Ladle pouring

[weasel 21]

Anyone got any tips to make ladle casting easier? I have about 4 ladles & I find most of the alloy goes everywhere except in the holes of the mold.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

It is likely something you are not doing well.

[eljefeoz]

I started with a big ladle ,about 2 inches dia -to increase pressure and ensure good fillout
a few frustating attempts later,found a one oz ladle /soup spoon and bent /beaked it to pour lead.
poured quite a few kilos of lead since then-say 3 months since I first got splattered by a Lee leak-amatic
Want to try a smaller size with a more accurately formed ' beak' ? may work better...
Cheers

[kenyerian]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/286579/lyman-lead-dipper Get a Lyman or RCBS dipper or a bottom pour Rowell http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/casting_ladle_bottom2.htm. These are much easier to work with

[HeavyMetal]

I've found spoons don't work well.

Lee's ladle makes a great stirring stick!

My Lyman ladle worked great until it spun the shaft in the handle still trying to fix it.

RCBS ladle OK but has a huge fin on the bottom that needs to be removed if you do small block Lyman molds.

Both these ladle work well if used properly, the idiot you see on you tube pouring from a ladle about a foot above the mold is way wrong but worth the laugh tro look his video up, LOL!

Correct use of a good ladle:

Turn mold so the sprue plate is vetical

fill ladle 3/4 full

put pour spout into sprue hole in sprue plate good solid contact here!

Rotate mold and ladle together to Hrizontal position

wait a slow 10 count then remove ladle by rotating away from sprue plate and leave a small puddle on top of the mold to cool before opening.

The above is for a single or double cavity mold, 4 and 6 banger require a touch of technique change but this should get the frustration out of using a ladle for you.

[weasel 21]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/286579/lyman-lead-dipper Get a Lyman or RCBS dipper or a bottom pour Rowell http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/casting_ladle_bottom2.htm. These are much easier to work with

I have all 3 of those ladles plus one I bought from Ray who makes ladles for sale on this forum

[Larry Gibson]

Lyman's new ladle is a great improvement over their old and works very well.

Larry Gibson

[.22-10-45]

I use the old style Lyman..opened up spout hole as much as I dared & beveled spout nose for better fit in sprue cutter c'sink. Works alot better now.

[captaint]

While I ususlly bottom pour, I have an RCBS stock ladle that works great !!
Mike

[bhn22]

I'm a huge fan of the RCBS ladle. I also have Lyman,Lee and a #1 Rowell. As mentioned above, the Lee is a dandy stirring stick, and is useful when fluxing, but is woefully inadequate for casting. I have a half dozen of them because the handles char pretty quickly and the spoon comes out. I drill holes in 10 in. pieces of broom handle and remount them as needed. My Lyman is unused. It's not the reversable type, and I'm left-handed, although I do still have my original Lyman, and I drilled a hole in the opposite side of the mold and ran the handle through that, screwing it into the original threaded boss. My Rowell is simply too big for my needs, and quickly overheats the mold by the sheer volume of molten lead it pours out. Besides, it doesn't work well left-handed. My RCBS is just right.

[Echo]

It is likely something you are not doing well.

Man, I'm glad I have that in black & white! Profound! I'm gonna make a poster...

[montana_charlie]

I find most of the alloy goes everywhere except in the holes of the mold.
It is likely something you are not doing well.
Man, I'm glad I have that in black & white! Profound! I'm gonna make a poster...
I was bowled over, too ...

[jonp]

I was bowled over, too ...

Does that fall under "thank you Capt. Obvious"?

[robpete]

Anyone got any tips to make ladle casting easier? I have about 4 ladles & I find most of the alloy goes everywhere except in the holes of the mold.

Can you give us some detail on your technique? Sounds like you have all of the right tools(I prefer the Lyman).

[montana_charlie]

Does that fall under "thank you Capt. Obvious"?
That might be one way to put it ...

[detox]

Start at cavity closest to you and work outward, then tilt mould and hold ladle opening against sprue plate opening, tilt mould and ladle right side up then pour and hold for a couple seconds (pressure casting), remove ladle quickly by tipping ladle opening upward so that less sprue waste is created. You want some sprue puddle, but not too much.

You can also try pouring with ladle opening away from sprue opening. Just stop pouring when sprue is just about size of dime coin. If needed just loosen sprue plate for a more square bullet base.

Some moulds are easier to cast with than others.

I preheat all my moulds using propane torch for a couple of minutes. Do not overheat or go above 300 degrees when preheating.

[white eagle]

I think it may be a wee bit of capt.obvious
start slowwwww and get your alloy to temp and also make a couple of dry runs into yer mix to heat the ladle up as well
try and turn your mold a bit canted either right or left this helps the lead flow into the mold cav.s

[TXGunNut]

My technique is very much like HeavyMetal's; I use a Lyman bottom pour ladle with my Lyman moulds. OTOH Lee and other multi-cav moulds seem to do just fine under the nozzle of my Lee Dripomatic. Probably something I'm doing wrong.

[44man]

Epoxy has held the handle to my Lyman ladle for many years, don't know why with the heat but it has held.

[Bret4207]

It's not that hard. If you can put gravy on your potatoes you should be able to fill a mould. I'd suggest practice.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?219881-load-for-30-30

Another intresting thread. See all the responses.

BvT

[country gent]

I turn the mold 90 degrees seat the ladle into the sprue and rotate to upright position hols for a set count ( depends on mold, size of bullet and alloy used) rotate ladle out and form sprue. Its easier to do if your working at a hieght that allows you to see what your doing and is comfortable for you. With practice "pouring" will come and you will know where the ladle needs to be to pour into the sprue hole easily.

[Gtek]

I cannot leave anything alone as is. I polished the insides, chamfered and polished the outlet, and polished and trued tip external. Central European genetics with a good dose of OCD driving my boat, and sometimes I still make a mess! Gtek

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

So you run some alloy over the top of the mold and down the side and back into the pot.

So????? What is the problem here?

I use a Rowell bottom pour ladle, the best of any I've ever tried, and purposely begin the pour as I move the stream over the first hole in the mold, continuing to pour as I move from hole to hole.

I want that alloy HOT and clean, and the bottom pour ladle along with starting my pour early makes this possible every time.

I could spend half my time trying to be careful and cut my production in half and have no better quality then I do now. The gain, zero, and in fact there is a negative balance.

I think your over thinking/worrying about a non-problem.

Relax, your not being graded and won't get an "F" if a bit of alloy misses the hole.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Once upon a time there was the Lyman dipper and the RCBS dipper/ ladle and they were right-handed so right-handed or not, one learned how to use them. You placed the nib in the sprue hole and rolled the arrangement to allow the alloy to flow into the cavity. Or you poured from a height above the sprue hole. Another method possible used the open soup ladle and it worked better if there was a pour spout on it. You learned how to control the pour and it took practice---like anything else. With gang molds as they were once called, you poured going "uphill" and until you got the hang of it the sprues were messy and grotesque. There was a fair amount of spashing. It all worked and folks made good bullets, but it took practice-sometimes lots of it. Depending on the individual, there was no quick way and in the game of trial and error there is a certain amount of failure and cussing necessary in order to succeed. In the book titled,"The Art of Bullet casting", still in print through Wolfe Publishing, Jim Carmichael has an excellent article on the subject and also compares techniques and results in the use of bottom pour and ladle use. Definitely worth the cost and/or the reading. No matter how you go and what you prefer and master, the bottom line is practice. LLS

[seaboltm]

I use the Lee spoon for stirring and removing dross. The lyman bottom pour ladle is the way to go. I always tilt the mold opening slightly away from me in case some water splashed into the mold when dropping casts into water. Steam explosions hurt.

[taco650]

Just got a Lyman ladle so glad to see this post with tips on how to make it work. Used a soup ladle last time. It worked... but had a fair amount of rejects. Time before that I poured right out of the pan I was melting my lead in. It had a pour spot of sorts that gave decent boolits once I'd done it about 40 times LOL!

[KCSO]

I turn the mould sideways and bring the spout to the hole and then turn the whole works to pour. I stir once and fill the ladle for every pour for target bullets even if using a 2 or more hole mould. I am looking at getting everyting exactly the same every time.

[snuffy]

I use the Lee spoon for stirring and removing dross. The lyman bottom pour ladle is the way to go. I always tilt the mold opening slightly away from me in case some water splashed into the mold when dropping casts into water. Steam explosions hurt.

Seaboltm, you're worrying about something that's impossible to happen. Water will not last long on a hot mold that's just dropped boolits into the water. It'll flash to steam long before you could possibly get molten lead into the mold.


So you run some alloy over the top of the mold and down the side and back into the pot.

So????? What is the problem here?

I use a Rowell bottom pour ladle, the best of any I've ever tried, and purposely begin the pour as I move the stream over the first hole in the mold, continuing to pour as I move from hole to hole.

I want that alloy HOT and clean, and the bottom pour ladle along with starting my pour early makes this possible every time.

I could spend half my time trying to be careful and cut my production in half and have no better quality then I do now. The gain, zero, and in fact there is a negative balance.

I think your over thinking/worrying about a non-problem.

Relax, your not being graded and won't get an "F" if a bit of alloy misses the hole.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

CDOC, that may work for most molds, but try that with a MP cramer type HP mold, you'll end up with the HP pin sliders trapped by your over-fill. It's happened by accident with a stuck valve on my lee bottom pour. It took quite a while to free the sliders so I could resume casting.

I tried the flood the mold method with a Lyman ladle. What a mess! Besides the lead plated gloves from all the splashing as the overflow dripped back into the pot. Much better is the pressure cast method already described above. Some of the boolits I make demand to be pressure cast with the Lyman ladle. I find most that demand that are the biggest I make. All the 45/70's and the monster 700 grain for my 500 magnum.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

snuffy,

Don't use H.P molds!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due to the fact that an alloy that expands great at "X" velocity or distance, will either over expand at higher velocity and closer ranges or give limited or NO expansion at lower velocity or longer ranges, I choose to use a bullet style which is more reliable and predictable in all situations.

There has been great effort, time and money put into finding jacketed bullets that preform reliably in a broad range of velocities and distances, but with cast bullets well over a hundred years of experimentation has yet to give any reasonable measure of reliable and predictable expansion in many of the variable situations we might face.

So H.P. molds is not a problem I'll ever need to deal with.

I can do like those folk who post the beautiful images of classically expanded cast bullets, providing I make my tests or shoot my game at a velocity and range for which the alloy is best suited, but come in closer or move back and the whole picture changes.

As an Ol'Coot, I simply don't like to deal with those types of unpredictable results. :)

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[9w1911]

you can wrap some steel wool around the threads maybe that will help that handle.

also the Lyman ladle has a specific pour technique, you can find it online on videos etc,
I turn the mold 180 degrees where the mold cavity facing the ladle, I touch the ladle to the mold or slightly above and I turn then upright at the same time and typically let the melt run in the cavity for 5 secs I do this per cavity

[cuzinbruce]

I'm not sure just what type molds you want to cast using a ladle. I do it with large Hensley & Gibbs (4 cavity and up) molds. I suggest the smallest Rowell bottom pour ladle. If you don't have one, just use a plumbers ladle. Get the blocks hot. Get the ladle hot too. Put the mold on the bench next to the pot and start pouring. Begin with the cavity farthest away and work to the closest. Fill the cavity and the trough for the sprue as you go. That should work fine. Makes large sprues but they just go back in the pot. The heavy mold is just sitting on the bench so no strain there. You can really crank out pistol (or whatever) bullets once you get the hang of it.
If you are casting one or two cavity molds with a countersink at the filler hole for each cavity, then do as others have suggested, put a Lyman or RCBS dipper against the sprue hole, then rotate it to vertical.
Good Luck!

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

One thing I have never been able to figure out with the ladle nipple in contact with the sprue plate hole and rotating the mold is, Just how in the world can this be done for multiply cavity molds without a lot of time wasted for the sprue to "freeze" at each cavity before again rotating?

Might work fine for a single cavity mold, but would be a huge time waster for multiple cavity molds.

CDOC

[jmort]

Lee Precision does not recommend the pressure pouring method due to potential for erosion of mold.

[Bret4207]

Lee Precision does not recommend the pressure pouring method due to potential for erosion of mold.

Really? That's a hoot!

[Bret4207]

Look, I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I'm not good at all with BP's. However I can ladle cast till the cows come home. Part of what I've learned over the past 40ish years now is that each mould wants a certain style of pouring with each different alloy. Sometimes it's not a real big "need" to meet other times if you don't do exactly what the would needs you won't get a single good boolit out of 50 pours. I have a lovely 358156 that is real picky. IIRC it's the one that wants a spout to sprue contact pour and wants to run fairly cool. I have another mould, the designation escapes me right now, that demands a drop pour from about an inch or so above the sprue and off center at that with the mould held as close to absolutely plumb as I can get it. Most of my moulds aren't that demanding, the 10 cav H+G for instance doesn't care about anything other than being HOT. Once it's up to temp you almost can't pour a bad boolit. Lee 6 bangers, mine at least, tend to like a very generous sprue puddle, the bigger the better! I have an ancient Yankee brass HP that doesn't seem to want a large sprue, just a dimple. A big sprue on that one tends to make it overheat on the base while leaving the nose somewhat cooler, which is usually a problem with any HP mould. A smaller sprue with as rapid as possible a fill/empty cycle works for that one.

Anyway, my original point was that I don't think there's any hard and fast "best" way to pour. I've tried the Lyman recommended nozzle to sprue hole contact at 90 degrees rolling up to level and all that. It doesn't really work that great for me. I mostly just get the mould in a handy position, like the edge of the pot, lay the ladle (Lyman) on the sprue plate very lightly and turn the nozzle towards the sprue hole. It takes only maybe 3-4 seconds to fill a 2 cav mould. When you get the rhythm going it becomes easier. Maybe it's a hand/eye co-ordination thing, but I don't think so because I have lousy hand eye skills. Practice, find a range of motions that works for you and is comfortable. And don't sit there staring at the fresh cast boolits, just get to making them. You can look at your work while you pot is heating up after adding more alloy. HOT moulds cast good boolits, ladle or BP.

[MostlyOnThePaper]

I'm using a Rowell bottom pour ladle also, can't remember if it's a #1 or #2, but I like it.

Randy

[RayinNH]

Lee's ladle makes a great stirring stick.

I agree. The thumb fits perfectly in the metal end and when the wood end burns away it's a simple matter to put a new wooden end on.

[bhn22]

Bret nailed it, as far as I'm concerned. Right now I'm casting with two molds that are pretty much brothers, or at least cousins. A Lyman 358156 & a Lyman 357466. Very, very similar molds. I can pretty much pour lead in the general direction of the 357466 and get good bullets, as long as it's hot. The 358156 requires a touch of pressure casting in the rear cavity, but whiskers pretty badly if you do it to the front. So the rear gets full nozzle contact, but the front gets the nozzle touching the sprue plate at a 45 degree angle, slightly outside of the recess.

[bhn22]

One thing I have never been able to figure out with the ladle nipple in contact with the sprue plate hole and rotating the mold is, Just how in the world can this be done for multiply cavity molds without a lot of time wasted for the sprue to "freeze" at each cavity before again rotating?


Might work fine for a single cavity mold, but would be a huge time waster for multiple cavity molds.
CDOC

You can't, that I'm aware of. If you have to pressure cast a 4 cavity, you may as well start at the front, and fill only the first two cavities. Then refill the ladle and fill the back two. Angle the front of the mold downward to help preventing a little bit of alloy going into the wrong cavity and fouling things up.

[Chuck_ls]

I have had problems with ladles that had spouts that had defects. A little work with a file to smooth the spout can do wonders.

Chuck

[Mk42gunner]

I have had trouble in the past with the nozzle plugging up on my RCBS dipper. The solution was to get the dipper hot, then use a bit of old bullet lube to kind of flux the outside bevel for cleaning and also to run a small wooden stick into the nozzle to push out any debris that was blocking the flow.

It only happened with one pot of alloy out of a 100 pound batch of WW alloy. I don't know if I didn't flux the pot well enough at the start or what; but I could watch the stream of lead get swirly coming out of the dipper and know I had to clean it again.

The Lyman method of marrying the dipper nozzle and sprue plate, then rotating and holding to fill the cavity has never worked well for me. By the time the cavity is full and I hold it for a second or two, the dipper wants to freeze to the mold.

I do better by holding the mold vertical, touching the dipper to the side and tipping it to start filling the far cavity and then moving to the closer cavity(ies). Sometimes in a continuous pour, sometimes in an individual pour, depending on the mold.

And finally, a somewhat related question. Where do people get the idea that the Lyman and RCBS dippers are bottom pour? I have noticed a few posts over the last year or so where the poster states something like "...using my Lyman bottom pour ladle..." as far as I know both manufacturers lead dippers pour alloy from the top of the bowl.

Robert

[CPL Lou]

The Lee casting 'spoon' actually makes pretty good pours for .225" boolits btw.
Otherwise I use mine for an excellent stirring and fluxing device.

CPL Lou