Frosting

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Cooling the blocks by touching the bottoms to a damp sponge or touching the sprue with a sponge is ok to get the temp of the blocks down will reduce the likelihood of frosting. Also using two molds in tandem will allow for more cooldown time. Use of an aluminum heatsink under the blocks will also help. These are all timeproven ways that work well. Nothing gets warped or broken. Frosting, although esthetically displeasing to some folks is not an evil condition. It has absolutely no effect on accuracy whatsoever. Self-inflated gurus and quacking experts that seem to be present on every range always have some comment to make...best is to just ignore them. If you are nevertheless unable to avoid any frosting and it continues to bother you then get a few pads of #0000 steel wool and simply polish it off the noses of your finished rounds. It goes fast, no one will be able to tell the difference and everyone will live happily ever after. LLS

[dardascastbullets]

I am going to assume that you are not obtaining a great fillout on your bullets and therefore you are increasing the temperature to overcome the frosting problem? If this is true, then bear with me.

You will not gain any ground by increasing the temperature. Rather, I would suggest that you should focus on your metal. Do you know the exact content of your metal? There are many possibilities that are causing your problem. However, these possibilities can usually be narrowed down to two: a)stray metals, and b) lack of tin.

You are surely in the correct casting temperature range of 650-700 degrees F (depending on the bullet you are casting). So, if you are indeed experiencing what I am assuming, then either 'adjust' your alloy or obtain a known metal. You will then have keepers dropping from your moulds in little time.

[XWrench3]

Some of us like brunettes, some of us like redheads, I figure pretty is as pretty does. If your loads shoot well what could be prettier than that?

and after 50, their looks are pretty much gone anyways. the only thing that keeps them "pretty" is cosmetics and hair dye. lol. as for the frosting, i like a little frosting with my cake, don't you?
as for lee dies, frosting is pretty normal, at least as far as i have been able to do them. it doesnt matter if its a 2 hole, or a 6 hole die. they seem to frost a little less right after i cool them down a little with a damp rag between casts. but after 1 or 2 casts, they are right back to frosting. richard lee says that the frosting actually helps to hold lube. so i do not worry about it much.

[AZ-Stew]

Even frosting (dull gray appearance) all over the boolit works with some alloys, such as straight wheel weights. Uneven frosting FREQUENTLY indicates areas of the boolit surface that are recessed from the remainder of the boolit surface. This condition is NOT good.

If you cast PURE lead for muzzle loaders, you WILL get shiny boolits, be they round balls or Minie/Maxi styles. Doesn't matter how hot you run your system, as long as it's hot enough to eliminate wrinkles. The result will be shiny projectiles.

If you cast from PURE linotype, you WILL get shiny boolits and excellent fillout due to the high level of Tin in the alloy. And you can do this at relatively low casting temperature. If you get frosting with linotype, you're running too hot. Slow your cycle rate or lower the pot temp. Intentionally frosting pure linotype boolits is a waste of heat, in my opinion.

A shiny boolit doesn't mean anything, good or bad, if the alloy isn't taken into account. Neither does maximum frost, created by excessive heat. Shiny boolits can be completely filled out and have VERY consistent weight. Very frosty or partially frosty boolits can be incompletely filled out and have insonsistent weight. Again, it depends on the alloy.

For those who cling to the misconception that those of us who prefer something less than a full crystalization of the alloy are only interested in cosmetics, I challenge you to cast pure lead or linotype and come up with good boolits that are full-frost. Shiny isn't a cosmetic value. It is solely related to casting temp with respect to the alloy used. I prefer my boolits to be as near "shiny" as possible. I get good results from them. Doesn't have ANYTHING to do with looks. I don't give a CRAP what the guy at the next bench thinks of the LOOKS of my handloads. It's simply an indication of proper casting temperature, depending on the alloy used. YMMV.

Regards,

Stew