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Official NES Cast Bullets Seminar

Mountain said:
Maybe it just feels that way on my back but seems like I have ~100 lbs of wheel weights and misc lead from mac1911 and Dakar652. Thanks guys!

Besides bullets I'd like to bring home some properly alloyed ingots too. Gofundme for my back surgery to follow.

Bringing my M39 Finn Mosin 7.62x54R to slug. Everything else known calibers. Edit- may as well bring M44 too.

Mac1911 gave me some great looking finished bullets in .310". Should I size these down a thou for .308 Winchester or a new .30-06 barrel?
Click to expand...

Mountain I am bringing two molds for .312 one is 160gr and the other is 180gr. The one thing I don't have is some pure lead slugs if no one has any I will try and make some from a 338 mold. I have 6 one foot oak dowels for slugging the barrel. Just to let you know your Finn should be .308 and the M44 .311 in that area.
 
Phew, time for a beer.

Thanks to all who came and I hope you got what you wanted out of the day. If there were any unanswered questions or topics untouched feel free to shoot me, Mike or Bill a pm on the subject. If we don't already know the answer I'm sure we will be able to point you to the source.

Thanks to Dave for the incredible chili and ...John? (I'm so sorry I forgot your name!) for the tasty ghost pepper dip.

The Goose with surprise giveaway casting pots- thanks so much!

Thanks to Bill for giveaways including the mold tappers, coins, and most of all your knowledge. Oh, and the sweet press knob!

Mike thanks again. so uh, next year? Same time same place?
 
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ASP said it all. Thank you all for the help. The donations. The knowledge. The attendance. The good times. The good food.
I'm glad we could pass on the knowledge and make another group of casters. I hope everyone had a great time.

Same deal next year I think.

Thanks again to BillNed for all the awesome coins and pocket Constitutions.
I can't wait to mount my press knob on my RCBS. maybe after a quick nap.


So what did you guys think? Any questions? I know the good questions always pop into your head as soon as hit the highway. Let us know!


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Thanks to all who put this together. It was very informative and fun. Nothing beats jumping right into hands-on training and making the early mistakes under knowledgeable instruction.

Food/doorprizes/bullets/ingots were terrific. The field trip to shooters supply was a bonus.

Time to fire up the furnace and put some lead downrange !
 
Unanswered questions? When's the BBQ seminar? That was some seriously awesome stuff. Chili and ghost pepper dip were great too.

Actually I do have one question: What's the procedure for shutting down the electric melting / pouring pots? Leave a little in the bottom? Pour out as much as possible? General cleaning and maintenance tips? You may have covered that & I missed it. Thanks

I thought the day was very well organized & pretty much answered any other questions I had plus taught me several things I had not thought about. Plenty of pots and molds available for everyone to walk away with some bullets they could use, or at least have a great time making whatever sparked interest.

Those .44's and round nose .30's were surprisingly easy to make. I can now see how the hollow points like my NOE ranch dogs are considered challenging. I'll keep my eyes open for a cheap hot plate to preheat the mold & take a crack at them again on my own once my travel schedule settles down. Wish I would have had time to visit Shooting Supply but wanted to spend some time with family before heading across the pond.

The door prizes were pretty awesome- thanks to all who contributed & thank you to Bill for the coin.

I hear there are some pumpkins getting out of hand at Monadnock, so pending some sizers I plan to send some of these bullets their way in a couple weeks.
 
This casting workshop was absolutely outstanding. I feel privileged for having participated. Seriously, this thing was world class. I doubt there is anyone anywhere who puts on a better one. I hope that everyone who attended realizes how unique and special it is and to anyone on NES who was unable to attend do not miss the next one. I am not new to casting, but I learned a ton today. Thank you Michael, Anthony and Bill for donating your time and knowledge, it is well appreciated.
 
I know I had a great time, and learned a lot. Now I have to go spend more money, so I can save money! Hahaha!
Thank you guys very much for all you did. Opening your home, and sharing all your knowledge. Much appreciated.


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John380 said:
Thanks to all who put this together. It was very informative and fun. Nothing beats jumping right into hands-on training and making the early mistakes under knowledgeable instruction.

Food/doorprizes/bullets/ingots were terrific. The field trip to shooters supply was a bonus.

Time to fire up the furnace and put some lead downrange !
Click to expand...
Glad you had fun! Show some pics when you get some bullets cast up.

BillNed said:
I hope all had a good time I sure did. Thanks to Mike and Anthony for putting this on and letting me help out.
I mentioned the Dropbox and here is the URL just send me a Private message for the password.
https://www.dropbox.com/home/reloading manuals
Click to expand...
Thanks man!! You were an awesome help today. Always much appreciated to have the extra help and knowledge of a pro.

Mountain said:
Unanswered questions? When's the BBQ seminar? That was some seriously awesome stuff. Chili and ghost pepper dip were great too.

Actually I do have one question: What's the procedure for shutting down the electric melting / pouring pots? Leave a little in the bottom? Pour out as much as possible? General cleaning and maintenance tips? You may have covered that & I missed it. Thanks

I thought the day was very well organized & pretty much answered any other questions I had plus taught me several things I had not thought about. Plenty of pots and molds available for everyone to walk away with some bullets they could use, or at least have a great time making whatever sparked interest.

Those .44's and round nose .30's were surprisingly easy to make. I can now see how the hollow points like my NOE ranch dogs are considered challenging. I'll keep my eyes open for a cheap hot plate to preheat the mold & take a crack at them again on my own once my travel schedule settles down. Wish I would have had time to visit Shooting Supply but wanted to spend some time with family before heading across the pond.

The door prizes were pretty awesome- thanks to all who contributed & thank you to Bill for the coin.

I hear there are some pumpkins getting out of hand at Monadnock, so pending some sizers I plan to send some of these bullets their way in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

Anthony will teach the BBQ seminar next weekend. LOL.
Keep the Lee pot stocked up at all times. That way it's full and you get the best heat transfer for turning it back on later.
Just unplug it when you're all done with it.

The biggest thing with the hollow points if keep em hot and don't look at them till the pot is empty!
You'll nail it in no time.
 
The Goose said:
This casting workshop was absolutely outstanding. I feel privileged for having participated. Seriously, this thing was world class. I doubt there is anyone anywhere who puts on a better one. I hope that everyone who attended realizes how unique and special it is and to anyone on NES who was unable to attend do not miss the next one. I am not new to casting, but I learned a ton today. Thank you Michael, Anthony and Bill for donating your time and knowledge, it is well appreciated.
Click to expand...
Thank you Goose. That means a ton coming from you. An NES legend such as yourself with some of the best damn reloading posts this forum has ever seen. Thank you.

Daveusow said:
I know I had a great time, and learned a lot. Now I have to go spend more money, so I can save money! Hahaha!
Thank you guys very much for all you did. Opening your home, and sharing all your knowledge. Much appreciated.


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Click to expand...
Very glad you had fun.




Now I'm back home. Kids are in bed. Wish I stopped for beer like Anthony did though. Hell of a good day deserves a nice beer at the end.
Tequila it is.
 
I'll echo what Mike said, that means a lot coming from you. Thanks Steve.

Please refer to Alton Brown for cooking lessons: https://www.google.com/amp/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pulled-pork-recipe.amp.html

It is a good idea to drain your pot all the way occasionally. But not often. It's nice to see what kind of shape the bottom is in and how much crap has or has not built up. I agree with Mike's point tho. Regular use, just keep it full between uses. I like to pull the thermometer before it solidifies but you don't need to.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.
 
asp said:
I'll echo what Mike said, that means a lot coming from you. Thanks Steve.

Please refer to Alton Brown for cooking lessons: https://www.google.com/amp/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pulled-pork-recipe.amp.html

It is a good idea to drain your pot all the way occasionally. But not often. It's nice to see what kind of shape the bottom is in and how much crap has or has not built up. I agree with Mike's point tho. Regular use, just keep it full between uses. I like to pull the thermometer before it solidifies but you don't need to.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.
Click to expand...

Alton Brown and good eats has been a great source for me on good food. I like the "science" behind his show...

Glad you all had a good time and it's a fine hobby.
Little chilly out tonight .....I wanted to smelt some more lead!
Hope the lead mountain brought was decent stuff....Ed did you trick these guys into sorting the wheel weights for you?
If you did get to smelt them down what was the yield... ?

I,will most likely never find the time to go but I will always be able to hook a few new casters up with some lead for the class.
 
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mac1911 said:
Alton Brown and good eats has been a great source for me on good food. I like the "science" behind his show...

Glad you all had a good time and it's a fine hobby.
Little chilly out tonight .....I wanted to smelt some more lead!
Hope the lead mountain brought was decent stuff....Ed did you trick these guys into sorting the wheel weights for you?
If you did get to smelt them down what was the yield... ?

I,will most likely never find the time to go but I will always be able to hook a few new casters up with some lead for the class.
Click to expand...

No trickery involved. The method of the day was to go slowly and make sure the mixed feed is continuously pushed in and and mixed. As soon as the lead melts all the other junk is skimmed out. Slower melt process but no time pickin'. Thanks again for the lead- the guys were suggesting each take 20 lbs home, I was gtg with 16.
 
Mountain said:
No trickery involved. The method of the day was to go slowly and make sure the mixed feed is continuously pushed in and and mixed. As soon as the lead melts all the other junk is skimmed out. Slower melt process but no time pickin'. Thanks again for the lead- the guys were suggesting each take 20 lbs home, I was gtg with 16.
Click to expand...

Did you mix all the lead together? Any hardness test on it? We need to find someone with one of those fancy alloy laser tester thingies.
 
mac1911 said:
Did you mix all the lead together? Any hardness test on it? We need to find someone with one of those fancy alloy laser tester thingies.
Click to expand...

We were split in two groups; each did one of the buckets so there would be two answers.
 
First group saw some stained glass lead and some lead flashing and pipe melted down. Then some WW and a couple small ingot from mac melted down as described by mountain.

Second group saw the WW melted down. Again with a couple small ingot mixed in the batch.

If anyone has a local scrap yard they can swing by I suggest going there to see how their supply of solder and Linotype looks. While you're there you can ask the workers if they can use their XRF gun to scan your ingots to see what the alloy is.
That should point you in the right direction.


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Michael J. Spangler said:
First group saw some stained glass lead and some lead flashing and pipe melted down. Then some WW and a couple small ingot from mac melted down as described by mountain.

Second group saw the WW melted down. Again with a couple small ingot mixed in the batch.

If anyone has a local scrap yard they can swing by I suggest going there to see how their supply of solder and Linotype looks. While you're there you can ask the workers if they can use their XRF gun to scan your ingots to see what the alloy is.
That should point you in the right direction.


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Click to expand...

Any scrap yard recommendations
Ones local to me want .90 lb for wheel weights and never have any decent scrap lead like linotype or such.

I buy old solder at yard sales and such. Always ask for junk pewter at flea markets .
 
Well I was there late and in spirit.... to windy to smelt today so I casted some 1oz slugs.
Flashing makes good slugs. They drop right at 1oz.
Someday I will actually go hunting a drop something with one.
These shoot as good as any typical slug out there.

 
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Was today too cold and windy to smelt? Nah. lol. I did about 65 lbs. It did take a little longer than normal though. I don't know how much your bucket yielded Mac since I dumped it into a larger bucket I already had but I did appreciate the donation nonetheless.
 
Boomer76 said:
Was today too cold and windy to smelt? Nah. lol. I did about 65 lbs. It did take a little longer than normal though. I don't know how much your bucket yielded Mac since I dumped it into a larger bucket I already had but I did appreciate the donation nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Yeah it was not much.... the amount of lead we get off the tires these days is dwindling. Just a note the overall total weight of wheel weights used on tires is getting lower.
Go back about 10 years with a older balancer 4oz per tire was not unheard of. Now with the newer machines the balancing is better.
We have a hunter road force balancer. We cut our wheel weight use in half with this machine.
We still see lead just in smaller amounts.
15 plus years ago it took about 4-6 months to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Now it's more like 3-5 gallon a year with about a 40% lead 40% steel and 20% zinc or other.
Zinc has been declining while steel and other materials gaining.
 
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The tire shop I usually hit yields about a 5 gallon bucket around every 4 months and at least half of that is lead. And still get a bunch of the ones that are 3-4" long.
 
Boomer76 said:
The tire shop I usually hit yields about a 5 gallon bucket around every 4 months and at least half of that is lead. And still get a bunch of the ones that are 3-4" long.
Click to expand...

Nice.... we are far from a tire shop but do provide that service. We do a average of about 50 tires a month.
 
My only question is after I scooped up all the trash the melted lead looks really nice for about a minute then starts to form the skin. That's the tin oxidizing right? So I throw in a bit of wax and wait for that to burn off then use the pine shavings. As soon as the shavings are burnt and cleaned out the skin forms again. Is that just the way it is or am I doing something wrong?
 
Boomer76 said:
My only question is after I scooped up all the trash the melted lead looks really nice for about a minute then starts to form the skin. That's the tin oxidizing right? So I throw in a bit of wax and wait for that to burn off then use the pine shavings. As soon as the shavings are burnt and cleaned out the skin forms again. Is that just the way it is or am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Tin ,lead, and what ever else forms. How hot are you running the smelt.
When it's cool out the skin seems to form more for me. Especially if there is a wind.
I save all my skimmed off stuff and when I get a bucket full I re melt it and take what ever it gives.

I find to hot you get more "skin"
 

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