Sunbeam
40 Cal
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2019
- Messages
- 121
- Reaction score
- 27
Hello ( from the UK )
I am sorry if this has been asked already, but I can not find the answer I need, so if anybody can point me to the information, that would be great. Maybe my issue is not so common, hence why I can't find the answer and we can get to the bottom of the problem here?
My problem is I'm getting patches of imperfections (lets call it frosting?) around the top of my round balls. The sides and bottoms of the balls are perfectly shiny, like a mirror, only the tops have patches of 'frosting'. Also, the cut sprue mark on the ball seems to be solid around the edge, but slightly corse in the middle, like the surface of snapped iron.
I assume (as designed) the balls should be perfectly shiny with a nice solid consistent sprue cut off?
I have been casting my own round balls for about a year now and have cast up maybe 3000 balls of differing sizes from .36-.656, all shoot well, all fit the guns, all group well. So I'm not having accuracy problems, but I'd just like to find out why my castings look great all over, but not the tops. I know the tops don't matter, as we load them with the sprue facing forwards, so only the sides really matter, but I'd just like fix my issue that's not a practical issue, if that makes any sense?
Here are two pics of a typical cast round ball of mine (.457) One pic shows the nice shiny bottom (and sides), the other shows a frosted top and rough sprue.
https://ibb.co/PcvMw63https://ibb.co/KxPC67j
My setup is Lee bottom feed pot and Lee alloy moulds, all bought within the last year.
My lead is range scrap from my UK club, mostly 22LR and air gun pellets.
I have been smoking the moulds now and again, but not much and a tiny spot of beeswax to lube the hinge (not enough to get into the mould).
I am starting to think smoking is a problem and I need to get into the mould and polish them with a Q tip and fine metal polish??
Thanks.
P.S,
I smelt my range scrap down in a big steel pot, skim off all the dross, add pure beeswax, mix in and skim again. Then the lead is ladled into small cake tins to form 500gram ingots. So the ingonts are quite pure. I also add a little beeswax into the melting pot from time to time as I add ingots to keep the level up while casting balls.
I am sorry if this has been asked already, but I can not find the answer I need, so if anybody can point me to the information, that would be great. Maybe my issue is not so common, hence why I can't find the answer and we can get to the bottom of the problem here?
My problem is I'm getting patches of imperfections (lets call it frosting?) around the top of my round balls. The sides and bottoms of the balls are perfectly shiny, like a mirror, only the tops have patches of 'frosting'. Also, the cut sprue mark on the ball seems to be solid around the edge, but slightly corse in the middle, like the surface of snapped iron.
I assume (as designed) the balls should be perfectly shiny with a nice solid consistent sprue cut off?
I have been casting my own round balls for about a year now and have cast up maybe 3000 balls of differing sizes from .36-.656, all shoot well, all fit the guns, all group well. So I'm not having accuracy problems, but I'd just like to find out why my castings look great all over, but not the tops. I know the tops don't matter, as we load them with the sprue facing forwards, so only the sides really matter, but I'd just like fix my issue that's not a practical issue, if that makes any sense?
Here are two pics of a typical cast round ball of mine (.457) One pic shows the nice shiny bottom (and sides), the other shows a frosted top and rough sprue.
https://ibb.co/PcvMw63https://ibb.co/KxPC67j
My setup is Lee bottom feed pot and Lee alloy moulds, all bought within the last year.
My lead is range scrap from my UK club, mostly 22LR and air gun pellets.
I have been smoking the moulds now and again, but not much and a tiny spot of beeswax to lube the hinge (not enough to get into the mould).
I am starting to think smoking is a problem and I need to get into the mould and polish them with a Q tip and fine metal polish??
Thanks.
P.S,
I smelt my range scrap down in a big steel pot, skim off all the dross, add pure beeswax, mix in and skim again. Then the lead is ladled into small cake tins to form 500gram ingots. So the ingonts are quite pure. I also add a little beeswax into the melting pot from time to time as I add ingots to keep the level up while casting balls.