My First 6 Bangger Mold

M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
Well I had a Charter Arms Bull Dog that I brought home two weeks ago. Last week I picked up a couple of boxes of ammo for the brass. I ordered a 6 hole Lee TL .430-240 SWC mold. It was on my door step on Christmas Eve. Due to family time, and other matters I had to wait to start using it.

This morning I started with its first pour. Well I must not have gotten it clean enough. Even preheated it was dropping badly wrinkled bullets so I let it cool down. I have degreased it with brake cleaner, and cleaned with a tooth brush, and Dawn. I boiled the blocks after rinsing them well.

It is now dried, and preheating again. I will lube it up again, and start casting as soon as the pot gets back up to temp here shortly.

Hope every one had a Safe, and Merry Christmas

Nate
 
Watch out for the cam lever piece breaking. I had to order a KAL steel replacement after a few sessions.
 
If you have a lead thermometer or a PID on your pot, those molds REALLY like the alloy in the 685-695'ish degree range. I have that one and the 452300 as well and they both drop really consistent weights in that range.

If you will start off pouring the first and second cavities until they are just getting a slight dullness to them and then add another one, and so on, until your pouring them all, you will probably never experience breaking the sprue plate handle.

I also preheat mine as well but when I start out, I still run the first couple of cavities till they start to get a little frosty. Also if your planning to pour up a big ol batch, you might as well set some ingots up on the hot plate on about 350-400 degrees so when you need to add some it doesn't take 10 or more minutes to get the pot back up to temp.
 
Also if your planning to pour up a big ol batch, you might as well set some ingots up on the hot plate on about 350-400 degrees so when you need to add some it doesn't take 10 or more minutes to get the pot back up to temp.
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Jeese, I wonder why I never thought of that. :confused:

I could even improve on that by premelting ingots in a little sinker pour pot that I've got. jd
 
I did the first pour today. I admit there was a learning curve involved. I have noticed that they came out best with alloy in the 700 degree range with the mold real hot. The casting thermometer is the best investment I have made in casting so far.

As for the waiting involved I do not mind that at this time. I was freezing my tail end off. It was 34 with a 20 degree wind chill. The wind seemed to cut through every layer I had on. If it had not been for the hot pot of lead I would have froze to the chair. When the pot ran low I add ingots, and sprues. Go inside. Wash my hands, and face, and have a cup of coffee while the pot heats back up. I keep the mold warm on a burner of the gas stove.
 
Vance here we have two choices for casting weather. Blistering hot with temps of well over 95 with heat indexes into the triple digit range, or cold, and wet. I place the blame on myself as when the weather was nicer I was working on cleaning up my raised beds, and getting my green house ready to put my wife's flowers, and non hardy shrubs in to protect them from the current cold snap.

I was also working on getting things ready to start all my super hot pepper seeds as well. They start so slow the only way to get many of those here is start them inside early. If I run low on powder in the summer I will be using ghost pepper powder. It is some real hot stuff.:p The burn rate of them is in the range of set you on fire from end to end for a long time.:eek:


Here is a pic I took a few minutes ago. The pot is heating up again now.

 
I prefer casting when it is really cold versus when really hot. I don't like sweating hard and swatting mosquitoes and deer flies off my nose while casting. And in the winter, all that extra clothing just adds another safety layer. :)
 
Beagle you are spot on with the I would rather do it in cold weather. Tending a pot of 700 degree lead when it is 102 in the shade is not something I tend to do unless I am out, and have been for a while. I like to knock out as many as I can when the weather is nice. Since my garden eats up time on the very nice days. My casting gets done on the days that I have noting else to do.
 
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