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I have been casting for a while, but this is my first hollow base mold and I can not produce anything worth keeping. Should I crank up the temperature or maybe put the mold in the lead. Can anyone give advise or direct me to a link on casting hollow base bullets.
The good news is, at this rate I'm going, I'll never run out of lead, because everything is going back into the pot.
Thanks,
O. Gotz
You need that pin HOT. Not the lead but the mould and base pin.
Mould fill out is more related to mould temp than to lead temp. Some even use a torch to get and keep the pin hot.
Without seeing a picture of your scrap boolits I can only guess as to the issue you want to fix.
So I'm going to take a WAG and say fillout and wrinkles!
Having gone through the same problem when I first started casting HP, the Lyman 45 Devestator has a huge HP, I can tell you what I did and you can use it or not.
Get a hot plate! new at Walgreens 10 bucks and tax or huant the yard sales, bought a third hot plate about 3 weeks ago 2 Bucks! Make sure it is the exposed coil type, other styles don't work as well!
Once you get this part head for a good scrap yard! Your looking for a round steel plate about 5 or 6 inches in diameter to set over the exposed coil on the hot plate. thickness should not exceed 5/16 inch!
Once you get this part look around for a 3 inch piece of 1/2 inch or 9/16 round stock. Diameter will depend on the diameter of your HB pin feel free to adjust as needed to work with the pin diameter.
Now measure the diameter of your HB pin and drill a hole in the round stock that will allow a easy fit of the pin without allowing it to slop around in the hole. You don't want a press fit but you also don't want the pin to fall out!
Now cut the round stock to a length that will allow the pin to touch the plate when it sits on it but is just a bit short of hitting the wood handle mounting area.
Now weld it together in the middle of the plate or have someone do it for you!
Now your ready to cast good boolits!
Turn on your pot, if it's electric, or fire up the burner, if it's gas, and start getting your alloy up to speed temp wise.
At the same time turn on the hot plate and, if the wal greens model, set the temp for just under medium. Other models you may have to play with to hit a working temp thats not to hot.
Set your HB pin in the steel plate you made and set it on the hot plate.
Put your mold on the lead pot if you can, if not balance it nose first on the hot plate. I actually ground off the nose part on my Lyman handles to allow the mold to sit correctly on the HP plate.
Everything should come up to casting temp about the same time. Patience is a virtue here! Your wanting quality cast boolits and need to realize that, with a single cavity HP or HB mold, "there ain't no NASCAR casting"!
When your ready to start casting dip a corner of the mold in the alloy then rotate the mold and dip the other corner. Then dip the sprue plate.
Do all three of these things until the lead does not stick to the mold then insert the HB pin and make a casting.
once you get rolling you will develop a rythem. The pin must always be in the pin heater or in the mold when casting never anyplace else!
You may find you'll need to dip the sprue plate in the alloy every couple castings the older Lyman molds were very small and shed heat quickly.
You'll need to play with temps here, of course, but I've found with my technique that 725 to 750 works pretty good with WW type alloy.
Hope this helps.
Thanks HeavyMetal,
You are correct, the boolits are incomplete and have wrinkles. I'm finnished the plate and pin holder and am working on the hotplate. I'll let you know how it goes.
Orra
When I cast Lyman hollow base 58 caliber minies I keep a propane torch going with a small flame and heat the pin with it every cast.
Heavy metal seems to have a better if not instant fix.
A man might get by with just laying the pin on the hotplate. A circle saw blade or two [old ruined ones] will work for mediating the heat from the hotplate.
I do see the need to run my pot [bottom pour] some hotter for hollow base or hollow point boolits as those need to be made from softer, and therefore, metal with less tin and antimony. Pure lead is a PITA but doable.
If in doubt use more clout [heat].
Life is good
I take the wood handles off, and set the mold in a mold heater with the pin in to keep the pin hot. Use pliers to handle the base plug or hollow point pin.
I want to thank everyone for their input. I turned up the temp of my lead and used a hotplate at medium heat with a 1/2 pipe nipple, in a cast iron pan, as a stand. Turned out a bunch of perfect boolits. Now lets see how they shoot, I hope as well as the trouble they have been casting.