Advice needed with ingot mold

Boolit Mold Join DateMay 2013Posts6

Yesterday was my first attempt at boolit casting. I have watched many videos and read a great deal on this forum as well as others. I am glad to say most everything went well. All of my equipment (pot, ingot molds, bullet mold) is RCBS. The alloy I am using is RotoMetals #2 Lyman. I am also using an Auber PID controller to control my pot temperature. The only real problem I have is getting ingots to drop out of the RCBS ingot molds. The first ingots were from a pot temp of 675F and the second ingots were from a pot temp of 725F. Both began with cleaned ingots that had been sitting on a 900watt hot plate with the setting on high. I did not know how long to wait after pouring into the ingots before I tried to drop them. The very first ones did not drop at 10 minutes so I tried every 10 minutes to see if cooling would help. It didn't. I finally had to pry them out with a screwdriver. After that I would let them cool for about 5 minutes and then turned the molds upside down and banged them really hard on the damp towel I had on the table. It took a lot of hard banging to get them to drop out. Maybe this is normal, but if not, I would appreciate some advice.

I also tried to mold a few boolits from my RCBS .44-40 cowboy mold. This went pretty well. I began at 675F but had wrinkled boolits. I walked this temperature up 10F at a time until the wrinkles went away at 725F and boolits are shiny. Just wondering if this is a normal temperature for the RotoMetals Lyman #2 alloy?

I've used my Lyman cast iron ingot mold for decades and they just drop right out after they solidify. It's been too long for me to remember what happened when all my stuff was as new as yours.

Is your RCBS ingot mold cast iron? I also use el-cheapo non stick muffin pans from my local X-Mart store. They just drop out of those too. Some muffin pans have the muffin cups crimped in; I've had ingots stick in them. Maybe because they were just too-cheap uncoated Aluminum.

Ingot molds are the only thing I'll use a release agent on since precision is not a goal.

Your temp sounds about right to me. When I started casting, thermometers and electronic gizmos were pretty much unheard of. I learned to judge temps by feel and outcome and that's how I do it still. The artsy-fartsy part of the process to me.

Last edited by ku4hx; Today at 03:23 AM.

"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 Mold Join DateMay 2013Posts6

Yes, the RCBS ingot mold is cast iron.

Boolit Master Join DateApr 2005LocationKansas US of APosts831

Sounds to me like the alloy was "tinning" to the ingot molds. Yes nice and bright and clean is nice. But not in this case. It will make the lead stick to the mold.
I know what you are thinking. This guy is a nut. Boolits drop out of my boolit mold. Yeah the mold is round too. The ingot mold is square and you have 5 flat areas of contact.
Get a candle or acetylene torch and put a good coating of soot all over your ingot mold. They should drop right out in just a few minutes.
Jeff

I have 1/2 a dozen different brand ingot molds, including the Lee aluminum [use different brands to identify the different leads/alloy's] but always have a large plank or block of wood to thump them on to get the ingots' out.........some stick at times, most just fall out.

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."

Why are you heating up your ingot molds? That don't make sense, unless you are wanting a perfect ingot like you would trying to make a boolit.
Ingot molds don't need heated up. Just pour your lead in, solidify, dump. Repeat

I season my cast iron ingot molds just like cooking with them.. when new wipe cooking oil on them , put in oven and heat at 300 for about 20 minutes .. after that ingots just fall right out .. no banging at all

I just let mine rust. Not to the point of flaking but a good coating. No sticking ever.

Boolit Master Join DateJan 2010LocationSpace Coast, FLPosts603

I would first confirm that there are no high areas in ingot mold. I polished the inside of my aluminum Lyman's and they fall out. I also have a 1" aluminum plate I pour and flop on, big heat sink. I have small fan set up to blow stink off top of pot and breeze ingot plate on backside. The cast iron will take longer to cool. The 700 temp is what I shoot for. Gtek

I do that is while the lead is still a little soft it helps to make 'em flat and stack better.I used to do that too. Now days I just dump 'em on the garage concrete floor and when they've cooled pitch 'em into one of several 5 gallon buckets. Buckets that're already in the storage location under the casting bench.

"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.

I have the RCBS CI molds also. Along with Lee aluminum ones. Never a problem from cast ONE.

If you have this problem, use a release agent. Mica powder is excellent for this. Just dust the inside with a bit before and during the session and all your ingots will drop right out. You can even use the colored mica powders sold at craft stores for painting purposes. The powder goes a long way.

Have not tried graphite which is available everywhere. Pretty messy but should work a;so.

I season my cast iron ingot molds just like cooking with them.. when new wipe cooking oil on them , put in oven and heat at 300 for about 20 minutes .. after that ingots just fall right out .. no banging at allI bought my cast iron ingots molds (Lyman and Saeco) used. someone seasoned them for me...by letting them get rusty...rust is a great release agent

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will be offering the GC seater plate for the lyman 45.
Also I have replacement springs for the Lyman 45 lubesizer, If your's is weak or missing, let me know

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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.

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Which ingot shape?

Voters13. You may not vote on this poll Boolit Man Join DateFeb 2013LocationMissouriPosts84

These are the types of ingots I can make. Either will fit in my RCBS Pro Melt (the reason I'm too broke to buy a regular ingot mold). What do you guys think will be more convenient in the long run?

Either. Both if you increase your smelting.
Pack some up in a SFRB and offer to swap for an ingot mold. Someone will have an extra. Or buy one for you.

Boolit Bub Join DateJan 2011LocationNE KansasPosts34

I prefer the muffin mold because you can pour them as thick as you like. Thin for winter use to feed the pot without causeing a large drop in melt temp. Thick for quickly filling the pot at start up. I also like to stack the biscuits in one gallon paint cans for storage after blending. The wedge ingots would likely fit fine in a white 5 gallon bucket for bulk storage if you wanted to do that as well. Goodwill Stores and the like are great places to look for these items. Good luck. Dusty

Boolit Man Join DateJan 2013LocationMichiganPosts87

I like the muffin molds myself. Seem easier to store.

Boolit Master Join DateJun 2011LocationNorthwest MontanaPosts194

I say use the wedge shape as your primary and the muffins as secondary. I have 4 of the cast iron wedge pans that I use in rotation when smelting. By the time my last one is filled, the 1st one is ready to dump out. They are hassle free when making the ingots, stack nice (alternate points in and out or in a circle in a bucket), weigh in at about 2 pounds each, and will fit most any casting pot. The only muffin pans I use are the mini cast iron muffin pans. Cast iron is hassle free and a pleasure to use. I find that regular muffin pans are a pain to deal with. Too many issues!

Shad

I believe in gold, silver, & lead, and the rights of free honest men... You can keep the "CHANGE"!

triangles stack better structurally and more densely.
I didn't vote.

it's all an educated guess,,,, till the trigger is pulled.

the more i find out about shootin boolits, the more it contradicts everything i ever learned about shooting jaxketed.

Make them out of angle iron stock,they stack better

Horace

Well, if you had a cannon with the same bore diameter as your muffin tin. . .

Truthfully, round bugs me. Round plates, round glasses, round beer bottles - all wasting lots of space in square cabinets and square refrigerators. You'll be "storing" a lot of air between your round ingots.

WWJMBD?

I like my science WEIRD.

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Good size ingot for RCBS ProMelt?

Grafs is going to be shippin gmy RCBS ProMelt soon. What would be a good sized ingot mold to get for the pot?

Thanks for the quick response bobthenailer. I was considering a large mould, but worried about adding a large ingot to the melt. Been looking at Lyman & RCBS molds too, and looks like the Lyman would be preferred with the handle setup.

I can fit up to 5 pound round ingots into mine. I use the RCBS 10 pound cast iron pot to make ingots, filled full it will make 10 pound ingots but the 10 pounders will not fit into the RCBS pot.

Rick

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My ingot mould is welded-up from 1.5" angle iron. The triangular-section ingots are 10.5 " long, so that they fit in a .50-caliber can with space for a finger to lift them at the end. The ingots weigh about three pounds.

When casting with the RCBS pot, I place four ingots above the melt to pre-heat. TRhey get hot enough that I DO NOT have to stop casting after adding an ingot to the pot, which I do as soon as there's sufficient room to add an ingot.

In this way, I keep the pot nearly full, and the available heat in the molten alloy quickly melts a pre-heated ingot. No spout freeze, no delays....roll on, brother!

Thanks for the quick response bobthenailer. I was considering a large mould, but worried about adding a large ingot to the melt. Been looking at Lyman & RCBS molds too, and looks like the Lyman would be preferred with the handle setup.I prehat my ingots to around 350* or so, sitting on top of a piece of 1/2 " steel plate with a old coleman single burner propane camp stove and sometimes a electric hot plate.
To elimate the effect of pot freeze . when im useing moulds over 358 dia and useing 4 cavity to 8
moulds .

i use a 3" c channel 6" long welded to make 4-6 lb ingots this way i can slowly ease them into the pot without having to drop em in and have a tinsel fair visit drop 1 in and continue casting no pot freeze 4-6 inches depends on how full you fill them ... store easily like a stack of bricks

Thanks for the suggestions. Never thought of pre-heating the ingots before adding to the melt. As mentioned in a separate post, I have a Coleman stove that I will be smelting on so I can just set that up for keeping my ingots warm beside the ProMelt.

Boolit Man Join DateJun 2011LocationNorthwest MontanaPosts125

I can't say enough good things about the cast iron corn wedge pans... Right at 2 pounds, they are the BomB!

Shad

I believe in gold, silver, & lead, and the rights of free honest men... You can keep the "CHANGE"!

i smelt to 6 up castiron mini muffins pans...about 2-1/2lbs each....i have scads of them...

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Hi,
You used to be able and buy Lyman,RCBS or Seaco 1lb ingot molds for like a couple of bucks each at Flea Markets but everything has gone wacko in the past few years!

Always looking for Dillon RL-300's!.

My ingot mould is welded-up from 1.5" angle iron. The triangular-section ingots are 10.5 " long, so that they fit in a .50-caliber can with space for a finger to lift them at the end. The ingots weigh about three pounds.

When casting with the RCBS pot, I place four ingots above the melt to pre-heat. TRhey get hot enough that I DO NOT have to stop casting after adding an ingot to the pot, which I do as soon as there's sufficient room to add an ingot.

In this way, I keep the pot nearly full, and the available heat in the molten alloy quickly melts a pre-heated ingot. No spout freeze, no delays....roll on, brother!

I have been doing this ever since Bruce posted it several years ago. I was dissatisfied with the muffin style ingots, (more the cheap pans disintegrated) and I am too cheap.. I mean frugal to buy what I can weld up from the scrap heap.

While I haven't tried it with my Promelt yet, with the Lee 4-20 that I used the long ingots would self feed after sticking them into the melt; just a gradual slide into the molten alloy.

... Never thought of pre-heating the ingots before adding to the melt. ...You will the first time you stick a semi cool ingot into the melt and it starts burbling. Yet another reason for long ingots, you may be able to grab it with your handy channel locks and get it out before the tinsel fairy comes to visit.

Robert

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Stainless steel ingot mould?

I made a couple ingot moulds after work the other day out of some 316 ss tube and tig welded them together. Then I got to thinking if these would even be usable? I've never seen or heard of ss moulds so being a total newb I thought I'd ask here before I poured hot lead into 'em. They are flared at the opening so the lead can drop out.
Will these be ok or should I throw them in the scrap bin?

I'm the gun totin, meat eatin', BIBLE readin', redneck conservative your mother always warned you about.

I'm not the one to answer your question with any degree of knowlege. I use the cast iron variety. However yours sure look nice.

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The SS will be fine as long as you have a little draft so the`ll come out .

The SS may be a little slower to dissapate heat , when the ingots look solid the centers will still be molten & this time to solidify may vary .

For a full evaluation send em to me with return label & I`ll do a study on em.

Nice ingot molds by the way

Ok good to know, thanks fellas. I thought maybe the lead could stick like glue and never come out or the ss would contaminate the ingots, etc. It's good to have guys to ask dumb questions to.

I'm the gun totin, meat eatin', BIBLE readin', redneck conservative your mother always warned you about.

Finstr,

Welcome to the group. Nice molds. You have no worries about lead bonding to stainless steel. It's hard to get lead to stick to anything, especially with widely different temperatures. GP100man brought up the critical issue. It appears that the ends of the molds are parallel. You have plenty of draft on the sides; not so sure about the ends. Lead isn't going to stick to stainless unless there is some mechanical trapping like a very rough surface that would cause it to get hung up. It still wouldn't be sticking to the SS- just hung up. If the ingots don't come out easily, cut the ends free, open the angle a couple of degrees and weld them back.

For contamination to occur you would have to get both metals above the melting temp of the SS, a temperature at whch the lead would have vaporized. Lead starts emitting vapors at about 1100* F.

My casting bench is covered with a galvanized drip pan for the same reason. Lead just won't stick. I've been looking for a cheap stainless table like a restaurant food prep table to make into a casting bench for a long time.

David

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Weld a T on the end of your handles so they wont turn on you when loaded with hot lead..

David, I covered my table with a sheet of s/s it works great and nothing sticks. Finstr,

Welcome to the group. Nice molds. You have no worries about lead bonding to stainless steel. It's hard to get lead to stick to anything, especially with widely different temperatures. GP100man brought up the critical issue. It appears that the ends of the molds are parallel. You have plenty of draft on the sides; not so sure about the ends. Lead isn't going to stick to stainless unless there is some mechanical trapping like a very rough surface that would cause it to get hung up. It still wouldn't be sticking to the SS- just hung up. If the ingots don't come out easily, cut the ends free, open the angle a couple of degrees and weld them back.

For contamination to occur you would have to get both metals above the melting temp of the SS, a temperature at whch the lead would have vaporized. Lead starts emitting vapors at about 1100* F.

My casting bench is covered with a galvanized drip pan for the same reason. Lead just won't stick. I've been looking for a cheap stainless table like a restaurant food prep table to make into a casting bench for a long time.

David

Dang those look good. You ought to think about making them for others. I have one Lyman ingot mold and never thought I'd need another. I would certainly consider one of those beauties!

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Boolit Buddy Join DateJun 2011LocationIllinoisPosts61

I wonder how stainless steel work for a bullet mold? It would seem that it's rust resistance would be a bonus.

Weld a T on the end of your handles so they wont turn on you when loaded with hot lead..Good tip, thanks!

The ends are parallel. I'll fix that too. See? Sharp learning curve!

I'm the gun totin, meat eatin', BIBLE readin', redneck conservative your mother always warned you about.

I wonder how stainless steel work for a bullet mold? It would seem that it's rust resistance would be a bonus.SS Would be real tough on the cherry

finstr,
I have a home made ingot mold made out of angle iron and the ends are vertical..
Don't have problem with dumping the ingots, but the mold is not as deep as yours..
Personally I would try filling one of them to see if it will dump the ingot..
If the ingot sticks then just remelt the ingot by what ever method you melted the lead in the first place..

If the ends are parralell just take a BFH & put a little draft on em , my first out of angle were squared up & welded up PURTY but the dang ingot would not come out , BFH & a little draft they flop rite out !

Welding a handle on to make a T will make em more user friendly .

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