Minimalist casting?

[Random 8]

I've always had an interest in casting, but found casting, sizing, lubing bullets to be not worth the time, expense and effort vs quality inexpensive cast bullets available on the market. Well, that was pre-2020. I have cast jigs, sinkers, decoy weights, and other oddball projects for many years. I have some experience in creating alloys ( I found lead jigheads alloyed with significant antimony and some tin approximating Lyman #2 are much more effective at not getting snagged in rocks than dead soft jigheads).

Anyways, I've wondered if once I am able to acquire a couple of molds, would it be feasible and practical to cast a basic bullet for 9mm and .38 Spl using a homemade or inexpensive commercial lube that doesn't require a lubri-sizer. Looking at the Lee tumble lube style bullets, but open to other possibilities such as tray/cookie cutter lubing. I'm not trying to set any bullseye records, just cheap bullets for informal plinking. The whole sizing/lubing process sounds a little arcane and expensive to me, and wondering if it can be gotten around for practice grade bullets. I have access to telecom/electric conductive and plumbing lead as well as hardening alloys for little or no cost through work.

 

[troy fairweather]

Just powder coat them, that solves the lube problem.

 

[BigIron76]

I didn't read the entire post as I should have. My response was incorrect, so I'm editing. There is no delete button.

 

[GoldieMI]

do the shake and bake method with either powder coat (Eastwood light blue) or the new style hi-tek

 

[whughett]

The Lee tumble lube bullet molds should throw a bullets that requires no sizing. I’ve all the equipment including a heated bullet lube sizer, but pretty much rely on tumble lubing these days. Sizing is done with Lees cheap push thru sizers. Lube sizing is the one chore I find tedious at best. As for alloying I cast and shoot the lead as I find it. But that’s mainly target velocity loads. 45ACP 38 Special and 44 Special.
I’ve tried pan lubing for black powder cartridges but found the Alox tumble lube sufficient for revolver loads.
Zero experience with powder coating and no desire to venture there, although it seems to be all the rage these days. Just another step I’d rather not do.

 

[brewer12345]

Order a Lee 358-125RF 6 cavity and a Lee .358 push through sizer from Titan reloading. If it isn't in stock, they will take backorders. Get a $20 wal mart toaster oven and some powder coating powder. You can mold these bullets for both 9MM and 38 special, powder coat them, size them, and you are all set.

 

[cfullgraf]

Tray and cutter lubing is not too time intensive and it is not capital cost expensive. I'd rather use tray and cutter lubing over tumble lube mostly because the latter is messier to handle.

Lee has pass through sizer dies that use a standard O-frame press. I think about $20 or so for each kit but I've slept since I last looked at them.

Powder coating is an option and the Lee pass through sizer dies work with powder coated bullets as well. But, I find the powder coating process a bit more time intensive but not much more than lubricating. The colored bullets are cool.

Bottom line though, the equipment for the above is not expensive and gives you a good back up should some components become difficult to obtain.

Cast bullet lubri-sizers are nice and make the lubricating process quick and easy but at a higher capital cost.

Finally, I like the Lee aluminum moulds. They perform well especially in a back up role. I do have some cast iron and brass moulds and they are very nice but I'm more committed to casting.

 

[bullseye308]

I have been casting for around 15 years exclusively with “cheap” Lee equipment. Cheap is my goal in everything I do so here is my suggestions for you. Lee 4# pot, Lee ladle, Lee molds, Lee sizer, Lee lube, and a Lee Reloader press. That is all you need if your lead is already processed/blended into ingots. If you have lead to melt, get a turkey fryer, propane tank, cast iron Dutch oven(harbor freight), slotted spoon & ladle(goodwill), and muffin tins(goodwill), and either candles, crayons, sawdust, or beeswax to flux with.

That is pretty much the basics to get you started. Obviously you may have some of that already from your past experience with jig casting. The most important part is a source of lead, and it is still out there but getting harder to find. There are other things that are nice to have that make it easier and more user friendly, but this will get you going.

Depending on how far down the rabbit hole you are willing to go, powdercoating is simple, cheap, and cleaner than regular lube. Goodwill for a toaster oven, an extra tray or two, and a small tongs or hemostats. Dollar store for nonstick aluminum foil, maybe needle nosed pliers, and maybe storage containers if you need them. Powder coat from Smoke of cast bullets, powder by the pound, eBay, or wherever and a cool whip bowl will do ya probably for less than $30.
Put a couple spoonfuls of powder on the bowl, add in a couple handfuls of bullets, put the lid on and shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds. Preheat the oven to 400 and cover the trays with foil(nonstick side up), pick out the bullets if they appear to have good coverage using pliers/tongs/gloved fingers, and place on tray standing up in nice neat little rows to fill the tray. Bake for 20 minutes then remove to cool. Check diameter and size if necessary, unless you sized before coating.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

The powder coating sounds good, but it's actually easier and quicker to tumble lube. When done correctly it's not messy.

Take the Lee lube, and cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. Get an empty CoolWhip container.
Put 2 pounds of cast bullets in the container, add 1/2 teaspoon of the 50/50 lube mix.
Swirl, shake, swirl for about a minute. Dump it out on a sheet of wax paper (I use the clear bags from inside a cereal box).
Put a fan on the lubed bullets if you have one, if not don't fret. When dry, they are ready.

If you wish to size, use a push through sizer, and lube again.

No need to deal with tweezers, or stacking and racking bullets individually. No ovens, no powders, no mess.

It really does work.

 

[kmw1954]

These are all tumble lubed and sized thru a Lee push thru die. They work great. the top 2 pictures are 45acp and the last picture are Lee 102gr for my 380.

 

[GoldieMI]

I knew up front that I wanted to coat my 9mm so I ordered those molds as a Non Lube Groove mold. My 45ACP and 38 molds are traditional molds with lube grooves but I still use the Hi Tek/Powder coating - Hi Tek the 45ACP and powder coat the 38 DEWC
but then again, I knew I didn't want to deal with waxy/sticky lead like I loaded in the beginning. Just my personal preference is all.
I got a large box (7000+ rounds of dried up lead 45 ACP) when I first started reloading years ago and that has steered me to the coating methods today. I hated dealing with dried up / broken lube from improper handling.
plus I get to color code my cast bullets now for easy identification.

 

[whughett]

The powder coating sounds good, but it's actually easier and quicker to tumble lube. When done correctly it's not messy.

Take the Lee lube, and cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. Get an empty CoolWhip container.
Put 2 pounds of cast bullets in the container, add 1/2 teaspoon of the 50/50 lube mix.
Swirl, shake, swirl for about a minute. Dump it out on a sheet of wax paper (I use the clear bags from inside a cereal box).
Put a fan on the lubed bullets if you have one, if not don't fret. When dry, they are ready.

If you wish to size, use a push through sizer, and lube again.

No need to deal with tweezers, or stacking and racking bullets individually. No ovens, no powders, no mess.

It really does work.

Works and works well. Thanks for the tip on cutting the Alox stick, I’ve been using the small bottles of liquid. Provided at one time with every push through sizer. After Homeland banned liquid containers on planes Lee stopped supplying the small liquid Alox in the kits. One can still order it however, go figure.

Ive watched several videos on powder coating. Lots of additional work and unnecessary unless one intends to push every bullet at max velocity.

 

[anothernewb]

Random. I was exactly where you are now, 8 years ago. I bought a very basic setup with a lee bottom pour, lee sizers, and 3 6 gang molds. a 124 design for 9, a 158 SWC for 38/357 and a mihec 200 swc for 45.

I did the tumble lube thing with white label lube 45-45-10. They did indeed work well enough for exactly what you are thinking.

Since then I did acquire a lyman 4500 and all the perquisite dies and top punches. In the end I found some difference between the processes, but not as significant as I thought it would be.

To that I will add the following. I still have the equipment, but it's in reserve for the bad days now. Nothing compares to coated bullets once I found them. The cleanliness alone in handling and shooting is more than worth it. At the end of the day, my own rationale for the common calibers also made for a serious argument against it, lol. For me, for now, it just makes more sense to buy coated bullets in bulk while I could and while I had the budget.

Some day I will probably go back and experiment with baking coatings myself, and place a ready supply of PC or hitek in my stash. But as long as I can order them. I will keep stockpiling them already made.

This whole entry though becomes moot should I pick up an odd caliber or develop a taste for a unique profile. Then - there is no other solution than to cast your own.

 

[gifbohane]

Can any of you recommend a sizer, not a Lee, that would be best for casting 9mm with the Hi Tek powder coating method?

 

[troy fairweather]

Can any of you recommend a sizer, not a Lee, that would be best for casting 9mm with the Hi Tek powder coating method?

Why not lee

 

[anothernewb]

IMO the lee push through is THE sizer to use with coating. mount the press upside down for straight into the storage container sizing.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Can any of you recommend a sizer, not a Lee, that would be best for casting 9mm with the Hi Tek powder coating method?

NOE has a very slick setup. Similar to the Lee push through, but with replaceable bushings. Once you purchase the original tool, the bushings are about $10 each, or less.

I use this setup, and find his sizes run true. When I run a bullet through his .312 die, it comes out .312. That's more than I can say for some other brands.

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/product-category/sizing-tools/sizing_kits/

 

[gifbohane]

I do not want to start any controversy.

I know that they work and I know that a lot of the very knowledgeable guys here love them.

But I just don't think that they make a good quality product

 

[derek45]

add me to the list of guys recommending powder coating

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

I'm going to risk repeating myself.

Powder coating is not 'minimalist'.

It requires sourcing and storing even more equipment.

Tumble lubing is about as minimalist as one can get, without just buying the projectiles instead of casting them. All it takes is a cool whip container and a sheet of wax paper.

 

[Targa]

Have you slugged your barrel/measured the cylinder on the guns you want to cast for. I only ask because it is important not to cast undersized bullets, oversize you can can easily size to what you need, undersize you are limited on what you can do to increase the size.
This can determine what molds you need to be looking at. As long as the size works out well for your firearms, I would highly recommend grabbing some Lee molds. They cast quality bullets and if you want to start with a 2 banger mold you are looking at $23 or so ready to cast handles and all. I would recommend getting the Lee molds in a six cavity from just a productivity rate.
If powder coating doesn't fit the bill for you
pan lubing is an excellent option, get a 1lb block of lube (this will lube alot of bullets), a cheap electric hot plate and a pan....good to go, you can be all in for $40 assuming you dont already have a pan and hot plate. There are youtube videos to help you out.

 

[mdi]

Lifelong machinist/mechanic here and I think the biggest problem with Lee products is the user. I have been using Lee products since 1969 and have fewer problems (or at best the same) than my others (RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Pacific, et al). I have 7 or 8 Lee push through sizing dies (some I customized) and depending on the bullet's alloy, all come within .002" of designed/target diameter, with most less than .001".

OK lesson over and back to the subject. Looking to keep it simple? I'd suggest a Lee 125 RF mold. I use it in my 2, 38 Specials, one 357 Magnum and 4 9mm pistols and I just use those junky, crappy Lee push through sizing died to fit each gun (357" for 38, .357"-358" for 357 Mag. and 356"+ to .358" for 9mm depending on the individual gun). Alox does not need a specific design bullet to be effective and I've dip lubed many of the 125 RF bullets. Also pan lubing is a simple alternative and more styles/types of lubes are available. A simple one is beeswax and Vaseline. Mix to get a consistency needed, soft enough to stay in the groove but not sticky to handle. Actually beeswax and any oil of product to make it softer (have used Marvels Mystery oil, mineral oil, vegetable oils, shortening, etc., works well for 38/357 but a better lube is often needed for 9mm, like three parts beeswax and one part 2 cycle motor oil.). Many recipes/methods here; http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?58-Boolit-Lube-! I have actually lubed some 38 Special bullets with Chap Stick, just filled the lube groove by hand. Slow and messy, but it worked pretty well in my 38s.

I've PCed quite a few of my cast both rifle and handgun bullets and yes, it does everything it is supposed to do, but for me it seemed too involved (been casting for 30+ years and my cast with home made lube don't lead the barrels and are as accurate as any bullet I've tried). I started with "shake and bake" method and I already had a toaster oven for pan lubing so actually it wasn't a bit deal, I was just set up and had all the methods down pat and all the supplied I would need. I don't consider PCing any easier or any harder than conventional lubes, just different...

 

[Thomasss]

I didn't have much luck with Harbor Freight black powder coating and am now a proud owner of a toaster oven. I went back Lee molds and their Alox for 9mm. .357 is a lot easier with an old Lyman sizer and luber off e-bay and that could be also done with Alox. I was lucky enough to get some Hi-Tek powdered bullets when the delivery time was only 30 days. One Word of Advice: Look at your reloading recipe before choosing the size bullet to cast. For example, a 125 grain, 9mm is harder to find powder for than almost any other size of 9mm.

 

[GoldieMI]

I didn't have luck with HF powder either, but Eastwood Ford Blue and Smoke Powder from Smoke on CB seem to be the easiest ones to use for shake and bake one coat powdercoating.

 

[troy fairweather]

I've heard from many people not to use the hf black, guess something in there is a abrasive. Eastwoods powders are good and stick much better.