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

[avator]

Bill
By any chance do you have a clamp on volt meter? 
Some of them will take a plug in temp probe, I know my Sears model does,
I just got a plug in long temp probe and that is what I use, I can check my molds and lead
all with the same item.


HtH's,
Don

Another good suggestion from the group...
When my BIL passed my Sister told me to come clean out his garage and take what I wanted. I brought an 6 x 12 enclosed v nose trailer full home. I'm still finding things in the many tool boxes and cabinets, I know I've seen 3 or 4 multi testers in that stuff... I'll have to go look.. one of them may even have the probe.   thanks Don.

Nope, nope and nope.. I found 3 of them, two of which were in the original boxes. All 3 were voltage and ohm only.
I'll find something in my travels... I always do.

[triggertreat]

Bill, you probably already know this, but you can flip the sprue plate around to the opposite end so that you can knock it open from the open end instead the cramped handle end.  You can also install the handle from the other end if that works better for you.  I say this because I had to move mine around from OEM because I am a lefty.

[Back_Roads]

 Hmm the mold oven reminds me of Bender 

[avator]

Kieth, I actually set my mold set my molds up this way. This is how I'm most comfortable.

James, I knew I had seen that robot before but I couldn't remember where.

[avator]

Nice tin of .25 cal pellets... one of about 10 right now. Working on .22 as I type.

[Spacebus]

Nice tin of .25 cal pellets... one of about 10 right now. Working on .22 as I type.

I think it is neat that you have guns that will shoot accurately with the short pins! This makes me want to try the different pins in my .22 WC mold when it gets here.  My 22 cal rifle can't make use of the longer pins in the 22 cal hunter mold, so I never tried them.

[avator]

After tumbling and culling probably 400 .22 I weighed 3 different groups of 10 pellets.
I got 197.xx for the low and 205.xx for the high. Then I weighed 40 pellets and got 797.xx.
I would consider that pretty acceptable.

Oh and BTW... between rounds of casting I took the Beeman 1358 to the bench. 1/2" 35yd groups of 5 shots. So far 4 of the .22 PCP guns have passed muster with the cast pellets and the Urban also loving the HP slugs from a mold I have here on loan. But.. I think I still want to find a .22 mold in the 14 - 16 range for some of my other platform .22 guns that are less tunable.

[avator]

Nice tin of .25 cal pellets... one of about 10 right now. Working on .22 as I type.

I think it is neat that you have guns that will shoot accurately with the short pins! This makes me want to try the different pins in my .22 WC mold when it gets here.  My 22 cal rifle can't make use of the longer pins in the 22 cal hunter mold, so I never tried them.

I apologize if I've misled you DJ.. it's been a whirlwind experience. I ended up going back to the longer pin (lighter pellet) because after setting the power of both Sentrys down to 3 they both shoot those the best. The Avenger don't really care.
But as we all know, even like guns can shoot different pellets better. I suggest you give all 3 sets a fair shake as I have.

[Spacebus]

After tumbling and culling probably 400 .22 I weighed 3 different groups of 10 pellets.
I got 197.xx for the low and 205.xx for the high. Then I weighed 40 pellets and got 797.xx.
I would consider that pretty acceptable.

Oh and BTW... between rounds of casting I took the Beeman 1358 to the bench. 1/2" 35yd groups of 5 shots. So far 4 of the .22 PCP guns have passed muster with the cast pellets and the Urban also loving the HP slugs from a mold I have here on loan. But.. I think I still want to find a .22 mold in the 14 - 16 range for some of my other platform .22 guns that are less tunable.

The NOE 217-17-WC drops at 16.5 grain, but is a wadcutter. NOE is the only game in town for pellet molds, so if they don't have it, you will probably have to find someone who will make a mold for you.

[avator]

After tumbling and culling probably 400 .22 I weighed 3 different groups of 10 pellets.
I got 197.xx for the low and 205.xx for the high. Then I weighed 40 pellets and got 797.xx.
I would consider that pretty acceptable.

Oh and BTW... between rounds of casting I took the Beeman 1358 to the bench. 1/2" 35yd groups of 5 shots. So far 4 of the .22 PCP guns have passed muster with the cast pellets and the Urban also loving the HP slugs from a mold I have here on loan. But.. I think I still want to find a .22 mold in the 14 - 16 range for some of my other platform .22 guns that are less tunable.

The NOE 217-17-WC drops at 16.5 grain, but is a wadcutter. NOE is the only game in town for pellet molds, so if they don't have it, you will probably have to find someone who will make a mold for you.

Yes but with so many people shooting the 14.3 and 15.x you would think, as home casting is gaining popularity, that it's just a matter of time before there is enough demand. Oh and let's not forget how fast the cost of pellets and shipping is rising. That's right there is a big part of my motivation. One of the main reasons for the increased interest in airguns was the rising cost of PB ammo.

[Spacebus]

After tumbling and culling probably 400 .22 I weighed 3 different groups of 10 pellets.
I got 197.xx for the low and 205.xx for the high. Then I weighed 40 pellets and got 797.xx.
I would consider that pretty acceptable.

Oh and BTW... between rounds of casting I took the Beeman 1358 to the bench. 1/2" 35yd groups of 5 shots. So far 4 of the .22 PCP guns have passed muster with the cast pellets and the Urban also loving the HP slugs from a mold I have here on loan. But.. I think I still want to find a .22 mold in the 14 - 16 range for some of my other platform .22 guns that are less tunable.

The NOE 217-17-WC drops at 16.5 grain, but is a wadcutter. NOE is the only game in town for pellet molds, so if they don't have it, you will probably have to find someone who will make a mold for you.

Yes but with so many people shooting the 14.3 and 15.x you would think, as home casting is gaining popularity, that it's just a matter of time before there is enough demand. Oh and let's not forget how fast the cost of pellets and shipping is rising. That's right there is a big part of my motivation. One of the main reasons for the increased interest in airguns was the rising cost of PB ammo.

I think the difficulty in making a smaller weight pellet mold is the cherry required to cut the mold. There's a guy local to me who wants to make custom molds, but hasn't quite gotten the tooling set up yet. I'm sure NOE would have made lighter molds if they had the ability, and I recall one of RSterne's posts mentioning that there is a lack of machining capability for such small pellet molds. Aside from the NOE molds all the pellets currently available for small bores are swaged in a two step forming process. Perhaps Corbin or NOE will make dies for DIY swaged pellets.

[avator]

May be hopeless then.

Maybe I'll just have an airgun yardsale.   

[Spacebus]

May be hopeless then.

Maybe I'll just have an airgun yardsale.   

Did you end up getting a loaner WC mold? If not, I can send you some test pellets once mine is broken in. Might work out for your less powerful 22 cal stuff since they like to go slower anyway.

[avator]

May be hopeless then.

Maybe I'll just have an airgun yardsale.   

Did you end up getting a loaner WC mold? If not, I can send you some test pellets once mine is broken in. Might work out for your less powerful 22 cal stuff since they like to go slower anyway.

Yes, I have the loaner.. no good for me. I've had samples from other folks in the past as well.
It's all good, I went into this with the intentions of downsizing.

[avator]

A large portion of my lower powered guns were either purchased or converted to .177. .177 pellets can be found at good cost per shot prices.

[avator]

Dropped and tumbled another 500 or so of the .22 20gr today. I figure I'm culling about 20%.
The mold oven does a great job at giving me a constant starting temp. I'm not getting near the flash I was getting.
That 2 out brass mold is alot slower than the 4 drop .25 mold.

I think the plan for tomorrow is to continue testing some of my .22 guns. It's warm enough out to even test the couple C02 .22 guns.

[avator]

Looks like Willie G. Stubbs is gonna like my cast 20gr FN. That's great news.

[EdinGa]

Looks like Willie G. Stubbs is gonna like my cast 20gr FN. That's great news.

Those 20 grainers are awesome pellets. Wayne has taught me to not worry about the weight and just try pellets in guns I never thought of.

[avator]

Yessir... I've got to the point that I don't weigh those at all anymore. I tumble them and inspect them. If they don't have any visable defects they go in the container.
I was weighing every 10th one or so... they were so close that I just stopped.
Just for giggles I just weighed 20 pellets... all came in between 19.78 and 20.40.

[avator]

I had to make a beer and gas run after breakfast this morning and stopped at one of the second hand stores we have here in town. I picked one of these up to be used for an ingot mold...  $5.
Looks like is not been seasoned with oil for a long time so it should be good to go. I'll bake it off a couple times to be sure. If I see oils come out of it I'll give it a good Dawn soaking.