First try,good or not?

Your mould looks to have been a bit cold Mike. That or the alloy or both. Get some extra heat into both and the boolits will look like they came off a lathe. Right one looks much better.

Cheers from New Zealand

Jeff.

Boolit Mold Join DateMay 2013LocationWestland, New ZealandPosts5

Cheers Jeff,I did preheat,but unsure of actual temp.Will bring home a laser temperature gun from work and see how hot it is.I think 700c is about right isnt it?

Change the C to an F and you could be in the right place. 700c is about 1300F a bit ion the hot side. i like a warm mold and a cool pot for my casting. I do not have a thermometer but once the pot has melted and fuxed i turn it down to 5 (lee 10 pound bottom pour) follow all the standard instructions Clean the mold well with dawn and hot water. Run some rubbing alchol thru it to insure all the oil is out. Heat the mold on a hotplate or set it on the top of the pot while the lead is melting. in my limited experiance the mold temperature is critical to getting sharp well filled out projectiles.
Keep at it it comes together with practice

Why Johnny Ringo you look like someone just walked over your grave.

I think you can get by with less lubricant that what you've got on the boolit on the far right. If you're smearing it on by hand, you might not need it on the nose and if you're tumbling them you can probably use a thinned lube and a much lighter coating.

For those I do tumble lube, I thin with mineral spirits (50/50 seems right) and aim for a light tan coating with no clumps and glops. A little accumulation in the lube grooves never seem to hurt. My final step is to dust the dried boolits with Motor Mica. Takes away the tackiness and leaves a right purty pewter-looking boolit.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.", old Chinese proverb.

Boolit Master Join DateApr 2005LocationKansas US of APosts831

If any of my boolits don't look exactly like the inside of the mold they are a cull. No matter what the range.
The very first time I ever cast a boolit a friend of mine was here. He said he had done a lot of casting years ago. He tried to explain to me what he thought he knew. Said you can't get lead to come out of the mold perfect like the inside of the mold. Long story short he was wrong. His casting experiance btw was fishing weights with who knows what.
I have enough variables in my shooting with out trying to get a buggered boolit to make me happy.
How are you seating and crimping your checks?
Jeff

It is a hard way to go with a soup ladle. Get some kind of cast iron pot if you use a stove and a Lyman or RCBS ladle. Get the mold hot to start, I heat mine to 500* F in a little oven on a hot plate. Dipping the end of the mold in the lead will help.
The mold has to be hot enough for lead to flow and fill before the lead starts to harden. You can heat the mold with a propane torch by playing the flame all over, don't hold it in one spot.

NZ44,

I'm not sure how far away from Christchurch is from Westland but you should try to link with JeffinNZ offline for some first-hand training. Looks like a Padawan moment is coming. You have found the right forum. We have casters from the US, Aus and NZ and several other countries on this group. We ALL are willing to help you out with advice and to lead you down the galena sparkled path to perfect boolits.

Brue

I Cast my Boolits, Therefore I am Happy.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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