Vintage Newbee looking for advise

[TXBRILL]

I have been reloading about 40 years and always have managed to avoid casting. The only reason being I needed another hobby like a third armpit. I have purchased cast from many different vendors over the years and am pretty familiar with loading them...But I have succombed to the lure of doing it myself.

After reading many posts I decided to go with this set-up. A coleman stove, a rcbs over-priced melting pot, thermometer, and a Rowell ladel. I had read so many negative posts that I was not ready to purchase a Lee Bottom pour yet. There seemed to be many posts from ladle pourer's that said they have been ladle pouring for years and had no regrets.

I got a hold of a Lyman 358345 that makes a 115 grain SWC, I had no boolits in that weight so I could justify saving all the money I spent on everything else. I also bought a LEE 311-100-2R that is a bullet I wanted to fool around in my various surplus rifles with Red Dot for plinking. I also wanted to evaluate the difference between the steel and aluminum molds.

So I fire up the old Coleman and put my little pot of range lead on the big burner and put a old sawbade on the other burner with the lyman mold on it to warm up.

I am ready to go I have used candle wax to dross the lead is at 750 the mold is plenty hot, in my opinion the ladle is ready to go. I try the first pour and I can't seem to pour the stream into the hole in the sprue plate. I am 60 but I did not think I shook that much, I found that if I rest the mold and only try to pour it does work better but it is not pretty. I did cut the rod in half on the Rowel.

I decide that the problem is the ladle combined with my age. I next purchase a RCBS ladle and repeat the process again, This time I do not try to pour into the sprue hole I turn the mold sideways and connect it to the spout, turn it right side up wait 5 seconds or so and VOILA I have a pretty good boolit on the first try. I am using that Lyman and things are moving along quite nicely my arm gets tired and I switch between holding the mold handles from the top and from the bottom but I an still getting tired so I rest the mold on a piece of wood and pour some more. Now I am curious to try the Lee mold, well that mold is as light as a feather, I begin to pour and the same thing everything is fine the boolits are dropping just fine. The thing is whenever I try to pour from above instead of connecting the two it is a disaster.

Now after that long winded account of my experience, I am curious if there is any trick in holding the ladel above the mold that I don't know, is there any real advantage to holding the ladel above the sprue hole. When I do it the pressure way there is hardly any puddle but the bulets come out ok.

I have been doing all my casting outdoors and would like to move into my garage where it would be more comfortable. My dilema is should I buy a Lee 20 lb bottom pour and try it or just buy a 20 lb Lee Pot and continue to use the ladel. The price difference is only a ten dollar bill or so.

[ShooterAZ]

It sounds to me that a bottom pour pot would better suit your needs. It has a mold guide to help steady your pour.

[geargnasher]

I'd recommend the bottom pour, one that has an adjustable mould guide. The thing is, when you bottom pour, there is too much head pressure for pressure casting and it forces the lead into the vent lines of the mould where it soon starts to slip out and begin accumulating on the block faces. The solution is to set the mould guide so the spout is about 1/4" or so above the sprue plate, but you will no longer have the "cheat" of the mild pressure pour from contact-pouring with the ladle, so you'll have to be even more careful of the cleanliness of the mould cavities (oil-free), mould temperature (this affects fillout, wrinkles, and whether the bands fillout sharply or not), and sprue plate temperature (controls how sharp the bases are).

You will want to pour a sprue puddle, whether contacting with the ladle, pouring with the ladle, or bottom-pouring in order to prevent base voids and to add heat to the sprue plate. A dime-sized puddle, or just barely overfill the well is plenty once the mould is hot. When contact-pouring, once the cavity is full, wait half a second and "pull off" the spout from the sprue well about 1/2" and fill the well, as this will help make a sprue with decent weight that shucks from the plate more easily, and also helps prevent big shrink craters from forming in the boolit bases from metal starvation as they cool.

As for pouring with the ladle NOT contacting, I find it fairly easy to use the Lyman ladle with the factory-length handle and brace the ladle across the top of the leather glove on my opposite hand (the one holding the mould handles) so I have a sort of pillow block upon which to steady the ladle so I simply rotate it to dispense the lead. It takes some practice. Another thing, it's considered proper form at my house to hold the mould at a slight angle over the pot and spill lead all over it, it helps keep things hot enough for good boolit fillout at the slower casting pace that ladling demands. If using a bottom pour, you can cast 3-4 complete cycles per minute which is more than enough to keep the mould hot without spilling any excess lead all over the outside of the mould.

Anyway, you might do yourself a favor and practice pouring without contacting the spout to the sprue plate, maybe even brace the ladle on the side of the sprue plate for a steady guide, as this will help you get the hang of good fillout techniques that will prevent any disappointments when you get the bottom-pour pot. Like I said, contact-pouring with a ladle is "cheating", and can mask problems with alloy, mould temperature, and mould oil contamination. It is the "best" way to make boolits, though, especially when boolit quality matters the most, as in rifle matches and hunting, I'm only pointing out some pitfalls you need to be prepared for if you switch to a bottom-pour, sometimes good results aren't as easy to get as with a ladle.

Gear

[hiram1]

i am new to it to and i have a lee bottom pour and it works well for me
there is a lot of good guys on here to help you along.if i can be of help let me know

[runfiverun]

i set the mold on top of the pot.
and the ladle on the mold and rock it to pour into the mold the only one i have to hold the ladle for is the last cavity.
this is just simulating a bottom pour though.

[Mk42gunner]

Might as well get the bottom pour, the Lee 4-20 is fairly easy to ladle from if bottom pouring doesn't work for you. The ten pound Lee on the other hand is pretty tight to ladle from.

I have the RCBS ladle and normally touch the fin on the bottom to the edge of the sprue plate to locate everything before I start to fill the cavities, the "put the mold and lade together, then rotate" method is uncomfortable for me. Using the method above, I normall have about a 1/2" stream of lead between the spout and the sprue plate.

Keep trying, you will figure something out that works for you.

Robert

[TXBRILL]

Thanks for all the tips. Sometimes it is kind of hard to figure out seemingly simple stuff with out actually seeing it being done. I have tried to find video's online, but there does seem to be quite a few yahoo's and lot of bad info out there.

Allen

[geargnasher]

With the exception of some of CowboyT's vids, I have yet to see a casting video on Youtube that is even close to "correct" in my book, waste of time looking IMO. The pictures on the covers of the various Lyman cast bullet handbooks will give you a better idea.

Gear

[Cherokee]

TXBRILL - I am 71 and have used the Lyman moulds since 1960 or so, the 4 cavity get really heavy for me now. Lee's are much easier to use and the 6 cavity will really generate the bullets. I started usig the Lyman ladle when I started but when I tried the Lee pot, I was hooked. I don't use a mould guide now, I have a shelf built under the pot that I just set the mould on and then operate the valve while moving the mould to fill each cavity. Lots easier. Try the Lee, it works, I've got three of them.

[Cadillo]

Like Runfiverun said, rest the mould on the edge of the pot while you pour. I'm no spring chicken and have nowhere near the arm strength I did years ago, but can ladle cast for hours on end using four cavity iron moulds, but I wouldn't make it ten minutes, if I tried to support the mould with my forearm.

I cast out of a cast iron Dutch oven, which I wire down tight to the top of my turkey frier, and have the whole rig on a small bench that brings it to belly height, something that also lessens fatigue.

I also use an RCBS ladle. I found that it works a lot better after I drilled out the spout one drill bit size larger than the original dimension. A larger and smoother hole is better.