Some tips for new Casters & Powder coaters.

[cwlongshot]

I posted up a Video out lining a few things I had been asked in the comments of my videos. So thought some might find interesting.

https://youtu.be/U0lgtuLsBSE

[Land_Owner]

Questions with which I am left [and some with answers] include:

What alloy?  [pure lead with "rimfire" lead and lead with a "couple pounds" of super "hard lead"]
What's "hard" lead?
How "soft"?  [7-8 BHN for HP's and 8-10 BHN for WC's] comes later in the video
What's the use/difference in "narrow driving band" vs. wide(er) and "round bottom" vs. flat mold lines?
I cannot "see" how thin the PC is, though with what little experience I have I understand.  There is no clear comparator.

To the Newbie - Just Do It as a means of gaining experience.  All "mistakes", irregularities, dings, wrinkles, deformities, abborations, etc., can be put back in the pot and poured again!

Viewers and purchasers are "going to complain" about "dings".  LET EM.  Screw em.  They know NOTHING.


Glen Fryxell's From Ingot to Target

Chapter 2 - Casting 101, is an EXCELLENT guide to the basics
Chapter 13 - Hollow Points, may lead you to the Mfg. of your HP mold...

I am hyper-critical about bottom pour pots and wrinkled boolits (rotational instability), and reject and recast mine thinking spru plate, as a heat sink, is cooling the melt prior to mold line fill out.  I found this in the Fryxell book, Chapter 8 - Idle Musings of a Greybeard Bullet Caster as "Heating the Sprue Plate".

[cwlongshot]

Morning Richard!!

[cwlongshot]

Ok (this forum is quite different apologies...

OK, let me see if I can explain a bit more.

SUPER HARD is a alloy roto metals sells for casters to be able to harden up softer alloys. This is accomplished to different degrees based upon how much the caster chooses to add. I find it best to do this with use of a scale.

My "Rimfire lead" is just that lead from a rimfire only range salvaged as scrap. I believe I mentioned or I have many times in other videos I have never sent it out for testing but generally the last few batches I have gotten ran a max of 10 BHN.

Hard lead by definition is anything above soft. Thats the caveat commercial casters have expounded upon for decades. Whats Hard Lead?   For me "hard lead would be 15 - 18 BHN. Soft would be 8-10. Dead soft is pure and past 18 I would say it was Lino or Mono or Stereo or super hard. All carry there specfic hardnesses past 18BHN.

Narrow driving banded bullets are implemented by designers to try and create a better bullet. I prefer a beefier band personally. It engraves to stabilize bullet and better "grip" is achieved with a wider band.

Round vs square grease grooves are about the same deal. Someones change to attempt an improved bullet. Mostly meaning less to a Powder coater as we do not traditionally lube. But if lubing square tend to hold lube on bullet better.

I coat my bullets both thinly and thick. Depending upon my needs for that bullet. A GC bullet for example needs thinner or would need be gc applied BEFORE coating. Some bore rider designed bullets must be coated thin if you expect them to work ad designed.

Hope this helps more than confuses.

CW

[billy_56081]

I was so lucky as to have a friend give me about 40 lbs of linotype. I think that will last me a long time.

[Land_Owner]

Mid-morning to you cw. 

Videography by GoPro (or other camera) is not one of the hobbies to which I have attended, though Mentoring in reloading, casting, shooting, hunting, and preparing Food Plots for Wildlife are VERY HIGH on my list of objectives.

This is NOT ABOUT YOUR VIDEO cw, which I like (and I can go into its superlatives later)...
...even a POOR video is better than NO VIDEO for a subject needed to guide me into the abyss in which I have no experience. 

I will view a lot of video before attempting some of the more difficult aspects of Mechanical-Life (lawn mower(s), auto repair, microwave disassembly, "safety bolt" removal, handgun and rifle takedown and repair, trigger jobs, shim installs, replacement springs, etc.).  YouTube is a game changer.  The Internet, for that matter, is a game changer.

Currently, I am mentoring a local friend and "graybeard" in FISHING.  My boat, my gear, my mantra:
I Guide.  We don't catch fish.  I don't get paid. 
I Guide.  We catch A LOT of fish.  I STILL don't get paid!

I make the wet and dry flies we use in fresh water.  They don't have to be "beautiful" (I think they are), but they do have to attract fish, which means that I have to FIND some fish (in fresh water).  We went out Wednesday, in salt water, to a spot recommended to me by my youngest son, and caught a "boatload" of fish.  We had a ball.  Catch & release only - so far.

We're all learning, every day.  The books in the library in which I have little to no knowledge stretches on shelves in front of me to INFINITY.  I'll take every opportunity to learn and this Old School Dog is still learning new tricks thanks to videos like yours...not yours...but videos like yours.

jk...jk  You know I'm teasing.  I like your video.  Good job.  I see comparators in it to my own handy work.  I WANT my boolit bases to be that crisp and sharp.  I WANT my spru cutoff to be clean with no divots.  I WANT a 10-cavity 357 Mag WC mold!!!!  I WANT my casting place to one day be as "tidy" as is yours.  You may not think that of yours, but compared to mine, and I ain't gonna show it, yours is PALACIAL and CLEAR.  I WANT to spend some additional time with PC colors that I bought from Smokes. 

I am estopped a little in that right before I got the PC-itch, I made one (1) gallon of 6-6-6 lube out of components on hand for two (2) years, along with a handmade, 4-station, wax/lube casting mold of PVC and aluminum rod that'll fit my LAM II lube-sizer.  I made four (4) molds of melted lube, put them in the freezer to solidify, and now they're gone!  I cannot find them anywhere!!!

For another unknown reason, I'm closer than ever to trying pan lube on SOME of the thousands of recently cast 223 Bator and 22-55-SP boolits I made.  IDK why.  It is just an itch to scratch.  Some have already gotten PC'd in my first three batches of that "new wrinkle" in cast boolit production.

BOTTOM LINE
I make all of this "stuff" and the sad part is - I am NOT SHOOTING AT ALL.

[Land_Owner]

I don't think so Dee.  I have at least one (1) tire store with forty five (45) 5-gal. buckets of wheel weights awaiting a fellow that pay $95 PER BUCKET for them.  I am NOT competing at that price though they will allow me to pick up wheel weights off the ground when I am there getting air or tires.  One of the tire guy shoots, casts, and hunts near me.  We compare notes while he works.

The point being, lead wheel weights are STILL being distributed and sold to tire stores, who are still putting them on old wheels with new tires, and from old wheels lead wheel weights are STILL being removed.  Some stores, "big box" and National stores, are sending them as "HAZWASTE" to recyclers and they won't give or sell any - except on a wheel with a tire purchase.