Boolit casting

[dsol]

Took Friday off and spent some time in my shop, cleaning and re-organizing. Had a friend coming over Saturday to learn how to cast so I fired up the pot and made sure everything worked. I have had this brass mold from Mihec over on castboolits.com for several years and never used it.

Looks like this:


Made me a mess of these:



Son helped me size and lube over 330 of them yesterday afternoon. Ready to stuff more cases. Not sure if I want to make me some hot .38 spl loads or go all out with .357's. If I go with some hot .357's, I will probably go ahead and get some crimp on aluminum gas checks to keep from leading the hell out of the barrels.

I also have a really nice 158 grain SWC Hollow point mold that is gas checked. Those are going to be cast nice and soft and pushed to some go to hell velocities to duplicate the Buffalo Bore loads for practice.

 

[Leadeye]

Good looking boolits.

 

[boatswainsmate]

I have a mold like your's but mine has a multiple crimp groves. It's Miha's 359640 mold. This is a bunch of solids that I made and powder coated.

 

[Leadeye]

Another nice pile, someday I'm going to have to try the powder coating trick.

 

[boatswainsmate]

Another nice pile, someday I'm going to have to try the powder coating trick.

Here is my simple set-up.

 

[1988-4551]

Is that tumbler dedicated to powder coating?

 

[boatswainsmate]

Is that tumbler dedicated to powder coating?

I have two bowls for this tumbler. I bought the extra bowl at harbor freight. It fit on my RCBS tumbler.

 

[dsol]

I am going to have to get some details on that method of powder coating! PM incoming boats

 

[mac45]

castboolits.com has a ton of information on powder coating

 

[oldpink]

Nice looking slugs.
Does the brass offer some advantages over cast iron or aluminum?
I'm guessing that they'll heat up more quickly and uniformly, for one, right?

 

[dsol]

I am going to have to get some details on that method of powder coating! PM incoming boats

Almost too much... I have read some on there and the differing opinions are all over the place. I would like a tumbler method that can do several hundred at one time and it looks like Boats there has success with that. Just hope to pick his brain over the powder he uses and what technique. I lube sized my last castings and hope to get my hands on some black or dark blue powder for the next round and give that a "shot".

 

[dsol]

Nice looking slugs.
Does the brass offer some advantages over cast iron or aluminum?
I'm guessing that they'll heat up more quickly and uniformly, for one, right?

I am not sure, I think the brass machines nicer but it sure looks classy. It is slow to heat up but once it is up to casting temp, it maintains very well. I had a few frosty ones but my lead melt temp was too high. Once I backed my pot down it threw consistently good looking boolits.

I have some steel H&G molds that I have not used yet, but I wager that they take forever to heat up. The brass is a little lighter so maybe the faster heating, consistent temperature and lighter weight are the advantages. Just don't drop it, I would cry for days if I damaged mine. It is a work of art and now I am heading off to castboolits.com to look for any more that might be coming up in the group buys... my birthday is coming up.

 

[dieselrealtor]

I agree about info overload at CB, I typically get a bit frustrated when trying to "search" my answers, then give up & create a post asking what I need to know.

I am in the same boat about wanting to do several hundred at a time, I haven't started casting yet but the thought of spending inordinate amounts of time on powder coating doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Wolfhound]

Almost too much... I have read some on there and the differing opinions are all over the place. I would like a tumbler method that can do several hundred at one time and it looks like Boats there has success with that. Just hope to pick his brain over the powder he uses and what technique. I lube sized my last castings and hope to get my hands on some black or dark blue powder for the next round and give that a "shot".

Here are some 9mm I coated with gloss black and loaded up. Also some green in there too.

 

[djones]

The brass molds are great for holding heat. They are heavy though. You need a shelf or mold guide to help relieve the weight while casting.

Mihec 359-220 in 358 win

 

[billybob44]

I tried it and l

"I haven't started casting yet but the thought of spending inordinate amounts of time on powder coating doesn't appeal to me. "

Liked it..

I've casted/lubersized handgun bullets for around 25 years. Just recently started Powder Coat--The "Shake+Bake" method.

The benefits of PC FAR outweigh the negatives..Yes, it does take time, but to ME is worth it.

Go on over to CastBoolits and check it out...Bill.

 

[boatswainsmate]

I love my brass molds from Miha. Once you get them dialed in they make a beautiful pile of bullets!

 

[straight-shooter]

Diggin the PID. I fought off the urge to splurge on one and finally did. Great investment since it really does regulate the temps and keeps them more consistent for a better final finished bullet.