Cast a few rifle bullets with 30-1 alloy today, not very happy with the results. Couldn't seem to find the right temp but eventually cast a few I could live with. While I was waiting for the temp to adjust itself I sorted my first bucket of ww's. Only found a handful of zinc but quite a few marked "Fe", decided to save them to cast into a Dutch oven as soon as I decide to get a real smelting outfit. Wound up with almost 60 lbs of good weights and about 5 lbs of lead stick-ons. Quite a few iron stick-ons as well, they went into the "Dutch oven" bucket.
For some reason I decided to jump in and smelt a few lbs of ww's and cast some boolits for a .45 Colt. New moulds been sitting around too long. WW's melted nicely and it was quite amusing watching the clips float to the top. Before I knew it I'd smelted almost 20 lbs for a "test batch". Funny thing, ww's had less stuff (other than clips) to skim off after fluxing than my "store bought" lead. Another funny thing: 45 Colt boolits cast quite nicely once I determined the right temp. Then I decided to try the rifle molds again, had to go a little hot & frosty on the big ones but the rifle boolits came out very nicely too.
I finally figured it out, you guys like ww's not just because they're cheap. Seems they're also better than store-bought lead for some applications. Not sure how they'll do in my BPCR but it doesn't seem to like the hard 20-1 boolits.
Your secret's safe with me.
For some reason I decided to jump in and smelt a few lbs of ww's and cast some boolits for a .45 Colt. New moulds been sitting around too long. WW's melted nicely and it was quite amusing watching the clips float to the top. Before I knew it I'd smelted almost 20 lbs for a "test batch". Funny thing, ww's had less stuff (other than clips) to skim off after fluxing than my "store bought" lead. Another funny thing: 45 Colt boolits cast quite nicely once I determined the right temp. Then I decided to try the rifle molds again, had to go a little hot & frosty on the big ones but the rifle boolits came out very nicely too.
I finally figured it out, you guys like ww's not just because they're cheap. Seems they're also better than store-bought lead for some applications. Not sure how they'll do in my BPCR but it doesn't seem to like the hard 20-1 boolits.
Your secret's safe with me.