Need Feedback on 1st casts

First casting:
Mold : RCBS 35-200-FN
Lyman 61 furnace
Room Temp 45f
The pictures show some of the better casts, several dozen were put back to begin with. They didn't fill well at 700-750, so I started playing with temp and flow to the cavity. The furnace is an old one and to get the best looking bullets I had the temp up to 800+. Also opened the bottom feed to get a faster fill.
They all weigh 209gr +/- .5gr. Just got the mold yesterday and wanted to try.
Alloy : coWW

Last edited by jsteed; Today at 03:14 PM. Reason: added information

The problem we have in our country today is there are more who vote for a living than work for a living !

A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Eccl. 10:2

I think you have some issues. The grooves/bands are not good at all. There are pits and/or impurities all over the bullets.

Was this a new mold or a used one?

Weight variation (.5 for a 200 gr bullet) is good!!! Load them and try them. Any idea why they look the way they do?

Did you preheat the mold? How long had you been casting with the mold before you casted these boolits? You may be cutting the sprue a tiny too early (divot in the base). Also the source (composition) of the Pb you use is pretty important. Did they (boolits) fall out when you :
1. opened the cavities
2. small tap
3. played the drums on the mold

Your mould is too cold, and your alloy contains impurities.

Clean the mould, pre-heat it (400-degrees?), flux the alloy, and turn the pot's temperature down (700?). The reason an 800-degree alloy produced better boolits than the lower temperatures is due to the mould starting to come up to its optimum casting temperature. However, the pictured boolits show that it never got there.

Toss those back in the pot and go at it again. Don't worry, with a bit more practice, it'll all come right.

Brand new mold! The bullets fell out at the lower temp. Really have to rap to get them out at higher temp. Preheated the mold on a hot plate. First time casting, first time with the new mold. Fluxed with sawdust, may be fluxing wasn't complete?
I cleaned the oil off the mold and then used a lacqure thinner and Q-tip.

The problem we have in our country today is there are more who vote for a living than work for a living !

A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Eccl. 10:2

Those boolits in the pics would all be rejected by me.

Depending on the alloy temp, those should have been cast at no more then 700 degrees. If it's really soft, then maybe 750 degrees.

That right there is your main problem. It's difficult to maintain mold temp in a cold environment. A hot plate is your best friend to pre-heat the mold, and to keep it hot while you add metal.

Also you need to flux that metal a lot more than you are, assuming you are fluxing it at all . That dirt and crud in the lead won't do any favors to your barrel. Use sawdust to flux, if you can't find sawdust, then go to a pet store, get cedar shavings used for bedding for wabbits or other tame varmints. A big bag will last for years.

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.
You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.
You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

?At the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat?--Theodore Roosevelt

Sometimes a brand new mold will need a few heat cycles to really start to work well. I suggest scrubbing it with a toothbrush and Dawn dish soap, preheat the mold and go at it again. There may still be some oils remaining in the mold. Flux some more. A good temp for that mold would be 725-750.

I would reject all of them, cold mold and dirty alloy. On the other side of the coin, I wish my very first bullets looked that good.

Follow the suggestions already given for pre-heating and fluxing. Fluxing isn't just adding some sawdust on top and giving it a quick stir, use a slotted spoon and bring as much metal up from the bottom and into contact with the charred sawdust as possible, skim off the dirty carbon and repeat.

The reason they were harder to fall from the mold at higher temp is because as they cool they shrink, higher pot temps means it takes longer for them to cool enough to shrink enough. You need higher mold temp, not higher pot temp.

I'll add the suggestion of using Bullplate on the sprue. Give the sprue puddle about a 3 count after it freezes & then open.

Rick

"The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke

"Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams

One side is for Liberty and the Constitution and they are called domestic terrorist, anti-American, nazi's and mobsters. Just what is the side using these terms for?

NRA Benefactor Life Member
CRPA Life Member

All the comments make sense, I probably need warmer casting room, plus look for contamination in the new mold and flux more. I'll try some more.

The problem we have in our country today is there are more who vote for a living than work for a living !

A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Eccl. 10:2

You may not post new threadsYou may not post repliesYou may not post attachmentsYou may not edit your postsForum Rules

Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

View the original article here