Your
first bullet will be a well wrinkled one of no use to
anyone. It's wrinkled because your mould is too cold. So
knock the sprue plate open with some scrap wood (a hammer
handle maybe) and dump this one on the scrap pile to go back
in the pot and pour another few. Word of warning here, hit
the sprue plate not the mould or you'll have a wrecked
mould! Eventually your mould will warm up enough and you'll
get a perfect bullet. Now cast fairly slowly, gently
dropping each bullet from the mould onto a soft cloth
because they're still malleable and easily damaged at this
stage. If you cast too quickly the mould will heat up and
you'll get "frosted" bullets with a blue tinge to them. When
this happens you need to let the mould cool down and then
all will be well again.
Of course, it could be that
your Lead has got too hot, and if you think that's the case
turn the pot down. Eventually you'll get the hang of this
crazy balancing act and be able to spot when things are
getting too hot. Once you've got the hang of temperature
control, you can cut some time off the job by preheating the
mould on a burner, but until you've done a few casting
sessions I wouldn't recommend it. With Aluminium moulds, Lee
recommend you dip them in the hot metal to warm up, and this
does seem to work quite well.
