Want To Start Casting

[345 DeSoto]

I'm going to start casting some lead, and wonder if anyone has used this Pot. Four pounds at a time seems like something I can handle, and this is what this pot does. I've also got questions about how to prepare/clean the lead I have...range lead and wheel weights...this stuff is NASTY. I understand that all the "nasty" floats to the top. Do I just scoop it off the top with a stainless steel spoon? I've attached a picture of the pot I'm thinking about purchasing...

 

[armoredman]

Don't smelt and cast in the same pot. I don't smelt - I have a buddy in Mesa who I take the lead from Seafab to for him to smelt down, and we go from there. The BEST advice I can give you in regards to casting is visit here;
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php They got me into casting years ago, and are one HECK of a good bunch of guys and gals. Also a good place to find 1 pound ingot wheel weights to buy, usually a lot cheaper than you think.
Hope that helps!

 

[Kp321]

+1 on not smelting and casting in the same pot. When you smelt the wheel weights, be sure to flux the pot before casting your ingots. That helps separate the dirt and trash plus it keeps the alloys in the lead. If you never flux, you end up skimming some of the alloying off the pot.

 

[Okcafe86]

Ive bought wheel weight ingots from someone on castboolits. Right at 1$ a pound. Not bad at all. I havent bothered smelting my own yet. I would recommend atleast a 10 lb pot to start out though. It sounds like alot but lead is really heavy, it doesnt take much to weigh 10 lbs.

 

[Dmitri Popov]

I would look at LEE 10 or 20 pound pot. They work well, have either ladle or bottom pour options, and don't cost mich more than what you are looking at. That four pounds will go by in a hurry!

 

[clearcut]

345D you can smelt and clean your lead in a cast iron pot and SS spoon on a camp stove out side, to clean the dross/slag off you should flux with bee's wax or other flux and stir in the alloys before skimming the junk off the top.When it's clean pour the lead in to muffin pans or ingot molds to be used in your casting pot.Flux and stir again when you cast.Lots to glean @ castboolits.
CC

 

[Bula]

A four ound pot is going to run dry very quickly. You're going to be waiting for your melt to come to temp, very frequently. For low volume casting ie single and double cavity molds, with a ladle, you really need at least a 10 pound pot IMO. The lee Pro 20, bottom pour is a bit tempermental, but It's not $400 like the RCBS. I say invest in the Lee. Worth the money and it'll spare you some headaches down the road. Good Luck and enjoy!

 

[mdi]

I too think that pot is too small and will prolly be more work than it's worth. I started bare bones; a 2 qt. stainless steel pot on a Coleman single burner stove, a Lee ladle, a slotted spoon, a wooden stick for stirring the melt, some paraffin for flux, a Lee mold and a plastic mallet. I had access to lot of wheel weights so that was my alloy. I lubed with alox and my first mold was a tumble lube design that I did not need to size (micrometers are very often needed for measuring bullets, barrel slugs, etc.). If you'd like to use an electric pot Lyman and Lee sell entry level melting pots for ladle casting.

If I had known about the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook I would have read/used one, but I started "pre-web". Get a 3rd Edition Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, if you can, but a 4th will be OK. Read the handbook, look at Castboolits.com and Los Angeles Silhouette Club has a lot of very good info on casting/shooting lead bullets http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm a real good place for info., and check the website for more too.

 

[Reefinmike]

Use a camping stove and cast iron skillet to pour ingots. Cast iron fun shaped corn bread molds are great for ingots. most people do corn shaped ingots. I do fish! I absolutely recommend at least getting a $50 lee 10lb bottom pour pot. it only takes me an hour behind the lead pot to pour $50 worth of cast bullets, I would lose my mind if I had to ladle cast all my bullets.

 

[poco loco]

one more for a Lee bottom pour, I use the 20lb, to cast from and a cast iron crucible/pot to smelt the dirty lead in. Flux it well and enjoy the new addictive addition to reloading.

The Lee pot can be drippy but a screwdriver stops that and it's 62 bucks on Amazon.

 

[Okcafe86]

Oh, BTW; if you go the route of a fire/stove with a pot, get cast iron or stainless steel. (cast iron preferred)Aluminum is a NO GO.

 

[Hondo 60]

My setup -

Cast iron pot on a camping cook stove to "clean" wheel weights.

Lee Production Pot Four to cast bullets

Also highly recommend Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook.
The current edition is #4, which I found to be MUCH more readable than #3.

 

[345 DeSoto]

Thanks to ALL for the very informative information... I think I'll be getting a Lee 10 pound bottom pour for casting, and clean the nasty stuff outside in a cast iron container. And thanks also for the Cast Boolits Site info...

 

[armoredman]

You have no idea what you are in store for, wait until we get into lubes...tumble...hard...powder coat...

 

[mdi]

Desoto; yep yer on a slippery slope. Bullet casting is very satisfying and often addicting (I can stop, I can stop, I can stop. NOT!). Though I started bare bones a few years ago, I'm up to 13 molds 8 sizing dies, a bottom pour pot and a hot plate "mold pre-heating appliance", 6 or eight home made lubes and a bunch of xlox, and about a quart of 45-45-10. I also have mebbe a half dozen assorted "casting tools". My alloy pile consists of about 500 lbs of hockey puck (muffin) ingots, mebbe 100-150 lbs of my 15 lb. wheel weight alloy bars, and 60 lbs of "special" alloys (linotype and Lyman#2, and foundry 20-1 alloy). My casting library is up to 5 books and three cast lead reloading manuals, and my computer has about 100 bookmarks pertaining to casting/sizing/lubing/loading/shooting lead bullets...

And I'm getting into Powder Coating too...

 

[chris in va]

I have cast probably 50,000 bullets the past few years.

Not the ideal setup, but I much prefer a bottom pour over using a ladle. You'll want something at least 10#. To 'smelt' down wheelweights, I bought a $10 countertop hotplate and found a small iron Dutch oven with lid, which is important to keep the heat in so it melts faster. I was using a small skillet but the open top would cool the melt and take way too long.

Watch those wheelweights! Even here in KY, I'm finding about half are zinc or 'Fe' iron weights. Beware!:banghead:

 

[Reefinmike]

I have cast probably 50,000 bullets the past few years.

Not the ideal setup, but I much prefer a bottom pour over using a ladle. You'll want something at least 10#. To 'smelt' down wheelweights, I bought a $10 countertop hotplate and found a small iron Dutch oven with lid, which is important to keep the heat in so it melts faster. I was using a small skillet but the open top would cool the melt and take way too long.

Watch those wheelweights! Even here in KY, I'm finding about half are zinc or 'Fe' iron weights. Beware!:banghead:

I traded a pound of powder and a few hundred boolits for a bucket of wheel weights recently... turned out it was 50% zinc/steel. My neighbor gave me a couple hundred pounds of wheel weights last year. All lead, that was nice. Currently melting down some drywall lead. Stock up while you can, I have 450 pounds and im in it only $40 and a few hours of my time.

 

[41 Mag]

Thanks to ALL for the very informative information... I think I'll be getting a Lee 10 pound bottom pour for casting, and clean the nasty stuff outside in a cast iron container. And thanks also for the Cast Boolits Site info...

DeSoto,

Having started out pouring my own on a shoe string, I would highly suggest saving just a touch more and springing for the 4-20 pot instead. It will still pour up 10# worth at a time if that is all your interested in, but it will pour 10# better if filled with 15# worth of alloy to start out with. The extra alloy will help you in the long run by helping to keep the whole amount a more consistent temp while your pouring as well as allowing you to add to it while not dropping the temp down to far so you have to wait while it heats back up.

Also you might look into picking up a single or double burner hotplate from Wally world for around $20. If you get the single you use it to get or keep your mold nice and toasty while your alloy is heating up. With the double burner one, you can have one for your molds and one to set additional bars of alloy on to preheat while your pouring. Then it won't drop your pot temp down as much or take as long to melt the additional bars when you drop them in.

Another thing, I also HIGHLY recommend checking the site that "mdi" mentioned out LASC

You will find a TON of info there available in PDF format which is great for downloading and printing out into your own handbook. While it isn't the Lyman manual, it does cover a lot of things that aren't in it, and some that are, but covers them more in depth.

Hope this helps.

 

[GLOOB]

+1 on the 20 lb pot. there's no point in getting the 10lb pot, because the price is so close. You might not need to fill the 20 lb pot all the way, very often, but it is just a lot more convenient to be able to fit a decent amount of ingots in there when you turn it on and go do something else for 30 minutes.

Storage size isn't a big factor. The difference in size and footprint between the two is pretty minimal. 10 lbs of lead isn't a large volume, at all.

 

[30Cal]

I do my smelting in a stainless steel dog dish on a coleman stove.


You'll need some tin which reduces the surface tension of the lead and will allow it to fill out the mold. It takes very very little. A lot of solder is 95%/5% tin/lead. Pewter is mostly tin.

 

[highlander 5]

I purchased a nice camp stove from a company called Fire Chef. 2 burner and uses a 20 lb propane tank for fuel. I use a cast iron pot that I got at Walmart for smelting wheel weights. Using a Coleman stove for smelting gives me pause as I have this picture of the grate breaking/folding and dumping molten lead over me and the surrounding area.

 

[Russian Reloads]

Go for a good bottom pour pot. You will thank yourself over and over for spending a few extra dollars. I also smelt in the same one I cast from. I will smelt a bunch at a time and scrape the slag off the top. because it is a bottom pour you will be getting out the pure lead. get you an ingot mould and use that. Then when you are casting you are just putting in your pure lead and not all the slag. For a flux I just use bits of old candles and that works great.