Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Bullet casting improvements
unfy:
--- Quote from: bkoenig on April 15, 2013, 12:06:38 PM ---I think if bullets sit in the mold longer they can drop easier, since they shrink as they cool. When I cast for my Blackout I have to let them cool longer because that .309 diameter 245 grain bullet is so long and skinny that I have actually had them bend when I drop them too soon. I drop into a bucket of water, covered by an old shirt with a slit in it. That seems to work really well.
--- End quote ---
Good to see another vote for bucket & shirt-slit. Will change to doing it this way then.
--- Quote ---I drop my sprues into a popcorn tin, one of those big ones that Christmas popcorn comes in. I don't like dropping them directly into the pot because I feel it can introduce contamination. Instead I cast until I have a big pile of sprues, then dump them into the pot and flux again to make sure it stays clean.
--- End quote ---
I've gone got of the Christmas popcorn tins as well, but I've been holding on to use it for possibly making a back yard blast furance / foundary / forge / whatever out of (something to melt aluminum in etc). Tee hee :P
I get a blue oxidation layer / film on top of my pot after time goes on for a while. Not entirely sure what that's about. Might be dropping sprue back into pot, might not be. I dunno. If it dissipates after switching to sprue-in-a-pan-or-tin... then... we'll know the cause ;).
I've not been too concerned about contamination - mold sprue is relatively clean and all that. Maybe the blue means it's not, I dunno.
--- Quote ---I'll have to give this method a try. Right now I use a 1" dowel to cut the sprue. If I can speed things up by just using my hand that would be nice. I'm sure I am wasting a lot of movement.
--- End quote ---
Compared to long cool / set / freeze times on the 40s&w... I find the quicker cast method of dropping the bullets hot drops *far* easier than the long set times. I dunno if the block (aluminum) shrinks faster than the lead or what exactly is going on.
With the long cool / set / freeze time, I'd have to hammer the pivot bolt/nut (often several times) to get the bullets to drop. With the quicker casting... I only had to tap the pivot 1 in 10 casts or so... They'd usually fall out on just breaking the mold or with a slight jiggle.
Not entirely sure how to address the long / thin bullet ... other than maybe setting the mold on whatever heat sink ya choose might cause it to set quicker / better ? Depending on mold ? I doubt some of the honkin saeco cast iron molds would care about the heat sink ;).
edit: typo/grammar fail.
re-edit:
Re: 1 inch down to knock things open etc
I use a wooden hammer/tool handle that was on sale for a buck. Has a fair amount of heft to it and does nicely. Any chunk of wood would undoubtedly work just fine heh.
I also managed to pick up a relatively cheap plastic tipped hammer for other reloading adventures (swaging comes to mind) ... but I imagine it'd do nicely for mold blocks too.
bkoenig:
--- Quote from: unfy on April 15, 2013, 12:54:28 PM ---
I get a blue oxidation layer / film on top of my pot after time goes on for a while. Not entirely sure what that's about. Might be dropping sprue back into pot, might not be. I dunno. If it dissipates after switching to sprue-in-a-pan-or-tin... then... we'll know the cause ;).
--- End quote ---
I get that, too. I think it's just natural oxidation from the heat. With a bottom pour pot (in theory) all the crud should float to the top and the bottom lead should be clean. I use sawdust for fluxing and I've heard of guys not scraping that off, just letting the ash float on top to form a protective layer. I'm thinking if you drop sprues in it can force some of that oxidation down into the mix. It probably doesn't matter one way or the other. The biggest reason I've found for using the big tin is that I don't end up with chunks of lead all over (well, I still do, but not from the sprues).
unfy:
--- Quote from: bkoenig on April 15, 2013, 05:13:37 PM --- (well, I still do, but not from the sprues).
--- End quote ---
LOL
And thanks for the heads up about getting the blue too.
While at the hardware store picking up a few misc things.... I looked at the lead free solder.
$25 for a pound seemed steep... but... that's actually par with ingots of the stuff or even cheaper).
Actual tin can be possibly had cheaper from 'dirty sources' (ie: roofing washers)... but... getting any antimony looks to be hard to do.
Soooo yeah, will be picking up the solder.
If ya chuck the entire spool into a 19lb pot, comes out to $25 lets you cast ~750 bullets. That seems a tad excessive, so I'll take other folk's results with stuff and try some approximations and what not.
Not having a BHN tester is gonna be kinda funky.
66bigblock:
Not to hijack here, but why do you need lead free solder?
66bigblock
bkoenig:
I bought 20lbs or so of Superhard alloy from Rotometals for about $100 and I'm very happy with the results. If you spend $100 they ship it for free. It has a very high antimony content (I can't remember how much at the time) so you don't need much to harden up pure lead. According to the LASC site 3lbs of Superhard and 15lbs of stickon wheel weights is the equivalent of Lyman #2 alloy. I'm using range scrap lead which should be pretty close to the nearly pure lead in stick on weights. This mix is working really well in my 9mm, 7.62x54, and .38-55. I'm using gas checks on the 7.62 but plain base on the others and getting very little leading.
By the way, the LASC (Los Angeles Silhouette Club) site is a treasure trove of information for bullet casters:
http://www.lasc.us/SuperHard.htm
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