Casting session length?

[DragoonDrake]

This is a simple question. From set up to break down how long is your usual casting session? Mine run from 3 at the shortest to 6 at the longest. Usually 4. I take about one hour to set up and get the pots warmed up and about another hour to cool off and clean up. So I actually cast for about two hours.

Thanks in advance folks.

[peerlesscowboy]

2 to 3 hours, I'll start with a full 10 lb pot and cast 'til the level's down t'where I'm not getting good mould fills. Takes me about half an hour to get the alloy and mould up to casting heat.

John C. Saubak

[mooman76]

I turn my pot on and get ready while it's heating up. That's about 20-30 min. I have little to get ready as I keep my casting stuff all together so it's usually getting the moulds out a a little organizing. About the same amount of time or less tearing down. My sessions are allot shorter than they used to be unless I have a particular reason to make allot of boolits so usually 2-3 hrs anymore.

[Von Gruff]

Yep, about the same for me as well. 1/2hour for warm-up and mould clean etc. Then a couple of hours casting and a 1/2 hour cole down and clean up.

Then of course there are the days that everything comes together and the boolits are falling free and easy so generally that session is prolonged :lol::lol::lol:

Von Gruff.

[montana_charlie]

"Moon Noon" is that time when the full moon is highest in the night sky.
I cast from one hour before that point, to one hour after.

At the starting time, everything is up to temperature, all fluxing is complete, and all spells and incantations have been spoken.

Does not everyone follow this regimen?

CM

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I have a room dedicated to casting. One half hour to warm up and then........... whatever. I have no standard amount of time. I guess, whenever I get the time and for as long as I can, would be the norm. I've cast 60 lbs. of 158 gr. RNFP this weekend.

[geargnasher]

"Moon Noon" is that time when the full moon is highest in the night sky.
I cast from one hour before that point, to one hour after.

At the starting time, everything is up to temperature, all fluxing is complete, and all spells and incantations have been spoken.

Does not everyone follow this regimen?

CM

Of course. I've found that fluxing with a little eye of newt helps, as does wearing a pink Fez and Sir Elton John rhinestone safety glasses, and listening to Dire Straits on the CD player.

Gear

[HeavyMetal]

Sorry Gear I'm a Jan & Dean , Beach boys guy.

I have my pots set up on a work bench on the back patio so I plug in and pull the molds I want to use and pre heat them on the pot and on a hot plate.

Generally it's a half hour until everything is ready to go. I alway use two molds, unless making HP's, so my limit is how long I can stand set in front of the bench with no pain.

If I'm on a mission to make 45 rounds and I get both Lee 6 bangers hot and running well 2 hours can turn out a fair sized pile of boolits let me tell you!

Cool down is usually an hour pending mold size and caliber seems to me the bigger molds cool off faster, so I'm thinking an avarage two mold session runs 3 to 4 hours from plug in to put the molds away for next time.

[imashooter2]

Well my set up is plug the pot in and tear down is pull the plug. I cast 2 to 3 hours at a clip. Then sorting and putting the take away is another hour or hour and a half.

[Fire_stick]

For me, it's at least 2 to 3hours. I have everything in one place, so all I have to do is plug up the pot and get it up to temp.

[mroliver77]

My stuff stays set up. Plug in and fiddle with something until time to cast. I suffer a lot of pain from various crashes, beatings, degenerative disks and Lyme disease after effects and cannot stand long sessions these days. I keep mould on a hot plate and after 15 min or so just lay mould back on plate and do some stretching or different work for a bit. The mould is up to temp when I am ready to go at it again. Sometimes I leave the pot on all day if I will be near it. As I mostly cast in the cold months the "wasted" heat helps warm the shop.
I have a buddy and his 15 year old son come to cast sometimes and we take turns with the six cavity mould for .45 auto boolits. We usually go a few hours continuously and get a big pile done. If I knew I would last this long I would have took much better care of my body! Even Superman gets old!
Jay

[wallenba]

For me it's under 2 hours. My back begins to ache a bit going longer than that. I finally got out to cast some today as we are having a heat wave in Michigan this week. Today 36 degrees, it's going all the way up to the forties this week too, but with rain. Knocked out 300 452-200 RF's. I was really itching to try out this new Lee six banger. Once I got her figured out it went real fast.

[Walter Laich]

2 to 3 hours from cold pot to having it cool enough to roll it back into the garage.

[LatheRunner]

Well it depends if Merlin comes over. When he's here it takes longer to get going what with all the spells and magic powders he has to put in the pot. If he's not here it takes about 1/2 an hour to get set up. I've only had 3 sessions so far. I casted for about 2 hours each time. Takes 1/2 hour to clean up. Wish I had aplace to leave everything set up. I sure am having fun!!!!!!!!! LatheRunner

[stubshaft]

3 - 5 hours or until my back starts to ache. Once I get the cadence going it's hard to stop.

[frankenfab]

3 - 5 hours or until my back starts to ache. Once I get the cadence going it's hard to stop.

+1

I find myself saying "I want to get get this can or bucket full, or this many boolits."
Then it just keeps snowballing from there. Smelting is worse for me, if I have a large amount. I love watching that stack of bars or crate full of corn pones, or wedges, or ingots grow. It's hard to stop.

[TCLouis]

I am lazy so I cast sitting down. If I a casting a fairly heavy boolit, I try to cast 20 lbs of lead before I stop.

Two banger mold of course is far less in a session.

[Ole]

I usually cast 10lbs minimum, 14-15 max.

The least amount I ever did was 4lbs of round balls for my slingshot.

A Lee 20lb pot starts overflowing around 15-16 lbs. Go ahead and ask me how I know this. :mrgreen:

[KYCaster]

"Moon Noon" is that time when the full moon is highest in the night sky.
I cast from one hour before that point, to one hour after.

At the starting time, everything is up to temperature, all fluxing is complete, and all spells and incantations have been spoken.

Does not everyone follow this regimen?

CM


Waxing or waning?

Jerry

[John Guedry]

1 hr. of actual casting. Never did time setup and cooldown/putaway.

[1Shirt]

From the time I sit down and start to cast until I put the mold down and unplug the furnace is usually between an hour to an hour and a half. On rare days when the molds are running real great (I usually cast w/2 -two cav molds- or one 6 cav), I might just go an hour. Does not count warm up time or or putting the stuff away when I finish as I cast in the garage. Depending on blt size/cal, I cast between 15-25 lbs at a session.
1Shirt:coffee:

[montana_charlie]

Waxing or waning?
Only on the night when it's full.

Of course. I've found that fluxing with a little eye of newt helps,
The best eye of newt is taken from the Great Crested Newt (triturus cristatus) found on the Salisbury Plain in and around Stonehenge.

CM

[That'll Do]

On average I cast for about 3 hours. Any longer and I start to get fatigued.

[Cherokee]

I generally cast a 20# pot full and stop. I may do this 2 or 3 days in a week. Start/stop for me is usually plug in pot, add alloy, select molds, preheat on hotplate, cast, unplug pot, put bullets away. Inspecting is done at the time of sizing the bullets.

[warf73]

Depends on what I'm needing/wanting, last week it was just over hour and half from plugging in the pot to unplugging it.

[FISH4BUGS]

Plug in the pot, fire up the heater, turn on the radio, then clean the mould. I usually degrease the mould with brake/carb cleaner outside then wash it in hot soapy water. I always go back and check on the pot numerous times during warm up. The Lee 20 lb pot has dripped considerably sometimes and it is not a pleasant sight to see when warming up.....go ahead....ask me how I know that.
All told, usually by the time I get the next two or theree batches of lead (I cast with 5 lbs ww to 1 lb linotype) weighed out, set aside, and ready to use, plus all the other prep work, everything is ready in a half hour or so.
I did 4 hours of leisurely casting the other day and would up with 1500 H&G 51's. I was using a 4 cavity mould. I find that preheating the ingots across the top of the pot minimizes the wait time when refilling the pot. It helps production.
Average casting time is whatever I have available (sometimes as little as an hour) and sometimes all day. Average? I don't know....maybe two hours or so.

[Gunslinger]

I spend half an hour setting up, and usually 4-6 hours of casting and then another half an hour cleaning and putting the stuff away. I usually cast around 1500-2000 boolits per session.

[DragoonDrake]

Ole I have done the same thing. I said to myself, I thought they said this would hold twenty pounds, not twelve. So I learned, I only put ten pounds into my Lee 20 pound pots. *shrug*

[selmerfan]

I cast in smaller batches than most, a few hundred boolits at a time. I heat up my Lyman Mini-Mag, and unless I'm filling a trade deal that involves hundreds of boolits, I'll cast until the pot is empty, then shut it down. Usually a couple of hours, plug into unplug. I always fill the pot with alloy when I'm down, then cool it down.

[jlchucker]

I never looked but I guess mine go about 2 or 3 hours as well, from the time I get everything out and plugged in, to the time I bring the boolits back to my loading area and my stuff put away. The time I mention doesn't include sizing and lubing. That comes later.

[mold maker]

How ever long my back hold out. Arthritis tells me when to stop.
Usually I can make a couple hours with a couple breaks to stretch.

[Recluse]

"Moon Noon" is that time when the full moon is highest in the night sky.
I cast from one hour before that point, to one hour after.

At the starting time, everything is up to temperature, all fluxing is complete, and all spells and incantations have been spoken.

Does not everyone follow this regimen?

CM

Charlie, that's the routine I use for making lube.

Compared to making lube, boolit casting is pretty straightforward and the gods smile on you quite often (once your mold has been conditioned, of course).

:coffee:

[montana_charlie]

Charlie, that's the routine I use for making lube.
Ah! You won't find me making lube.
As far as I know, alchemy is still illegal.

CM

[Recluse]

My casting setup stays up all the time. I can fire up the furnace and then putter around with other things while it warms up.

http://usera.ImageCave.com/The1Recluse/CastingTableLoRes.jpg

Casting sessions are as long or as short as I want them to be. Haven't done any marathon sessions lately--back starts hurting too bad.

:coffee:

[Doby45]

Oh, I am so envious Recluse. Mine is a step and take down proposition in the garage. 1-2hrs at most, not counting setup and take down.

[btroj]

I don't go by time but by pots full. 1 pot is a short session, 3 is long. 3 20 pound pots from the ole RCBS is about all I can take. I can get over 1000 pistol bullets form that.
With my RG4 313630 mould I might only get 1 pot. The wrist turning actions needed to get it to run wear me out caster that anything else. Nice mould but fatiguing to say the least.
I try to keep casting fun and a marathon session would not be fun.

[Moonie]

I actually did 3 short sessions yesterday, setup to do 8mm Karibiner and 30 cal 170gr lee. Got disgusted with how they were coming out of the mold (both molds fairly new and haven't been leemented yet) so I stoped after about 30 min (right after I switched from 30 to 8mm, that mold really bothered me). Leemented the molds and went back out the the man cave with 12 year old daughter who sized my .45 Mihec boolits for me. Stopped after about 30 more minutes to run errands with the wife. Went back out after dinner because the boolits were just falling like rain out of the molds after leementing and just had to do some more. so 1.5 hours or so casting and 2 hours heatup/cool down, was still worth it lol.

[casterofboolits]

Three hours to six hours depnding on what I'm casting and if the back holds up. Two to four RCBS 10 kilo pots.

[captaint]

With all this talk about back issues - looks like we have many oldfarts around here. Myself included... I have to haul all my stuff outside for casting. Usually about 4 hours and 20 or 30 lbs of boolits by the time I'm done. And I cast sitting down...... enjoy Mike

[Recluse]

Oh, I am so envious Recluse. Mine is a step and take down proposition in the garage. 1-2hrs at most, not counting setup and take down.

Reckon I've been pretty lucky the past twenty years. Every house we've had, I've had a dedicated reloading/gun room.

Our home in North Carolina sat on a couple of acres, and we had a detached garage (sorry North Carolinians, but you don't know what you're missing by not having attached garages--or even, in many cases, a garage at all. :)) that would hold two cars, plus another full bay for "whatever." That "whatever" was my reloading bench, punching and kicking bags, and weight bench.

In Kansas City, again we had a huge 2.5 car garage with an additional fifteen feet in front of the cars. Gotta love people who design and build their own homes--the guy we got this house from was a divorcé who was hellbent on building the kind of house HE wanted.

Then he got stupid, went and fell in love, and sold the house. His loss, my gain.

Oh, and that house had a full basement with a safe room for storms. That also became my "gun vault" and wine cellar. I took one half of the utility room for my reloading bench as it was downstairs and right by the furnace. It gets bloody cold in Kansas City during the summer, and winters are even worse. :wink:

Back home in Texas again, we found a home that the owner had thoughtfully and generously built one helluva nice, insulated, very solid 240 square-foot workshop at the very back end of the backyard. His hobby was wood working (and he was pretty dang good at it, too), so he designed and built the shop with plenty of (electrical) outlets, three good size windows for natural lighting, very thick cement floor, pitched roof, storage areas where the ceiling would be, etc.

Naturally, I turned it into a reloading and casting and gun shop--but I also do other projects out there as well, including some woodworking. I wired it for satellite TV (now running FIOS), a telephone (what the hell was I thinking??? :veryconfu), and it's air conditioned plus has a nice ceiling fan. I also run a water line out and built a large sink, so I have water and a place to clean when I need it. Very stout workbench on the east end of the shop that uses three 3/4" pieces of plywood glued together as the base. That is one STOUT counter. Built in cabinets up top, built in drawers in the middle underneath the counter, and cabinets on both sides of the drawers.

I use the north side cabinets for all my gun cleaning supplies, cloths, notepaper and misc stuff like parts, grips, springs, etc. The cabinets down below hold my powder, primers and all loaded ammunition. Reloads up front, factory stuff behind them.

The Thumler's sits on one side of the big counter and is the "brass prep" area for cleaning. The opposite side has carpet mats and is where I do all my gun cleaning. Reloading books, notes, manuals, etc sit underneath the cabinets.

My reloading bench is a Craftsman five-drawer bench in which I've modified the top with 2x4 spacers to elevate it, then covered with two sanded and polished 4x8' pieces of birch screwed together. At present, all it has is my red stuff (Lee and Mec) on it. I'm in the process of configuring my grandfather's Craftsman bench in a similar way to put some blue (Dillon) stuff on it. That bench will be set up for my high-volume reloading, while the original bench (and my favorite) is set up for more single stage, prep work, etc.

My wife swears that if I ever put a toilet and shower out there, she'll never see me.

She just might be right.

:coffee:

[dragonrider]

I never cast more than 150 boolit at a time, so no more than 1.5 hrs.

[Leadmelter]

With my asthma issues, I set everything up, warm the molds on the hot plate, melt the lead, put on the gear and turn on the tunes and it is time to rock.
Last fall, with two four gang Lymans , I went through almost 35-40 lbs in 3 hrs but I was spent for the day.
This year I will be more selective in my casting as I did about 150 lbsw last fall and should be good for a while.
Take care and be careful.
Gerry

[DragoonDrake]

Thank you all for your answers. Here I thought I was odd and was on the lower end of casting time. I do see that I am on the higher end of set-up time though.

[Jech]

My casting setup is in a small storage room on the outside of my house...I'd be pushing it to say it's even 5'x10'. Before I had the dedicated space, I was looking at 45 minutes of cleanup as well as another solid hour to tear down. Now that it's fairly self-contained, prep is only as long as it takes to run the moulds outside and get the pot warmed up.

When SWMBO is at work on Saturdays, that little Lee pot will be filled and emptied many times! I think my personal record so far is about 1,200 acceptable .45s in about 4 hours. Hoping to push that to 6 this next Sat.

[midnight]

I cast til the RCBS 22 lb pot is near empty. Can't stop or break the rhythm or the bullets vary too much. I can hold +/- 3 gr on 965gr bullets this way. I built a large fume hood with 6 in stove pipe and a squirrel cage fan to exhaust it outside. Can cast all year round without killing myself. Start to finish, sessions take from 2 - 6 hours.

Bob

[DragoonDrake]

I guess I should ask another question then, thinking about it now. What is the frequency of casting, how many times a month, week, year? I would like to cast every week. I end up casting about once a month.

[Jech]

Realistically, about twice a month casting for just my .45auto...hopefully that'll turn to once a week when my 30-30 mould arrives.

[Smoke-um if you got-um]

I usually only go a couple of hours. Any longer than that and the old back starts to "talk to me". Maybe 200 bullets, more or less, depending on how ambitious I happened to be at the time. A friend of mine gave me a "floor mat" they issue to mechanics to stand on where he works. That helps a bit with the back pain issue. I cast only as needed any time of the year. When I get low I cast and prep them and then let them rest for at least a couple of weeks before loading.

Mike

[Cadillo]

Just like with romance. Until I get tired, lose interest, or get finished; whichever comes first.

[Moonie]

My short casting sessions I mentioned above were for rifle boolits, sessions for pistol boolits are at least 1 hour, and only that short when the wife gives me a look on the way out to the man cave.

[Centaur 1]

I compare casting to fishing. I do either until I get tired, then I keep saying "just one more cast" for another 30-45 minutes. :-D

[prs]

Start set-up with the onset of pre-game show of local radio broadcast of college football game. Two 20# pots at full heat and two 6 cavity 250grain moulds on hot plate. About 15 minutes before kick-ff (45 minutes have gone by) I reduce pot heat, flux again, add inch or so of clay granules to cover hot lead. Just before kick-off I run a few cycles of non-keepers to steady mold temps and allow temps, drop these and all spru waste onto clay granules to seep into the pots. At kick-off I am castig with both molds on first pot. At a steady pace the alloy depleats quickly by about 2/3rds, refill it and cast from other pot. By half time I have two 3# coffee cans full of PRS-454-250-RF. I turn the pots off. Wipe with molds with clean cottom cloth, lube the pins. Sweep the floor and go to the house to watch second half on TV.

Lots of fine boolits real quick. I don't put the equipment away until I have my stock piles all accumulated.

prs

[Bullshop]

About 30 years now and no telling how many more before I am done.