smoothbore rounds ?

[OLD CHIEF]

I have been casting my smoothbore rounds using a gas fired pot. some of the rounds seem to end up larger than others, and wonder if the problem is do to the uneven casting temp. with a gas unit. I ordered a new electric pot, and was wondering do the rounds get larger or smaller as you increase the lead temp.? I have seen it both ways in the posts, so who is correct?

Bill Hicks
Dahlonega Ga

[Southron Sr.]

Actually, the "size" your round balls come out of the bullet mould are dependent on the "size" of the mould. Generally speaking, your mould will expand a tad bit as it heats up during a casting session. Generally, the first 10,20 or so rounds cast should allow your mould to reach its proper casting temprature.

About the only way you can "regulate" your mould temperature is by your speed of casting. It the mold gets a bit too hot, you will note that the balls being produced have heat colors on them or "fins" on them, the fins indicating that the molten lead is actually filling out the mould so well that some of it is intrudeing up into air vents cut into the faces of your mould blocks. Then it is a good idea to quit casting for a few minutes to allow your mould to cool down somewhat.

Some commercial casting machines have a high powered fan that is used to cool the mould after the molten lead is poured in it and after it is opened to release the freshly cast bullet. The fan is there, because it cools down the mould during long machine casting sessions.

[OLD CHIEF]

Brannen

Thanks :D

my problem was that some of the balls I cast would take a lot of time and effort to load while most of them would load without any problems. I am using the same mould, and lead, so I suspect that at times the mold would cast balls larger than desired but was not sure if it was when the mould was to cold or to hot.


Bill

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

Bill, I'm guessing it happens when the mold is very hot. Leastways, I think this is happening with my minies, which I cast in an aluminum mold. I weigh each minie, and find the heaviest ones are thrown when the mold is the hottest, and vice versa.

[pastore]

Brannen

Thanks :D

my problem was that some of the balls I cast would take a lot of time and effort to load while most of them would load without any problems.

Bill

That sounds like maybe when you insert the ball in the muzzle the sprue isn't being oriented either up or down but slightly to one side or the other. This will make the round harder to load if it is quite close to bore diameter to begin with. This happens to me at times and my ball is .012 under bore size.

[tony 1st regt]

I file the sprue off after I cast so that they don't bump size as they are coming out.

[Paul L]

Hi Bill,

I had a similar problem last year with my roundballs. After the season was over, I looked them over closely. What I found were some of the balls were egg-shaped, and some were round. I am using a brass mould, at it heats up very fast. Talking with some folks, the idea was put forth that the mould was to hot, and when I would drop the ball out the lead was not fully "set" and the egg-shape occured.

I tested this theory out the last casting session I had. I slowed down my process for casting roundballs (which was frustrating), but the end result was many more of the balls were round, and not egg-shaped.

I hope this helps.

Paul L.
24th Michigan

[tony 1st regt]

Paul and others,
a couple of years ago I started using a fan to cool my mold while casting. It is a little 6" job that wal mart sells for about 10.00 It keeps the molds, brass ,alum, steel from getting overheated. By using the fan I can cast about twice the bullets in the same time. I have it positioned blowing just in front and below my pot, so that as soon as the mold is off the bottom pour spout it is cooled a bit, after about 10 seconds I knock the sprue off and dump the bullet. My pot is very well vented so the fan does not increase the lead fumes etc.