Took a couple of photos sent them of to Stephan proposing that I open the console and have a peek inside to try and assess any damage before filling with lead a turning on, the PID controller was proud of the casing bezel at the top and I was just hoping that the retaining clip had come off when Herpes has attacked it. Stephan said go ahead.
So this morning I opened it up and sure enough the only damage that I could see was the sprung retaining clip, popped it back in place, re-aligned the PID, replaced the cover, bashed out most of the damage to the top cover, changed the plug, positioned her on the bench, loaded up with 35lbs of lead and a smidgen of tin, plugged it in and hit the switch all the proper lights came on so I set the PID to 850 degrees, warming switch set to 2 and then set about preparing some moulds and getting them heated up on the hot plate. About 3/4s of an hour later the melt was up to temp fluxed and ready to go, it will only take 20-30 minutes in future to get up to temp, it is only when you are starting with an empty pot and ingots that you need to put the heat cycling on so that the pot doesn't overheat where there is no alloy touching the sides.
I cast some RCBS Minies, 44/40s and some 0.690" round ball for the cannon and the Brown Bess using a 1lb Rowel ladle. The bullets look very good indeed but eventually only the scales and the target will tell, usually when dipping my reject rate is around 10%.
Anyway pictures are supposed to be better than words so here we go with her set up next to her brother.
Happy bunny or what???
Phwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!
