Metronome

fiver

Well-Known Member
yep,,,,,,,, here I am.

from Berlin and my girl Terry Nunn, straight to Australia where they play INXS before every Port Adelaide footy game and the crowd sings the last part without the speakers on.
[that's where I learned what the phrase ''tears at your heart strings'' really means, it is an actual feeling you physically have BTW]
only I'm talking about the men at work taking the Metro and just got some sidetracked with the INXS thing.

hey it coulda been worse, I coulda wandered over to Holland and mentioned that 85% of the Dutch grand prix attendee's arrived by bicycle and only about 2 or 3% actually drove a car.
I kept thinking maaaan the one time I woulda been able to easily find a parking spot and drive out of the parking lot without a 3 hr. traffic jam, and there's this giant ocean in my way.

anyway.
I'm watching Netflix, and using the windows 7 application on the computer,,,, so you guy's ain't getting no 80's U-tube music video links.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
18

Bought him in Chicago, not sure how he is gonna help?
That is a Rural Gnome, not a Metro Gnome.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Timing is a teaching tool. When someone says they can't get a mould to fill out no matter what they do or how hot they get it, I suggest they set their furnace to 725⁰F and cast at a rate of four complete pours per minute for five straight minutes---timed with an analog wall clock--- and find that to their amazement they didn't have any idea what casting quickly or getting the mould hot really meant even though they had been SURE of it before. Oh, and in 15 pours the bullets were FROSTY! After getting over that "hump", all you have to do is pay attention to the nuances of color and timing which indicate speed up, slow down, stop and fix something, grab the manicurist's fan, turn down the furnace, touch up the sprue plate lube, or whatever.
Agree completely. It's all in the sprue appearance. The pot is cycling warmer and cooler, breezes cool the mould, you look at something else for a second or someone interrupts you, it still depends of sprue appearance. At least that's what works for me.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Thought I posted this last night, but here is this morning. Weird. Maybe it still has some relevance.

Copyright the picture, Ian, before some lurker steals it.

It's bad enough going to the post office and standing in line with strange people I don't know and don't want to know. One of my images of Hell would be having to commute on some sort of public transportation.

Poor Charlie:
 

Dale53

Active Member
I have a small manicurist's fan just above where I rest the mould while the sprue sets. By actual count, it only takes 2-3 seconds for the sprue to flash over, then I cut it. The fan greatly speeds up the sprue cooling and I can empty my RCBS pots in an hour and a half when casting with a 4-6 cavity mould. At my advanced age, 20 lbs of near perfect cast bullets are what I do at one sitting. I think I paid $7.00 for the little manicurist's fan. It is a REAL asset!

FWIW
Dale53
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
I think of the metronome as an aid to consistency . That is what we want in all of our components and actions when hand loading.
In other words, note how many seconds it takes to get that frosty sprue, and after that many seconds cut the sprue, every time, consistently .
(I can't seem to stop those damned ITALICS!)
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
It will add to consistency of timing but is that always good? Is the mould temp always the same? Alloy temp?

As we add variables in mould temp and alloy temp we need to adjust time for hardening. This is why I prefer to use visual cues.

Mould temp can be difficult to maintain over a session due to the number of variables- ambient temp, air currents, heat added to mould during casting- bigger with ladle, and many other potential sources.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
It will add to consistency of timing but is that always good? Is the mould temp always the same? Alloy temp?

As we add variables in mould temp and alloy temp we need to adjust time for hardening. This is why I prefer to use visual cues.

Mould temp can be difficult to maintain over a session due to the number of variables- ambient temp, air currents, heat added to mould during casting- bigger with ladle, and many other potential sources.

Precisely! I have never tried to use any kind of count or clock or . . . . .

I watch the sprue and what falls out of the mold and adjust accordingly to maintain a rhythm and consistency.
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
Heat is added to the mold each cast. That heat starts to dissipate as soon as you cast. I seek to cut the sprues, dump the bullets in the same amount of time, each time, so that the amount of heat in the mold is consistent. Heat is gained and heat is lost. With proper timing temp is consistent.

I have a fan running, so air currents are consistent, the ambient temperature doesn't change that much if any. I use a PID to control alloy temp, so I try to control all the variables that I can.

I am trying to improve my casting technique. Think of this as my stroke. Different strokes for different folks.
:)
 
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Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
I find it is difficult to be a machine.

Having run thousands and thousands of weld beads in all positions on different materials, I’ve internalized the need to vary technique, travel speed, deposition rate, and my angles to end up with a weld that looks the same at both the beginning and the end. In the beginning the base material is cold, you must move slower, so the base material can come up to heat and fuse properly. As you move along the base material is gonna get hotter and hotter. The heat will dissipate out away from the weld area, but eventually the heat in the weld area will build up to an excessive level, at that point you must be moving faster and making technique corrections. Even when you make the beginning and the end look the same, the base material was affected differently along the length of the weld.

There are automated processes like casting machines that can hit a plateau of temperature consistency, both mold and alloy temp. However I suspect that the bullets cast at the beginning of a session, while the temps are stabilizing will be slightly different from the bullets cast during the middle of the session.

When I cast there seems to be three distinct parts.

1. “The ramp up”. It’s a little cold for a bit. Hopefully just three or four wrinkled casts.

2. “The middle stride”, it all settles in and runs well for a bit. Because I don’t use a PID or a thermometer I use the edge of frosty as my temperature guide. I find myself making adjustments to casting cadence based on bullet appearance.

3. “xxxx, it’s time to stop!” This could be the wife calling down that dinner is ready, I let the alloy get to low, my hand hurts, I need to pee, or the sprue plate screw backed out and I don’t have a fastener manipulation tool handy.

Basically what I wanted to say with all this is that I don’t think using a metronome is a bad idea, I think that it would be most helpful during “the middle stride”. If you go down this rabbit hole, you might also try timing your pour cadence with it.

Art & Science! Stroke it how you like it!
 

Ian

Notorious member
I have always used the analogy of driving a car. Throttle, brake, steering, using your visual clues to keep you going steady.
 

Dale53

Active Member
I fully understand what you good people are saying. I use a hotplate to pre-heat my bullet mold while the bullet metal is coming up to heat. After I start casting, the gentile breeze of the manicurist’s fan not only cools the sprue, it keeps the mold from overheating while casting. This set-up truly helps me to be efficient and consistent while helping me to be productive.
Dale53
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
You guys are probably way more coordinated than I am. I think I would end up spending more time adjusting the 'nome than I would spend casting.
A wise man once said to me regarding mechanical engine gauges , "it doesn't matter so much what they read as it does that they read the same thing all the time " .

A mentor of sorts was a believer in the analog clock as a timer for every step . One needs to know how long a step takes before it can be timed for consistency . I would bet hard money that without regard to mould count , mat'l or alloy that it casts shorter cycles at 60°/80% than at 80°/60% .

I say if a clock or some other timing/rhythm device keeps you casting more consistent bullets whether it's background noise or a foreground tool , use it .

What's that guy say ,"it matters when it does" , "it works for me in my stuff YMMV" , and of course there's my way of saying it "this is how I do it , this is what the book says , and you need to find the mix/mind set/means that fits you " .
 

david s

Well-Known Member
I haven't used a metronome for casting only annealing brass. It's the same thing over and over, put a piece of brass in the hand drills socket, hold the brass in the flame, dump, again and again. The brasses time in flame is sorta the idea in this case. I find a metronome helps. Watching a sweep hand would start me day dreaming and ruining brass.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I just turn the timer on the side of the machine to the time it takes and keep the holes full.
3.8 is 3.8 not about 4.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
One of those would last about 30 seconds on my casting table, then be first inline on my backstop. ¡