Waht did you cast today?

Ian

Ian

Notorious member
Winelover said:
Started off ladle casting with a brass two cavity MP 158 FP Hunter, using the RCBS Easy Melt............a dedicated ladle pot. Pick it up from Midway, several years ago with a rebate. OTD, it was @ 60 bucks. Well, it gave up the ghost. LED lost it's display, cooling fan was still running, full pot of alloy. :sigh: Had the propane torch handy, as well as, an ingot mold. Got all the alloy out. :) I always shut it down, per RCBS's manual. Turn temperature down to zero, keep pot plugged in till temperature is less than 160 degrees.

Damn Chinese junk, anyways. For the price I got it for, it's a throwaway. Managed to cast about 100 bullets, half HP's.
Click to expand...

I've used mine two or three times, the PID is something like 80-100 degrees off. Meanwhile, my Lee furnaces continue to be trouble-free year after year.
 
Last edited:
Winelover

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Ian said:
I've used mine two or three times, the PID is something like 80-100 degrees off. Meanwhile, my Lee furnaces continue to be trouble-free year after year.
Click to expand...
Never checked but I set it at 730-740 degrees and get good bullets with my alloy. I used it alot, along with the Lyman Mag 25, of around the same vintage. Kept two different alloys in the furnaces. The Lyman LED stopped working, took it apart and found a automotive type tube fuse. Replaced that and it began working again. The RCBS is pop riveted together, unlike the Lyman. Might take it apart as a next Winter project.............or not.
 
Rockydoc

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
Mitty38 said:
Thought I started casting with my New to me Lee 452-200 SWC mould.
But dummy me. I had bought 2 moulds, I had not used yet off of Brad and had them kept together.
Grabbed the wrong mould and since
They were the same style bullet and the same mould. Kept thinking "boy these look a little small for 45acp. . Huuh???"

But after I got it hot, it was casting so good I just did not want to stop.

Well that mould was new to me too, so guess it's broke in now. At least its a bullet I was planning on working with. Just not at this time.
Well have a crap load of 358-105. For the 357, or 9mm.View attachment 33403
Click to expand...
You will like that little bullet Emmet. It can be very accurate. Economical too.
 
Michael

Michael

Active Member. Uh/What
Knocked out a batch of 740s for my wife. Found the right routine and probably went through close to a 50-60 cycles without any rejects due to any obvious base fill out issues, rounded edges, voids or pinholes, just nice smears, no tears. Cutting the sprue with a gloved hand, earlier before things settled down, I could feel when I tore a sprue vs cut and only leaving the smear. Cut, tap, dump, repeat, it was almost boring...... never. Lubing and loading on tap next.
 
Last edited:
Spindrift

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Two new-to-me moulds, that I picked up for a good price; the Lyman 311041, and the RCBS 358-200.

This is my first Lyman mould, but I actually had a set of Lyman handles that I picked up earlier. Strangely, the Lyman handle branches were to skinny to properly fit the mould... Lee handles, on the other hand, worked perfectly. The mould does not appear modified. I also swapped a slightly abused sprue plate with a replacement, which was also much thicker.

Both these moulds worked excellently. The Lyman dropped (as expected) slightly undersized (.3095x.2995) bullets in my alloy, but I plan to coat these, anyway.

I also cast some of the excellent NOE 309-177 PB bullets.

These are just some random pickings from the water bucket

IMG_20230501_204044662.jpg
 
glassparman

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
Haha, I almost said "those are pretty pew pews" but that spawned an entire conversation last time!
 
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
130 pre-sorted results of 40-minutes of casting with the ex-Paul single-cavity 454190. Some of them show the mould was running a wee bit on the not too hot enough side.
7FE9304C-EF21-4CF2-AF93-16159FB296CB.jpeg
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
You got a base void too. My 2C 454190 does exactly the same thing and for the life of me can't figure out why. I've adjusted the sprue plate, pouring rate, tilt, swirl poured, ladle poured, you name it. Problem is most of the voids I get are just barely under the surface and show up once the bullets are fired and recovered from the sand trap.
 
RBHarter

RBHarter

West Central AR
Have you opened the actual pour hole a little. I read someplace a couple of times it helps fill out in larger moulds , seems like it would give you a larger pool area to draw from as it cools . Of course it.might not do anything but give you a thicker sprue to cut an make lopsided bullets .
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ian
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Ian said:
You got a base void too.
Click to expand...
Yep, no cheating allowed when taking pictures of newly-cast pre-sorted bullets.

I think the caca looking bullets were due to me being miserly with the sprue puddles. Another indication of a not too hot enough mould was, I had to give the handles a rubber mallet love tap, whereas in the past the bullets fell out on their own upon mould opening.

Not only are our moulds unique, but so, too, are our casting sessions.
 
CWLONGSHOT

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Im melting a Pot of pure to cast some Savarog segment slugs.

They can be a bugger ta get complete and proper fill out.

These will be first pb "pure" I have cast. I used my range scrap before. Ooh Ill have a lol tin for flow too.
 
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Cast another small batch of 454190s. Man, I'm finding that mould is more than a little temperamental. It likes as large a sprue puddle as that little single-cavity sprue plate will hold and a pot temperature of 740-degrees -- no less, no more. All that's easy enough, but I have to move faster than light speed between cutting the sprue and the next pour.

One of my casting gloves needed some major repairs. After 17-years the holes got big enough that skin was coming in contact with a hot mould all too often. Gorilla tape ought to hold for a while.
9CE865EE-04AF-43BE-BF1D-FFACFC122A43.jpeg
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
462 said:
Cast another small batch of 454190s. Man, I'm finding that mould is more than a little temperamental. It likes as large a sprue puddle as that little single-cavity sprue plate will hold and a pot temperature of 740-degrees -- no less, no more. All that's easy enough, but I have to move faster than light speed between cutting the sprue and the next pour.

One of my casting gloves needed some major repairs. After 17-years the holes got big enough that skin was coming in contact with a hot mould all too often. Gorilla tape ought to hold for a while.
View attachment 33864
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, you and Rich. Like I said you ain't the lone ranger having base voids and such.

I can't believe it took you 17 years to wear out that glove. I been through at least half a dozen Wells Lamont gloves and at leas that many horse hide gloves. Tape just melts, falls off, and globbers up everything you touch. I've taken to wearing an Ove Glove on the mould hand and a cheap, less bulky gaunlet grilling glove on the sprue plate hand for the past several years, both are holding up splendidly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.