Newby on the block... well, to casting anyways.

[Insanity]

I dunno you might have to fasshon something up.

[avator]

Nope, pour handle is not reversible unless I heat it and bend the last leg on it 180 degrees. Or make one from a wire coat hanger.
I think I'll just deal with it for now.

[Insanity]

Mine is threaded maybe some all thread?

[avator]

Yes, the knob is threaded on. I had to thread it on out of the box.
There is a leg of the wire on the other end from the handle. It's pointed downwards and bumps against the back of the pot so the handle cannot be raised too far. If you reverse the handle, the leg would point up and not do it's job.

[triggertreat]

Bill, before you know it, you'll have a big ole pile and so many pellets stored up and sorted you can relax and shoot without ammo issues.  This is just a small pile of 30's I did one afternoon.  I shoot into a rubber mulch bin when doing groups so that I can reclaim the lead and go again.  Sometimes though I gotta break free and shoot some reactive targets, branches or old tomatoes/tangerines or something to have some fun.

[avator]

Bill, before you know it, you'll have a big ole pile and so many pellets stored up and sorted you can relax and shoot without ammo issues.  This is just a small pile of 30's I did one afternoon.  I shoot into a rubber mulch bin when doing groups so that I can reclaim the lead and go again.  Sometimes though I gotta break free and shoot some reactive targets, branches or old tomatoes/tangerines or something to have some fun.

Keith... I'm pretty sure I'm gonna follow your lead.

[Spacebus]

Bill that's going to be hard lead for sure.

I just cast a bunch of pellets and slugs using about half reclaimed CPHP and half pure lead, but didn't have any issues with hardness. I cast 280 (after culls) 22 cal hunters and 72 (after culls) 45 cal BBTs. None of them are harder than tin, but perhaps slightly harder than pure lead. Either way, I can easy scratch off any "hairs" with my thumbnail without any effort. I also didn't use any borax/flux this time and stuck to just parrafin and beeswax. Rather than let things oxidize and remove with flux, I stirred in the wax after the dross started to form, which actually did reduce the amount dross I had to scoop out.

This is my second time casting 45 cal BBTs with my Lee 4 lb electric furnace and bottom pour ladle. I'm really thinking about getting a larger dipper furnace just for this mold. By the time I get a rhythm going there's barely enough lead to fill out two cavities, then I'm stopping to add more lead and the mold gets too cold, even with the hot plate. I think the hot plate could potentially be more effective if I had some kind of wind block for it, or could cast indoors! I'm thinking a 10+ lb bottom pour would make this much more enjoyable. I would probably be faster casting pellets with a larger furnace as well, but I generally can make 80-100 good pellets before stopping to add more lead to the pot.

I'm also thinking my melt wasn't quite hot enough, because my pellets came out much better after turning up the heat a little bit. I ran the furnace around level 7 and did not use the hot plate. Normally I run the furnace around level 5 and use the hot plate to keep my molds hot. The wind also really picked up right before I started casting, which I do outside. This may have been a factor in why I had to turn the melt up so high, since I was able to get barely "frosted" pellets/slugs last year when it was warmer. All that said, I've never had this much success casting pellets! I had just a dozen or two culls out of 280 good ones. These pellets have worked well for me in the past with my C362 and I'm hoping they are good in my Stormrider. I have little experience with this mold so far, but I do wish it were aluminum rather than brass. If I do a lot of casting with this mold my left arm is going to be as strong as my right! Casting the 22 cal hunters also makes me want to get my 362 operational even more.

I do have a Lyman thermometer, but I rarely use it. I find that the absolute melt temperature is really inconsistent with my tiny 4 lb pot and I get better results by paying attention to mold fill, sprue cut, etc. I've been reading about the RCBS EasyMelt and I'm trying to decide how much I want to spend on this hobby...

Bill, I apologize if I derailed this thread too much!

[avator]

Nope, all good info..
I do have a question though... how do you test/know hardness?

[maraudinglizard]

Nope, all good info..
I do have a question though... how do you test/know hardness?

The pencil test is the cheapest. Lead hardness testers start $80 and will require a press to scribe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinell_scale

[avator]

Ah yes, now that you mentioned it, I do remember someone saying that.

Now that I've confirmed that the Sentry shoots my castings well, I'll swap it out with the avenger tomorrow. Then the Hatsan 1Kv will get a try at them.

[Firewalker]

A good explanation of the pencil test for lead:

mashburn posted this 27 June 2019
I thought that this information would be interesting to a lot of you readers. A month or so ago I saw a video on u-tube where a guy was checking lead hardness with a set of drawing pencils. He had checked alloys of a known BHN and by trial and error he came up with a chart that you could use to check the BHN of a unknown alloy. How it works is, take a piece of alloy of unknown BHN and start seeing if the pencil would write on the alloy but not scratch it.When you finally fnd a pencil that will scratch the alloy and you know the hardness of the alloy you have found a pencil hardness that is a little harder than the alloy. I copied his chart down and ordered a full set of drawing pencils. Believe it or not I could not find a full set of drawing pencils from an American manufacturer or distributor on ebay or amazon. I ordered mine from Mylasia and finally got them today. I couldn't get them opened fast enough so that I could try them. I had some alloys of known BHN and a few of unknown BHN. Yes,  it did work fine. My known BHN alloys checked exactly to his chart. So I am sure that the unknown alloys checked right. Instead of me posting his chart here, you can pull his video up on u-tube and watch him do his thing and copy down his chart. Much cheaper that a lead hardness tester and very quick.

Pencil Hardness    BHN

6B                           4-5

5B                           7-8

 

4B                            9

3B                            10

2B                            11-12

B                               13

 

HB                             14-15                       

F                                16-18

H                                20-22

2H                              26-28

 There is a lot of supposedly lead hardness testing means on u-tube, however this one is cheap, inexpensive, quick and I guarantee you it WORKS. Please excuse my messy columns in the above info.

Mashburn

[Nvreloader]

Bill
Go to page #7, Post # 135 for the info on testing lead hardness.........
I think you missed it............LOL
You have had a bunch of info thrown at you in a short time................LOL
Tia,
Don

[avator]

Thanks Don, I did vaguely remember it once Kris mentioned it.

[Back_Roads]

 I have been trying not to add too much information to this, until Bill has some more lead poured, as it is probably like trying to drink from a firehose ATM

[avator]

well, I must be getting better..
I just dropped another 50 or 60 and only had to toss one back.
I need to make my casting station more comfortable.. my lower back gets to aching after about 30 minutes from standing. I'll get it fine tuned.

[Back_Roads]

 I use a cheap fiberglass swivel, adjustable height office chair, so it is a sit and swivel operation, something one has to develop to fit their style

[avator]

That gravel floor under where I have the pot set up now makes it hard to use a chair. I just need to
 move to a different location. I have several options.

I'm going to test these in the Avenger today.

[Wayne52]

I think the very first thing I stickied was Dons thread on hardness testing.

[avator]

Ahh... much better..
It's amazing how quickly they pile up when your comfortable doing it.

[avator]

I've learned that if I make contact on the fill nipple with the mold I still get a great pour and very little sprue. It's almost like Wayne's pressure pour.
With smaller sprue I don't have to knock so hard to cut it.

Oh, I never mentioned what I decided to use for my knocker...
There were a couple fiber glass coated wooden dowel electrician reach poles in the barn. They were about 10' long. I cut them to make locking poles for the roll up door.
I use one of the cut offs as the knocker. It has a rubber bumper on the end so i'm not beating the snot out of the mold.
You can see it on the table to the left of the pot... it's screaming yellow...