lumpocoal wrote: mold release spray of some sort
I never used a mold release spray. What I was taught by an "old timer" was take a wooden match and hold it under the open mold sections and make a black soot coating inside the mold cavities. The bullets don't always fall easily out of the mold. I keep a hardwood stick with the bark removed about a foot long and about an 1 1/2" in diameter to tap open the sprue plate and to tap the HING PIN on the mold handles the jar the bullets loose. I let them drop on a COTTON towel folded up in an old baking pan. That way the hot soft bullets don't get deformed from dropping on a hard surface. Don't hit the mold blocks directly, especially if they are aluminum. The cast iron molds are better BUT much more expensive and because of their weight if you are casing a lot you can end up with numbness and a stiffness in your hand after a while. The rhythm is different with cast iron vs aluminum. Mold temperature effects how the bullets fill out. The aluminum mold cool off fast if you stop for a short time so you must either case a few bad bullets and through them back in the pot to get the mold hot again of hold the corner of the mold in the molten lead for a short while to heat it up. Flux and stir your alloy well. I use an old spoon the scrap the garbage of the inside of the pot while the lead is molten. You would be amazed how much garbage will come to the surface for skimming.
I do this outside only! (My friend did it in his basement but he had a serious exhaust fan with a hood. He was a competitive shooter on the national level. He had a lathe which he used to chamber his rifle barrels with custom reamers that he had made to his specs. Most of his rifles where based on Mauser actions. He was into it big time. He and his wife went and moved to Nevada as soon as they where both retired.) Don't breath the fumes or you will screw yourself up!!! While the lead melts don't hang around watching it. Check on it of course but most of the fumes come off during the initial melt, at least the visible ones. Wash your hands good too. Gloves that won't melt would be a good idea but I'm too stupid to do that myself. I should though. You don't want to end up being a retard like me so minimize your lead absorption by using you head.
