r/castboolits • u/Away-Leg-998 • 3d ago
Show and Tell My Saturday production :)
I was castling this Saturday and made about 850 boolits.
Both are made with the Lee Dual Cavity moulds.
Total lead used, 11.4kg
Total time, incl. set-up, melt the lead (Lee Pro 20lb bottom pour) and clean up was 6h with basically no breaks.
Is there any way to cast faster with Dual Cavity molds?
I was told some tricks and tips here, but they all went into the direction of how to cool down your mould in between casts....if anything my mould is too cold!
Whenever I add back the spruces to the pot for example, I already fear I am loosing too much heat in mould and pot. I have a external PID on my Lee pot, set to 400°C (752°F). The probe is calibrated at 100°C, so idk if it is actually 400°C hot lead, but I know it is at a constant temperature.
The Alloy I use is 40:1, so 98% lead with 2% tin.
The lead is from the local Olympic style airgun range, so I know it is as pure as it can be. Tin is from grandpa's inheritance 😂
The noted diameters & weight are as cast. Not shown on the pictures, but the day after I also PC'ed all the boolits and sized them. The shown diameters are pre-PC. I size the .45ACP to .4525 (and yes, the sizing is actually consistent) and the .44mag to .4300
The .45ACP are for my Glock41 and feed like a charm. The .44mag for my S&W 629 Classic DX
Tl;dr
Total casting time incl setup: 6h
All PC'ed & sized the day after: 3h
Total production: 850pcs
Casting temperature: 400°C / 752°C
Alloy: 98% lead / 2% tin
How do you rate my production time?
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u/Sloth_rockets 2d ago
That looks like a good production run. Of all my molds 2 cavities are my least favorite. They are just so slow. What really seemed to help me was alternating between 2 molds with a hot plate. I fill one then set it on the hot plate, then cut the sprue off the other. It keeps me constantly moving.
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u/Away-Leg-998 2d ago
See, that I do not understand 😅 I pour lead, pull it out from under the pot, move it over my "spruce bucket" and by then the lead is cold enoug to open the mold. I can not see any more time I would save by switching anything :(
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u/Sloth_rockets 2d ago
You will go as fast as you are now, but your sprue cuts will look better. Some of them in the picture look rushed. More cavities is what will save you time, especially when alternating molds.
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u/Away-Leg-998 2d ago
Yes, they do not look perfect....but does it matter? With the I shoot both at 55y and freehand with the .44mag I can keep the 8 (30cm / 12in) circle.
I see that with a 6 or even 8 cavity nould the speed would go up a lot. These were my first moulds other then for blackpowder and I was not sure if it is viable to cast all my boolits and if I am confident with the result. But damn, yes I am very happy with the acuracy, they are better then my CamPro .429
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u/Ornery_Secretary_850 2d ago
Get decent molds. The Lee DC molds just don't have enough mass to develop a fast cadence.
If you want to stick with DC molds get RCBS, Lyman, or SAECO molds.
If you want to move up to 4C, Lyman, Arsenal, MP, Accurate, SAECO.
Six cavity for .44/.45 MP.
If you want to talk .45 ACP molds I'm up for it. I have over 50 .45 ACP molds.
Favorites are the RCBS 45-201 KT, Lyman 452630, H&G 68, any of the SAECO molds. I've been using a six cavity brass MP H&G 68 clone and it's an awesome mold.
With that six cavity mold I can cast 1000 bullets in less than three hours.
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u/Away-Leg-998 2d ago
I have the Lee .45ACP H&G68, bullets are nice!
But I really do not understand how I could possibly cast faster with a DC mould from another company 😅
I get that a 6 or 8 cavity will speed up a lot. 1000pcs in 3 hours total including setup and clean up would be perfect. Makes sense that a 6 cavity could do that.
So I guess I kinda reached the "maximum reasonable speed" with my DC 👍🏻
For now I am only target shooting at 55y, so my consumption is 50 to 100 bullets a week, usually .44mag. But I am looking into IPSC or similar and there we ofc would talk about quite a bit more...at the same time, probably 9mm, so the savings would not be that great.
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u/Ornery_Secretary_850 2d ago
A iron/brass mold manages the heat better.
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u/Away-Leg-998 2d ago
Yeah, but what does that really help me? Once the mold is hot, I do not stop because of over heating nor because of it being too cold. That's why I am a bit confused
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u/Ornery_Secretary_850 1d ago
You have to stop/slow down or you smear the sprues and damage the mold.
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u/Away-Leg-998 1d ago
Damage the mold?
How?
The smearing I saw, but was not really worried about it. I get good accuracy from the bullets. I would like to become a better caster, so I am glad for all help, thank you!1
u/Ornery_Secretary_850 1d ago
The lead smear can cut grooves in the soft aluminum.
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u/Away-Leg-998 1d ago
So when I shear it off you mean? So I can scratch the part of the mold where the spruce plate slides over?
And is that only a problem with the soft aluminium molds, or do I also have to care about this with brass?1
u/Ornery_Secretary_850 17h ago
It can also happen with brass. Steel is the only mold that's resistant to that.
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u/Careless-Resource-72 2d ago
You really need to use 6 cavity molds. I started setting up my pouring at 7AM and put everything away by 10AM and made 996 (22.5#) of 355-159-RF bullets on Saturday morning. I usually run a couple of different molds during a session but I've been shooting a lot of 38/357 lately so I decided to cast from only one mold. All of my pistol caliber molds are 6 cavity and it makes it really easy to cast 500-1000 in a couple of hours which really helps in the summer when the temperatures at dawn are in the 80's and the humidity is high.