mongo-az
03-07-2009, 03:14 PM
Well, after much reading, research, etc. I too decided to start casting my own. Simply put, 500 cast bullets at $68 is too much for me. And, being as I cannot buy mass quantities without taking money away from my two girls, I went this route.
I don't shoot more than about 200-250 .45LC rounds in a year, since there's not enough time. So...
I hit the Goodwill and the Walmarts, got the pots, pans, ladles, spoons, etc - hit the 80-year old service station in town and got a 5 gal bucket of good old wheel weights for $20, and started yesterday.
My first error - a hot plate DEFINETLY did not put out enough heat to melt, so I switched to my old Coleman two burner propane camp stove. That did it. I melted them in a heavy steel stock pot with a long handle, skimmed the clips, fluxed it with wax, (boy it's kewl when that wax flashes over in the hot lead) :-D and poured some ingot.
Mistake number two - even though I had beeswaxed the muffin tin - it still stck like sh*t to a blanket. Thank god the good folks at Hormel taught me as a kid to pull open a can of spam with a key - such knowledge stood me in good stead while I proceeded to rip the muffin tin apart and peel it back from the lead ingot.
So I switched over to the 4-pack condiment cups from Wal-Mart for ingot molds. They work great. In no time I was melting a pot full, skimming, fluxing, and making ingots.
http://c.longfellow.home.mchsi.com/ingots.JPG
And, while I had some molten lead, I tried my hand at casting some bullets. After my first half dozen failures I got the mold up to temp and casted 12 beautiful .452 255gr RNFP bullets for my OM Vaquero. I think I'll keep these 12 around as special bullets and not shoot them after I load them - maybe I'll call them "Judge Ruger and his Jury of 12".
http://c.longfellow.home.mchsi.com/boolits.JPG
So, in two weeks, I'll break it back out and try casting bullets in earnest. I'm doing the $3 ladle right now - maybe in a few months I can buy a bottom pour from Lee. For right now - I got the bug.[smilie=1:
I don't shoot more than about 200-250 .45LC rounds in a year, since there's not enough time. So...
I hit the Goodwill and the Walmarts, got the pots, pans, ladles, spoons, etc - hit the 80-year old service station in town and got a 5 gal bucket of good old wheel weights for $20, and started yesterday.
My first error - a hot plate DEFINETLY did not put out enough heat to melt, so I switched to my old Coleman two burner propane camp stove. That did it. I melted them in a heavy steel stock pot with a long handle, skimmed the clips, fluxed it with wax, (boy it's kewl when that wax flashes over in the hot lead) :-D and poured some ingot.
Mistake number two - even though I had beeswaxed the muffin tin - it still stck like sh*t to a blanket. Thank god the good folks at Hormel taught me as a kid to pull open a can of spam with a key - such knowledge stood me in good stead while I proceeded to rip the muffin tin apart and peel it back from the lead ingot.
So I switched over to the 4-pack condiment cups from Wal-Mart for ingot molds. They work great. In no time I was melting a pot full, skimming, fluxing, and making ingots.
http://c.longfellow.home.mchsi.com/ingots.JPG
And, while I had some molten lead, I tried my hand at casting some bullets. After my first half dozen failures I got the mold up to temp and casted 12 beautiful .452 255gr RNFP bullets for my OM Vaquero. I think I'll keep these 12 around as special bullets and not shoot them after I load them - maybe I'll call them "Judge Ruger and his Jury of 12".
http://c.longfellow.home.mchsi.com/boolits.JPG
So, in two weeks, I'll break it back out and try casting bullets in earnest. I'm doing the $3 ladle right now - maybe in a few months I can buy a bottom pour from Lee. For right now - I got the bug.[smilie=1: