Need a little help with lead

I agree with Walkalong. But you may have other things going on. Your new to casting? If you don't have it get the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and read it. Then read it again. Casting good bullets isn't as easy as melting "lead". Other thing that can cause problems. You say your using "range lead". Ok. Whats in/is it? Depending on what you collect you can have pure lead, wheel weights, Lyman #2 alloy, linotype ect.... These are all alloys and cast a little different. So if you make a batch of bullets of what you melted today, then throw more "range lead" into the pot to make another batch the alloy can change and how well they cast. You may want to get the Lee Hardness tester if your going to rely on "RL". Last thing is beware of "RL" or WW,s with zinc. That shiny coating to stop lead from oxidizing. It will wreck a batch of lead. Good luck and keep any liquid away from that pot. A few drops can make a explosion from steam.

Too cold, when they come out frosty then it's too hot.You should heat your mold before you start, the WW's that you can mark with your thumb nail generally don't have zinc.

CC

Yup, either the mold or the lead melt isn't hot enough.

Yep, mold not hot enough. Set the mold on the top edge of the furnace for at least 15min. Start by filling only 2 cavities at a time until the mold gets hot.

I agree that most likely your mould/melt is not hot enough. Another issue that can cause wrinkling is the presence of oil or preservative in the mould cavities.

Here are a few experiences I have had with the Lee 6 cavity molds.

First off you disassemble and clean them with a good, scrubbing with an old toothbrush and using dawn or similar detergent soap which will remove oil and grease. After which you dry them completely and before you lube the hinge pins and reassemble.

After this you preheat them by either using a small hot plate which you can find at Wallyworld for about $18 or from a resale shop or garage sale. Setting the 6 banger on top of the pot is OK but it takes forever to get it up to casting temp. Another way is to carefully hold only the bottom of the outer end of the mold right against the alloy to heat up. This only needs to be done until you see smoke from the lube rising off the sprue cutter screw. Once there start pouting the first two cavities only.

After you have poured a dozen or two bullets from only the first cavities add the third. Proceed like this until your pouring them all and you should be good to go. If your using a hot plate you only need to set it to run around 285'ish degrees on the top of the plate. If it has a coil you should put a old saw blade or similar across to even out the heat and avoid the risk of warping your mold.

OK so now you have a huge pile of nice bullets.

Once you have shot those up your ready to go again and now after you start your bullets look just like those up top. Here is the deal with that. The alloy Lee uses in their molds is porous and holds oils. You will probably have to reclean your cavities just like it was new all over again. Might take once more might take three more times. I can say as I have over two dozen of them and they are each different. I can also say that you DO NOT need to smoke the cavities if they are clean in order for the bullets to drop, or pour perfectly. Does it work, well yes. Does it mask other things, well sort of. It will plug the pores and help to keep some of the cutting oils stuck inside if your smoking them right off the bat. It might work great for three sessions but the oils will migrate through and all of a sudden you have crappy bullets again.

My last three 6 banger molds I simply did the pre-wash, oiled the pins, and set them on the hot plate with no handles and let them cycle up to about 275 for 30 minutes, then turned the plate off and let them cool. I did this three or four times one afternoon while I was loading some pistol rounds. After the last session I took them inside and washed them down with some Dawn and a tooth brush in hot water and allowed them to dry. Once lubed the pins and put them back together they all threw hundreds and hundreds of great bullets right from the get go with no other attention. No smoke in the cavities, no anti sticking spray, just a preheat on the plate and once the alloy was at 700 I ran them.

Now depending on the actual bullet your pouring, you might have to run a little hotter, or faster when your pouring to keep your mold up to temp. I had a fellow suggest using a big clock with a second hand to time my pour, cool, cut, and repour cycles. It helped a lot as it got me into a rhythm. Once you pay attention to what is happening with your sprue puddles and see the resulting bullets dropping out, you sort of learn how fast to go. With smaller bullets you have to go faster or run a little hotter as the aluminum will cool faster than if your running a 300gr 45 cal mold. I can run it at around 685 and still get the mold hot enough I have to run a small fan to help keep it in the "zone" for good bullets. My 9mm mold though, I run it at around 730 and can seemingly pour as fast as I can while still allowing the sprue to cool to solid and sometimes it still cools down too fast.

Just take your time and go slow, it will come to you with a little practice and patients. I HIGHLY recommend buying one of the lead thermometers for your pot though. This will help you to see what temp your running #1, and also see that as your pot empties the alloy will get hotter so you can back off the dial as you get lower. The best solution is a PID controller but that is another tool that is more of a luxury than a necessity. Granted if you buy or build one you will find real quick it is great to set and forget. Just add alloy and set the temp and wait till it settles and go. Most will hold your alloy temp within about +/-5 degrees from top full to bottom empty.

I guess I got a bit carried away here but I hope you find something that helps. I started off using the Lee 6 bangers right out of the box and some worked fine others made me want to throw them across the shop. I had some great folks feeding me tidbits o how to get them right and so far they haven't been wrong.

Cold or lube in the cavities . Lee does say to lube parts of the mold. http://leeprecision.net/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Index/13/product-support

Lots of good advice. Also watch for a "breeze". It can cool your mold. Even if it's the vent from your heating supply. So it might seem warm to you but it will cool your hot mold.