Hello

[Philngruvy]

Hi everybody. I have been lurking for a while and I finally got up the nerve to post. I am a newbie to casting and reloading so I have a lot to learn. I have found that this site is very much full of all kinds of useful information and it seems that with every thread I open, more and more questions pop into my head. I have gotten into this venture through a friend who is a total gun fanatic who has had limited experience in reloading but is new to casting as I am.
We are casting 12 ga slugs with the Lee 1oz key mold, 00 buck with the Sharpshooter mold and .38 swc with a Lyman two cavity mold. Our lead source is mainly recovered range lead and some pure lead from old dive weights and other sources. We smelt the lead into ingots in a pot I made, cut out of an old oxygen bottle. At first we just ladled the lead but I was inspired by some the the pots on this site and made it into a bottom pour which will be tested later this week. When filled with water, it has a very slow drip and I hope the the viscosity of lead will keep it from dripping. We use a high wattage hot plate with a pot to melt the ingots and then ladle into the molds. We discovered that it takes good hot lead and a very hot mold to get the fill out.
And yes, the handles on the 00 buck mold do suck! Otherwise, it is wonderful. And this leads up to my first question. We need to tumble the shot to get rid of the sprue scar. What is the best medium to use? Or do you tumble the shot without any medium, just relying on the other shot to do the trick?
BTW, this site seems to be full of really great people full of much knowledge and the willingness to help. And I had the fortune of actually meeting one of the members at the gun show in Tampa on Saturday. We started talking to a man in the entrance line and he mentioned that he reloaded. Well the line moved on in and we went our own ways and then a little later bumped into each other again. It turns out that he mentioned this site which I had been lurking on for some time. His handle is Arcticbreeze from New Port Richey and he is one heck of a nice guy. My wife always says that things happen for a reason and I can't help but think she was right on this one. I look forward to getting together with him again.
Thanks to all of you for this great website.

[Trey45]

I'm a new guy here too, welcome aboard 1st! 2ndly, from my reading and understanding, the shot is tumbled by itself, I could be wrong tho, and since i don't cast buckshot I'm certianly no authority. Others here who do cast will have much better advise.

[Sprue]

Welcome aboard..........

[blackthorn]

Welcome to the asylum! Go crazy and have fun!

[testhop]

welcome aboard .
you will be bitten by the cast bug

[BD]

Welcome to the asylum!

You guys in Florida need to keep your eyes open for wrecked full keel sailboats. They can have from 1,000 lb on up of lead in the keel.

BD

[mooman76]

Big welcome! I have never tubled shot either but also think by itself would be the way. One guy here reported some time ago he left a container of round balls for MLs in his vehicle for awhile and unintentionally did what you are wanting to do.

[jnovotny]

Welcom to the site! I would not tumble the shot with media or in a viberating tumbler. I would use a rotateing tumbler like they polish rocks with. Just my 2 cents. John

[Wicky]

Being the thrifty person I am, a long time ago a couple of us got together and salvaged shot from our local club - took the top 1-2" of soil and ran it through a cement mixer with water to wash off the dirt.
The cement mixer is a good tumbler, rounded off the majority of the shot and we actually got some good patterns. One of us - not me - managed a 100/100 down the line score.
Not sure how much shot you are doing at a time but it surely works.

[Philngruvy]

Thanks for the welcome and the replies. I have a concrete mixer but it seems like overkill to do 10 lbs of shot. That is the result of our first casting session. Boy, what a learning curve we went through. We used the Sharpshooter 00 buck mold and the mold took a while to heat up enough to where I could get a good yield from it. I finally got my pouring technique down and with the heated mold was able to consistently get 19- 20 good shot each time but at first it was more like 3-5 and I almost got frustrated. Perserverance paid off. The handles on that mold really don't do the job. Even with welding gloves on, the mold got too hot to handle. I will need to improve the handle design. I am looking at the rock tumbler at Harbor Freight to do the shot. You know, it creates a real conflict in my head when our economy sucks and a lot of it is to do with all the stuff coming in from China, but still, how do you rationalize not buying from Harbor Freight.

[mold maker]

Some (not all) Harbor Freight stuff is really top notch. Although possibly not up to heavy industrial use, it will serve the purpose for hobbyist and the like. I use one of their cement mixers to clean range lead before smelting. I also use it to clean range brass of the dirt, grass, and spiders. Their calipers and micrometers, even digital, are right on as far as accuracy, and at a price anybody can afford.
If your one of those folks that are only impressed by brand names, than stay away from HF, but if you've an eye for economy look there first.

[Philngruvy]

I actually buy a lot of things from HF. I have two of the Mig welders, their 4 1/2 grinders cant be beat for the $10 they cost. Drills,drill press, bench grinder, screw gun etc not to mention all the hand tools. It just kinda goes against my grain that American jobs were lost to bring me the affordable tools that I need.

[MtGun44]

Welcome! Lotta good people on this site.

Bill