Author Topic: Cut some lead balls in half (Read 1139 times)

Eyes Of Death · « **on:** April 22, 2010, 02:20:24 PM »

I finally got around to cutting some lead GB size balls in half. This was a request from my post on the mongo lead smelter. I picked some balls with no defects on the outside. The sprew is on the top all the halves. Looks like I half to weight them and re-melt the light ones.

RocklockI · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2010, 03:30:14 PM »

So basicly the heavier the better . I guess you'd have to weigh 50 balls and get the average of the upper 6th sigma . Call that number good . There has to be some + and - tolerance .

Gary

Double D · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2010, 03:43:48 PM »

On the other side of the equation, after shooting the steel balls, and seeing how heavy the recoil is with those, it must be brutal with lead ball with twice the mass.

RocklockI · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2010, 03:58:49 PM »

Thats a good point

Eyes Of Death · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2010, 04:07:14 PM »

With the lead smelter I made I don't have a problem with recasting the light ones. But if you want to be accurate shooting the same weight of ball wouldn't hurt.

And use the light ones for close up work.

Recoil is purity good with the lead GB. But my tube weighs 170 pounds buy itself. So it is manageable.

Double D · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2010, 04:18:53 PM »

Quote from: Eyes Of Death on April 22, 2010, 04:07:14 PM

But my tube weighs 170 pounds buy itself. So it is manageable.

Golf ball Cannon maybe? 170 lb Cannon will absorb recoil a lot better than my 3 lb GB mortar.

GGaskill · « **Reply #6 on:** April 22, 2010, 05:27:16 PM »

Those bottom ones are typical products of the sprue freezing before the interior has solidified. You need a larger sprue reservoir or some way to externally heat the sprue and continue to fill it as the center solidifies.

dan610324 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2010, 01:08:12 AM »

actually lead just got slightly less then 50% more mass than iron

Double D · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2010, 03:28:12 AM »

Right weight is not mass.

Lead golf ball is 1.020 lbs, and an iron golf ball would be .628 lbs according to George's Magical Spherical Shot Weight Calculator.

A lead ball is almost twice the weight of an iron ball.

George, can you add a box for a common bearing steel to that calculator? Thanks again for putting that little internet widget up, I use it a lot. For those of you who haven't seen George's Magical Spherical Shot Weight Calculator before. it's one of those helpful little bits of info in The reference sticky that Tim opened 6 years ago and has collected some pretty interesting information.

dan610324 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2010, 03:57:28 AM »

well Im not so familiar with the american weight and volume units
but I dont think that american lead is heawier then european lead

iron have an density of 7,87 ( 7,87 kilo for one liter )
ok cast iron is a little lighter because of the carbon content

lead have an density of 11,337 ( 11,337 kilo for one liter )

so the difference is approximately 44 %

the units may vary , but the difference in weight is still 44 % for the same volume of the both materials

Double D · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2010, 04:47:24 AM »

44% is almost 50% and 1.02 is almost twice .628, and 11.3 is almost twice 7.8.

dan610324 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2010, 05:20:57 AM »

thats a very wide "almost"

but ok

then a 59 eldorado biarritz is almost the size of a vw beetle

but you didnt mention the "almost" in the original posting

Double D · « **Reply #12 on:** April 23, 2010, 05:31:03 AM »

Quote from: dan610324 on April 23, 2010, 05:20:57 AM

thats a very wide "almost" but ok

then a 59 eldorado biarritz is almost the size of a vw beetle

but you didnt mention the "almost" in the original posting

You got that one way wrong Dan, the 59 eldorado biarritz is almost the size of a battleship, a VW beetle is almost the size of a row boat

dan610324 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:05:43 AM »

grymster · « **Reply #14 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:47:37 AM »

Quote from: Double D on April 23, 2010, 03:28:12 AM

Right weight is not mass.

Lead golf ball is 1.020 lbs, and an iron golf ball would be .628 lbs according to George's Magical Spherical Shot Weight Calculator.

A lead ball is almost twice the weight of an iron ball.

George, can you add a box for a common bearing steel to that calculator? Thanks again for putting that little internet widget up, I use it a lot. For those of you who haven't seen George's Magical Spherical Shot Weight Calculator before. it's one of those helpful little bits of info in The reference sticky that Tim opened 6 years ago and has collected some pretty interesting information.

Nice calculator, George. I went through the trouble of building a spreadsheet to do this. Wish I'd found your solution sooner!

GGaskill · « **Reply #15 on:** April 23, 2010, 10:27:47 AM »

Yeah, I can add a line for steel at 475 lb/cu ft.

Eyes Of Death · « **Reply #16 on:** April 23, 2010, 11:20:03 AM »

The mold has 1" cavity above the sprue. And the sprew is 1/4" so shoud I open up the sprue to say 3/8 or 5/16?

GGaskill · « **Reply #17 on:** April 23, 2010, 03:41:08 PM »

How deep is the cavity in the sprue plate?

Eyes Of Death · « **Reply #18 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:10:05 PM »

Just over 1/2" deep

GGaskill · « **Reply #19 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:14:02 PM »

What is the sprue plate made from?

GGaskill · « **Reply #20 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:34:33 PM »

Yeah, I can add a line for steel at 475 lb/cu ft.

OK, I added a line for Steel at 475 lbs per cu ft.

GGaskill · « **Reply #21 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:48:34 PM »

The mold has 1" cavity above the sprue. And the sprew is 1/4" so shoud I open up the sprue to say 3/8 or 5/16?

The issue is keeping the sprue molten until the casting is solid and therefore not trying to draw in more metal We played a torch on the sprue when we were casting zinc shot in Cut Bank last August and it worked well. If you try to do it with an extra large sprue, you want minimum surface area so you don't lose heat to the air and the sprue plate should be a material that does not conduct heat well yet stays hard enough to cut the sprue. Stainless steel comes to mind but there must be something else that would work.

Eyes Of Death · « **Reply #22 on:** April 23, 2010, 06:55:20 PM »

The mold is all alu.

smokemjoe · « **Reply #23 on:** April 24, 2010, 05:05:13 AM »

When I get air hole in my bullets I open up the hole on the spruce cutter, the angle in the plate, Not the hole. When the leads cools it draws down into the ball.

oyvind · « **Reply #24 on:** April 24, 2010, 08:01:46 AM »

Quote from: Double D on April 22, 2010, 03:43:48 PM

On the other side of the equation, after shooting the steel balls, and seeing how heavy the recoil is with those, it must be brutal with lead ball with twice the mass.

Regarding the projectile and the weight and pressure.
If we increase the weight of the projectile by 50% and use the same amount of gunpowder, then the pressure will be twice as high.
this is scary if you are not aware of the facts.

mvh

GGaskill · « **Reply #25 on:** April 24, 2010, 02:27:23 PM »

The mold is all alu.

I can only give you a suggestion based on theory rather than experience. I would make an inch thick sprue plate from stainless steel. Drill the hole to the cavity with a 1/2" center drill so you get a deep cavity. It would be nice to touch this up on a lathe so that it is slightly tapered so the sprue will come out on its own.