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OFFICIAL: NES BULLET CASTING SEMINAR
- Thread starter asp
- Start date
Feral
NES Member
Thank you to Anthony,Michael and BillNed for being gracious hosts, instructors and cooks. Can I pre-register for next years class now?
This event has motivated me to pursue other avenues of this hobby!!!!.... Reloading and![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
NFAs
Motivation purchase from the flea market today weighs in at about 35 lbs...for $20.
This event has motivated me to pursue other avenues of this hobby!!!!.... Reloading and
NFAsMotivation purchase from the flea market today weighs in at about 35 lbs...for $20.
MaverickNH
NES Member
I'll add my thanks to Anthony, Mike and BillNed. I learned one heck of a lot, met some swell people and had some excellent chow! And brought home some nice lead alloy and a few hundred 38sp bullets too.
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Thanks again to Anthony, Mike and BillNed... from wheelweights to fluxing, hardness testing to bullet coating techniques, I learned more in 6 hours than I would in 6 years on my own. And great hospitality too! If they hold it again I highly recommend this to anyone who's interested in learning how to cast boolits.
asp
NES Member
I'm glad you guys all feel like you took something away from it. The thanks is appreciated ![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
Mac1911- I saw your earlier post being curious about what the bucket you donated actually yielded. That particular batch was pretty clean. After the zincs and clips floated off, it was probably 75% lead by weight. Lead weights used to comprise most of a bucket, now you're lucky to beat half. Someone may have sorted this before it was given to you/purchased.
Now I want one of those sprue tappers with clear pipe slid over (the one in the pic above). That thing worked so nice.
Feral, that lead you got is a good find. Easier to deal with than wheel weights because it's much less messy.
Mac1911- I saw your earlier post being curious about what the bucket you donated actually yielded. That particular batch was pretty clean. After the zincs and clips floated off, it was probably 75% lead by weight. Lead weights used to comprise most of a bucket, now you're lucky to beat half. Someone may have sorted this before it was given to you/purchased.
Now I want one of those sprue tappers with clear pipe slid over (the one in the pic above). That thing worked so nice.
Feral, that lead you got is a good find. Easier to deal with than wheel weights because it's much less messy.
Hardwired
NES Member
Many thanks to ASP, Mike, and BillNed!
Great instructors, excellent hospitality, good people, lots of fun.
Some pics of the Smelting process. You can see ASP pointing out a Zinc WW (not melted) in the last image.
Great instructors, excellent hospitality, good people, lots of fun.
Some pics of the Smelting process. You can see ASP pointing out a Zinc WW (not melted) in the last image.
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Love Machine
NES Member
Excellent pictures!
I'm glad you guys all feel like you took something away from it. The thanks is appreciated
Mac1911- I saw your earlier post being curious about what the bucket you donated actually yielded. That particular batch was pretty clean. After the zincs and clips floated off, it was probably 75% lead by weight. Lead weights used to comprise most of a bucket, now you're lucky to beat half. Someone may have sorted this before it was given to you/purchased.
Now I want one of those sprue tappers with clear pipe slid over (the one in the pic above). That thing worked so nice.
Feral, that lead you got is a good find. Easier to deal with than wheel weights because it's much less messy.
Good to hear 75% is better than the norm in the past few years. That batch I got from a old timer who drops off a few buckets a year. He helps himself to my other scrap I have. Copper,aluminum and such.
Saves me a trip and it's value for value on the swap.
I also have a guy who will generally pay decent money for the zinc wheel weights for cannon balls.
I guess they like zinc as it holds up well and can be reused is they find them...his cannon is small 1.75" or something like that.
He also mentioned some guys will use zinc bullets in their big guns.
Although it's fun to find lead the real fun starts when you get into a circle of people who generally are good at getting things free or cheap and not go out of your way doing it.
I snag lead flashing from job sights I see along my way to work. Not much but I would say in 5 years I have accumulated 100+ lbs in clean flashing. I have another black powder shooter who loves the soft lead and he has a uncanny ability to find pewter...
I get lead from work also but it's not much. It takes about 6-8 months to get a 5 gallon pale 3/4 full and it's usually 40% lead at best.
It's fun and with cooling temps i will be smelting more of my lead and see how far a tank I got yesterday will get me....I'm guessing it has 1/4 tank left. Friend was getting rid of his grill and going to charcoal.....so I took the grill for scrap and the tank with it.!
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Just to let everyone know before this thread dies out. I feel that Anthony and Mike should have some recognition for the work they did to set this up and take it down, so I have already asked my friend in N.C. to make two more of the Tappers out of the same Oak Tree as mine and when they arrive I will put on the plastic pipe and give them one each.
I hope you guys like them.
I hope you guys like them.
asp
NES Member
Don't get all sappy on me. But you're welcome!
My personal thanks to all who made this happen.
The very first cast bullet workshop was run by me, at my home in Maine. There were a handful of eager reloaders in attendance for that one.
Pictures from the FIRST cast bullet workshop in 2009
The couple I was involved with running after that grew and grew. I'm happy that the tradition of passing along the knowledge is alive and thriving.
For those of you who missed this workshop: The bullet/projectile is always the most expensive component in reloading. If you can reduce or minimize the cost of the bullet (aka casting them!), then you really are saving $$$$.
For those who did attend, please share what you learned with your reloading friends.
The very first cast bullet workshop was run by me, at my home in Maine. There were a handful of eager reloaders in attendance for that one.
Pictures from the FIRST cast bullet workshop in 2009
The couple I was involved with running after that grew and grew. I'm happy that the tradition of passing along the knowledge is alive and thriving.
For those of you who missed this workshop: The bullet/projectile is always the most expensive component in reloading. If you can reduce or minimize the cost of the bullet (aka casting them!), then you really are saving $$$$.
For those who did attend, please share what you learned with your reloading friends.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
I would like to say a big thanks to DUKE. without him this wouldn't have happened. This seminar grew from a small group of guys that then went on to tach the seminar that I went to a few years later.
So a big thanks to all of them. I figured the best I could do to say thank you to the guys that taught me was to pass on the knowledge and teach others.
I hope the guys that attended move forward with casting and don't hesitate at all. If you have questions post them here or on castboolits forum and keep going. Maybe once you get some experience you can pass the knowledge on to some of your close reloading friends.
Also don't forget shooting supply. Mark was very happy to have met some of you and wanted to make sure that all the guys that had long commutes and couldn't stop in know that he's a vendor on here and is easy to contact for Q&A on products. He does a ton of mail order sales on all of the lee casting products too. Don't be afraid to shoot him a PM. Great guy with a ton of knowledge.
So a big thanks to all of them. I figured the best I could do to say thank you to the guys that taught me was to pass on the knowledge and teach others.
I hope the guys that attended move forward with casting and don't hesitate at all. If you have questions post them here or on castboolits forum and keep going. Maybe once you get some experience you can pass the knowledge on to some of your close reloading friends.
Also don't forget shooting supply. Mark was very happy to have met some of you and wanted to make sure that all the guys that had long commutes and couldn't stop in know that he's a vendor on here and is easy to contact for Q&A on products. He does a ton of mail order sales on all of the lee casting products too. Don't be afraid to shoot him a PM. Great guy with a ton of knowledge.
I just joined cast boolits yesterday with the same screen name. Tons of info there too. Thanks Duke for starting this. I already have ideas for my own smelting pot and put my feelers out there for lead.
MaverickNH
NES Member
I had a look at those bullets and ingots we made last Saturday using a Cabin Tree Lead Tester http://www.castingstuff.com/cabinetree_llc___lead_testers.htm
The bullets came in at Brinell 6-7 and ingots 7-8. Does that make sense?
If so, would I want to add any other alloys to harden that up for two potential uses? Or use as is.
1) 38sp from a S&W R8 revolver w/5in barrel (maybe even 357mag)
2) 9mm from a Glock G17 semi-auto w/4.5" barrel
Appreciate the advice!
The bullets came in at Brinell 6-7 and ingots 7-8. Does that make sense?
If so, would I want to add any other alloys to harden that up for two potential uses? Or use as is.
1) 38sp from a S&W R8 revolver w/5in barrel (maybe even 357mag)
2) 9mm from a Glock G17 semi-auto w/4.5" barrel
Appreciate the advice!
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
For the 38 I would say that alloy is fine as can be. I shoot very similar alloy out of my 686 and have thousands of rounds done the tube with no issues with traditional lube and with coatings.
As far as the 9mm the biggest issue I found is that the bullets are swaged down when seated. The expanders are set up to run .355 bullets so the brass neck is sized down to about .352 or so to have proper tension on the bullet.
So when you seat .357 diameter lead it gets too much tension and is swaged down.
You can solve this by having a harder alloy. Like straight wheel weights and water drop them or heat treat them to up the hardness.
That resists the squish of the neck tension.
If not you will end up with leading and or tumbling bullets because they're undersized.
The other answer is depending on your set up you can run an over sized expander for a 38 special.
If you have a Dillon the 38 expander funnel is too short to work. You can cut your powder die shorter to give enough adjustment to make it work but you might not want to.
If you use Lyman m-dies to expand then it's a simple switch of an expander.
Did you slug you R8?
As far as 357 I would go harder. I have run some of my 38 alloy at 357 speeds and it wasn't very good. Not terrible but not good.
Now if you use the hi-Tek coating you have a little more leeway. I've run 50/50 pure and COWW with 3 coats of hi-Tek through a 44 mag at 1300 fps at max pressures with no issues.
The coating keeps down on the leading. Though supposedly if you get the proper lube you can do the same thing. I chose not to go on that quest.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As far as the 9mm the biggest issue I found is that the bullets are swaged down when seated. The expanders are set up to run .355 bullets so the brass neck is sized down to about .352 or so to have proper tension on the bullet.
So when you seat .357 diameter lead it gets too much tension and is swaged down.
You can solve this by having a harder alloy. Like straight wheel weights and water drop them or heat treat them to up the hardness.
That resists the squish of the neck tension.
If not you will end up with leading and or tumbling bullets because they're undersized.
The other answer is depending on your set up you can run an over sized expander for a 38 special.
If you have a Dillon the 38 expander funnel is too short to work. You can cut your powder die shorter to give enough adjustment to make it work but you might not want to.
If you use Lyman m-dies to expand then it's a simple switch of an expander.
Did you slug you R8?
As far as 357 I would go harder. I have run some of my 38 alloy at 357 speeds and it wasn't very good. Not terrible but not good.
Now if you use the hi-Tek coating you have a little more leeway. I've run 50/50 pure and COWW with 3 coats of hi-Tek through a 44 mag at 1300 fps at max pressures with no issues.
The coating keeps down on the leading. Though supposedly if you get the proper lube you can do the same thing. I chose not to go on that quest.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
