RCBS Easy Melt
- Thread starter Winelover
- Start date
Winelover
North Central Arkansas
Interesting video, Brad.
I do it a little different, however I have observed Ricks ladle casting technique.
I pour from the side of the sprue plate and allow the excess to run back in the pot. I almost empty the ladle. Probably, going to make the change and completely empty it. I can't obtain 100% base fill out without a thicker sprue puddle. Here's what mine look like.
I was casting, yesterday, with a 432 265 RF (RD) NOE three cavity. It drops, two PB and one GC bullet. The GC is the cavity facing the handles....or the last one filled. I was using a 3-1 alloy, no tin added, pure lead to lino. Gives an air cooled BHN of 13-15 after thirty days. Bases were filling out, or so I thought, until I tried GC fitment. They will not hold on by themselves. Tried Hornady and Gator's, neither will hold. Hornady's are normally a little tighter fit. Exact sameame issue I'm having with Rick's RCBS 300 HP custom mould.
I'm thinking it's a result of my alloy choice. Never had the issue with Gator's when I bottom poured with my normal bullet alloy which is running around 16 BHN, air cooled. Last week, I used the Lyman Mag 25 and bottom poured the same 3-1 alloy with both moulds, with the same issue.
Rick's coming over today......... I will have him critique my bullets.
I do it a little different, however I have observed Ricks ladle casting technique.
I pour from the side of the sprue plate and allow the excess to run back in the pot. I almost empty the ladle. Probably, going to make the change and completely empty it. I can't obtain 100% base fill out without a thicker sprue puddle. Here's what mine look like.
I was casting, yesterday, with a 432 265 RF (RD) NOE three cavity. It drops, two PB and one GC bullet. The GC is the cavity facing the handles....or the last one filled. I was using a 3-1 alloy, no tin added, pure lead to lino. Gives an air cooled BHN of 13-15 after thirty days. Bases were filling out, or so I thought, until I tried GC fitment. They will not hold on by themselves. Tried Hornady and Gator's, neither will hold. Hornady's are normally a little tighter fit. Exact sameame issue I'm having with Rick's RCBS 300 HP custom mould.
I'm thinking it's a result of my alloy choice. Never had the issue with Gator's when I bottom poured with my normal bullet alloy which is running around 16 BHN, air cooled. Last week, I used the Lyman Mag 25 and bottom poured the same 3-1 alloy with both moulds, with the same issue.
Rick's coming over today......... I will have him critique my bullets.
I find that my base fill is dependant more on how long I pour into tencavity after it is filled than anything. Once the mould is hot I have a hard time getting a sprue that thick as the lead wants to run off the mould.
I will say I don't ever empty the ladle unless the mould is for large bullets and lots of them. I find what the mould needs for lead and heat and go with that.
I need to play more with timing and technique. I will say that once I slowed down a little I found I got far better consistency in bullet weight. I was getting the mould too hot and I had the classic heavy frosting shrinkage in areas.
What I have found is that the ladle gives me a level of control over things the bottom pour never gave.
I will say I don't ever empty the ladle unless the mould is for large bullets and lots of them. I find what the mould needs for lead and heat and go with that.
I need to play more with timing and technique. I will say that once I slowed down a little I found I got far better consistency in bullet weight. I was getting the mould too hot and I had the classic heavy frosting shrinkage in areas.
What I have found is that the ladle gives me a level of control over things the bottom pour never gave.
Winelover
North Central Arkansas
I would't think of wacking on Rick's moulds with a whooping stick.
I use a gloved hand to open the mould, after it gets up to the right temperature. Prior to that, I use a 6 ounce rawhide Jeweler's mallet to tap the sprue pivot. Any other tapping is on the handle hinge bolt. Rick's / Eric's 300 RCBS HP conversion drops the bullets as soon as I open the inverted mould and nudge the HP pins, away from the mould half, their attached to.
I use a gloved hand to open the mould, after it gets up to the right temperature. Prior to that, I use a 6 ounce rawhide Jeweler's mallet to tap the sprue pivot. Any other tapping is on the handle hinge bolt. Rick's / Eric's 300 RCBS HP conversion drops the bullets as soon as I open the inverted mould and nudge the HP pins, away from the mould half, their attached to.
Yes Brad, once the mold is full keep right on pouring into it letting it run off the sides, it forces alloy into the corners of the base. Once up to proper casting temp my sprue's aren't that thick either. Can't do that as a bottom feeder cause you would have more lead on the bench than in the pot. Nothing wrong with tapping the hinge bolt to drop a bullet if it's needed but hitting any mold is sacrilege punishable by death.
Yep, biggest advantage I see is getting more lead onto the mould while the excess flows back into the pot. Keeps the sprue puddle liquid to help fill those bases.
Exactly. I find the last cavity poured is the one I get with the most bad bases.
Exactly. I find the last cavity poured is the one I get with the most bad bases.
VZerone said:
I cast with a bottom pour for many years. You just can't get the kind of stream out of as a ladle. To be more specific even if the stream is small out of a bottom pour it has more pressure along with it then a ladle. I think that is where the difference is. If you open up the stream wider then it gushes out of the cavity.
Brad said: Nope. Not with a Rowell. I hold the mould vertical and pour lead with about an inch drop into the mould. My ladle also holds a heap of lead, I can fill a 6 cav 420 gr 45-70 mould in a single pour.
There are ladles and there are kiddie toys from Lyman and RCBS. Won't even discuss the Lee teaspoon, err, ladle...Brad nailed it . . .
Sorry about the format of quote. Quote doesn't always work for me. Anyways I posted that wrong Rick. What I meant to say is you just can't get a good stream from a BOTTOM POUR furnace. Like mentioned there is simply too much pressure no matter what the stream size is especially if the pot is full. We all know as the pot empties the pressure gets less with it.
With Rowell you have to tune the spout which I did and I can get any size stream with it I want.
I cast with a bottom pour for many years. You just can't get the kind of stream out of as a ladle. To be more specific even if the stream is small out of a bottom pour it has more pressure along with it then a ladle. I think that is where the difference is. If you open up the stream wider then it gushes out of the cavity.
Brad said: Nope. Not with a Rowell. I hold the mould vertical and pour lead with about an inch drop into the mould. My ladle also holds a heap of lead, I can fill a 6 cav 420 gr 45-70 mould in a single pour.
There are ladles and there are kiddie toys from Lyman and RCBS. Won't even discuss the Lee teaspoon, err, ladle...Brad nailed it . . .
Sorry about the format of quote. Quote doesn't always work for me. Anyways I posted that wrong Rick. What I meant to say is you just can't get a good stream from a BOTTOM POUR furnace. Like mentioned there is simply too much pressure no matter what the stream size is especially if the pot is full. We all know as the pot empties the pressure gets less with it.
With Rowell you have to tune the spout which I did and I can get any size stream with it I want.
Like this?
waco
Springfield, Oregon
What mold is this Brad? An NOE?
Yep, borrowed from Khornet. I want to get 1-2 K cast up to lay in a supply for a while.
Will post a photo later.
waco
Springfield, Oregon
I'm looking at that one or possibly this one from Arsenal.http://arsenalmolds.com/bullet-molds?product_id=175&limit=99999999999
Looks very similar.
This is the bullet. Made a dummy round in 357 brass and it feeds well in the new 92 Winchester.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/produc...ucts_id=146&osCsid=mbhhp08rpidtsu5sv6d0e5f9q1
This is the bullet. Made a dummy round in 357 brass and it feeds well in the new 92 Winchester.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/produc...ucts_id=146&osCsid=mbhhp08rpidtsu5sv6d0e5f9q1
Am I the only one who wants to see a better pic of that Blue Chevelle SS in the garage? Come on John!
That Chevy is a one owner and that owner would be John. He bought it new, still has it. I think he did post some pics of it early on in this forum.
Ian
Notorious member
Yep, John has posted some good photos here before.
The ladle vs. bottom pour thing involves flow/volume and heat. Bottom pour will always have less volume and more pressure than a ladle, which creates turbulence in the cavities down to the point that it's dribbling in there so slowly that it doesn't fill well. A ladle just floods the cavity with alloy, but it's more like filling a glass with another glass than sticking a garden hose in a glass to fill it.
The heat thing is just what Rick described about flooding alloy over the plate after the pour is done. To accomplish the same thing using a bottom pour, the entire mould has to be run hotter/faster and a huge puddle piled on top of the plate.
The ladle vs. bottom pour thing involves flow/volume and heat. Bottom pour will always have less volume and more pressure than a ladle, which creates turbulence in the cavities down to the point that it's dribbling in there so slowly that it doesn't fill well. A ladle just floods the cavity with alloy, but it's more like filling a glass with another glass than sticking a garden hose in a glass to fill it.
The heat thing is just what Rick described about flooding alloy over the plate after the pour is done. To accomplish the same thing using a bottom pour, the entire mould has to be run hotter/faster and a huge puddle piled on top of the plate.
I'm toying with the idea of modifying the bottom pour nozzle to reduce pressure. So far the only thing I've come up with is, is like when you join a larger pipe to a smaller diameter pipe that your source of liquid and pressure is coming from. That always reduces the pressure so thinking maybe to drilling the nozzle out a little larger diameter on the exit end. Would have to do this in small increments and would be a tedious thing to do. The bottom pours just have too darn much pressure! Too boot the pressure changes as the pot gets lower. Would be nice if there were some sort of arrange like the Belding & Mull power measure uses where it has a sliding cavity filled with the same volume amount of powder that isolates itself from the reservoir when dropping the powder charge. Don't know how that would be accomplished on a bottom pour furnace, but that sure would solve the pressure problem.