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Molding Projectiles

oli700

oli700

12g
Supporter
"Philanthropist"
So is anyone molding bullets, slugs or buckshot ? I’m going to start in the next couple of months and was wondering if you’re using tin with the lead or 100% lead or any tips like that. Lee says only 100% lead for the slug mold. I was thinking maybe a liability thing in case someone tried to put it through a full choke with 20% tin alloy; since the mold doesn’t have “rifling” it’s just a smooth slug. Getting a Lee production pot , 00B mold and a 1oz slug mold . The 00 buck mold doesn’t specify anything regarding alloy mix,

any experience with this ?
 
No experience at all. But I'd be happy to watch how you progress! ;)
 
i'd like to learn too.
first i need to find some equipment prices and parts and materials prices. then go from there to see if it's worth my time and effort. i have the space. is it dangerous? the wife wants to know that because we have kiddos. i am in the process of putting a keypad lock on my doors. however the old style doors they made are giving me trouble. too thin for the set up. so i'll need to invest in 2 new doors. solid is what i'm after. also i'll be getting a safe for the room as well.
what is required for keeping the "materials" in stock? hmm, what i mean is how do you have your set up? room layout? storage? that kinda thing...

thanx for setting this section up dan.
 
You will need some sort of ventilation .So far I only have about 120 pounds of lead and no tin. Before the end of this month I will be building a bench, picking up a press a furnace and a slug mold. Probably pick up the 00 mold and some buffer next month... I wont be loading tons of clay shells only some 00 and slugs. Target loads are cheap enough for the amount I shoot clay. I want a MEC600 jr but really for loading slugs and buck I can get away with a Lee Load All so I might go that way….sick of ebay on the MEC and people are bidding the production pots and Load All’s to with in $10 of new so yeah you won the bid stupid
 
Still gathering information. It has been suggested to me at a bullet casting site to use .69 cal round balls in place of slugs. They say they penetrate far better than a hollow slug and much easier to cast....might give it a try. Oh and I think I got a line on a used MEC 600 jr....now I need to start gathering hulls, get a pot. Blew my wad on more bench and shelving in the garage but this will come together.
 
i found an old 2" thick door i'm going use for my bench...shelving...hmm..i'll get right on that next...
 
ripjack13 said:
i found an old 2" thick door i'm going use for my bench...shelving...hmm..i'll get right on that next...
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cool find, post some pics when you are done.I'll get some of mine. I have the wood to do one more.Going to be doing all the brass loading at a friends a block away and all the shotshells at my place, should be a cool system
 
Had a day off today and decides to clean some lead and make it into ingots.

The idea being to have two separate melting stations. One station to make ingots and one station to cast bullets. This way all your bullet casting equipment stays nice and clean because you are only feeding it clean lead ingots.

This is how I am going to make ingots. Melt the lead, drop in some saw dust to flux the lead.
Drop it in the molten lead and it turns to carbon. Stir it throughout the molten lead and all the impurities stick to it and float to the top then you scrape it out with a spoon and end up with clean lead that you make into ingots.
Ingots are clean and end up one pound or 1/2 pound so it’s easier to get alloy ratios mixed accurate. Here are some pics of my first ever attempts.
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Supposed to look like this
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This is what it looks like when the lead temp is too high, no harm to the lead .....still learning
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More delays, I dropped a couple new ingots in the Lee pot for casting , I was going to try some 00 casts. I turned it on , touched the side of the pot with the ingot and the bastard shocked me....So now I have to send it back to midway.....Sucks :x
 
Ok! Now we are in business. Took a few runs to get the mold hot enough to fill it completely but once it reached temperature it was going quite fast. They come out in strings of three . You can cut them or if you are loading 9 pellet loads you can put three strings in the wad as is….now I feel like I am getting somewhere……wonder if I can make my own powder :cool:

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Great thread...looking forward to the next !!

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:shock: These are among the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Its like a string of pearls, only so much more useful!

A pondering. Would you be willing to sacrifice one of those, or a few? If so, can you do the vice grip test and clamp down on one to see how much it will deform. Just curious to see how it compares to other shot.
 
Rossignol said:
:shock: These are among the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Its like a string of pearls, only so much more useful!

A pondering. Would you be willing to sacrifice one of those, or a few? If so, can you do the vice grip test and clamp down on one to see how much it will deform. Just curious to see how it compares to other shot.
Click to expand...

Ok, these are almost pure lead with a little tin. There are so many possibilities with the different mixes one can do. Even the way you let them cool. The real way to check hardness is with a tester that actually tells you the BHN (Brinell Hardness) . I could try to crush some but won’t have anything to compare them to until I try some other mixes and cooling methods.
 
Ah, I see! Youre bein way more scientific and far more patient than I could be!
 
After they cool will the strings break apart easily? Do you think if you load them in strings they will stay together until impact? This is cool, like loading a 30 cal bullet almost 1 inch long can't wait for the rest of the story.
 
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