O0ooooiiiivey !!!!!
 

Tried my shaky hand at pouring lead today... trying to make tail weights and belly weights .. I think I made like $6 worth and no 2 way the same I bet .. I kept throwing the lousy ones back in the pot to re-melt and this is what made the cut .. Is there a trick to handling this big freakin heavy ladle and pour accurately in the tiny hole .. What a mess I made .. Yes I used Pam .. I used 16d finish nails for holes .. nailed into a board below so they'd stand up staright .. I think I making an unproduction of this .. :huh::err:

Once the mold heats up from the first couple of pours they should all be perfect.I use molybdenum as a release it impregnates the metal and last a long time also the lead slides out like poop thru a goose.

I make my weight molds out of 1x3 red oak from the depot.

I make a top that acts like the gate and the bottom is the mold.

See pic.

Clamp it all together first and drill the holes for the pins. Remove the top and use a counter sink bit for the well. Drill the mold hole. Use pins in the molds to align the top and attach the top. A couple of nails used as alignment pins help.

Clamp together, insert pins and pour quickly. That neck that the gate makes makes it easy to break off the extra. The wide deep well gives you time to stop the pour. The come out nice and uniform in size and weight.

Tagger


1......preheat your mold to hot..

2......after melting your lead..skim off the crap that floats to the surface in your pot.it will mess up a good pour.

3.....the pouring spout on those are to round and wide....file or grind a nice shape "V" into it....lead always flows abit wider then the snoot it's being poured out of on hand ladles.

Concur and to add I preheat the mold with map gas and keep heating it throughout...

The pull wire should be perfect like a SS welding wire to the dia. of the hole prob 1/8?

thanks ,,,, all that will help ..

This stuff works pretty well as a release. In a previous life I used it on Sterling Silver starter bars up to about 1500 F.

Sprayon Dry Film Graphite

http://www.mcmaster.com/#1289k17/=1nn8c6

Eddie if you want to borrow my Lee melter feel free. It just sits idle down my cellar 363 days a year. Makes it real easy to melt and pour. Really can't screw up, pretty much perfect every time. All the above info will be of help too.

Thanks Paul ... I should have saved my pennies and bought a better one ,, I saw this one in Numby's cave and he's very accurate so I fiqured I'd buy one .. Forgot I've smashed all my fingers with a hammer repeatedly .. I can't get the peg in the hole .. Question ??? Do you guys pour in the house/cellar... sux outside ..

I do it with a torch and a dollar store ladle. I over pour them and trim them on the bandsaw.

Your cheaping out, that is why you're sore and inaccurate.
This is what you need to pure cleanly:
http://www.do-itmolds.com/product.aspx?i=257

You can do it for nothing...and melt lead with a ladle on a stove but I don't recommend it.

Two schools of thought...either buy what you need completed (ie, 100 packs of tail weights) or get the right stuff to do it yourself.

Tagger,
If the ends of your tail weights are coming out boogery, try cutting the end off with a sharp razor. Drop the tiny pieces back in the pot.

outside ed. I wouldn't do it indoors. come get it if you want it , really

Thanks Paul ... I'm going to try grapenut and other fixes first.. I own this thing now ,, gotta make it work ,,, If I can get the wife to work a second job I'll buy a good one .. my luck I'd burn yours out :smash: