A rainy night.........

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NobleSniper

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Well, after finding out the propane furnace I had wouldn't do the job I spent hours goin all over town trying to find something with some more btu's........... finally found something and went to work. My frst time pouring my own :D

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Man those bullets look great. Well for your first time I would say ya have a knack for it. Good job
 
I use about the same set up. It works much better than a coleman stove. You might want to try something like a 7" cast iron skillet for melting your lead. That pot you are using looks like a lot of the flame is going past the side where it is lost.

I use a 10" skillet but I think it is a little too big. Lead pucks from it weigh 40+ pounds.
 
So, are we each getting a box of sample boolits so we can critique your workmanship? Kidding. It seems like you put a rainy night to productive use. I've casted hundreds of bullets at a time (used several molds for different caliber). I store my round balls in those 16 oz water bottles. The Minies are stored in old plastic Speer boxes.
 
Bullet and Ball casting is as addictive as black powder guns ..
I started casting to save money years ago ..now I have a mold for every black powder gun I own .. (I don`t keep my molds there ) Just layed them there to show how many I ended up with ...I heat and ice pick , and wood burn the mold size in the wood handles so I can see at a glance which mold I am looking for , I always keep the last pour in the mold ..will keep the mold clean , and the jaws lined up and closed .
Have you tried your hand at pan lubeing bullets ? (second pic here)
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Sundance44s - don't you know it's bad to smoke cigarettes? It spoils the lead flavor of the bullets. :neener:
 
You can`t see it in the pic ..but I wear a space suit while I cast ...and the ash tray belongs to the dog ....he has lots of bad habbits .
 
Badpenny, they are 58 caliber minie balls. Using a Lyman .575213AR mould. HArdest part ws findin the turkey/fish fry burner without all he posts and everything. Now to pour some .457 and .380 round balls for my Walkers and my Navy :D
 
I guess someone has to say it.

Rainy night, be careful no water drops fall into your pot.

You can guess the consequence, a little steam explosion that may scatter molten lead.
 
I use the Lee production pot.
It's more compact and easy to put away when I'm done, but it does have a few problems of it's own. Sometimes when you lower the lever, lead still drips out until you twist or thump the valve stem.
It's also a small pot and takes a small ingot.
I got the BuckBeaver flux, which helps a lot, but keeping the pot clean is still problematic.
Sniper, your bullets look nice.
Sundance; I like the idea of wood burning the mold info on the handles. I'm getting a pretty sizable colection myself.
 
Some nice, tight ranks there, NobleSniper. Wish I had something that used .58 ammo, but .50 is as high as I go... for now.

Watch it with those cast iron pots, sundance44s. I've heard that they can get a bit fragile at lead-melting temperatures. Of course, if they're cast steel then it shouldn't be a problem.

I use a Lee Production Pot when I'm home and the propane stove in the motor home when I'm out and about. Just a steel sauce pan, perforated serving spoon, and a dipper - that's all it takes. Oh, and a chunk of lube for flux, when I'm casting harder alloys. Otherwise I try to skim off anything that isn't lead.
 
Real fine job on your casting Noblesniper ... it can be alot of fun and very relaxin' as long as the stinkin' mold Demons are kept away ... smoke the mold, hit the right temp, and don't stop :O)
 
on the lead is no problem,in the lead is very exciting.
Click to expand...
I left my Lee Production IV pot outside one extremely dewy night this summer. The lead had cooled and shrunk a bit as it tends to do, leaving a small gap around the edge of the lead to pot margin. Did I mention humid along with dewy yet?

Well, I get up the next morning, plug in the pot, set the thermostat, grab my molds, coffee cans, coffee, the dog's cigs (yeah, mine smokes too), etc. and set about getting ready to cast beau coupe lead balls. About 15 minutes later, I notice a rapidly expanding bulge in the middle of the half molten lead, and for some odd reason I think "Wow, that looks like Mount Saint Helens!" I was fascinated, then I realized exactly what was about to happen. I scrambled away, practically falling out of the chair, and had not been away for more than a second or two, when the middle of the lead erupted into a beautiful silvery fountain over almost two feet high! A good quarter of the pot spewed all over the table, and splattered droplets several feet away, and would have seriously burned me had I not moved. The gravity of what had almost occurred didn't really sink in until I was through scraping lead from the concrete patio. I was very nearly sick to my stomach with the thought.

Exciting? Yes. Stupid of me? Very. Did I learn anything? Oh yeah. Keep your powder dry, and your lead even drier.
 
Yikes, Ginormous.

Excellent setup....my bullet casting setup doubles as my beer brewing setup. Two 175,000 BTU propane burners. It will melt a pot full of lead in nothing flat :evil:

I use a Lyman pot over one of the burners and it works great. When your mould hits the right temperature and you really get rolling bullet casting is great fun. Nothing like looking down to see a big pile of boolits and suddenly realizing you've spent two hours in the garage.

Casting for my 45-70 got much more enjoyable after I figured out pan lubing. I found I get the best results by using an empty case like a cookie cutter to cut the bullets out of the lube.
 
I have a question about the burner for casting. I have natural gas service to my house and was wondering if it was safe to use a propane burner using natural gas? I know natural gas has a little higher heat value than propane bit would it make any real world difference when used outside on a covered deck? Thank you.
 
Can't say for sure there in Oregon, but here, if you take an appliance in to your local propane dealer, they can / will switch out the jets for a small fee.

I had a Dearborn heater that had been used with propane and had to have it switched when I moved. I think the propane dealer changed the jets for like 5.00

I think in most hardware stores you can buy the Orifice's ...they are short bolt with a hole in the middle that controls the gas delivery.
 
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