Taming of the sprue

Boolit Buddy Join DateMar 2013LocationI challenge your middle of nowhere, and raise you 5.Posts56

I borrowed a mold from a friend. he does this to all his sprue plates. He does it with a demel. It makes it easier to pour. You just hit the stream right between the two holes instead of filling them individally sort of.

Anyone else do this?

I have a few used molds that previous owners have done variants of this. Doesn't
seem to provide any real benefit that I can see.

Bill

If it was easy, anybody could do it.

Seems a solution in search of a problem to me. I don't see how it could cause real problems but it doesn't really fix anything.

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Boolit Bub Join DateJan 2013LocationSilver City, NMPosts28

I make my own sprue plates. Some are made of half inch hard
plate. That gives me a very large well to fill with alloy. Works very
well on some molds.

Boolit Master Join DateSep 2009LocationArizonaPosts739

I've never done cut my own, but have come to prefer grooved factory sprue plates. I start with the near cavity under the spout pulling the mold towards me along a home-built guide fence as I fill, and the grooves seem to make for a neater, faster pour that helps to keep the hot metal more directly above the cavity where it can do some good rather than puddling all over the place. Unlike your friend though, I'm pouring directly into each individual cavity as much as possible, using the groove for overflow control rather than attempting to pour between holes.

WWJMBD?

I like my science WEIRD.

If it works for you, go for it. But since I cast mostly from Lee six cavity molds, I don't see where it's anything more than a rather crude looking gimmick. One of my molds actually prefers the alloy stream to hit the sloped part of the pour hole so the lead sort of swirls into the mold. I don't think it'd work there for me and I try my best in my old age to not fix what ain't broke as often as possible.

I kind of like those little flying saucer amoeba-looking sprue chunks anyway . Back in my youth when I had more lead that I could ever use, and it was cheap, those little flying sauces were great fun to launch with a wrist rocket type sling shot. You never knew exactly what crazy flight path they were going to take. Fun as all getout to shoot out over a pond. Never hit a thing but the water but I always felt the turtles were laughing at me.

Last edited by ku4hx; Today at 01:46 PM.

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Boolit Bub Join DateJan 2011LocationNE KansasPosts36

Many years ago I did that to one of my Lyman molds. It was a much wider groove and never really showed any benefit. I would not recommend doing it now. Call it a learning experience and let it go at that. Dusty

H&G had a deep groove cut between the holes in the sprue plate and they made some of the best molds every produced. I only every ladle poured my H&G and it worked very well. I poured into the hole and did not interrupt the pour when moving from hole to hole. Just allowed the melt to pool in the groove.

One mroe thing I wondered about but never thought to ask.
Thanks folks.

I think the proper way to do it is start with one hole and keep pouring in the trough to the next hole. Tom offers these for his molds. I have 1 like that and now request the normal sprue plate. I have seen no benefit or advantage to them

H&G multi-cavity molds or as they used to be called...gang molds, came standard with the"trough' that connected the cavities so one learned to use them. Results were good. If one used a ladle, it was customary to pour going uphill, but that wasn't necessary to get good bullets...either way... orpouring "flat" worked too. Bottom pour also produced good results with the trough. Point is if it was there you could or could not use it. If you like it and decide to cut your own trough and it works for you then by all means do it and use it. I have found that when there is a choice it is better to learn the choices so that if you want to use one or the other, you can as it suits you. As a left handed person I also learned to cast right handed so I can and do-do both. It is handy if I feel that I am getting tired on one side so I can switch when I want. The good bullets are the same from either side. Anyway if the trough is there I use it; if it isn't I don't/never have cut my own..I use it as is. As long as you get good quality casts it isn't worth worrying about. LLS

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