Minimalist casting?

[jonas66]

Adding a random .02-- I've cast several thousands of .45-70, .45 acp, and 9x19 out of the cheap lee molds over the last year, (my first year casting bullets)- both tumble-lube style and regular lube-groove, and lubed them all using LLA.

I toss a hundred or so at a time in a zip-loc bag, add a couple of dollops of LLA and a few squirts of brakleen to cut and thin the lube, zip up and massage the baggie for a minute or two. Lay them out on wax paper under a fan and they're ready to go next day.

When I first started I used way too much un-thinned LLA, but thanks to THR, Castboolits and arfcom I am constantly learning.

The only time I've had trouble with leading was with slightly undersized bullets cast too hard ( I water-quench, mostly, using soft bullet alloy sourced from range scrap) in a 9mm after shooting hundreds of rounds one day. Scraps of copper chore-boy wrapped around a bronze brush and a little extra effort took care of that.

I'd like to try powder-coating soon but haven't quite gotten around to it yet.

ETA: I have several of the Lee push-through sizers but haven't needed to use them so far. My bullets drop a bit heavy 'cause they're softer lead but the molds seem to be just about right as is.

I did have to learn a bit about how to prep the lee molds to avoid galling before use. I ruined one before I figured that out-- but hey, it was a $22.00 lesson. Good enough.

 

[brewer12345]

I actually started out tumble lubing bullets, but my favorite revolver proceeded to lead up like crazy with it. So I ended up powder coating for it. I then realized how much less messy and smoky the powder coated bullets were. I still use tumble lubed for my rifles, which don't seem to mind. But for pistol and revolver (bulk of my production), I prefer to powder coat.

 

[bersaguy]

I was in your exact position about a year, year and a half ago. I had acquired a lee 420 pot and a couple of used molds from a member here probably 4 years ago, my dad got me a few buckets of wheel weights from the tire shop about 3 years ago. Finally sorted, cleaned and melted them into ingots about 2 years ago. The biggest hurdle I saw was the lubing. I tried pan lubing, it is feasible, but not terribly practical for me for reasons of time and mess. Well, more mess than time. I tried powder coating. That didn't start off well, but has become my preferred method. Eastwood powder (ford light blue), Tupperware container, cheap toaster oven and non stick foil. Shake in the powder for a few minutes, bake @ 400° for 20min. I may revisit pan lubing again if I can get a proper cookie cutter and find a way to keep the lube off the base of the bullets. But in terms of practicality, I can powder coat a mess of bullets, push them thru a lee sizer and store them till whenever I'm ready to load them without worrying about the lube melting, drying or picking up shmoo.
Over this past year I have picked a few more molds, mold handles, sizing dies, and assorted accoutrements. Point being, starting minimalist is feasible, staying minimalist is a much larger challenge

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Point being, starting minimalist is feasible, staying minimalist is a much larger challenge

Wisdom from the ages !

So very true.

 

[Targa]

So true......^^. Started with Lee 2 cavity molds, very happy with them and really could have got away with just using them for the rest of my casting days but alas, all of a sudden a couple of Lee 6 bangers ended up in the mix, then out of no where H&G, MP and Arsenal appeared.
Then there was the lubing thing, pan lubing works great and have no intent on abandoning it but I have recently found a toaster oven and Smokes clear powder coating in my reloading room. Yep....it has turned into a bit of an addiction...

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Started with Lee 2 cavity molds, very happy with them and really could have got away with just using them for the rest of my casting days but alas, all of a sudden a couple of Lee 6 bangers ended up in the mix, then out of no where H&G, MP and Arsenal appeared.

Funny, the exact same thing happened to me....

 

[Armored farmer]

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.

I also use Lee equipment and tumble lube alox.
My routine is just like @Hooda Thunkit .
I tumble Lube all kinds of bullets. I even lube my round balls for c&b revolvers with alox.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

I truly believe that if anyone besides Richard Lee had come up with Alox tumble lubing, it would have been trumpeted as the Best Thing EVER!!! in all the gun mags.

That being said, Lee could have done better with the instructions. "Squirt a small amount..." just doesn't cut it.

Many folks tried, myself included, using far too much Alox, and ended with a sticky mess. That's what spawned the nicknames, including Mule Snot.

A little dab'll do ya.

 

[mdi]

I'm a "I wonder if..." kinda guy and have experimented quite a bit, especially with bullet lubes. My first lube was a hard red lube that came with the Lee pan lube kit (long discontinued) and it worked for my 44 Magnum. I then tried some alox, and it also worked on my 44 bullets but I thought it was ugly so I started dip lubing with it (like the name implies, I grabbed a bullet by the nose and dipped it in a container of thinned alox.). I also tried Caterpillar spray boom lube, Amsoil, silicon spray (fail!) and paraffin with maybe 8 different thinning agents, water pump and wheel bearing grease. I even tried some Schutzen shooter's lubes some with whale oil (very hard to find so I used synthetic) bear grease, tallow etc.. I found for low pressure rounds almost anything works like Chap Stick and plain Vaseline. If someone wants to start K.I.S.S., White Label Lubes https://lsstuff.com/ offers excellent lubed at good prices (for a new caster I'd recommend 45-45-10. It has worked for just about every handgun bullet I've tried). I enjoy casting even at times when I only get 75% keepers and I don't place a number on the amount of bullets I cast. I mostly pan lube now which is easy, fast and inexpensive (I don't have/need/want a lubersizer). If one wants bullets in a hurry and/or doesn't want to go through all the "hassle" of casting, fine, no big deal, but for me it is probably the most satisfying part of my shooting...