Having problems

[brute898]

Ok I have been making alot of sinkers lately. Today I started to make some more and the first lot turned out bad with cracks and holes in them, they didnt pour properly. I thought the mould might not have been heated up enough so I kept on trying, after 30 minutes I gave up. I couldnt get any good sinkers made. What has gone wrong and what can I try to fix it?

Thankyou

[fish-n-dive]

Here are a couple of quick thoughts.............

Are you using the same lead as other times?

Containments in lead or lead melting pot or molds?

Cooling too quickly?

[dogsbody]

Try getting your mold and lead hotter.

Do you scrap off the crap on top of the lead from time to time?

Or you could spend about $130 for a Lee electric melting pot. Makes things easier to pour and control.


Dave.

[brute898]

Yes it is the same lead and I do scrape the dirty stuff off the top

[tunaticer]

If you are using a ladle you will find the lead will pour much better if you flux the molten lead with either a wax candle or some plain soap.

Make sure your molds are warm enough and your lead is hot enough and pour with a steady thin stream into your molds.

If you are using wheel weights it has a high % of antimony in it to make it fairly hard as far as lead goes, unfortunately it also makes pouring a tad harder to do. The more alloys added to the lead make good pouring temperatures more critical. If you are using wheel weights, source some sheet lead (commonly used by plumbers for roofing) and melt 50-50 with the wheel weights. This will reduce the alloy % and make it easier to pour.

Jack.

[brute898]

Ok thanks for the help. I mexed 50/50 and it worked perfect. Thankyou