Flatfish Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 I had issues today pouring shakey heads that I've never had before. The lead was setting up before filling the cavities. I've read through prior posts on this issue and didn't come across anything that I didn't try. I cranked up the heat on the pot (9), I heated the hooks & mold, and even tried the candle soot trick. No matter what I tried, I continued getting incomplete pours. Roughly 75% of them were junk. Ordinarily I purchase pure lead from rotometals, but went the ebay route on my last purchase. I can only assume this lead is harder than the pure lead I normally purchase, but could that cause this? I've used the lead to pour arky and brush jigs with no problems, but these shaky heads just didn't pour well at all. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonah Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 I had issues today pouring shakey heads that I've never had before. The lead was setting up before filling the cavities. I've read through prior posts on this issue and didn't come across anything that I didn't try. I cranked up the heat on the pot (9), I heated the hooks & mold, and even tried the candle soot trick. No matter what I tried, I continued getting incomplete pours. Roughly 75% of them were junk. Ordinarily I purchase pure lead from rotometals, but went the ebay route on my last purchase. I can only assume this lead is harder than the pure lead I normally purchase, but could that cause this? I've used the lead to pour arky and brush jigs with no problems, but these shaky heads just didn't pour well at all. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thx! Make sure the pour spout is clean. Take a paper clip and work it back and forth a few times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBK Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 Flux the lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdsaw Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 Flux the lead. X2 Yep, I'd be trying that next Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogajiga Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 Some of my molds will only pour with pure or very soft lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaery Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 I would guess it is the spout needs cleaning either with a wire/small nail run up from the bottom.Or you may have to empty the pot to clean it out better. If that is open My next guess would be temp, You said you had it turned up so its probably not that. This is contrary to what i commonly accepted, but I have hard lead I use for spincasting and If I need to hand pour something that dosen't fill very well I use my hard lead. To me it is more fluid than soft lead. Soft lead is sluggish. The problem I have with hand pouring hard lead it the spru is almost impossible to break the spru off and when you break it off from the jig it will leave a crator in the jig whereas the soft will break off somewhat smooth or at least something to file off and not fill the hole. If I was to leave hard lead in hand pour pot, I would get the evil eye from my wife cause she does most of the hand pouring and can't break off the spru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 Try ladle pouring, you can usually dump the lead faster and eleiminate the incomplete pours this way. The bottom pour can't be beat but every now and again you'll get a mold or even a cavity that will be difficult to pour and for those the ladle works very well, give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatfish Posted August 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 Thx for all the feedback. I've cleaned the spout multiple times and have fluxed the lead as well. I would say it's the mold, but I've used this mold in the past without encountering these issues. Guess it's time to try the ladle and see how that goes! Thx again for all the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 There is a chance that the seller melted wheel weights and melted in the zinc weights. If you melt it over a flame in a pot and scoop off the clips you can reach a high enough temp to melt in the zinc, changing the lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cz75b Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 sounds like contaminated alloy, maybe as suggested zinc.....and I was glad to see someone say that "hard" (alloyed) lead isn't a problem, actually does melt at a lower temp and flow better that pure lead, always...ALWAYS......why that myth is perpetuated by lure casters is beyond me but again, take a look at bullet casters and when they need better flowing alloy, they add tin and antimony to lower the melt point and make the mix more fluid and flow into mold details better. If the alloy is contaminated, you'll need to really clean the pot and get rid of the rest as I've not seen a decent suggestion within our abilities to reduce zinc from an alloy...... Mold release, clean fluxed alloy and an up to temp mold solve most all ills, if you still get sluggish performance, its probably contaminated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 sounds like contaminated alloy, maybe as suggested zinc.....and I was glad to see someone say that "hard" (alloyed) lead isn't a problem, actually does melt at a lower temp and flow better that pure lead, always...ALWAYS......why that myth is perpetuated by lure casters is beyond me but again, take a look at bullet casters and when they need better flowing alloy, they add tin and antimony to lower the melt point and make the mix more fluid and flow into mold details better. If the alloy is contaminated, you'll need to really clean the pot and get rid of the rest as I've not seen a decent suggestion within our abilities to reduce zinc from an alloy...... Mold release, clean fluxed alloy and an up to temp mold solve most all ills, if you still get sluggish performance, its probably contaminated This is true but most of the "hard" lead most have access to has zinc like wheel weights and if you tell me wheel weight lead melts and a lower temp and flows better then I want some of the wheel weights you have because all of them I ever worked with won't melt unless the pot is turned up to 8 or 9 and certain molds it is unpourable. If you ask most lure casters what hard lead is 9 times out of ten you are going to hear the answer wheel weights, so we kind of just use the term hard lead as a generic for wheel weight lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaery Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 Here is a pretty good read I thought was interesting on lead alloys. there is a paragraph on wheel weigths. Lead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cz75b Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 my wheel weight stash is years old and I've picked through them when I smelted them to remove suspicious ones prior to making ingots. There are enough old-style weights out there to avoid the zinc versions. Many stick-on types, at least older ones are soft/pure lead and coveted by muzzleloader ball/bullet casters who need the soft stuff. If your wheel weights require a too hot temp, perhaps they have some other metal too. My weights are lead, tin and antimony and melt way lower than pure lead and fill any and all mold cavities better whether they are lures, jigs or bullets. I'll modify my statement to say that Lead/Tin/Antimony alloys will always melt lower than pure lead and fill mold details better all things equal than pure lead anyday. One must be dealing with clean allow, clean and warm molds. Often I hear folks having cavity filling trouble then hear they oiled the molds. If you have any oil in a cavity all bets are off, you will always have trouble filling. If you are melting wheel weights in your furnace to cast and they are raw, dirty then it will take a little more to melt them, your pot will be dirty and you will have spout clogging trouble not to mention your house will stink and your spouse will be PO'd. If your alloy has even trace amounts of zinc, even copper and a few other metals, you will have trouble. I can't control what you are experiencing, I'm just relating my 30 years of casting experience, mostly handgun and rifle bullets using linotype, wheel weighhts, recovered range metal and plumbers lead. I've processed about 4000 pounds of wheel weights. It pays to take ones time preparing alloy, everything depends on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 I mix wheel weights in with pure soft lead to get a harder jig head but when you are dealing with a spinnerbait mold with a lot of detail it doesn't work, even with extremely hot molds it won't flow through the barb, thats the part most have a problem with, bullets need to be consistant were as a lure it doesn't matter, we just want complete pours and after trying a lot of different alloys pure soft lead seems to work the best, perhaps it doesn't cool as quickly as hard alloys I don't know but a lot of guys will tell you certain molds like the ultra minnow spinnerbait mold will not pour with a hard alloy as many have tried, in fact it still come up as a subject here, compareing bullets to spinnerbaits is like compareing apples to oranges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogajiga Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 The link "dlaery" posted about lead casting alloys was the best I've ever seen, almost as good as info posted by "sagacious". Particularly useful was the mention of 6% antimonial lead for sheathing & pipe, which explains the hardness of some scrap I had that is usually soft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
