Tips & Tricks

[stimpylu32]

Heres one from Terbltim on fixing the leaky bottom of a Lyman 450 Lubrisizer .

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,187085.msg1098927424.html#new

I'm making this thread a Sticky so the info doesn't get lost , feel free to add other tips or tricks that may be of help .

stimpylu32

[Reverend Recoil]

I use an olive spoon with a fitted wood handle to skim the dross off the molten lead after fluxing with canning wax.  The olive spoon collects the powdered dross while draining the molten lead through the hole in the center.  Nothing that I have tried works better.

An olive spoon is a long-handled kitchen utensil used to remove olives from jars or cans. Such spoons may have slits, or a single hole in the bottom of the spoon bowl which helps to drain off any liquid that is scooped up with the olive. This can be an advantage if you’re trying to remove olives from jars and you only want a few, but want to skip adding the oil or water from the jar to whatever you’re cooking. If you’re making martinis for instance, the water or oil in which the olives are packed doesn’t always make a tasty addition to your drink.

[ND Sharpshooter]

I drilled several 1/8 inch holes in a large soup spoon and wired it to a 3/8 inch wooden dowel.  I've changed the dowel twice in the 35 years or so I've used this same beat up spoon.

[calvon]

I use a slotted stainless steel spoon from the kitchenware section of the supermarket. It works great.

BTW, your redesigned page is excellent. Cool colors and a great masthead photo.

[saddlebum]

I use the slotted spoon too. Also from the kitchenware section I use a stainless soup ladel that is just big enough to to fill my ingot mold, which is an aluminum six muffin  muffin pan. Makes nice size ingots that are bigger than most moulds I've seen. The thin aluminum pan cools faster than the heavy cast iron ones. My casing pot is a cast iron sauce pan type, 1gal size. I set the pot inside a piece of steel pipe cut to size,(about a 4'' tall ring), while heating for a heat shield to help keep the pot hot. I use a Coleman stove.

[stimpylu32]

Heres one from zoner for cleaning a heavy lead fouled barrel .

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,211826.0.html

stimpylu32

[hornady]

I have posted this on other forms, but it’s a good one if you use the Lyman Lube/Sizer. I was having trouble with the lube heater, not sure were I read this, but you take a double receptacle box and wire a light rheostat ahead of the receptacle, this way if the lube starts getting to soft you can back the heat off. You want to make sure it’s a designated receptacle, you would not want to plug your scale into it at reduced current, but I have read that guys had pretty good luck with this on there case auto feed, I never tried it.
I also bought one of those $15.00 wal-mart chuckles drills; with the nylon bore brushes it works great at reduced speed in cleaning bottleneck cases necks inside.

[stimpylu32]

For someone that is just thinking about casting or even for the more advanced caster , check U Tube for a bunch of great How To video's .

 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bullet+casting&aq=f

stimpy

[hornady]

Not real high tech, But I have a Lee 4-20 drip-o-matic, I tried several attempts at weighing down the spout stem, well all it took was a de-primed 45ACP case set on top of the stem, I then filled it with lead. Second casting and still no more dripping. 

[lakota]

Kroil in a bullet mold.

I saw this on another forum decided to try it and it works great. On a new mold I clean and degrease it as instructed. I heat it up over the pot and lube it as instructed. Instead of smoking the cavities I apply Kano Kroil to a q-tip and swab the bullet cavities while the mold is hot. The first few bullets are rejects due to wrinkles but after a few(4-6 bullets) they are filled out and fall right out of the mold usually without tapping the mold. When bullets start to stick I apply the kroil again. Works in iron and aluminum molds.

[stimpylu32]

Heres a short list of the hardness of some common casting alloys .

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
 
 
Alloy   BHN   
Lead  5   
WW (stick on)   6   
Tin   7   
1 to 40 tin lead   8   
1 to 30 tin lead   9   
1 to 20 tin lead   10   
1 to 10 tin lead   11   
WW (clip on)   12   
Lead Shot*   13   
Lyman # 2   15   
Water quenched WW   18   
Linotype   18 - 19   
Monotype   25 - 27   
Oven heat treated WW   30 - 32   
Antimony   50