A PID has improved my casting!

[Friar_Tuck]

This will not be earth shattering news for most of you guys, but I am new to the casting scene and learned a great lesson last night. I built myself a PID to control my Lyman 20lb pot. The pot worked great before but I figured I would give the PID a try. What I found out was just how much the temperature fluctuated when I added an ingot or two. before I would just pour away right after adding. By having the PID with the digital readout of the temp, I realized the need to resize or do something else, and let the pot get back to temp again. My boolits were much more consistent when it came time to size them. Now I know that my trouble before was from casting with too wide a range of temps. Just one more learning step along the way.
Jim

[daengmei]

Are you heating the ingots before putting them in the melt?

[Friar_Tuck]

Nope, that was probably mistake number 1!
As I said, I am still learning.
Jim

[Walter Laich]

I bought the aftermarket lid for my pot (it's on this site) and put the ingot on top of it. Gets warm without having to run something else. Sorta 'free' heat this way

[Walla2]

I bought the aftermarket lid for my pot (it's on this site) and put the ingot on top of it. Gets warm without having to run something else. Sorta 'free' heat this way

Good idea.

[Smoke4320]

yes its eye opening when you see the actual temp swings and the different times it takes to recover..
a PID is one more link in the chain to to consistency

[Pine Baron]

Which PID's are you guys using?

[Springfield]

It is very eye opening, for sure. With my Magma 40 lb pot, adding a 1 lb ingot drops the temp 10-12 degrees, but with my RCBS 20 lber it drops almost 40 degrees. Personally, I wouldn't stop casting while the pot heats up again, because you have all that getting the mould up to heat again stuff. If you can just use smaller ingots, that way you don't lose your cadence. Park them on top of the pot to pre-heat, it helps a bit.

[Yodogsandman]

I've never had a thermometer for casting and never felt I needed one! I've probably cast more than 40,000 rifle boolits. Because of the new reality of zinc, I thought maybe I did need a thermometer to keep temps below 725*F for smelting. So, made a PID instead! I can regulate my gas while smelting using the probe in the pot to tell me the temp. A PID does makes all the difference though, when casting. The addition of a hot plate is well worth it, too! Using both together means getting great boolits each and every cast without any warm up time casting boolits to heat up the mold. So, the first cast to the last in a session is dropping great boolits.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Which PID's are you guys using?
there is a ton of info throughout this long thread.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?115724-Project-PID-on-Lee-Pro-4-20-furnace
I use a JTD-612 ...see photo of finished unit on post 572 of above link.
http://www.lightobject.com/JLD612-Dual-Display-PID-Temperature-Controller-P43.aspx

[Friar_Tuck]

Which PID's are you guys using?

I built mine, but there are a couple guys here that build very nice units.
Jim

[DerekP Houston]

Which PID's are you guys using?

I got mine for mgread on here, great unit worth the ~100 I spent. Lee pot is finally accurate, and agree with the OP it is eye opening to see the temp swings. Also I know when it is up to temp now and don't have to guess.

[Friar_Tuck]

I got mine for mgread on here, great unit worth the ~100 I spent. Lee pot is finally accurate, and agree with the OP it is eye opening to see the temp swings. Also I know when it is up to temp now and don't have to guess.

The ones that are for sale here are worth every penny.
I built my own, as I have built a few for other uses, but if you keep track of what you have into parts, you will not save much by building one.
Jim

[LenH]

Yes it is eye opening. I got a kit from a former member here, a bit pricey but worth every penny.

When heating ingots, I put 2 or 3 around the rim of the pot.