Advice needed with ingot mold

SMOKE 'EM! I'm the first to say don't smoke a boolit mold, but for ingots it's the thing to do to get the ingots to release. Another trick to do is if the molds are cast iron, to sit them out in the rain, then let them rust. The rust will provide a sort-of mold release and condition them so they never stick again.

I have a bunch of the Lyman ingot molds, I start them cold, then use them hot after dumping the first cast, they never stick. But they've been used a LOT!

Also a couple of the lee molds, they're aluminum, they work well too. That one pic shows a muffin tin, it makes 2.5 pound ingots that fit well in my preo-20 Lee. The big mold in the lower right corner is made of 3" ship & car channel, a buddy with a fab shop made it out of scrap. He borrowed it to me, I said I'd buy it, no sale, I said make another one, he said he's too busy!

Paul, the key to good fill-out and crisp shoulders is not the temp of the lead, but the temp of the mold. Since you have a hot plate, put that mold on the hot plate, pre-heat it. Get the mold up to temp, you should be able to cast great boolits with that Lyman #2 at no more than 700 degrees! Temps higher than 725 for the molten lead will oxidize that valuable tin at a much faster rate. Once oxidized, it can no longer help for mold fill-out and the strength it provides.

Using sawdust as a flux is also the best way to return oxides to the metallic state. Also, allowing the charred sawdust to stay on the surface of the melt, provides an oxygen barrier on top of the molten lead. It prevents, or at least greatly reduces oxide formation.

__________________
The more people I meet, the more I love my dog

They're going to get their butts kicked over there this election. How come people can't spell and use words correctly?

View the original article here