JohnnyD Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) I ended up casting and coating Saturday after I got home from an IDPA match as I had several hours before the wife was to be home. I'll get some pics up tonight. Actually went pretty smooth. I probably will load them up next Tuesday and give them a try the following Thursday. I water dropped them as soon as they came out of the oven for a lil extra hardness as my alloy is pretty soft to begin with (but enough antimony and arsenic to gain a lil hardness from water dropping). This also allowed me to size them within 5 mins of them coming out of the oven. If these end up shooting well I probably will get a bigger and better convection toaster oven. My lil oven had troubles getting to 400 according to the oven thermometer I bought and it'd be nice to be able to do several hundred per bake. Edited July 14, 2014 by JohnnyD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmorris Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I water dropped them as soon as they came out of the oven for a lil extra hardness as my alloy is pretty soft to begin with (but enough antimony and arsenic to gain a lil hardness from water dropping). If your coating holds up, you could use pure lead and it wouldn't make any difference, other than a bullet that weighed a few grains more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyD Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I water dropped them as soon as they came out of the oven for a lil extra hardness as my alloy is pretty soft to begin with (but enough antimony and arsenic to gain a lil hardness from water dropping). If your coating holds up, you could use pure lead and it wouldn't make any difference, other than a bullet that weighed a few grains more. That maybe true but I have read a couple instances of people over on the CB Forum who used really soft alloy and their accuracy was crap, when they hardened them up the groups tightened back up. Combine that with I can re-size them much faster I don't see myself not doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jriv9 Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Got the 15 lbs of linotype in the mail Fri along with my lee 20lb pot. I melted it down, fluxed, cleaned and poured into a muffin pan. Waiting on my other, soft, lead before casting. Plan to mix a 1:4 ratio of linotype to wheel weight lead. I test casted 6 good bullets with the mold. Once I get the other lead, I'll post up some pics of the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyD Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) Random handful of shake and dump 9's, the finish isn't close to perfect but I'll see how they do. I think getting some hardware cloth or a pizza tray like the guy used in that video will help. If they shoot just fine I don't care if my boolits are purty. I was going to try this with the airsoft BB's, but I couldn't find a place with the heavy ones in a small container at a couple of stores. Edited July 14, 2014 by JohnnyD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitrohuck Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) I powder coat all my cast boolits. Usually keep my 9's under 1200 fps and my 38's under 1000 fps. No leading or smoke with powder coat. I even ran 100 through my Glock 19 with no leading at all. Go to Cast Boolits . Com to learn more. Also I use wheel weights with 3% pure tin added. ^^^ This... I powder coat all of my lead bullets (and I shoot almost only lead exclusively) and it really doesn't matter what your alloy is, you can get away with pretty much anything if they are powder coated. I've shot Wheel weight alloy, range scrap alloy, none of it has made any once powder coated... It acts almost identical to a plated round at that point. I've pushed 300 Blackout rounds to over 2,100fps using simple range scrap no leading. Powder coating is also insanely simple and takes 10 minutes to do 300 bullets for me (more if you could fit more on your tray and/or double stack them in the oven). I use the dry tumble method using powder from Powder Buy The Pound Edited July 14, 2014 by nitrohuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyD Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Found time to load up 100 of the 9's I PC'ed over the weekend. Should be able to test at practice Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max It Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 hey 9, lot's of people directed you to castboolits.com I would strongly advise you to learn more before casting. my blood lead level has not descended much from a high of 17dll/ml since quitting. (10 is recommended max) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyD Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Here is a good read on lead safety - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?12795-Lead-Safety Honestly I'm more worried about lead exposure from tumbling media dust and shooting indoors. I limit my indoor shooting to winter only here in MI (couple times a month) and tumble in my detached garage or outside only. When reloading I wear nitrile gloves. Soon as I'm done reloading/casting my clothes get changed and I take a shower. After handling lead or firearms I wash hands using D-Lead soap. Your diet can also have an impact on lead levels (the removal of it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jriv9 Posted July 16, 2014 Author Share Posted July 16, 2014 hey 9, lot's of people directed you to castboolits.com I would strongly advise you to learn more before casting. my blood lead level has not descended much from a high of 17dll/ml since quitting. (10 is recommended max) I've got Lyman's book on casting and have read the safety section several times. I have a big fan directly in front of the pot pulling the fumes out the window and wash my hands thoroughly after handling lead. As far as doing more learning... I have been researching casting for months. At some point I have to jump in and get experience. Are there any constructive tips you can give to help limit exposure? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmorris Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) My lead levels were high a number of years ago, I just quit shooting indoor matches (shot once a week indoor back then), except for a few major matches (and 2 local indoor matches over the last 10 years). It dropped at that point. Edited July 16, 2014 by jmorris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max It Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 cast outdoors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyD Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I'm officially sold on PC'in. I shot 100 at practice earlier, no smoke and accuracy was the same as the 45/45/10 lube. Just some powder following and maybe a lil lil leading at the end of the muzzle. I am thinking it might have been left over from tradional lubed bullets. I only did a quick clean before hand. More testing will answer this for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max It Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 hi, what Johnny said; change clothes, wash them out. use mask and gloves. , cast and smelt lead outdoors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jriv9 Posted August 2, 2014 Author Share Posted August 2, 2014 Update... scored 150lbs of wheel weights from a tire shop for $75. He only uses lead so there seems to be very little zinc or steel in them so far. Smelted down 14 ingots of ww and have 6 ingots of linotype. I'm going to cast a pot of mixed 1:4 ratio lino/ww and another of straight ww... I'm thinking I won't even need the linotype with the PCing. Have the pizza screen/pan thing being delivered from Amazon for $5 and a toaster oven already. Should be able to post another update next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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