Simple casting setup - Cheap feed for the Hawgleg

leverboy

leverboy

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First time casting today, and overall it worked out well. Just thought I'd throw a few pics up for those that are considering it.

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Here's the setup, it's pure vanity - torn out of the bathroom in a recent renovation:) Heat is provided by a 1000w element (a present from my wife's grandmother two years ago, now used for the first time), Betty Crocker no less! Cast iron frying pan for the dirty wheel weights, obligatory "holy" stainless steel spoon for stirring/skimming. Cupcake ingot tray. Then a smaller pot for the cleaner alloy, a Lee lead dipper, and Lee mold. Not shown is the ice cream pail full of snow for the arctic quench.

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Here's a pan full of weights just starting to smoke. I had the big door cracked and a fan sucking away from the pan. I had pre-sorted the weights so that I wasn't heating a bunch of iron needlessly.

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Here Betty's done her work and we have a melted pan of alloy, clips out (they go in the sink!) but not yet skimmed or fluxed. Speeking of Ms. Crocker, I don't advise the use of an electric element for this task. It did work, but I was barely able to get the alloy hot enough for my mold to work well. I must find something with a little more jam, or just "bite the bullet" and buy a melter:)

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Here's the clean pot heating, my mold ready to go. This is a Lee two bullet mold, making round nosed, tumble lube 158 gr. for my .357. I used the hammer handle to knock the sprue open and tap the bullets out.

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My first little batch. They came out looking really good, and here they are ready for the Fliechmann's Lubra-tastic tumble!

Over all, a great first experience. I did a second pan-sized batch which didn't work as well. The mold didn't want to fill out properly, and for awhile I thought I had maybe gotten some lube in the cavities; I had lubed the grooves and locator bars like the instructions say. Judging by the ingots, though, I'm starting to wonder if I got one of the dreaded Zinc weights in my mix, because no matter how hot I got the mix, the bullets kept coming out in overlapping layers, like when the mold is too cold. The ingot was quite porous, which I thought was odd. Here's a poor pick of the result, maybe somebody can confirm what exactly my screw-up was:)

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wow Its amazing to see u got the lead to melt on that hot plate, good improvise. I would say get yourself a wood handle or another wooden object to knock the sprue plate and mold, it will give a bit more life to it from not being hit by a hard hammer. Just a suggestion
 
Still casting with this same get-up, though I have upgraded to a not-so-flimsy "clean" pot. To clarify, I just use the handle of the hammer to tap open the sprue plate. I agree that it would be unwise to beat on it with an actual hammer :) These tumble-lube bullets are working quite well for me. I am shooting them as cast in a chaparral saa repro with little to no leading. The odd one drops small and those get melted again.
 
Lever,

You mentioned above that the cast boolets were sometimes overlapping and not filling out. It may be that your mould blocks are not closed completely when you pour the lead some of the time.

Before you pour, make sure that you can see no light between the two blocks of the mould or turn it over to make sure that the mould is completely closed. If it is not a little tap in the palm of your hand (with gloves on) usually gets the blocks completely closed and ready for you to pour.

Tapping the bottom of the mould blocks in the palm of my hand cut my rejects down to about 4-6 per 100 cast. Usually those are the first ones when the mould is not hot enough. I find this works with all my Lee moulds.

Adding some tin to the mix may help with the fill out or a bigger dipper for an even steady flow into the mould. I use my Lee dipper as a skimmer and pour with an rcbs dipper or deep gravy ladle.

Cactus
 
I use basicly the same set up as you. The muffin tin you are using is the cause of the crater marked ingots. I was using some old aluminum tins and no craters...my wife gave me the house ones (nonstick coated like yours) and I got craters. I eventually tossed the coated ones and stuck with the aluminum ones. I was using the hot plate to start but it took too long to melt for the initial smelting. I switched to propane for that but continue to use the hotplate for the casting stage. I hope this helps
 
Thanks, guys. I'm learning the little tricks as I go as well. I highly recommend castboolits.gunloads.com for anybody just starting out. Lots of info there and a huge knowledge base to answer any questions.
 
Teflon coated ingot mold eh?
From the pictures, I though it looked like the antimony was laying in the bottom and had not melted into the mix to form an ALLOY but more a CALOIDAL SUSPENSION. Just my take not having any experience with teflon coated molds.
Makes sense though that the hot lead would begin to gasify the teflon as the polymer reached its upper temperature threshold creating gas pockets or bubbles.
That pan in your pics has a lot of surface area to the element but also to the cool air. My bet is that this summer will give you better casting results.

Got some old insulation?
Try wrapping the sides of the pot with fiberglass insulation held on with some wire as a quick fix for your melting pot. That way the only place for heat to escape is the top of th pot. Not going to be practical for the pan however
 
My wheel weight melting system consisted of a tiger torch and an old lead ladle that my grandfather used in the forge. Living on a farm with a well equiped shop has it`s advantages.:)
 
I've been making fishing jigs for years with an electric pot with a handle.
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That's the newer version, mine has the element on the inside of the pot.
 
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