Avoid lee single and double cavity molds, any single or double by anybody is slow,. but lee's get misaligned easily. ditto RCBS molds. 4-6 cavity molds, by Lee, are a great deal. Don't bother with any sizing machine but the Star. If you don't want to spend that sort of money, (ie, $300 used) then size them with the Lee hand sizer (in a reloading press( and lube them with Lee's Alox liquid. lube, just add the lube to some bullets in a shallow pan and shake the pan a bit. presto, lubed bullets.
Take a shovel, a heavy-duty picture frame, some ratwire and a big wood or metal box (I use an old dishwasher housing). and go to some public ranges. Look for the places that are the most shot up, and "mine" them for the lead. A metal detector is sometimes helps, too. Copper or steel jackets float to the top of the melting pot. Get an old propane-fired plumber's furnace on ebay or craigslist. Get a cast iron pot, skillet wide, but 6" deep, at Wally's, so you can melt 100 lbs at a time. BEWARE solder from wiped metal pipes, and also beware zinc wheelweights, or the adhesive backed wheelweights. ONE such piece will ruin an entire potful of lead for casting puposes.
Beware copper-plated, steel battery cable ends. Beware busting up old batteries for the lead plates. The acid "explodes' liquid lead. You must first "soak" the plates for days in water buckets, then dry them out thoroughly, before casting with them as alloy. Beware ice or water in the bottom of the buckets or barrels that lead comes in from the scrap yard! Beware live rds mixed in range lead! iI you pour these things into molten lead, the liquid lead will be splashed all over everything within 10 ft or so. It STICKS to your clothing/skin, guy.
Molten lead will start fires, if paper or wood falls into it. Use a soft plastic mallet to strike open the sprueplate on your mold. never strike the mold body with anything. They are very soft. Have partical board under you where you cast. If you drop a mold, especially an aluminum mold, to concrete, you've probably ruined it. Use the handled, spouted pouring ladle, or you'll get a lot of bullets with rounded bases. The electric pots are too expensive, small and slow.
Casting sux, so if you can't set up to make 500 or more finished bullets per hour, it's not worth the risks/effort/expense. Try to buy used gear, from ebay or craiglist, with testing/right of return agreements, in writing or on the spot of sale. Get a stainless steel wire brush for cleaning out build up crud in the mold. don't use a plastic toothbrush unless the mold is COLD. Even just a warm mold will melt the plastic into the mold cavity, causing you all sorts of grieve. Keep an old electric hotplate plugged in, so as to pre-heat your molds, and to keep them warm while you take a break.
If you don't yet have 1000 lbs of scrap lead, don't bother to invest in this gear. You will lose about 10% of weight when you clean up the lead. You'll probably have to add a bit of (very expensive) antimony and tin, to get good 9mm bullets. I suggest no more than 900 fps, with velocities closer to 800 fps being better for accuracy and lack of fouling in your bore. That means 150 gr bullets, approximately.
