Casting Spoon Pour Problems

[Tuckian]

I am having problems pouring 1 1/2 and 2 oz casting spoons in a Do-it mold with a Lee production pot. Always the same issue - voids on end away from pour hole. Can pour 20 straight perfect spoons without wire form but can only pour 1 out of 5 with wire in mold. Have tried heating wires. Lubing mold and wires. Holding mold at different angles. Hard and soft lead. Pouring with ladle. Nothing gives anymore consistent results than 1 in 5. Thinking of drilling vent hole larger but don't want to decrease resale value of mold if I get tired of Striper fishing or if lead gets banned in the Commonwealth. Any suggestions? Please.

Would like to start pouring 3 oz or larger if I can get the kinks worked out. What about a Hot Pot 2? Think it would out perform bottom pouring?

Thanks.

[Husky]

I am having problems pouring 1 1/2 and 2 oz casting spoons in a Do-it mold with a Lee production pot. Always the same issue - voids on end away from pour hole. Can pour 20 straight perfect spoons without wire form but can only pour 1 out of 5 with wire in mold. Have tried heating wires. Lubing mold and wires. Holding mold at different angles. Hard and soft lead. Pouring with ladle. Nothing gives anymore consistent results than 1 in 5. Thinking of drilling vent hole larger but don't want to decrease resale value of mold if I get tired of Striper fishing or if lead gets banned in the Commonwealth. Any suggestions? Please.

Would like to start pouring 3 oz or larger if I can get the kinks worked out. What about a Hot Pot 2? Think it would out perform bottom pouring?

Thanks.

Just a hunch, but I think when you add the wire, it blocks the air from escaping the mold, hence, impeeding the fill. Try scoring some fine lines from the cavity to the outside. High quality molds fit very well but that means they may have some minor venting issues. JMHO

[turkeylegs1246]

I am having problems pouring 1 1/2 and 2 oz casting spoons in a Do-it mold with a Lee production pot. Always the same issue - voids on end away from pour hole. Can pour 20 straight perfect spoons without wire form but can only pour 1 out of 5 with wire in mold. Have tried heating wires. Lubing mold and wires. Holding mold at different angles. Hard and soft lead. Pouring with ladle. Nothing gives anymore consistent results than 1 in 5. Thinking of drilling vent hole larger but don't want to decrease resale value of mold if I get tired of Striper fishing or if lead gets banned in the Commonwealth. Any suggestions? Please.

Would like to start pouring 3 oz or larger if I can get the kinks worked out. What about a Hot Pot 2? Think it would out perform bottom pouring?

Thanks.

I have the same problem. I coated the inside of my mold with candle soot. That helped some. Finally, I decided that my mold was just not getting hot enough. Last molding session, I used a heat gun to increase the mold temperature and got much better results. I also preheated my inserts on a hot plate. I had to wear gloves to insert the wires. I made pours w/o inserts until the pours looked good. Then I put a hot insert in the mold, closed it, and applyied heat using the high setting on my heat gun. Heated the mold thoroughly and then made a pour. Once I got the mold and inserts hot enough the quality of pours increased greatly. After I made a pour, I looked at the sprue. When the lead remained molten for about 5 seconds, I got excellent pours. To me, that's the indicator that the mold was hot enough. I made sure that the pours solidifies before I opened the mold.

Try it...I think you'll like it once you get the hand of it. Sure is a lot of effort IMHO.

I find that if I turn the melt pot up too much that my lead will have cooling voids. Better, I think, to increase the mold temperature than to use lead that is too hot. Yes, it is kinda tricky to get the mold hot enough. I thought about using a torch to help heat the mold but I am afraid that too hot a torch might damage the mold. A propane torch might work but I know that a mapp gas torch is too hot. Either way, neither is as safe as a electric heat gun IMO.

I also have the 3 ounce do-it casting spoon mold. Same deal works with it. It has a larger sprue cavity and seems to work better once the mold is hot.

[Jig Man]

I had a similar problem with casting babbit spoons. I had to use my fish cooker and heat the material really hot then ladel it into the mold. I went from one whole day with 2 good spoons to 75 perfect ones in 2 hours by ladeling.