deformed cast bullets

nemesisenforcer

Some of the 357 caliber bullets I cast are coming out mildly deformed. I've cleaned the mold down to bare metal to remove any oil in the cavities but some are still coming out with divets missing, not completely defined bands, etc.

It's a Lee 6 cavity 158 grain SWC mold.

The other Lee mold I have (a 45 230 grain ball) seems to work near perfectly, but the 357 is erratic with producing good bullets.

What am I missing?

Sometimes my pot drips rapidly rather than pours a steady stream. Could this be the culprit?

charliemeyer007

Wrinkles and voids are a sign of a cold mold, too slow of a pour rate, plugged air vents, oil & wax in the mold, too cold of an alloy. When using a bottom drop pot flux and stir often. Stir the flux in and sometimes you need to empty the pot to flux and scrape out the crud. Do not damage the valve surfaces! Some pots have a screw setting to adjust flow rate. Some molds like pot pressure to fill them, sprue plate against the valve.

bpost

Preheat the mold a bit with a propane torch, make sure you are letting the molten metal flow directly into the sprue hole.

If your melt is too low a temp you will have that issue.

As a last resort is heat does not cure the fill out add a bit of tin to the melt, tin helps with bullet fill-out.

Mobuck

I'm not an expert caster but the slower fill rate will allow the bullet metal to cool slightly and cause voids/blemishes.
Possible answers are speed up casting rate, raise pot temp. or provide outside heat source for mold.

jonk

If the nozzle just drips, try sticking a nail in there (held with pliers of course) and poking around... will clear out the gunk and BOY will the lead come out.

Rocky Raab

It isn't uncommon for the first dozen or so bullets to come out misshapen. Just save those in your sprue box to add back to the pot later. If the mould is oily, it might take 50 or more cycles to get all the oil burned out. Again, just save those "mini ingots" for later.

I keep a stubby screwdriver handy to give the pot plug a twist when my Lee bottom pour starts dripping. A quick back and forth usually cures it. If not, that nail trick does. Put your ingot mould or an aluminum tray under the spout when you do either of these remedies, to catch the dripping lead.

B17-P51

If you are using the same stuff to cast the bullets as the balls, I agree with bpost last statement.

dcs shooters

I always set the mould on the lead pot when it's warming up. That heats the mould up enough to get good bullets from the go [;)]

nemesisenforcer

Thanks much. Figured out pretty much the same things today.

Like I said, the pot (a Lee bottom pour 10 lb.) sometimes drips (rapidly) rather than pours a steady stream. The Lee manual says that moving the rod/plug around should fix the problem, but it's not fixing it consistently and the dripping problem keeps rearing its head. in fact, it seems to be dripping more often than streaming or pouring now.

Any fixes?

nemesisenforcer

quote:Originally posted by jonk
If the nozzle just drips, try sticking a nail in there (held with pliers of course) and poking around... will clear out the gunk and BOY will the lead come out.


I'll try that.

Then, I'll send you the medical bills.[:p]

RCrosby

If the problem is the pot and not technique or alloy, I'd contact LEE.
Haven't spoke with them recently but they used to be real good about customer service.

victorj19

When the flow slows up on my lee pot I use an ice pick from the top. I have 2 theories why the thing plugs up. The inside of the pot rusts some and specks of rust come loose in the lead and eventually makes it to the spout. Second, the lead isn't really clean and a speck of debris plugs it up.

I now leave lead in the pot when I'm done to minimize the rust and flux the lead at least 3 times..

nemesisenforcer

quote:Originally posted by victorj19
When the flow slows up on my lee pot I use an ice pick from the top. I have 2 theories why the thing plugs up. The inside of the pot rusts some and specks of rust come loose in the lead and eventually makes it to the spout. Second, the lead isn't really clean and a speck of debris plugs it up.

I now leave lead in the pot when I'm done to minimize the rust and flux the lead at least 3 times..


I leave an inch or two of lead in the pot after every session just like they recommend.

I think it's some debris in the spout. Hopefully I'll get to clean it out tomorrow and report back.

nemesisenforcer

quote:Originally posted by jonk
If the nozzle just drips, try sticking a nail in there (held with pliers of course) and poking around... will clear out the gunk and BOY will the lead come out.


Boy, you weren't kidding. It's flowing better and faster now than it did the first time I tried it.

I'm casting 6 bullets at a time in half the time now.

Thanks for the advice.[:D][:)][:p][8D]