do i really need a electric pot?

[troy_mclure]

i just got 2 big pots and ladles from the flea market, i also picked up a burner made for boiling 20gal pots of water for crawfish.

will having a bottom pour electric pot be that much easier than a big cast iron/ steel pot and ladle?

[Willbird]

It will depend on the molds you use. I can run 3-5 throws a minute on a 6 cavity mold with a bottom pour. I think you would have to move fast to do that with a ladle.

Bill

[imashooter2]

Big pots and burners are wonderful to smelt, but dipper casting off a big burner like that sucks. Too much heat coming up around the sides of the pot. A smaller burner like a Coleman stove and a 2 or 3 quart pot would make life easier.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I cast bullets for many years with a Lyman 10lb cast iron pot and Lyman dipper. I used a single burner Coleman stove for heat. This system worked great, and I made a ton of good boolits. The downside is that it is not the fastest system, and at the time I was using single and double cavity molds. If you are using 6 cavity moulds, IMO you need to go to a bottom pour furnace. Like imashooter2 said, using a big pot and big burner can get uncomfortable. I use my turkey fryer burner and a 5 quart cast iron dutch oven for smelting, but it can be hard to control the heat with my burner and I wouldn't use it for casting. You can get a Lee bottom pour furnace for around $65 or if you can afford it an RCBS for a lot more. Most of all have fun casting.

G

[mooman76]

I cast with a 1qt pot over a stove, coleman, kitchen and turkey frier and it done me well. I think 1 qt is about perfect for moulding bullets unless you are using a multi cavity mould 4x or larger. 2 qt is the biggest I would go. A 1 qt holds at least 20#. Try it and if it does you well then there you are.

[Willbird]

If you were determined to use a propane fired system I think you could build a jacket around your pot that would keep the heat coming up and around the pot away from you and duct it to the back.

Bill

[44man]

A good investment would be a thermometer so you can cast at the right temp for each alloy. Nothing at all wrong with a pot and ladle.

[beagle]

The bottom line is...no, you don't. BUT....the convienience and the ability to cast almost anywhere, the shorter time required to set up and clean up, the reduced heat on you during casting and also, the safety of an electric pot will eventually drive you to procure one.

The finished product will be better and more consistent and if you have to please "management", the mess is usually far greater.

If you have the stuff already, give it a try and then start looking for an electric pot as eventually you'll go there./beagle

[snuffy]

The main problem with casting over an open flame is temperature control. A full pot of lead requires more heat, as you use it up, you need to reduce the heat. Most gas heaters do NOT have a valve that can be set to a specific flow, lick clicks on a scale. You have to guess at how high the flame looks, correlate that to how the metal behaves in the mold. Then you go to a bigger boolit, you have to start all over.

Besides being inefficient, casting in the summer time inside would be a PITA. I love making boolits, but I hate sweating to do it. When re-melting scrap lead my turkey fryer and 6 qt. dutch oven work great, but I'd hate to try to cast from it.

[Leftoverdj]

i just got 2 big pots and ladles from the flea market, i also picked up a burner made for boiling 20gal pots of water for crawfish.

will having a bottom pour electric pot be that much easier than a big cast iron/ steel pot and ladle?


Depends on what you are doing. What you have will do you well for making ingots. It's going to be unholy awkward for casting with one and two cavity moulds. Might be OK if you cast with two gang moulds at a time.

When money was tight and I accumulating what I needed, I cast for years on a hotplate with a pot that held 20 pounds of lead or so. A Lyman or RCBS ladle intended for casting helps a lot, but that's all you really need. It's slower than a bottom pour pot, but not seriously so unless you are a very high volume shooter.

I got into shooting PPC and went from needing a couple thousand bullets a year to using 10-15 thousand bullets a year. That's when a bottom pour and gang moulds became important.

btw, if you do go to an electric pot, get a 20 pounder. The cost difference is not that great, and you lose too much of your casting time just waiting for a ten pounder to heat up. What with needing to leave a little in the bottom of the pot and sprues to be remelted, getting five pounds of bullets out of ten pound melt is about the best you can do.

[Shiloh]

Do you really need and electric pot??

No.

It just makes it a lot more convenient.
Zillions of boolits have been cast without one. Get something to melt lead in and a dipper, mold or molds,
and you're good to go.

Shiloh

[Bret4207]

First off, I take issue with anyone claiming a BP will give you better or more consistant boolits. Now way, no how. It's the indian, not the arrow-IOW- it's the man operating the mould that determines that.

I have used Lee BP's. IMO they suck swamp water and that's all there is to it. Absolutely useless and a waste of money IMO. I know lots of guys make them work, but I refuse to waste that much of my very valuable time on a device that can't decide if it wants to have spout diarrhea or become constipated. At this point I prefer a ladle and a large 12 cup stainless steel pot on an 1100W, open coil, electric hot plate. For boolits over 220 gr I use a 1 lb Rowell ladle instead of the Lyman. I have cast from my smelting pot, a cast dutch oven, on my plumbers furnace. That would be about like your large propane set up. It works okay, but it's a lot of heat for what you're doing.

If you search around you can find a large stainless pot and open coil hot plate like mine. I think they work great and Ive used several setups from the kitchen stove to a Coleman to a Lee BP.

I'm currently waiting on 2 SAECO pots to be repaired. From the little I used them they seem to be a VAST improvement over the POJ Lee BP. At some point I may switch to them, but at this time I see no reason to ever give up my ladle. While someone may be able to pour more boolits with a BP over a given time than I can with a ladle I know once I'm up to temp I'll get a very high percentage of "keepers".

[Lloyd Smale]

i agree with brett. I cast about a 100 percent of my bullets anymore with a bottom pour pot but if i had to go back to a lee bottom pour id break out the ladle.

[Wayne Smith]

I have no personal experience with this because I don't own a PB pot. Several here have, over the years, stated that big boolits are very hard to do well with a BP. Look at what you are casting. I cast 400+ and 500+gr boolits as well as smaller and ladle pour everything.