Russian style shot making, who has done it?

saskgunowner101 said:
I'm late to the game, but I was going to say lower as well. When I dripped with my poor man set up, I filled a 3 gallon bucket full of water, and laid thin boards (3/8 or 1/2 inch) wrapped in tinfoil across (with space between, obviously), so I could keep my container height consistent. For me, the cooler the lead, the less deformed it was. I believe the ramp is essential, but for apocalypse shot when the stores are closed, it works. Again with the lead temp, cooler lead seemed to work best, making a nice tink tink tink sound. Hard to explain really. The cooler lead seems hesitant to drop through the holes sometimes, so a tap can get it or keep it going.
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I have heard people mention temp before. In the process of scavanginng bits and pieces to build a drip tank and a pid.

This is all preliminary entertainment/experimenting
 
It has been 10 years or more since I researched this - many parts here - just never got off me arse to build it. Probably need to completely forget the "drop tower" thinking - I believe that shot is fully solid by falling through the air - with the dribbler idea, the shot is likely still molten as is enters the coolant - spinning rapidly - what maintains the "round" shape - then the cooling media has to pull heat from the shot at an appropriate rate - not too fast or too slowly - else get "popcorn", "dimples" or "tails". I am sure I read that someone was successful with just water - but very hot water - like 95 C or so - cooler water would pull heat too fast. I think that "sitsinhedges" guy was using a specific liquid fabric softener. Other posters mentioned a specific automotive anti-freeze. Besides the cooling rate properties, wanted to be able to rinse off the cooling media when shot was done - so any thing oil-based was not desirable - too hard to get rid of residue. Then comes screening and graphiting, if you are fussy. Your coolant temperature is going to rise - you are dribbling in pounds of 700 F molten lead and cooling it to 70 F or so - heat ends up in the coolant - why some guys ended up with a circulating pump into a fan-cooled radiator to hold a coolant temperature, that seemed to be important.
 
yomomma said:
This weekends trials and tribulations.

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I checked out a few of his videos. Here's one from a month ago, which seems to be the Russian version of what I did, with more holes, magical liquid, and more success.:d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUkBG_YYcyA

One tip I poached from somewhere. If your shot has little tails, warm a small pan up a bit (not hot enough to melt lead, but quite warm) and while rolling your shot around in the pan, tease the shot with flame from a torch in little intermitent waves, constantly rolling/swirling the shot. If you do it right, the shot stays intact and loses some of the tail.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
I checked out a few of his videos. Here's one from a month ago, which seems to be the Russian version of what I did, with more holes, magical liquid, and more success.:d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUkBG_YYcyA

One tip I poached from somewhere. If your shot has little tails, warm a small pan up a bit (not hot enough to melt lead, but quite warm) and while rolling your shot around in the pan, tease the shot with flame from a torch in little intermitent waves, constantly rolling/swirling the shot. If you do it right, the shot stays intact and loses some of the tail.
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Magic liquid is what is left over from processing sugar beets, some thing close to molasses
 
I read on Internet that it has been done successfully with very hot water, which will have S.G. about 1.0, whereas molasses is S.G. about 1.4 - so maybe S.G. not as critical, except as it relates to ability of the fluid to withdraw heat at appropriate rate from the molten lead - not too quickly; not too slowly - so do not end up with popcorn, etc. Meaning the actual temperature of the solution is important - maybe becomes less critical with denser fluids?? Almost a "try things, until something works" sort of situation - try to explain why it works, after finding some thing or things that do work?? Internet / U-tube has examples using hot water, fabric softener, automotive antifreeze, etc. that "worked" ... Russian guy in link above seemed to show his product in jar near beginning - my impression was that was "largish" - like #2 or BB size - definitely not small like #8 shot - so that might alter what cooling fluid "works", as well.
 
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Is it because molasses and it's ingredients are magic, or would any solution close to that SG work? That's what I'm wondering. Product SG would be easier to control than product temperature all things equal. So, if I have water, and dump a bunch of sugar in, creating a higher SG (brix?) would it be close enough? That's more what I'm getting at.
 
Drive around the farm country and find a silo that is not in use any more and rent it from the farmer. Then rent a Man Lift to get you to the top as you probably can't trust those ladder rungs up the outside. Put a big plastic kids swimming pool on the bottom and add water. Go up on the Man Lift wearing your safety harness and lead vapor respirator and pour your molten lead into a salmon can with the appropriate size holes in it over the center of the silo. You should put Hummason's out of business in no time.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
Is it because molasses and it's ingredients are magic, or would any solution close to that SG work? That's what I'm wondering. Product SG would be easier to control than product temperature all things equal. So, if I have water, and dump a bunch of sugar in, creating a higher SG (brix?) would it be close enough? That's more what I'm getting at.
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I think S.G. is definitely one of the variables. I have come across everything from coolant, fabric softener, motor oil, diesel/water mix etc. And yes, some have success with just plain water.

I actually added glycerin to my fabric softener to increase the S.G.

Experimenting continues and hopefully answers will become evident.

Also type of lead seems to make a big difference, COWW does not seem to work really well.
 
billbmcleod said:
Drive around the farm country and find a silo that is not in use any more and rent it from the farmer. Then rent a Man Lift to get you to the top as you probably can't trust those ladder rungs up the outside. Put a big plastic kids swimming pool on the bottom and add water. Go up on the Man Lift wearing your safety harness and lead vapor respirator and pour your molten lead into a salmon can with the appropriate size holes in it over the center of the silo. You should put Hummason's out of business in no time.
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lead vapor is not an issue at the temperatures required to make shot
 
yomomma said:
So doubled the hight, went from about 1.5" to 3" , no change.

Here is a picture which shows my first attempt on the left and second on the right.
Left was cold water, I figure about 5-10°c
Right is fabric softener around 16-18°C

ixI5lMu.jpg
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I wonder if the temperature of the lead is causing this. Too hot and it might not freeze right away causing it to splash like the popcorn stuff and if its too cold it makes the tear drops as it streches out as it falls if its just right the lead should want to stay pretty round. Like when solder starts dripping and you find all the little beads that are very round.
 
yomomma said:
I think S.G. is definitely one of the variables. I have come across everything from coolant, fabric softener, motor oil, diesel/water mix etc. And yes, some have success with just plain water.

I actually added glycerin to my fabric softener to increase the S.G.

Experimenting continues and hopefully answers will become evident.

Also type of lead seems to make a big difference, COWW does not seem to work really well.
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I'm not sure if you've come across this chart yet, but it shows the properties of different chemicals and fluids, and mention of viscosity and ssu measurement. I'm thinking that's some part of the voodoo right there.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/specific_gravity_viscosity_liquids.html
 
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