Sticky On Lead Bullet Making?

[jwest]

I found this thread doing a search - pretty good regarding ingot molds; hope I'm not breaking any etiquette rules here:

https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4670402

I picked up a small cast iron sauce pot tonight at OSH that should work fine; I will know for sure tomorrow.

[jwest]

There should have been one small bottle inside of each of the lee sizing kits. I have never heard of it being regulated. I used the alox at first and it was soooo dirty when shot that I went PC.

I would contact midway and let them know that you were missing parts from your order and get them to send you the other two containers.

Definitely contact midway, same thing happened to me, I emailed them and they sent out the bottles to me.

Yeah, already emailed them. Noticed also that it's a non-returnable item; guess due to the Alox.

[jwest]

a slide show of some withe red carnuba
http://s234.photobucket.com/user/fas.../Red%20Carnuba

Nice! Thanks for that.

[Carcassonne]

I'll have to check out whitelabel.

What's the issue with Lee Liquid Alox being DOT regulated?

I ordered three lube and sizing kits from Midway and got only one bottle of that stuff with the kits - even though pretty sure should have received three.

And, it appeared they had been opened - like it had been opened somewhere along the transportation route - is there a restriction on the # of Alox bottles that can be shipped? If that were true you'd think Midway would have said something before shipping the order.

If it was around the 20th (Inauguration Day) of this month, than UPS opened it. I had several packages that were opened, and items were removed. The Teamster Union idiots were mad that Trump was president, so they took it out on us.

There should have been one small bottle inside of each of the lee sizing kits. I have never heard of it being regulated. I used the alox at first and it was soooo dirty when shot that I went PC.

I would contact midway and let them know that you were missing parts from your order and get them to send you the other two containers.

It is semi regulated. It contains Mineral Spirits so it can't be sent by air. Midway won't ship Alox to Hawaii because of that rule. I do not know why they didn't ship it to California. I have many Lee sizers, and they were all shipped with a bottle of Alox inside.


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[jwest]

Made my first bullets early this A.M.

Kindof like programming. You can read all you want but doing it puts things in a different perspective.

Musings from a newbie:

Even though I was using a non-optimal flux; the amount of slag was much more than expected. I read somewhere that sawdust works best and I think I remember seeing someone do that when I was a kid.

Keeping the dies hot does make a big difference. Once you get rolling it's hard to stop.

I was quickly reminded how bad my depth of field is. Once I got the routine down a bit that was the one thing I struggled with the most.

Beeswax - one of the most amazing things on this Earth God has given us. Hail to the Honey Bees!

The cheap stuff - stainless and cast iron from that Daiso Japan place work fine.

Making bullets in the AM before the sun is out is fun. The molten lead does look like lava.

Thanks again to all that have given their advice in this thread,
jwest

[bruce381]

I started with a tuna can full of lead on a coleman stove with a lee single mold and a spoon.

38 special did splurge for a lyman sizer tho.

[jericho89]

For fluxing I use regular candle wax, got a crap ton if it on craigslist free and it works well to get all the slag to the surface and skim it off. I do melt all my lead in a large pot first and do the major fluxing there. Then it gets poured into molds for storage. The molds then go into the drop pot and I get very little slag there, but when I do I use a little more wax to clean it up.

[jwest]

For fluxing I use regular candle wax, got a crap ton if it on craigslist free and it works well to get all the slag to the surface and skim it off. I do melt all my lead in a large pot first and do the major fluxing there. Then it gets poured into molds for storage. The molds then go into the drop pot and I get very little slag there, but when I do I use a little more wax to clean it up.

Hello Jericho,

I may have misunderstood; but I ordered some ingots from Midway and thought they wouldn't have a lot of slag - but they did.

I may take a similar approach - got some stuff coming from Rotometals -
my propane grill certainly gets hot enough and I have some cast iron crucibles to fix plenty of lead in - I suppose that's a good idea to slag it first.

Thanks,
jwest

[stilly]

Yeah I am still on the fence about fluxing and why.

I THINK I had read that depending on your flux, you will have different results so for that reason I came up with a sawdust flux with pine chips at first, followed up by a beeswax flux. One draws out impurities, one helps other metals to mix in better... (Tin and antimony or other stuff)

[anyracoon]

I use sawdust for the first fluxing than Marvelux for the final fluxing.

[stilly]

And in other news I just signed up for 130 lbs of lead to be delivered for $150.

Fluxed and ingotized- clean and ready to go...

[jwest]

So Stilly, do you mind sharing your source?
I got some lead from Rotometals today.

[stilly]

So Stilly, do you mind sharing your source?
I got some lead from Rotometals today.

Go to castboolits website and talk to: jetsfan-24

The last time I bought lead off him it showed up in a PERFECT box and looked like it was transported on a pillow and gently placed on my doorstep. I KNOW USPS does not mail like that.

Tell him Stilly sent you, oh wait...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...33#post3905133 (old thread) He processes lead and makes ingots all of the time, he does not seem to go very long without having it in. His ingots look nice and folks have good things to say about him. If he is out, there are also other sources that sell lead back there too. You will save a lot of money in comparison to rotometals. They might have great lead, but it is lead and it gets shot, I do not need to spend $2.50+ per lb of pure lead...

I just bought his last two, but they are 130lbs and not 75 lbs. Makes sense. He gets lead in all of the time though AND there are plenty of other sellers there at castboolits as well. They know what they are doing.

[jericho89]

Yeah I am still on the fence about fluxing and why.

I THINK I had read that depending on your flux, you will have different results so for that reason I came up with a sawdust flux with pine chips at first, followed up by a beeswax flux. One draws out impurities, one helps other metals to mix in better... (Tin and antimony or other stuff)

Stilly as you know I get range lead and melt that down in an old free dutch oven off of craigslist, and I need to clean out all the dirt, slag, and jackets. The candle wax mixed in makes all of that crap float to the top. Do I know the science around it.... ummm NO but it works. After I skim all the crap off I cast the lead into ingots. From there they go into the electric pot and I am able to cast without having to treat the electric pot for the most part. Every now and then I get some oxidation in the electric pot and either clean it out between casting sessions, or if I am in one long 100# run I will put a pinch of wax into the lead to get the oxidation to float to the top for skimming.

I have never used beeswax for fluxing even though I have a fiend with beehives and I get all of his wax. I may have to try it some time and see how it works.

[stilly]

Stilly as you know I get range lead and melt that down in an old free dutch oven off of craigslist, and I need to clean out all the dirt, slag, and jackets. The candle wax mixed in makes all of that crap float to the top. Do I know the science around it.... ummm NO but it works. After I skim all the crap off I cast the lead into ingots. From there they go into the electric pot and I am able to cast without having to treat the electric pot for the most part. Every now and then I get some oxidation in the electric pot and either clean it out between casting sessions, or if I am in one long 100# run I will put a pinch of wax into the lead to get the oxidation to float to the top for skimming.

I have never used beeswax for fluxing even though I have a fiend with beehives and I get all of his wax. I may have to try it some time and see how it works.

Yes. Fluxing is a mystery to me still. Flux with pine chips, then with beeswax i think is the combo. It is just that everytime I have tried to look up what fluxing is, there are several pages that say to DO it, but never really gave a breakdown on what using various things does. I like the smell of the beeswax, but I think BoLee stated once to use pine chips, then beeswax for simplicity's sake. I want to know more about fluxing but it seems that in comparing fluxing to a path, a path of reloading seems to go like a bridge over water and fluxing descriptions seem to act like large stepping stones over water... There are gaps between spots that nobody seems to be able to fill in. And yes, you do have a most excellent arrangement for lead.
Lead is supposed to make things float to the top of the pot anyways due to density. I remember all of those clips I had to skim off from the tire weights. I just can not picture what else would NOT be floating to the top. EVERYTHING should float to the top, fluxed or not. Lately though it seems that I had oatmeal floating on top. I figured it was because the ingots chilled down the melt too much and I needed to be patient, but scooping it out meant about the top 1/5th came off. Bottom pour still worked great though!

Bottom line, I throw **** in the pot to "FLUX" and I can not tell the difference before or after on whether or not it worked. But I am told that it does work...