Bullet casting

[bullseye]

I'm going to start casting my own bullets real soon and need some info. I have so far almost 2 5gal buckets of wheel weights. I am looking for a fairly inexpensive pot to melt it and reccomendations on molds. I'll be casting for 9mm, 38, 357, and maybe 308. Basic step by step with explainations of terms would be nice too, although I will be looking for a book to, if someone could reccomend a good one for a beginner. I'm off to a good start, I have a connection for a 5gal bucket of ww each month and about 2k pieces of brass for each caliber. I'll be getting a few 8lb cans of powder next week and a few k primers. Other than ingot molds, ladle, thermometer, what am I missing?

[woofert]

bullseye,

Lyman's "Reloading Handbook", 46th edition has good info, alot of "if your bullets look like this, its because of this and correct by doing this" stuff

a few things I keep on hand when casting.

1. bees wax - use a pea sized chunk to flux your alloy when mixing or when casting

2. Stick matches - use to light the smoke from fluxing and to smoke/soot the mold when breaking it in

3. Metal ladle - it fits into the melting pot to dip out alloy and pour into ingot molds after alloying

4. Old spoon - used to mix in flux and to remove the impurities that float to the top of the molten alloy

5. Ingot molds - I found some small aluminum cookie moulds at a thrift store that I use to make ingots that are small enough to fit into the melting pot

6. Needle nose pliers - to pick up hot stuff

7. Gloves - protect hands

8. Old hammer handle - to knock open sprue plate and to tap hinge bolt on handles to make bullets fall out of mould

9. Old towel - to drop bullets onto

10. Metal coffee cans - to keep ingots and bullets in

My set up isn’t fancy, just a 4 lbs Lee pot and a couple of moulds, but I can turn out a couple a hundred bullets in an afternoon.

woofert

[wonderwolf]

I do a lot of casting and cleaning up WW. I used the bottom off a oxy tank for my melter and a turkey fryer for the heat source. Had a friend do up some molds out of U channel cause we got the 3 little ingot molds so hot it took 5 minutes for the newly pored lead to solidify.

I dont care much about how the WW ingots turn out as they get melted down again anyways when I put them in a 20 pound pot. I get about 2/3 volume or less form a 5 gal bucket of WW as the rest is trash and clips. My welder friend made up a nice ladle out of stainless with lots of holes in it that works very well for the removal of the large amount of clips.

Do this kind of large operation in your yard if you can. The parents driveway is now speckeled with lead dots that I've been pealing off a chunk day by day as a wet piece of something found its way into the 75# pot and ejected about 2# of molten lead

What you don't see in that picture is the many buckets of lead behind me...we filled that trashcan about 3/4 of the way full with clips

[Arizona Ranger]

I use a Lee electric furnace with the bottom pour spout. I have used the small cast iron pot ladle and camp stove method, but the electric is much, much better. I like Lyman molds the best and they have a huge selection. You will probably want a lube/sizer as well. You can lube bullets by standing them in a pie tin and pouring melted lube into the pan and make sure all of the grooves are covered. I have never had good luck with the squirt bottle lube. Also, Lyman and RCBS have good cast bullet books. If you do cast for the .308 you will want to use gas checks. That's about all that I can think of that wasn't covered by the other posts.
Good Luck.:thumbup:

[bullseye]

I was told that some wheel weights are not lead, but zinc or something. How do I pick them out of the rest? What happens if I miss a few? Could someone briefly describe the fluxing part for me? Thanks.

[weasel_master]

I'm a beginner as well but I'll attempt to explain fluxing. Once you have melted some wheel weights and taken the clips out, you flux the pot. To do this, take a pea sized piece of beeswax as said before. Drop it in the molten lead and stir it up. It will start to smoke. Some people burn the smoke, I don't. Once you've mixed it up, crap will start floating to the top. Skim off all the impurities and you're done.

[okie shooter]

Found this article on fluxing,

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellFluxing.htm

Basicly fluxing helps to prevent the tin from forming oxides.

[bullseye]

Thanks for the link Okie, great info there. :thumbup: Anyone have any ideas on how to pick out the zinc weights from the lead ones?

[robocop10mm]

I have been casting for about 23 years and learned from some mistakes. Get the LYMAN book. It has articles from the NRA magazine from the last 50+ years. Some of the information is repetitive, some out dated but very interesting from a historical perspective.

There are three desirable metals in bullets; Lead (of course), Tin and Antimony. Wheel weights are lead and tin, very little if any antimony. They make a very good bullet up to about 1500 fps (w/o a gas check). Tin improves several characteristics of the base lead; tin helps the lead fill out the mold more fully (improves pourability), tin LOWERS the melting point of the lead, tin hardens the lead (especially if you water quench them).

Antimony (found mostly in linotype) makes for a VERY hard bullet. I save my linotype for rifle bullets only (it is too hard to get and expensive).

I use mostly wheel weights. I melt down, skim and flux about 100 lbs at a time and pour it into ingot molds. I use Lyman and Lee ingot molds as well as cast iron muffin tins.

I mark the ingots with a sharpie to indicate what it is made of: W - wheel weights, V - virgin (soft lead), L - linotype, 50 - 50-50 bar solder.

I use a 4-1 ratio (wheel weight to virgin) for most pistol bullets. 4-1 (wheel weights to linotype) for rifles.

If you drop the bullets from the mold into a bucket of water you will increase the hardness (much contraversy about why and how). I knock the sprue off into the pot.

Get some Midway "Drop out". It is a spray graphite that really helps the bullets fall out of the mold.

LEAD WARNING--- Lead is very hazardous. It gets into the bones and is hard to get out! Lead is most easily introduced into your system by ingestion (eating/drinking). Make sure you wash your hands VERY well after handling lead. The second easiest way lead gets into your system is by inhalation. When you are fluxing, the smoke has lead in it. DO NOT flux indoors. I put in the flux, stir and walk away for about 5 minutes.

Have your doctor test for lead the next time you go in for a physical. It is a simple blood test that your insurance will cover. Get a base line now (find out your lead level before you embark on your casting career). Get it checked on a yearly basis. Mine is 6 (good, even after casting for years). Over 20 is bad. Over 30 and you are getting treated).

You will have much fun and get more satisfaction out of shooting when you cast your own bullets. You will find that one or two cavity molds are ok, 4 cavity molds are great and the 6 cavity Lee molds are out of this world! I cast 4-5000 in a weekend.

Get a lubrisizer with a heater and use the high temp lubes. Less mess. I use Thompson Blue Angel (from Midway) in a Lyman 450 lubrisizer with a Midway heater. Lyman now makes a lubrisizer with a built in heater.

As for the Zinc question, I have never had a problem with them. I have never even heard of them before. NEVER use lead from car batteries. They have calcium which is very bad and will totally mess up the mix. Calcium will make the lead pour very badly and not fill out the mold. Avoid at all cost.