I Beagled that mold

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I have an old Lee mold, 358-105-SWC but it drops at .356 Damb!

From popgunn: http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/phpBB3 ... le#p523403

I thought I might as well bump this up to a .360 38 S&W mold.
Pre-beagle.jpg
I sonic cleaned and scrubbed but never got it looking like new.
Beagle me.jpg
I put a square of aluminum duct tape over both halves and pressed them in with the blade. The left half is waiting for a trim.
Now .359-.360.jpg
Sure enough, they gained some in the waistline. I don't recall the pre-beagal weight but these are right at 105g.

I only poured about 40 before the tape on one side came off. You can see it in the center of the photo. They have a clear line where the two halves meet but nothing major. For old gun loads they should work fine. :thumbup:
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Re: I Beagled that mold

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From Captain Bringdown: :)

Not sure about your alloy, but the higher the proportion of lead, the more they shrink upon cooling. Wrinkles also contribute to the problem.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

Re: I Beagled that mold

3
beaurrr wrote:From Captain Bringdown: :)

Not sure about your alloy, but the higher the proportion of lead, the more they shrink upon cooling. Wrinkles also contribute to the problem.
That's the House Blend you're dissing.

Sometimes I have trouble telling impurities from the stuff that ought to be there. I had some granular crap and lots of it. It wasn't floating but it stuck to the ladle in clumps.
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Puffing up is no substitute for smarts but it's a common home remedy

Re: I Beagled that mold

4
Over the years of brousing through castboolits I have found one of the more popular alloys for pistols is a 50-50 mix of clip on wheel weight which can be as high as 12brn and stick on wheel weight which is considered pure lead. It has the benefit of extra weight and if it is to soft then you water quench and age for 2 weeks. That tend to give you the same hrdness as lyman no. 2 alloy around 15 brinell. You've never mentioned what temp you are casting at.

Re: I Beagled that mold

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Simmer down wrote:
beaurrr wrote:From Captain Bringdown: :)

Not sure about your alloy, but the higher the proportion of lead, the more they shrink upon cooling. Wrinkles also contribute to the problem.
That's the House Blend you're dissing.

Sometimes I have trouble telling impurities from the stuff that ought to be there. I had some granular crap and lots of it. It wasn't floating but it stuck to the ladle in clumps.
That's the same House Blend I use, brother. Impurities, schmimpurities.
Heh. Every batch I make behaves in some new, unexpected way. I just throw some sawdust in to the pot, light it on fire, stir it in, and go.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

Re: I Beagled that mold

6
If you first smelt at temps no higher then 650deg the crap that comes to the surface after a very good fluxing is crap to be discarded. there is generally a lot of sand becaus the alloy had at one time been used for something else and was poured into sand castings. At 650 deg if zinc is present in the alloy it will come to the surface looking like some cruddy gruel, the yellow stuff that forms a thin skin is tin. I flux till I get a perfect shiny bowl of liquid silver and form into ingots. When I melt the ingots for bullets I go through the smelting process again but I get far less crap to skim.

Re: I Beagled that mold

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I believe I was at about 800 when I poured yesterday. Today I bumped it up to see if that helped fill out the cavities. Towards the end I got the thermometer out and I bet it was over 900, it was past the high end and starting on Lap 2 of the dial. :shock:

From your descriptions I think I was cooking off the tin. It was like oatmeal and I scooped it out now and then. Towards the end the lead looked golden, not the mirror surface I've seen before.

I bought that thermometer and I guess I should use it.
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Puffing up is no substitute for smarts but it's a common home remedy

Re: I Beagled that mold

8
May I suggest fluxing with sawdust before you scoop out anything? There's likely a good bit of tin and antimony present as oxides in that stuff. Sawdust will reduce those oxides back into the melt.
And/or you could scrounge for some solder scraps.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

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