[msredneck]

Melted, Fluxed and Fluxed and Fluxed and Poured up about 75 lbs wheel weights after lunch today.







For some reason today I had a real hard time fluxing...
I fluxed for over an hour and burned up several wooden spoons. Instead of a black skim as I was used to...I had a golden color that continually came to the surface. The liquid lead would turn skinny as long as I stirred it.

I bet I fluxed it 20 times



Look how golden it was...I had a metal slotted spatula I was stirring with...I do not know why it was a golden skim today...at one time It was golden and purple...maybe the LSU curse



Its suppose to be silver and would turn bright and shiny as long as I stirred it with the wooden spoon...30 sec after I stopped it would turn golden.

I finally gave up after an hr and poured em up anyway..Maybe it was all the oak pollen? Another interesting thing was the last time I used bees wax it just smoked a lot...Today it actually caught the pot on fire a few seconds

The skimmings:



and the finished product...guess I will need to flux some more once in the melting pot

 

[captain-03]

Yea -- in looking at your picture, you melted down those pure lead/or who knows what they are made of stick-on weights along with your clip on weights .... next time keep them separate!! Those stick-ons are usually pure lead or close to it or zinc ... For boolits, the clip-ons are your best bet .... most people stay away form the stick-ons .....

 

[msredneck]

so the stick on's made a golden color?...OK....good to know..I'll pitch em next time...I just tossed the whole load of WW in the pot...Only found one zinc in the mix that did not want to melt and fished it out. That metal spatula in the 2nd to last pic is what I fished the crud out with...my slotted spoon went AWOL on me...anyway...I burned up 2 wood spoons "fluxing" along with a little bees wax...

I probably should have bitten the bullet and fluxed some more but it just seemed I wasn't getting anywhere...very little black ash and boo koo thin golden skim today...wished I'd taken a pic when I had it purple and gold

Its good to know that it wasn't the Easter Bunny messing with me

:lol3:

 

[captain-03]

Purple and gold usually denotes high volume of pure lead .... Have you ever seen a plummer melting lead in their pots ... purple/gold color. Another indicator may be high heat ..

Don't toss the sick-on - just don't melt them with your other stuff .. I have uses for them -- fishing weights, etc ...

 

[Guest]

msredneck, the seventh picture down from the top of your post shows me that you have a very good film of T-I-N on top of the melt. Never, never, never skim this off. Shiny silver is good when you're stiring the pot but a silver-gold-honey color indicates TIN. The picture looks identical to my melts right after I've added certified pure tin. As Capt indicated a purple (deep purple) indicates a very hot melt, however, tin will show some tell-tale signs of light purple.

 

[sidroski]

Good post 'Neck.
Sgm, do you stir the tin back in before you pour so have a consitant batch?
Lane, do you use a ladle to fill your molds?
thanks

 

[Guest]

I keep stiring it back in while I cast the lead into ingots.

 

[msredneck]

Yep I confess...I probably had the heat up a bit..it gets a little hectic going from fluxing to stirring to pouring in the mould at times and I probably had it up too high...the wind was picking up also and I did not want my pot to go out

Since this is only my 2nd time at a WW melt I'm not totally sure what I was supposed to be seeing....it just wasn't quite like last time with the black ash...this time was more grayish crud and then that golden skim

So that Golden skim is tin?...It was interesting...as soon as I'd stick the wooden spoon in there to stir it would go skinny silver on me....so maybe I have a good melt after all

That's what I love about "cooking"...every batch is diff....kinda reminds me of my GUMBO!

 

[SubGunFan]

Neck, from what I have seen..... you have some GOOD cornbread ingots there. From my past experience.... when you melt zinc in the mix your get a "fluffy" slag with lots of blues colors.

To me..... Bottom line is...... Melted lead that pours well (fills the cavities) is GOOD lead. A lead hardness tester (which I really need to buy - after all these years of casting) will tell you how much Tin you have (above plain WWs). Heck, people in the past have cast & sold bullets cast with pure Zinc (I have some...).

Neck, if your smelted lead is not filling the mold cavities like you think it should, add some tin (50/50 or 60/40 bar solder) to your casting mix. Start with 0.5# of 50/50 to 20# of cast mix.

Sidebar.... Yesterday I received my 2 new LEE 6-C molds for casting 175gr TC 40cal bullets. Both molds pass my "eye ball inspection", so hopefully soon..... we will see how they cast bullets.

.

 

[msredneck]

Pour another round!

Thx Sub, Man I wish I could afford some 50/50 solder...the stuff is outrageous...wish I knew someone who owned a radiator shop..wanna sell me a few lbs out of your stash?

Some on evilbay are trying to get freakin $25 a lb for the stuff



well I had to pour a few in my new cheap a$$ Lee moulds I got for $13 each.

One a 124 grain 9mm .356 and a 158 Gr .358 (38 special). The 9mm poured great. I had a couple with wrinkles...but I was getting pretty good bullets after about 3 pours on a virgin double cavity mould.

Used 3 cornbread that I melted last weekend that were listed above. Word was they might be lead heavy so for this batch I used 3 of my Wheel weight cornbread sticks and 1 Linotype...so only 4 lbs in my melting pot. I got enough to shoot a practice session...about 150 bullets I guess...was having a little trouble with the melt getting too hot towards the end of the pot with the 38's...a few frosted...

The 9mm's are Tumblelubes...suppose to be good to use through the cheap Lee sizer I have using Allox.





and the 158 gr 38's






Yeah I know the pics could be better

 

[SubGunFan]

Neck, those are interesting looking 38cal bullets. Looks like they are bevel-based bullets. What cavity mold do you have for them?

Yes, some of the 9mm bullets in pic #1 do have "bad" wrinkles. The mold is too cold. Might be some of the first bullets poured.......

Neck, you GOT TO move up to a sizer/luber and stop that LEE Alox crap..........

.

 

[captain-03]

That is an interesting looking 38 boolit!!

 

[msredneck]

Yeah I like my cheap Lee moulds...Weighed both the 9mm and the 38's and they are $.

Both of them released bullets as soon as I opened em...bet I only tapped em a couple times

9mm is a .356 124 Gr TL356-124-2R

38 is a .358 158 Gr 358-158-RF

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1270990715.402=/html/catalog/bullmol2.html

I really like the 38 and the 9mm Tumblelubers are growing on me...gotta see how they fly

Probably gonna stick with the cheap Lee sizer...its just too easy...I sized 150 bullets in 10 min...I try to always size em the day I pour em

Gotta get some time to load em shoot em...letting them "cure" for a week or so before I do anything else

 

[Guest]

Neck, with the tumble lubed bullets, you're getting the lube in the bore just as soon as the bullet jumps into the rifling. With lubrisized bullets, the bullets has to travel around 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch before the lube grove reaches the rifling in the bore. You're riding on lead for the first part of the trip down the bore. Just a thought.

 

[Hammer]

letting them "cure" for a week or so before I do anything else

Hey, Neck. Your not making concrete here. After an hour or less, they are cooled to room temp. at the core, assuming you are not water dropping. If you are, then they are cool at the core in a few seconds. Not much more "curing" that they can do at this point.

 

[captain-03]

letting them "cure" for a week or so before I do anything else

Hey, Neck. Your not making concrete here. After an hour or less, they are cooled to room temp. at the core, assuming you are not water dropping. If you are, then they are cool at the core in a few seconds. Not much more "curing" that they can do at this point.

Actually, boolits do "cure" - harden over time ... most say a week to ten days ... After long term storage, they tend to soften up a bit ...

 

[Hammer]

Actually, boolits do "cure" - harden over time ... most say a week to ten days ... After long term storage, they tend to soften up a bit ...

How?

 

[msredneck]

I'm water dropping mine....but from what little I know...they do "cure" over about a weeks time....They do get harder.

I'm loading at such low velocity on my handgun loads that I don't worry much about leading....rifle bullets are another matter...aint got to them yet.

Made another 250 of them 38's this afternoon...my new addiction!

 

[captain-03]

How?

Have read it in several places to include the old Lyman Casting methods book -- all them little atoms get really hot and start bouncing all around ... takes them some time to ALL settle down .... The guys on Cast Boolits talk about it often ... Some even put them in the freezer .... I really do not think that low velocity pistol boolits would make much of a difference; however, some of them cast bench rest, long range cast guys; swears by it!!