slot on the end and then you can seat the rod properly---also let some lead flow into an ingot mold or something similar, this way you can test for proper flow. Your mould itself must be up to temperature---I use either Lyman or Lee moulds and I keep a small electric hot plate set at high, and lay the mould on top of a small piece of thin steel on the hotplate---this will help get the mould up to temperature and keep it there. When I pour, I will make at least 20-30 balls at a time. This way the mould will keep hot and I usually have to throw away 2-3 balls per batch. I keep the operation going without using more than about ten-fifteen seconds on the ball solidifying then I cut the sprue and dump onto a piece of cardboard tilted in a box with a clean wipe rag at the bottom end of the slide to stop the ball. :hatsoff:

 

[ssettle]

Make sure your mold vents are clean and be careful you don't damage them. You lee pot should give you all the heat you'll need for roundballs. I use a themometer for all my casting. If your balls start to frost don't worry they may still be good if you don't get any voils. If you use a dipper don't hold it too tight against the sprue plate air needs to vent through the fill hole also.Watch your temperture with the LEE molds you can ruin them if they become too hot. Good Luck..SSettle

 

[jboyer]

It sounds from most of the replies that I need to get my mold hotter and see what happens. Hopefully I'll have time to give it a try this evening. I'll let you know how I come out. Where is a good place to get a thermometer? Do I need a special thermometer?

Jeff

 

[cowpoke1955]

Paul is right about dipping your mold. Lee recommends dipping a corner of your mold in the molten lead for 10 to 15 seconds to preheat your mold. When I take a break, I usually set tho mold on top of the pot. I like the idea of using a hot plate. Good idea :thumbsup: .

 

[ssettle]

You need one for lead, you should be able to Order one from Midsouth shooting suplies. Cost somewhere around 25 or 30 bucks. SSEttle

 

[jboyer]

Casting went much better tonight. I put the mold in the top of the pot and got it hot. Once it got hot, it seemed to stay hot and the balls came out very smooth and looked pretty good. As someone suggested, I ended up warm myself and worked up a sweat. I ended up casting 277 roundballs in a short amount of time. Thanks to all of you who responded. :bow: I weighed 15 of the roundballs and they ranged from 174 grains to 175.3 and averaged 174.5 grains. I don't know if that is good, bad or ugly??? Someone also replied about what alloy I am using and I have no idea. I have some lead that one of the guys I work with gave me and I don't know where it came from. Do I need to be concerned about the content of the lead alloy? I don't want to ruin any of my muzzlelaoders.

Jeff

 

[Many Klatch]

The only concern with the lead mix is the weight and how the ball takes the rifling. Tin is lighter than lead so that can make a diffence in your weight and consequently, where the gun shoots.

Check of few of your new lead balls with your thumbnail. If you can make a mark on the ball with your thumbnail, then it is pure lead and there is no problem.

If you can't crease the ball with the thumb, then there is probably some wheelweight mixed in. All this means is that the ball won't deform as well when you load it and that it won't take the rifling as well. It won't hurt the gun, just the accuracy, maybe, then again maybe not. Go ahead and shoot them up anyway, and let us know.

Many Klatch

 

[paulvallandigham]

Pure lead would cast at about 177 grains, so you are very close. The variation in weight is very small so you did a good job of casting. They should shoot just fine. Use a caliper or micrometer to measure the diameter of the new castings.

Try them on targets off a bench, so that you eliminate as many human errors as possible when you fire the new balls. See how they shoot, where they impact on paper compared to balls from another source, and what kind of group you get with them. With less than 1/2% variation in weight, They should shoot good groups. Let us know.

 

[jboyer]

Check of few of your new lead balls with your thumbnail. If you can make a mark on the ball with your thumbnail, then it is pure lead and there is no problem.

If you can't crease the ball with the thumb, then there is probably some wheelweight mixed in. All this means is that the ball won't deform as well when you load it and that it won't take the rifling as well. It won't hurt the gun, just the accuracy, maybe, then again maybe not. Go ahead and shoot them up anyway, and let us know.

Many Klatch

I checked some of them this morning and I can scratch the surface of the ball with my thumbnail.

Jeff

 

[RedFeather]

Do the scratch test before you melt and it will ensure you have good lead.

 

[jboyer]

Pure lead would cast at about 177 grains, so you are very close. The variation in weight is very small so you did a good job of casting. They should shoot just fine. Use a caliper or micrometer to measure the diameter of the new castings.

I have gotten home too late the last couple of nights to do any shooting and it has been cold anyway so I decided to measure some of the roundballs I cast with my calipers. I measured 10 of them and they ranged from .490" to .493" and averaged .4913". I also weighed them and the same 10 ranged from 174.5 gr to 176.2 gr and averaged 175.37 gr. I found 10 Hornady roundballs I've had for some time and measure them as well. They ranged from .490" to .495" and averaged .4918". The Hornady weights ranged from 177 gr to 179 gr and averaged 178.05 gr. I'm anxious to shoot the balls I cast and see how they do. Unfortunately winter temps have decided to arrive in IN and I don't know when I may have a chance to try them.

Jeff

 

[paulvallandigham]

Attaboy, Jeff! Now you see why those who cast their own balls think they shoot just as fine as the swaged balls others buy! For most target shooting, you won't have to sort the balls further. If you decided to do much bench shooting, in competition, you will find that sorting the balls by diameter after sorting by weight might give you a slight improvement in the groups at 100 yds, and further. However, at 50 yds, I doub't you will be able to notice, even using a rest.

Have fun shooting those casts balls.