Preparation reading, reading, stocking up lead, beeswax, moulds, lubriziser, sizing dies and more reading.
Safety first
Was outside with the wind blowing away from me, used welders gloves, cotton shirt, safety sunglasses and a clear facecover protecting the face and a breathing mask probably to much but better safe than sorry.
Last weekend I melted down some old Lead from Windows that I got from a friend of mine that work as a glassworker. I used a old cast iron pot that I found in my storage, an old electric stove that I bought in a secondhand store. I tried it earlier to know what temperatures it can produce and it worked.The cast iron pot had difficulties when the level of lead got to high with the heat so I had to keep the level little lower. Fluxed with some old candles and a spoon and then used a Lee mould to get leadbars in 1lbs and 0,5lbs. Tried the hardness of the lead with a method using pencils according to this: https://youtu.be/LPFeyMLMgt0 and got around 8bhn well kind of soft but I´ll give it a go while learning figured it will work within 44spl loads.
Yeah this will work over 400degrees Celsius
Sorry for no images during process but here is the bars ready and you see my cast iron pot and the junklead my workbench is an old barbecuegrill
making some lube.
Making the moulds for lubesticks, a 1" PVC pipe, a M6 bolt with a washer in bottom. Then I melted down 50/50 180grams of beeswax and 180grams of molybdendisulfid grease) and poured in the PVC pipes and went inside to watch the Icehockey. When the lube was cold it was simple to press it out of the PVCpipes.
Today some casting
It took a while to learn the Lee production pot settings and to get the mould to the right temperature. I used the Lee RNFN 200grain .429 2cavitiy mould and casted around 100bullets just to see the results. They dropped at a weight at 210grains, and size around .430 I ran them through a lubrasizer with a .431 die (not my lube yet used the lube that was inside already) just to get some lube on them and figured I wanted the bullet to be over .430.
Some shiny bullets
Some learning to do about hardness and such but overall everything worked out great, I do have wheelweights and linotypebars ready to go in but I wanted to learn all the way from scrap to bullet, noticed the production pot was hard to pour out from with low level of lead. Reason is that I didnt want to cast alot of bullet if it turns out to be too soft alloy. Noticed its alot of pollen in the air that stuck on the surface of the lead.
Result to be found out, not sure about the hardness the bullet will probably work in lighter 44spl loads in a revolver or with powdercoating, not sure about the henry becauce of the softer 8bhn leadalloy. And it probably are to small diameter for the henry, the combination of both with the longer barrel well we will see. I Will probably have to beagle the mould to get a better fit for my henry.
Anyway had really fun learning, and cant wait to try this out the lead will probably change a little harder in a week or two? its all freshly casted now. This is not about costs its just fun and learning to do things yourself, I just found one more hobby in my other hobbies shooting, reloading and now casting
