Rat Man wrote on May 21
st, 2022 at 7:46am:
slingostarr wrote on May 20
th, 2022 at 5:35pm:
Of course. But size will be important. You really want around 50 grams, and buying will be expensive. A cheap sinker mold can be obtained on ebay and you can cast your own with about 50 bucks worth of equipment (gas stove, some gas bottles, a cheap pot and long metal cooking spoon from the thrift store, the mold itself, a piece of wood to hold the mold and prevent spilling out the ends if you're making solid ammo, goggles, dust mask)
Lead costs $2 per kilo in Australia from the metal scrappers.
Once you're set up you can make a heap for next to nothing 🙂 cost you the same to buy a 100 odd sinkers as it would to set your backyard casting set up would. My lead balls weigh I think 120 grams for the larger ones perfect spheres. Amazing to sling.
This is an excellent idea. Egg sinkers would be your best bet. When I was a kid my Dad and I would make our own fishing weights. It cost us nothing because he stole the lead from work. I still have some of it today. Making fishing weights is very easy to do. Just be sure that you do it outside or at least where there is good ventilation. Lead fumes are very toxic.
Very true. I spoke to an oldschool lead melter when I first got into into it, he told me that the trick to not getting lead poisoning is to not heat the lead to the point where it turns a gold color on top, that's when it starts to become fumes. Keep it a nice silver color not too hot and it'll be fine. He sold bulk sinkers that he cast indoors! I do not recommend doing that 😂
I believe I gave myself lead poisoning once when I started and didn't wear a mask. Had cold/flu symptoms.for a couple of days afterwards.
Also, thick leather gloves, pants and boots are important to wear. Keep a set of crappy old clothes just dedicated to wearing while casting, and wash them separately to your normal clothes (or don't ever wash them again). I have all my lead clothes in a bag.
The other trick to casting perfect ammo is to ensure the mold is almost the same temperature as the melted lead. Just let it sit in the gas stove flames for a while or submerge it in the melted lead beforr casting. Or cast ten dodgy lots and it'll start to get hot enough to make no air gaps or half set sinkers.
I've also found spheres to be more forgiving to sling than traditional glande shapes. I think with more practise of the rifle spin to get it flying like an American football the glandes would be better. But for amateurs like myself, spheres seem to be less concerned about my technique.
Is there any scrap metal places near you? There's two in my town. $2 a kilo is the average price and often he will round the price down after I pick all the nice bits of lead off the pile and put it all on the scale.