Bullet Casting 101

S

snuffy

New member
Great thread Il. yote hntr. If you could just make that one pic smaller, the original post would be easier to read. At least on my puter, I have to scroll right and left to see the whole thing, pita.

You pretty much covered the whole aspect of casting. Anybody just starting out should have enough info to get the right equipment.
 
I

IllinoisCoyoteHunter

New member
Thanks. I am not that good on the 'puter.......I don't know how to make the pics smaller. Took me forever to figure out how to get the darn things on the thread! :eek:
 
S

Shane Tuttle

Staff
You think it's a good idea to get into the details of molds or maybe start a separate thread? It could be a whole 'nuther bag of worms with the details of prepping a Lee mold, suggested techniques of using them, etc.

OTOH, if it's kept here, it would be a "one-stop-shop" for most casting questions.

I'm not the one to usually advocate this, but I recommend this to be a sticky, Staff. This board hasn't had a great share of casting threads in the past. But, IMHO, it has taken off lately as another facet to the reloading process and would answer several basic questions.
 
I

IllinoisCoyoteHunter

New member
Lee molds are fairly easy to tweak. Some don't even need tweaking. The only thing I do to mine that is not stated in the mold prep directions that comes with the mold is polish the mold cavity with a bullet cast by the mold, a drill bit, a drill, a screw, and some comet. Simply cast 2 bullets from the mold. Then, after the mold and bullets have cooled, place one of the bullets in the mold and close the mold. Chances are it will close most of the way, but not all the way. I then take a drill bit that is one size smaller than the sprue hole. Close the sprue plate completed and CAREFULLY drill a hole about 1/2 way through the bullet towards the nose. DO NOT DRILL THROUGH THE BULLET!! Once you have a hole, remove the bullet and hand tighten a screw into the hole. Then, wet the mold cavity and the bullet. Sprinkle some comet on the bullet and the place it back in the cavity. With the sprue plate open, close the mold. Again, the mold will not fully close. Now put a screw driver bit in your drill and slowly try to drill the screw into the bullet more. It may go a little deeper, but you will find that it bottoms out on the hole and begins to spin the bullet. THis is exactly what you want. Spin the bullet in the cavity until the mold fully closes. Do this for both cavities and your mold should drops the bullets MUCH better and should require less beating to get them to drop from the mold.

As far as fill out issues...well, I haven't had any. I have heard that you can SLIGHTLY widen and deepen your vent lines with a scribe...but I haven't had to.
 
C

CrustyFN

New member
If you are having fill out problems I would recommend adding tin. What I did was add some solder, 95% tin 5% antimony. Adding more than 2% is a waste in my opinion. I have a roll of 1/8" round 95/5 solder. I add 24" to a ten pound pot. Here is an example.
These were the first bullets I cast. They are straight wheel weights with no tin addad. See how round the shoulders are? They probably would have shot ok, might have caused a little more leading but I remelted them and didn't shoot them.
ry%3D400

These bullets were cast with 24" of 95/5 solder added to a ten pound pot. Now see how sharp the shoulders are? Much better fill out with very little tin added.
ry%3D400

Rusty
 
R

rugerplinker23

New member
thank you

thank you all for putting this all together i have bee tinkering with the thought of bullet casting to save some money at 35 bucks a 500 for lead slugs it wont be long before i am saving money great thread thank you again lots of great info :):):)
 
L

longranger

New member
Throw any bullet that has a rounded base back into the pot.Despite the popular belief that the nose is the most important part of the bullet.The base is what makes a bullet accurate.Or at least it is the major factor in a bullet flying true.
 
I

IllinoisCoyoteHunter

New member
Throw any bullet that has a rounded base back into the pot.Despite the popular belief that the nose is the most important part of the bullet.The base is what makes a bullet accurate.Or at least it is the major factor in a bullet flying true.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Also run the risk of improper bullet obturation --> gas cutting --> you will be cleaning quite a bit of lead out of your barrel --> :( or :mad:
 
W

webby4x4

New member
If you are having fill out problems I would recommend adding tin. What I did was add some solder, 95% tin 5% antimony. Adding more than 2% is a waste in my opinion. I have a roll of 1/8" round 95/5 solder. I add 24" to a ten pound pot.
Click to expand...

CrustyFN - Thanks for the Tin / Antinomy tip!!!!! I buy my lead from a local metal recycling place in northern dallas and have been casting bullets with just the plain old lead. I've always known that it was a good practice to add tin and antinomy, but couldn't really find any to add (the metal recycling place doesn't have this - surprising). I've got probably 10-12 rolls of solder laying around, so as soon as I finish typing this reply, I'm going to do some more casting.

IllinoisCoyoteHunter - great post my friend. I have a nearly identical process that I follow, so it was nice to have my mehtods confirmed by an expert.


Rick
 
S

SP Shop Foreman

New member
CrustyFN my Dad uses 95/5 too. My Mother casts some of the finest bullets I've ever seen. She's patient and meticulous. The normal BHN for us here is 19, (we can get to 30) but we're very careful with the sizing process to avoid leading with a too hard bullet. The bullets come out of the mold at about 10 with the mix we use and get to about 19 after case hardening, and the final pass for lube and gas check is using a die that's one thou larger than the first sizing pass. We don't do the quenching if the bullets are going to be stored for much later use. The reason is in the link down below. Dad has read this guy for years. http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm Its required reading for me. The weather is getting better so we'll be casting again soon. We do it outdoors near the relaoding room.

Latigo
 
Last edited:
C

CrustyFN

New member
I don't water drop either. I'm using straight WW's and with the solder added they are dropping with a BHN of 14.
Rusty
 
P

putteral

New member
Great post! Just finished casting some a little while ago. My first experience with a 6 cavity mold. Once I got the mold up to temp, perfection! Cranked out 850 in 2 hrs.
 
S

snuffy

New member
lotta lead

I'm going to put this here, it certainly pertains to casting. This is from a private indoor range at my gunclub. It hadn't been mined for at least 15 years.

P4110001.JPG


This is the result of about 30 hours of (S)melting the range lead. We did another 8 hours today.

P4110004.JPG


This is some of it, screened from the sand trap under the deflection plate.

P4110005.JPG


Some more, the stick or log is from the bottom, furthest back of the deflector plate where it meets the sand. Some of the bullets slide down the plate, get jammed into the corner.

P4110006.JPG


Using a skill saw to cut some of the logs so we could get them in the pot.

P4110009.JPG


Here they're getting warmed up.

P4110007.JPG


Final skimming after final fluxing. We were using big no-drip candles for flux. It's ready to start pouring.

We're limited to 6 images per post, so continued next post.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top