shot drippercoolant

[chris1961]

What coolant do you guys use and what ratio coolant to water and temp of coolant cheers

[rovercoupe]

the cheapest fabric conditioner, also tried hot water but made the shot slightly less round.

[sitsinhedges]

It's all in the Shotmaker Dimensions sticky at the top of this forum.

[hakapiken]

I am using anti freeze as coolant but fabric conditioner wil be fine. Most important: Put copper grease (Copper Ease) on the ramp (Thanks to Sitsinhedges).

[Old farrier]

Hi

As in sits post st top of page

 

Big thanks to him for all the info he's shared

 

Now here's the but

 

Your going to struggle this time of year as sits says it's a lot easier on o hot sunny day 😋

All the best

Of

[sitsinhedges]

I agree, shotmaking at this time of year is far more difficult. The low ambient temperature sucks the heat out of the ramp and drippers making them very sluggish. The best time is a still hot summers day with the shotmaker protected from any draughts that have the same effect. If I had to make shot right now it would be inside a heated workshop by the door for a bit of ventilation and with a decent fume mask on. It can be done but not ideal.

[chris1961]

Thanks for the info shed has a logburner and it gets really hot when it's going

[Remimax]

yep using neat antifreeze as well with decent results,the copper grease is the way forward to cure drip ramp fouling issues.

works really well.

was thinking of trying fabric conditioner to see if the finished shot ends up more uniform.

still getting a little out of round on no5 size shot which i've read is hard to get right anyway.

[sitsinhedges]

I think the very best coolant is DOT4 brake fluid but it is expensive, toxic and has the potential to be flammable. It is easy to wash off though.

For my first shotmaking exploits I floated about an inch of vegetable cooking oil on top of water and it made good round shot but it was very hard top get clean, even if it was washed in thinners or solvent the shot would smoke if remelted as if the oil was in the actual fabric of the shot and it remained dirty to handle. Anything water based or water soluble makes for an easy life with just a quick rinse needed before drying and graphiting.

[spooky87]

We had good results with just normal water, but you have to get the temp right

[spooky87]

we also had good results with fabric softner, but I found temperature is an important factor

[chris1961]

e temp of the coolant or the lead

[sitsinhedges]

e temp of the coolant or the lead

 

I just start with the coolant at room temp then make sure the lead doesn't get too hot. I try and keep small shot, say 7.5, below 350c-ish and larger 5 shot nearer 300c as long as it's dripping properly. Fab con will make the lead crackle as it enters if too hot instead of 'chirping'. Temperature gauges are very cheap now to keep a check on what's happening.