I am brand new to casting my own bullets. I will be casting bullets for my black powder guns I just got my mold and the manufacturer says I need to use some kind of release agent so as not to damage the mold. I am sure I can buy something from someone that costs an arm and a leg. Is there some way to address this issue properly for cheap?
Also regarding bullet lube....My buddy said he just squeezed some gun butter into the grooves on his maxi balls. I just saw liquid alex for sale which apparently is a liquid that dries on the bullet. what is the best way to address lubricating my bullets?

Soot from a wooden match is a good release agent. I don't think liquid alox is the best black powder lube. it works better with that new fangled smokeless stuff. One popular black powder lube is SPG. I've used Lyman Black Powder Gold without a luber-sizer by slicing a bit off the stick and rolling it into the grooves by hand. There's dozens of make-it-yourself black powder lube formulas.

http://www.blackpowderspg.com/lube.html
http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/bullet-casting/black-powder-gold.php

Bye
Jack

I'll move this over to the bullet casting forum to see if you don't get some additional responses? Smoking from a match is traditional and works great. So does acetylene smoke from a carbide sight smoker. So does the yellow flame from a Butane lighter. There are not-as-cheap commercial mold releases, like the Fulton Armory spray that Midway sells.

The Los Angeles Silhouette Club (http://www.lasc.us/IndexBrennan.htm) has a lot of good cast bullet information posted. Below is a quotation from them:Mold coating

"Some shooters smoke the inside of molds with a candle or a Bic lighter or some other flame. Other shooters coat the inside of molds with a patent liquid preparation. This coating business seems more popular with aluminum molds than iron molds. I don’t coat any mold. Or didn't. In 2006 I started to get into Black Powder Muzzle Loaders, and in 2007 bought a Lee .490" round ball mold. This mold worked poorly with pure lead, many defective and wrinkled balls. After smoking the mold with one of those butane grill lighters, the mold got better and started to make perfect balls. I am going to try smoking some of my other stubborn molds."

DON'T use a candle or a lighter with liquid lighter fluid. They'll leave an oily deposit that will prevent the mould from making sharp corners.

DO degrease your new mould with brake/carb cleaner before smoking it, to remove any machining oil residue it might have.

I used a spray mould release that's supposed to leave a thin carbon layer in the moulds so the bullets don't stick. However, the layer was thick enuf to make my bullets come out undersize. Smoking works as well, but is much thinner so it doesn't affect the bullet OD.

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Interesting observation on fill-out. I'd be surprised if the effect of oil went on much longer than it takes to burn out unless it forms some kind of varnish? I've never used a candle, but the butane lighter worked for me the one time I tried it. I wouldn't be surprised if that varies with the purity of butane, which probably depends on whether it comes from here or from China? The pure stuff should not have any long enough molecules in it to leave oil behind, though it certainly could become contaminated by oil-lubricated pumps. The liquid butane would be a good oil solvent.

The mould blocks were lead-repellent for about a dozen pours. Then I gave up, cooled them, and degreased with carb cleaner.

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Some molds benefit from what is usually some system of depositing carbon in the cavity. Midway and others have mold sprays in a can. Some molds that are oversize to begin with will cast a little smaller with spray.

Some molds don't need anything of the sort. I have several Aluminum molds that need it, and some that do not. I've used some spray on Iron molds, and can't tell whether they need it or not.

I've found that adding a little Tin does more to improve bullet quality than anything else.

CDD

If you're casting for b/p guns that are not cartridge guns you should be using pure lead, or as pure as you can get. Bore butter, Crisco , and a whole lot of things can be used for lube, but liquid alox ain't one of them. Some will disagree, but I've used Vaseline without any problems, as well as strange mixtures of whatever was on hand. ( I was young and had lots of stuff to try... Chapstick seems to come to mind.....)

I just clean my new molds good with a gun scrubber type spray cleaner first. I use a regular kitchen match to smoke the molds prior to casting. I use the spray on type mold release agents also but you have to be careful to not overspay the mold. The carbon spray will clog up the mold vents if it is applied to thick and will not let the bullets fill out properly. (learned from experience)

... The carbon spray will clog up the mold vents if it is applied to thick and will not let the bullets fill out properly. (learned from experience)
Good point! Good thing to point out to newcomers - the cross hatch lines on the mould faces between and around the bullet cavities are not machining marks. They are thin grooves cut in the surface to allow air to escape from the bullet cavities as the lead pours in. Take care not to let them get clogged with lead or carbon.

I occasionally brush my mould faces with a brass toothbrush parallel to the vent grooves to keep them cleaned out. Have used a pen knife, but only when they were plugged with particularly tenacious crud.

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I use a bic lighter for mold release :) and as already mentioned if you will be casting for muzzleloaders instead of Blackpowder cartridge guns you will want to use as pure and soft lead as you can get. The lubes i use for muzzleloaders is grease patch, slick load which is the same as bore butter as well as all the commercial names that package the bore butter stuff just depends on who has it on sale and crisco. Have fun with your new hobby!

I always thought BP shooters were supposed to kill a bear with their bare hands & knives as an initiation to hunting, and only when they had collected a supply of bear grease to use as a bullet lube could they take up firearms.

[ which is why I only shoot smokeless! ]

:)

I've always brushed on powdered graphite.