This may help, I hope. I was casting before my accident, I have a 20# bottom pour setup. I kept the pour spout touching the sprue plate. I had very few pellets going back to the melter. It was in fact a sort pressure pour. Of course some adjustments were made on the fly , if the pot was full, I'd keep about 1/8th distance between the spout and the plate. As it emptied, I'd move the two closer together.
I might be off on the temperature. There was actually a note included with the mold from NOE that said that temp should be kept close to 600 degrees for the aluminum molds. I was surprised to see that if I can find the slip of paper I'll post a photoMaybe I should have said mid-600s. It got up to about 700, turned it down, when it was at 690 I turned it down a bit more and i was tossing my sprues back into the pot as i cast. Once I saw the temperature drop below 675 I didn't pay attention after that I just assumed it must be have cooled further because of the sprues I'm not sorting them or weighing them or anything so I'm not sure how good the results are but I'm using a pressure pour ladle, and not dealing with thin skirts from pellets. I also get the mold nice and hot on the back of the furnace before casting for the first few casts i pour lots of extra lead on the sprue plate to heat it quickly (using the ladle, any excess that doesn't harden from flows back into the furnace). We The reason I got the 25 caliber GK1 and not the .22 was because I've had good luck casting that size and already had some molds.
I don't cast pellets, I cast 65 gr slugs.. I have a accurate mold and never had any stick.. I just took it from the box and put it in the toaster oven ..I heat the mold with it slightly open to 450 degrees. I cast at 770 f .. I also use synthetic 2 stroke oil for lubricating the mold sprue cutter.. I think you should bump up the temperature, which in turn, if you have a bottom pour, will help keep the spout temp. up also.. Leave the first pour in the mold for a bit, to bring it up to temp. better.. As for the pins graphite also work well.. Keep at it, and you will make some fine pellets!!!
The reason I got the 25 caliber GK1 and not the .22 was because I've had good luck casting that size and already had some molds.
You know Bill, you should really merry that woman 😜. All my wife wants to do is take over more and more of the shooting shed and the garage.😡
News flash....We were out puttering around in the yard yesterday and I needed something out of Betty Lou's She Shed. Betty Lou said "I don't even know why I need a She Shed, I don't garden so it's just yard tool storage". I jokingly mentioned that it would make a great place to set up the casting corner and open up space in the Red Shed. She replied "Go for it",This morning she asked if I was going to move stuff into it today. I told her I couldn't work in there in this heat. She suggested we go buy a 6000 btu window a/c unit for it. So off we went..I stopped at the local discount joint and picked up a 6000 btu GE refurb unit for $137 out the door. (It's senior discount day) I now have an 8 x 10 refrigerator. I also have a wall mount propane heater to mount on the wall and supply with a #20 propane tank for the cold weather months.I spent the morning moving casting corner into the new Castin' Shack.I love my wife.
As I go through this learning curve with the 217RF20 Mold, I look at the groups with (value priced) Apollo 18s and (premium $0.05) JSB 18s and think of buying a couple thou JSBs on the 4 for 3 from PA and not buying anymore .22 AG so I can cast .25 and larger slugs. I might try the 218RN25 in the pp800r and the Notos.....that might be the one reason I plenum and further modify the Notos as I think that slug would need more like a 25fpe+ push.
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