Daryl , I see you mentioned warming up to freezing so your going to cast some balls in your car port. Is the carport heated? I cast mine in the barn , no heat, use bottom pour and ladle cast methods . I preheat my molds , but if its not at least 45ish I usually don't get good balls cast. Lots of wrinkling, means mold too cold. Do you cast below 40 degrees with good results? Steve
Hi Steven.
As long as I can cast above freezing, the balls turn out perfectly. I agree, wrinkled balls are from too cold a mould or lead.
The 20 pound Lee pots I use heat the lead just fine at 32F and even have to turn the dial down a bit- about 8 1/2, instead
of HI, which would be #10. The pot's dial runs 1 to 9, then HIGH. While the lead is melting and I give it a good hour or 1 1/2
hours, the mould is sitting on the top lip to pre-heat. I converted both bottom pours to dipping only. When casting the first
few balls which sometimes have a wrinkle or two, I let the lead pour out of the dipper over the block, dripping of the front face
of the blocks back into the pot. This helps warm up the blocks "all the way" to casting good bullets. Some time after that, I have
to decrease the pot's dial to 8 to 8 1/2.
There is no heat in the 12' high double wide carport. There is usually a breeze running through it, so I only cast if the temp is at 0C
(32F) or higher. I wear heavy leather and lined work gloves when casting. I open the sprue cutter (if equipped) with a gloved hand
and only use a hammer handle on the hinge if the ball or bullet sticks.
These are the balls I cast yesterday in the Car port. It is open sided and both ends. The first couple balls were a little wrinkled, but the
rest were just fine. This is all of them including the wrinkled ones - only cast up 52.
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