New guy casting questions...

[lead-1]

I have loaded .38/.357 and .45 acp rounds with lead bullets and played a little with muzzleloaders. I have been kicking around casting some round balls for the son's muzzleloader but found out the lead I have is too hard. Little history here, I used to dive on a VFD and supplied the guys with weight belts, well I have quite a bit of wheel weight ingots and belt weights. These are wheel weights that have been melted in a small cast iron pot over a propane torch, skimmed then poured into molds to make the belt weights. It is good clean lead and I was wondering if I could remelt this lead in the same method and use a laddle to fill a two cavity bullet mold with this lead as it is, remelt, skim and pour.

I am trying to keep from buying a whole bunch of equipment to just experiment and see if I like this casting thing. I am sure I will have more questions as I lurk around more.

[shotman]

Well welcome that will work fine . You can do it with a reg ladel or get one of ones with a pour spout. The smaller one will be less tireing. The lee bottom pour is not too much$$. That is much better. You dont have to put ladel down to pick up the mold mallet. If you need pure lead I would trade it for WW lead .

[lead-1]

Thanks for the reply, will I need to do the flux thing or just skim and pour?
I was going to buy a pour ladle made buy Lyman or Lee, whichever, a local
shop has one in stock and it looks like it should easily hold enough lead for
two bullets.

[randyrat]

Not a bad idea to flux a litttle to clean any imperfections out of your lead alloy.
Just use a little sawdust (dry) and/or stir with a dry wooden stick. Dunk your stick in slow and stir it also will help keep your pot clean.
Go slow there is always some moisture in wood and moisture/hot lead don't go together.

[kyle623]

to the addiction, from what I've read and been told by others on here. WW's are too hard for muzzleloaders. you need pure or almost pure lead for a ML. Other wise have at it, you dont need anythinf fancy to cast, just a good mold and a way to melt and clean your lead.

[shotman]

pouring from a ladel, lead will tend to spatter so safety glasses and apron.

[SciFiJim]

Lead-1, I purchased a steel soup ladle at the .99 cent store and bent a pouring crease on one side. You can also check thrift stores for a metal ladle. That's where I got my 3 quart stainless steel sauce pan for $2, for a lead melting pot. I removed the pots handle so it wouldn't ever be used for cooking. I've poured thousands of boolits with this combination and haven't had any problems.

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/th_100_1468.jpg (http://s596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/?action=view&current=100_1468.jpg)

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/th_100_1467.jpg (http://s596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/?action=view&current=100_1467.jpg)

It's hard to see the pour crease, but it is on the far side. I am right handed and that is the side I pour from.

[HeavyMetal]

Lead-1:
Lets make sure I know what your planning: I think you want to take a bit of lead, put it in a small ladle, melt it, pour it into a mold and make boolits.

If this is your plan it will work but you won't be happy with the results!

The boolits will come out pretty darned wrinkled and not filled out. If you going to try casting some round ball for a MZ loader than a bit of heat on the mold, using the same source that melted the lead, will get your mold up to speed.

Bottom line for acceptable boolits of any type or style the mold must be almost as hot as the alloy poured into it for good fillout and no wrinkles.

I look forward to having another caster join the ranks but don't want you "hanging up" because of lack of success.

So some advise, buy the Lyman ladle not the Lee, find a small cast iron pot that will hold 5 or 6 pounds of metal it won't be very big, try to get one that will set safely on a gas stove, Once alloy is safely melted do not be afriad to dip one end of the mold into the alloy to bring it up to temp. The mold should be sitting some where close to the heat source while it melting to pre heat it. Never dip a cold mold!

These tips should help you get going. Also stick on wheel weight metal is almost pure lead and much more suited for casting round ball than clip on weights!

One last suggestion: if you going to do this on the kitchen stove send the wife to Hawaii First after the plane is wheels up then cast, safety tip Number one!

[lead-1]

My lead was probably 90% brand new weights and 10% or so used that had been picked up along the way, this was back in the late 1980's. I have a small cast iron pot that will hold probably 5-6 pounds of lead that I was going to melt the lead in then ladle it from there to a LEE double cavity .44 240 grain SWC mold.
I used a little of the lead to fill the bottom of my RCBS powder trickler a couple of months ago and it melted down pretty darn clean even after all these years, I figured there would be a lot more junk in it, don't know why, I just did.

[mroliver77]

I would get a Lyman ladle and have at it. Like has been said, flux the mix,warm the mold and start pouring. I ladled before getting a bottom pour and still do at times for fincky moulds. Some fellas swear that the best boolits come from ladle casting. I know guys that have shot WW round balls with good results. Worst that will happen is poor accuracy. Many will trade WW for pure lead so you can try that also.
Jay

[mooman76]

I've been ladle casting for allot of years and it does fine for me. I also use the lee ladle which works fine for me also except not big enough for the 6 cavity. WWs work fine for roundball shooting. I find them plenty accurate. Some claim not as accurate and some have claimed more. The WWs don't work as well for BP conicals as well as soft lead but will still work. If you don't have soft lead, you don't have it and I wouldn't sweat it. I also cast from and iron pot over a stove which works well too aside from catching some flack from the Mrs.

[WHITETAIL]

Lead1, Welcome to the forum!:castmine:

[Wayne Smith]

If your son is cloth patching the round balls you can use any hardness you want unless he's using them for hunting. Then you want soft lead which will expand.

FWIW a 1qt steel kitchen pot will hold about 20 lbs of lead comfortably. I would not go less than this, you will be refilling it way too often. I use this on an old Coleman Propane 2 burner stove, the rack is about 1/4 steel rods and hasn't bent yet, even when red hot. I've been using this combination for about 10 years now, and it works fine.

[lead-1]

I can't wait to get enough free time to try all this out. I have a good idea what I want to try first and right now all the kid shoots is patched round ball at paper.
We will have more time in a couple of weeks after the oldest graduates.

[mooman76]

One more thing. If you still have access to WWs the stick on ones are very soft lead.