Hi gents,

Iv'e been casting now for about 1 month or so and I kind of got the hang of it, sort of. One problem I'm consistently having is improper fillout in the baseband. I'm ladel casting with straight wheelweight and mostly using an RCBS 44-250-K mould, as well as one fron Dan @ Mountain Moulds. The rest of the bullet fills out pretty good, but the base is kind of rounded. I've tried smoking the mould, messing with baseplate tension, playing with the heat of the melt etc. I did read an article by Ross Seyfried about venting the mould at the top for better baseband fillout but im kind of wary about doing this. Any suggestions? Thanks

John

Make the sprue plate loose enough to open of its own weight and pour a very generous sprue. Your problem should go away. Tony

JP - Yes, loosen the sprue plate SLIGHTLY. As suggested try to pour an EXCESS of lead into the mold. In fact, when you dip the ladel into the lead, be sure it is filling with MORE than enough lead to create the bullet. Remember it is the liquid pressure of the lead in your dipper that is forcing lead into the mold...so the more, the better.

Two other things that might help is SLOW DOWN each bullet you pour. Make sure you are giving the mold a second to fill up. I've seen guys try to go too fast.

And finally, you may need to increase the temp of your lead slightly. If your lead is just barely molten, things can start turning solid before the mold is filled.

Some combination of the above will usually make 90% of the contrary bullet molds behave. Good luck. It's a great sport but sometimes takes a little tinkering to get everything working for you. Some molds are just tempermental.

Increase your melt temperature about 30 to 40 degrees. It will help.

Vent the top of the mould and keep pouring metal into the mould until the dipper goes from full to empty. I do this over the pot and it is messy but my bases come out filled to the edge. mes

One thing to try, if you're using a bottom pour pot, is to let the melt stream hit the sprue plate away from the sprue hole and run in. I've found that sometimes makes a cantakerous mold behave. You have to play around with the speed size of the stream, too. I'm not sure of the mechanics involved but I think that it causes the lead to swirl when entering the mold cavity. Sort of like pouring powder into the side of the funnel packs tighter in the case as opposed pouring it straight done the pipe.

Oh, never mind. I just reread your post and saw that you use a dipper.

[ 10-27-2003, 16:46: Message edited by: M Pursell ]

John, a rounded base band is not that uncommon of a problem. Advice so far is good. Specifically, on the RCBS mould, I did several things to make mine work like a champ for ladle pouring. Chamfer all meet edges of the blocks, two or three pulls on a fine stone, paying attention to the top most because that will creat a vent line under the sprue plate. Easy does it. Slightly enlarge to holes in the sprue plate, but only if you want to, and only very slightly. Hone the under side of the sprue plate on a fine stone and then install so the plate barely opens on its own. Just about every mould I own has been 'Lee-mented' similar to this, and it's worth every ounce of effort! There are more advance things that can be done such as removing burrs under magnification and resetting alignment pins, and other stuff, but standard "Lee-ment' will usually get a mould going in a hurry. Oh, yea, be sure you degrease that puppy all over really good. If you use mould prep, put it on with a Q-tip, or smoke lightly as was already mentioned. Fun, eh? sundog

jpsw44, (1) squeeky clean mold; (2)temperature; (3) venting; (4)pressure. (1) clean, sounds like you're OK there, no complaints other than base fillout. (2) if you're getting frosted boolits temp should be OK. I like mine frosted. I don't have a thermometer, so if they're frosted, I know temp is up. (3) venting has been well covered in other advice. (4) pressure, one thing I didn't see in advice was to hold the nozzle tight again' the sprue hole, tip and hold (really just hesitate after the mold is filled) before lifting and be sure to leave a puddle so the cooling lead can suck in what it needs to maintain fill. Keep trying the various tricks mentioned in this and other advice and you'll find what that mold likes. Each is different and what works for one won't necessarily do for another. That's what keeps life interestin'. Regards, Woody

Gents,

Great info! I actually have been switching between between a dipper pot and a bottom pour, just trying to see which works better for me. I have noticed that the base band fillout gets better when I use the bottom pour. I will apply the techniques you folks have imparted to me and report back with my results. Thanks Again

John

I have used a dipper for many years and I find that the technique for filling bases is to hold the mold side-on to the dipper and roll both together to upright, then about a sec delay in the vertical position so the head of metal in the dipper can then fill the cavity completly. The majority of air is thus expelled out the side of the sprue plate.
For round ball I pour into the mold from about an inch above the sprue plate, allowing the metal to freely swurl around the cavity.
With the correct technique cast bullets are very uniform. For example, my Lyman 457132 casts 526.5gn with my alloy and I weigh each to be within +/- 0.1gn of that weight with only about 15-17% rejection rate.
This gives you a lot of confidence in your ammo when shooting BPCR at 900 yards