My first 224 cast boolits

[OnceFired]

Here they are in all their glory. I haven't gone through them yet to see how well they came out but I think I'm in real good shape.


For whatever reason the video on Flickr is terrible. It doesn't even show a PLAY button on there!

I also got a few photos for a bit more clarity of the process. The lighting in the shop is good but not great.


Casting setup


A view of the furnace as I neared the end


Filling the mold with liquid lead
Up until yesterday, I had never experienced any real volume of dripping from the furnace. From the art deco lead candles under the furnace you can see I have it now. I haven't figured out yet when it drips vs when it doesn't so I'll have to keep an eye on it and tighten it up when it happens.


Mold sprue sheared off about to drop the boolits


Water dropping the boolits by OnceFiredLakeCityBrass, on Flickr



224 lead boolits by OnceFiredLakeCityBrass, on Flickr

I think I ended up with about 1,000 boolits. I plan on FreeChex III + PC from Harbor Freight for these.

[MT Gianni]

If you put an ingot mold under the spout you will contain most of your drip. I see some definite culls in there, try to work with a warmer mold to reduce any lines and flaws, especially laterally between the driving bands. .

[OnceFired]

Yeah I found a lot more wrinkles than I first perceived. Gotta get that mold hotter. But I also got a lot of dis-colored boolits and a smattering of uneven bases. I will be re-smelting a bunch for sure.

[telebasher]

You have to be ruthless in culling 22's. Any visual flaws get recast. Try shooting a group with your culls then a group with your best, then you'll see. Keep good notes so you won't repeat mistakes and have fun!! FWIW, I've tried weighing and segregating into groups but I couldn't tell that it helped or hurt. YMMV.

[toallmy]

I save those little aluminum pie pans that gas station pies come in they are about 2by 4 inches and 1 deep fit nicely under the drip hole . As I cast I dump the art work back in the pot . It must be hard to see a smiley face on those tiny little bullets .

[trixter]

Yup, you need more heat in the mold, use a little faster cadence, might even run the pot up in temp a little. Keep working at it, you will be glad you did.

[dudel]

Something is going on if you have to beat a mold that hard! I was cringing. FWIW, since you have the gloves on, it's really pretty easy to use you hand to open the sprue plate. Less chance of striking the mold blocks as well. At least you weren't beating on the mold blocks. I agree with the others. More heat and ruthless culling.

[leadman]

I cast several different styles of 22 boolits and have found to make my time worthwhile I use straight linotype. It really reduces the number of culls.
I can see what looks like lead on the top of the mold. Do you use any 2 cycle oil to help prevent this? A mold casting 22 boolits does need to be run hot at a fairly fast cadence.
There is a screwdriver slot in the top of the valve that you can turn to help clear the nozzle and prevent or slow the drips. Eventually you will probably have to drain your pot and clean it out to keep the crud out of the nozzle.

[quack1]

If you don't have any lino, adding 1-2% of tin to coww helps a lot with fill-out. I also agree with other posters, you need a little more heat and/or faster cadence.

[popper]

Top of mould should be ~ 1/2" from the spout.

[OnceFired]

All good feedback. I have prepped the mold with a bit of paraffin wax on the surfaces and around sprue holes but not the cavities nor inside the holes. Did not smoke the mold. I did heat it by having it on the pot while melting and by sticking corners in initially. Perhaps I speed up and occasionally reheat as well.

I had not thought of bringing mold rest up a bit - that could reduce heat loss some too. I will put an ingot mold down there to catch drips if I can't close it off a bit with the screw first.

Yeah, I was not happy rapping on the sprue cutter like that either. My 9mm 6-cav didn't do that. Probably having the lead cool off too much in a too cool mold causing many of these issues including a smear of lead on the top of the block.

More to come. I love casting tho - I find it therapeutic. What I need is a bar stool so I can sit while casting at the bench.

[454PB]

It's very hard to keep a .22 caliber, two cavity mould hot enough. A hot plate or propane torch is your friend.

[Dancing Bear]

Little bullets seem to require tighter mold and alloy temps. My first batch with the Bator 6 cavity mold had a lot of culls. I did get better results as I went along. But hey you're casting! And yes you should cut the sprues off immediately upon cooling. Don't wait.

[Handloader109]

I've a Bator and yes if you are quick, you can open sprue with your hands quite easily. Not so much if you wait for long. My 6cavity NOE (38gr) is hard to open by hand, but I don't have to rap hard on sprue plate. I have to really work fast and hard with these little gems.

[Leadmelter]

I just crank up the heat a bit and go fast and cull later.
You can always melt the bad.
Leadmelter
MI

[MarkP]

On my (3) cavity NOE 225107 (37 gr FN) I pour a larger than normal sprue puddle to help maintain heat. I have a thermo couple attached to my mold depending on outside temperature and amount of wind it can be difficult to maintain a temp above 300 F. The (3) cav NOE's are fairly large compared to the newer style of Lee (2) cavity molds.

[OnceFired]

Heat & speed were definitely a big boost. I cranked the pot up to max and re-ran most of what I had done yesterday. BIG difference.

For starters, I got MUCH shinier boolits. They also seems FAR better formed overall. I didn't water drop these so I wouldn't have to dry them out. I've got a fan on them now cooling them off.

It was also WAY easier to pop the sprues. One gentle tap and kablooie instead of wailing on it.

@MarkP - I was adding a bit of sprue puddle as well, as that seemed to keep the heat up. Dipping the mold more often also seemed to help, especially after I had just re-added the sprue lead and the mold had cooled off for just maybe 30 seconds.

@Dusty (thx for the PM) - I got much better results on the base this time around. Not perfect to be sure but much better. I used more paraffin wax - probably 3-4 times over 1,000 boolits.

I fixed the dripping pot with the screw. That worked nicely - no more drips.

@popper I raised the mold shelf as well. I'm tall and so that was a pain, but it seemed to help on the heat issue too.

On the last paraffin wax pass, I accidentally dribbled a tiny bit of wax over the cavity hole on the sprue plate toward the front of the mold - farthest from the handle. That cavity had been sticking bullets the WHOLE time even on this new set. Probably 9 of 10 times or more. It was frankly a pain in the rear. The bullets always seemed to dislodge from the nose end of the mold first, meaning where it was sticking was either mid-way up or perhaps at the base at the very surface of the mold. Once I had that tiny little oops on the wax, tada no sticking for that cavity any more.

Here are photos.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/FATvz9]
You can tell the color difference right away. No blotchy gray like Round 1 on the right - nice bright silvery metal from Round 2 is on the left.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/EHJXDA]
And a closeup

[leadman]

I would ditch the wax and use 2 cycle oil. It also appears you may have some debris in your pot. You aren't smelting in your pot, are you??
If you see debris in your boolits I would try fluxing 3 or 4 times to try to remove it. Sometimes I have to use different products to get the lead clean. Try wax based boolit lube followed by paraffin wax. If that does not clean it get some Marvelux or the stuff Midway sells and try that. Hard to tell in the photos but is part of the base not filled out?
You are getting there but 22 boolits have to perfect to get accuracy out of them.

[runfiverun]

that's about 100% improvement X4.
and it all come about just by paying attention.
a 2 cavity aluminum mold in 22 cal is a challenging one for sure and your doing very well with it.
keep going and trying things you'll develop a routine for this mold that will help you with other molds in the future.

[dudel]

Looks like you're making good progress. The Bators are a bugger to cast.