Some older moulds didn't have vent lines at all and surprisingly they usually cast good.
ROUNDBALL CAVITIES
- Thread starter Tinhorn
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You nailed it, Jay! How you look is more important than technique, any day.......hahahaha
Doubt venting is the issue. In your OP what you describe are typically temperature related issues. Do you have a lead thermometer?
Rather than burning out the oil in the mould via a high temperature, why not clean it with your favorite degreaser and an old toothbrush, wash and dry it thoroughly, and cast with it a few times? When it's up to temperature, use wooden matches to deposit a layer of soot/carbon in the mould cavities. I do this to most of my moulds, RB, Maxi-Ball, elongated bullets for CF pistols and rifles and don't have any casting problems worth mentioning.
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Maven has it covered. My procedure is similar. I’ve used brake cleaner to clean the mold. I’ve used matches, candles and the plain old butane light to smoke the mold cavity. All seem to work.
Tinhorn
40 Cal
Waiting on the new .495" mold I ordered before I try all of your suggestions. My good .562" mold is 10yrs old, so maybe my new toys haven't broken in yet? Still a nice Lee mold, different vent lines and alignment pins, though.
Tinhorn
Tinhorn
I've never had a problem with Lee moulds dropping good bullets, and I have allot of Lee moulds. I have quite a few of their new style also and they are made allot better than the older ones. RBs are the easiest to do. I also cast bullets for modern guns. I don't smoke the moulds any more and usually don't clean the new ones any more either. I guess I just got out of the habit of doing it some where along the line but they still cast good bullets. It's not really that hard once you get the knack of it.
Wrinkles always mean mould is too cool and pouring rate is too fast. I always get best results holding sprue cutter tight against spout and letting pressure dwell a few seconds befor withdrawing.
Tinhorn
40 Cal
Well, they never said to boil it- But I did! I cleaned the new .495" RB mold from Lee after I sprayed it with brake cleaner, by boiling it in the water/windex I use on my BP shootin' irons. Then the Q-tip clean the cavities. And Shazzammm! Good bullets from the get-go. All my issues from before were from not cleaning the mold well enough prior to casting. The bad mold makes OK ball now, and is only for pistol at short range, so I guess not-too-pretty roundball in the pistol is OK. Also, I turned up the heat to 8, and set the end of the mold block in the lead to pre-heat the mold. Not just setting it on top of the pot rim, like before. Good bullets now! Thank all you riflemen for the help, I would still be ((*(*&$##&!! at my mold otherwise...… This is a darn good forum! Tinhorn
Tinhorn
40 Cal
MODERATOR- this one is done, pull it please, I found the fix with the FORUMS' help. Thank you!
Glad to hear you found the answer to your problem.
Just because you found your answer doesn't mean I should remove the thread. In fact, I am going to leave it here. There might be someone else who has the problems you had and if they come across this topic they will be able to read the same answers that helped you..
This is the way all good forums run things and it is the reason the Muzzleloading Forum has tens of thousands of solutions to problems here for anyone to read.
Speaking of the tens of thousands of answers on the forum, to find other posts that talk about a problem, use the Search button in the upper right hand area of the screen. Type a key word that describes the problem into it and poke the "Search" button. For instance, if someone typed "wrinkled" into it and poked the Search button, it would find this post (along with many other ones) because that word is in this post.
One thing the Search engine doesn't like is words that have 3 or fewer letters in them so if you tried to enter, "wrinkles on ball", it would see the 2 letter word "on" and stop looking for a match for the other two words.
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The frosted appearance is from lead being hotter than it needs to be. It won't hurt anything, 'cept your electric bill.
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Type in 'wrinkled' and my picture will appear!
Greenjoytj
54 Cal.
Don’t use a candle to smoke a mold because gasified wax will be condensed on the cool metal of the mold, you’ve just put lube in the mold.
Don’t smoke the mold all.
If you must mask other issues with smoke, then smoke the mold with a disposable lighter, the butane won’t lube the mold.
Lube the hinge and cutter pivot with two cycle mix gas oil Redline Racine two stroke work great.
Apply with a Q-Tip, if the mold surface is shining with oil you have used too much oil. Wipe it off with a clean Q-Tip now you have the right amount of oil left on the mold.
Flux the melt with a spoon full of saw dust, it the best flux. Ground corn cob kitty litter is good also.
Get a digital temperature gauge, record your results so they can be repeated without a lot of trial and errors each casting session. PID controlled furnaces work best.
To avoid void cavities in your castings be sure to keep a puddle of liquid lead at the fill hole as the lead cools it contracts and will suck in more liquid lead from the sprue puddle. It there is no liquid lead puddle to draw from vacuum voids will occur in the casting.
Don’t throw sprues back into the furnace they cools the melt. The key to casting balls or bullets of equal weight is to keep the melt temperature stable and a casting rhythm to maintain an even mold temperature.
Cast a bunch say 50, then add all the sprues while they melt an come up to casting temperature, go weight the castings on your powder scale, cull out the off weight castings.
Grouping casting from the same mold cavity can help with the weight culling.
Don’t smoke the mold all.
If you must mask other issues with smoke, then smoke the mold with a disposable lighter, the butane won’t lube the mold.
Lube the hinge and cutter pivot with two cycle mix gas oil Redline Racine two stroke work great.
Apply with a Q-Tip, if the mold surface is shining with oil you have used too much oil. Wipe it off with a clean Q-Tip now you have the right amount of oil left on the mold.
Flux the melt with a spoon full of saw dust, it the best flux. Ground corn cob kitty litter is good also.
Get a digital temperature gauge, record your results so they can be repeated without a lot of trial and errors each casting session. PID controlled furnaces work best.
To avoid void cavities in your castings be sure to keep a puddle of liquid lead at the fill hole as the lead cools it contracts and will suck in more liquid lead from the sprue puddle. It there is no liquid lead puddle to draw from vacuum voids will occur in the casting.
Don’t throw sprues back into the furnace they cools the melt. The key to casting balls or bullets of equal weight is to keep the melt temperature stable and a casting rhythm to maintain an even mold temperature.
Cast a bunch say 50, then add all the sprues while they melt an come up to casting temperature, go weight the castings on your powder scale, cull out the off weight castings.
Grouping casting from the same mold cavity can help with the weight culling.
