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Some of you lead pouring Guru's need to tell me what I am doing wrong. I went to pour some jigs tonight and in almost an hour I did not get one jig. The lead did not go through the gate or it would only go around half of the hook. I have the mold on a hot plate and use candle wax as flux. What is going wrong?
Things to check for: (1) Be sure the opening at the bottom of pot is open....I use Large gem clip and pliars to hold and insert into the opening to clean. (2) Be sure the lead in the pot is hot (3) I use a candle to smoke the molds to ensure the lead will flow. The more soot in the cavities the better the lead will flow. I also smoke where the lead enters the cavities.........works for me........Mabe these will help.....
lightwirehooker
if your pouring a barbed collar you gotta tilt the mold alittle. Also i pour with my lee pot on 8. I place my mold on the top of the pot to get hot for atleast 15 min longer after the lead is all liquid.
I do not use a pot. I melt in an open pot and pour with a ladle I will smoke the mold.
ok ladle pour i have no clue sorry
Sounds like your lead isn't hot enough. That's one of the reasons I went with the Lee pot with a thermostat. I start out by making about 5 pours before I put hooks in to make sure the mold is hot. Pour all the cells. Keep us posted.
I will, my pot cannot be adjusted but that thing is hot and the element is always glowing bright red. I am going to turn up the heat on the hot plate and smoke the mold to see what happens. Last time I poured I did not have a problem and tonight nothing worked and no settings were changed. I wish not I had asked what flux everyone used.
this may be easy to overlook but i will ask it anyway. is the ladle hot and are you pouring outside or indoors? Doesn't take much of a temp. change to make a difference in a good poor or a bad pour. I would look at my ladle temp for starters. sounds to me like that is the problem if it is not even getting in the gate
A small piece of candle wax for the flux. I use mama's leftovers for now. Smell better too.
My ladle is kept on the hot plate when not in use. I am using the candle wax and it has only one major drawback and that is it smokes up my entire garage and stinks to high heavens. I will try mama's leftovers as we have lots of it. Do-It makes a flux and I have wondered how good it is.
If the smoke is filling the garage you aren't ventilating properly. IMHO The lead fumes are toxic and will give you major problems, and the smoke is an indicator that you need to vent better. We want to see you doing this for a long time.
the flux they sell is a powder its ok to a point but it makes black stuff everywhere and what touches the pot. Sorta like a thick coating of smoke or sout...
Skeetbum I have since put in an exhaust fan. I only smoked up the whole garage one time.
If you're pouring from a ladle take a small triangled file and file a small groove in the pour spout of your ladle. When you pour this will make for a very fine stream of lead when you pour. I'd also pour a little slower with a ladle, don't know your experience level but I started out slow with a ladle.
As was also asked are you indoors or out?? Heated space or not???
Makes for a lot of varialbes, if you're outside with no heat make sure to warm everything up with a hot air dryer, any moisture as it warms up in the space and you could get a lead pop and you sure don't want that.
If you need any more info let us know and we'll help you out.
Fatman
I am indoors, use a hot plate to heat mold and ladle and grove has already been put in lip on ladle. Oddly enough a teaspoon works very well for pouring lead. Did not have problems the time before this. All this happened the second time I went to pour the next batch. Nothing has been changed.
Wow, if nothing has changed then it's weird!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 2 other things I can think of is did you use a batch of really hard lead instead of pure??? other than that I got nothing.
Same batch of lead was still in the pot. I will go out again this evening and let you know what happened.
OK, tonight I went out and tried again and turned up the heat on the hot plate. Same results, did not get one useable jig. I thought what the heck and turned the mold upside down to where the gate was on the bottom and used a teaspoon. Worked ok. Got out a dozen and that was all I needed. They were not perfect, the lead did not go completely around the hook which is ok for me. Long story short I am going to sell the mold and put it on E Bay this next week and get it out of here, too bad as it was only used 2 times. I can buy cheaper than I can mess with this. I am falling behind on leather work.
what size is the mold you pouring?
I just sent you a PM> 1/16 and 1/32 3 each
I wonder if the mold was part of the issue. I use do it molds, and have one all aluminum Palmer mold. True that you can buy heads cheap, but the pouring thing is fun too. I poured about 150 this morning and things went well. The mold worked better the hotter it got, and that took a while. I'm no genius, and if I can figure it out I'm sure you can. Sometimes things just don't work and it's best to put them down and try later. This was told to me when I first started pouring and it is true. No 2 pouring sessions have been the same for me. Post a pic of the mold in the classified ads and it will go quick if you decide to give it up. I think you'll find it's something simple though.
You are right but I do not have the time to play with it. The mold is already sold. I have to keep up with my holster business as it pays for all of my toys. i do not have the luxury of playing with problems. my time is just to valuable. MY concealed carry holsters take up too much of my time, it seems it is never ending. I am a NRA instructor and all the questions take up time and I ship holsters every day. Very time consuming. That is why when I sit down to the tying bench I do not want to waste any time.
Tosser, I pour ball, minnow and barbed for plastic round heads. I don't have lots of time but if I can help you out just say the word. You just tying for yourself won't need too awful much and I could get that done. There's others too, so you won't be out of stock for long, one of us will hook you up. That was a bad pun, sorry. But you get the idea.....Tim.
Thanks for the offer
I use ladle a lot. Leave it in the lead between pours, not on the plate. I found there was a lot of heat loss when it was not kept in the melted lead. If your lead was not as hot as you thought, a cold ladle makes it less hot as well as much lower heat by the time you dip, transfer, then pour.
Charlie
At the last I quit using the ladle and started using a teaspoon. The teaspoon was a lot better than the ladle.