Non-Electric Furnace?

[Cosmoline]

I'm shooting a lot more lately than I have over the past few years, and I'd like to start casting my own bullets for .357 and .44 Mag to save money. I'm going to be limited in space and power. Every furnace I've seen is 110 or 220 electrical. Does anyone make a furnace that runs off propane or something similar? I'm not going to run the thing in my apartnment.

 

[Sunray]

Cosmo, since you're in Alaska, can you get lead inexpensively? Wheel weights? Kind of pointless to set up to cast if you can't get inexpensive lead.

 

[only1asterisk]

Try a search for plumber's furnaces. You have to be careful not to get the lead too hot.

http://www.theantimonyman.com/furnace.htm

David

 

[Chawbaccer]

Coleman camp stove and a plumbers pot. Make a shield out of sheet metal to wrap around the pot to help hold the heat in.

 

[Murphster]

I have a friend who's one of the nation's top BPCR competitors. He practices a lot and accordingly has to cast a lot of bullets. As I recall, he uses one of those turkey fryer arrangements (the kind that's connected to the large propane tank). On top of that he sets a large cast iron kettle. Melts his lead in that.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

A propane pot

As the original Saeco Co distributor I used to sell our #24 bottom pour pot without electronics and my casting buddy and I set one up with three propane torches at it from a junction box he made then a hose to a 5 gallon propane tank. We also had a 20 pound electrical top dip pot and would melt one pound ingots in the top dip pot and ladle the lead into the bare bottom pour pot when we used TWO 8 cavity H&G .45acp 200 gr swc bullet molds.

There should be a machine shop there in town to rig up two propane tank jet nozzles to a box then to a tank for you to use. Old timers like me started with a table top pot that put out a blast flame and forget what it was named but was used to heat big soldering irons until the big propane tanks became available.

So talk to a machinist and I will see if I have another bare Saeco bottom pour pot in my Saeco company survival stash.

PM me as I think I have one but it has to stop raining so I can dig stuff out of the way in my storage shed.

 

[HSMITH]

I use a turkey fryer burner and a 12 quart cast iron dutch oven. I melt about 100 pounds of melt at a time and cast 100+ pounds per session. I set the burner up pretty high, and add an ingot and sprues when the temp climbs much over about 800*, bring it back to about 720-750 and keep going.

I would go bananas trying to run a couple 4 holers or a couple 6 holers with any smaller melt bucket.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Propane caster for an individual

If we wish to compare hammers, I used a linotype 3 ton smelter with a rotating 8 cavity linotype mold casting 30 pound hooked ingots for feeding my two Bulletmaster machines casting 4,800 BPH. The ingot mold was cooled with an attached water hose that exited the hot water into my swimming pool.

My mentor Gromak Industries sold the system to me when he built his 26 ton smelter. When years later he received an offer for a million dollars for his complete commercial ammunition and bullet making system he retired and bought a yacht and is somewhere in the warm tropics the last I heard.

My current 50 pound plumbers pot, Saeco bottom pour pot that has lasted me for 52 years, Saeco Lifetime 4 cavity molds, 36 year old Saeco Steel Lead Hardness Tester, Several Star Lubers and a couple of Star Reloaders suit my current needs.

I am enjoying my retirement promoting the bulletcasting, reloading and shooting sports.

 

[Cosmoline]

That's pretty impressive!

Thanks for all the input on this.

 

[HSMITH]

Wasn't looking for a johnson measuring contest John Paul, just mentioning what I like and what I use. I also use the throw-away aluminum blocks, I like the casting rate and being able to force cool them with wet rags instead of waiting. I have some blocks from you and the quality is absolutely fantastic, but I tend to get them too darn hot and get impatient waiting for them to cool.

I suspect we all cast a little different.