Horrible Freight strikes again - you guys were right; and other musings

[Jim Timber]

Just got around to firing up my toaster oven and coating the unmodified 490gr boolits before I rework the mould (need to make sure these'll fly right in original form before changing things).

Shake-n-bake with the red HF powder revealed it's grainy, like sand. Coverage was terrible, but rather than trying for more powder in the bowl and shaking again, I'm sending them through the curing process and will give them a second coat when they're a little warm and try again.

A buddy also gave me a bunch of his Lee moulds last night and probably 40# of lead in exchange for providing him some boolits from time to time. He's mainly only interested in the 50 cal (muzzle loader), so I cranked out a box of those for him since I wanted to empty the pot from the last run (I just let it harden in the casting pot).

What do you guys do to clean the bowl on your casting pots? I had some gunk around the plunger and had to jack my heat up to get it to flow out. I was running right at 700F and other than the Lee mould getting too hot and having the boolits dent when dropped on each other (wasn't water quenching them), it was working great (worked awesome on my Lyman mould of similar volume).

[twcrowe12]

I haven't cleaned my pot in quite a while. When I do I get the pot as empty as I can with the spout then I pour whatever is left out into an ingot mold or whatever is on hand. Let the pot cool then remove the plunger and clean it off. I usually just chuck it in a drill and spin the end in emery cloth or something similar until it's clean.

If the spout is clogged you can use a dental pick to get up into the spout and clean it out. You can do this cold or hot, I like to do it hot with lead in the pot because the lead with flush out whatever debris you knock loose, just be careful to wear thick gloves and don't leave your fingers or hand anywhere under the spout.

You can help keep the pot from getting clogged or dirty by scraping the sides of the pot with a ladle or spoon after you add more lead and never drain the pot all the way when casting, always leave a little in the bottom above the pour spout to prevent gunk from being sucked down the spout.

[Jim Timber]

I've made it a point to keep the smut cleared off the top of the puddle. I'm not obsessive about it, but I've been adding in my sprues and rejects while I go, and they seem to renew the layer after a while.

I let the full pot harden off the time before last because it doesn't seem to make all that much difference to me in plug it in and come back when it's melted vs add some ingots and work up to a useful load. When factoring in pulling off the ingots vs letting the lead harden off, it's faster to just leave it full.

When I got below half full, it seemed like my pours weren't going as well (been doing 500gr muzzy for a buddy and my 490gr .459's), so I'm going to keep it on the more full than not side of things for these.

The only clog I had was from running a little too cold the first time I used it. My setup came with a temp probe, but I started casting before letting it get up to 700 because I didn't know any differently. My second run at it was hotter because the muzzy mould wouldn't cast well where my Lyman mould did, and the outcome was better yet. So I'll be running hotter next batch on the 490's and see how that works out. I've also got a 330gr Lyman coming that'll make my general use ammo for the .458S's.

I do get a bit of dribble, so I'll do as you say and polish off the plunger while it's drained out. Thanks for the tip.

[bangbangping]

I've made it a point to keep the smut cleared off the top of the puddle. I'm not obsessive about it, but I've been adding in my sprues and rejects while I go, and they seem to renew the layer after a while.

Once it's up to temp, I dump maybe a quarter cup of sawdust on top, stir a bit, then leave it on top to help prevent further oxidation. Seems to work pretty well.

Of course, smelt elsewhere and add only clean lead to your pot.

[Jim Timber]

I've got some flux that came with my gear I've been using. From how well it works (doesn't take much), I think I'm going to be good for a while.

I haven't cooked down any of the raw material I have, except I did add a lead pipe to the mix after my last batch and then cast that whole pot into ingots. I've been using the muffin pucks the guy I bought the stuff from made, and I've got some pop can size slugs from my buddy that's likely wheel weights.

Melting the pipe down was kinda trippy. I'm not used to brass floating.

[plant.one]

Melting the pipe down was kinda trippy. I'm not used to brass floating.

kinda like melting WW's down.

the steel rim clips float up too, its a trip the first time you see it

whats even cooler is all that molten lead just coming off everything as you skim too, it just doesnt stick!

[Jim Timber]

I need to have my kid help melt some down so he can at least know how this stuff works. My dad was always adamant about my knowing how all his tools worked. He didn't force me to do too much with them after my sis and I kind of revolted as mini-slaves, but he was always intent on making sure I had the crash course should something happen to him. I think he mainly just wanted to be certain I knew the value of his stuff so we didn't sell it off for pennies when he had a heart attack. He never did have one, but it was close a few times.

I've got a big life insurance policy. They can burn my stuff when I croak for all I care. It's not my problem after that.

[Dolomite_Supafly]

I could never get HF powder to work worth a damn.

[Jim Timber]

My first batch was so bad, it might not make it into ammo. We'll see what I think when I cull the sized ones tonight.

No pics, I'd lose my self respect.

[Dolomite_Supafly]

As long as the coating is uniform, even though it might be blotchy, it will perform good. Great thing about using powder coating is as long as you got most of it covered it will still work great. But with that being said, use something other than HF powder. Some are even rumored to be abrasive and slowly erode the rifling.

I would STRONGLY suggest buying some quality powder coating powder, the ease of use is night and day. You can buy powder from Powder Buy The Pound by the ounce. An ounce will easily do hundreds of bullets.

I use this and it works perfectly, https://www.powderbuythepound.com/ral_6 ... green.html. It does not build up at all. You can keep adding more and more powder and the excess just doesn't stick. Let it run in a tumbler with the bullet for like 2 minutes, until they are coated, then pour into a basket and bake like a loaf. I do not stand them up, I bake them as they fall. I bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes in a cheap $20 toaster oven. I generally bake 3-5 pounds lots but I have also baked 15+ pounds the same way. I add a bit more time to get the ones in the middle.

You may not want to give up on the HF powder but trust me when I say it will be cheaper to use a quality powder. I have thrown away a lot of bullets trying to get cheap powders to work. I promise you that you will slap your forehead once you try a good quality powder.