Round ball casting--to pour or not to pour

[malpaismike]

Hello the camp! Yup, that is the question. Finally rec'd my .457 mold--3 mo but who's counting, still waiting on my .375--so have to melt some soft lead. 20# Prod pot been full of ww up to now, enuf in the bottom to keep spigot clear. 10# Melting pot is reasonably clean, so my original intent was to use it--after all, 8# of round ball will go a ways--and dip for my 2-cavity mold.

That said, I could make Tim Allen look like a Luddite. I envision hooking a riding lawnmower to a MagnaCaster--can you say 20k boolits per hour? Then reality kicked in--while fetching another barley beverage, I realized I couldn't keep that puppy supplied with lead.

SOOOOO, back to the drawing board. The dipping thing is definitely doable--got the time, eqpt, soft lead, reasonably clean melter, etc--but I have the itch to pep it up. I almost want to buy a small Lee bottom pour just for the round ball--especially if DD comes through with the 6-up molds.

There's the dillema, horns and all: dip or pour; get another pot or clean up what I have? Any and all views hereto solicited and appreciated. thxnregards mm

[nvbirdman]

I started out thirty years ago using a bottom pour for my boolits, so when I wanted to start casting round balls a few years ago I bought a Lee bottom pour for my pure lead.
Might as well keep doing what I'm used to.

[Bob Krack]

I would not hesitate to just empty the 20 pounder, fill'er with soft lead and let'er rumble. My experience has been that it takes a little weight on the rod (the one in the center of the spout) to help slow or stop the drippin. Soft lead is a little heavier than WW so the "rod" is slightly more buoyant. I guess that is a very minor point - I just like the bottom pour so much better, especially with boolits (or ballits?) over 200 grains.

(Hi to the copper mine and Army base)

Bob

[malpaismike]

Appreciate the input, gents. BK, base and mine are jes' fine, thanks for askin'. Mesquite is green, weather a bit monsoony (soggy) but kaboy shoots every weekend--life is good. Wish I'd checked sooner; just dipped about 7-8lb round ball. I'm going to look for the little Lee on sale some time--being retarded means no hurry/little worry. thxnregards mm

[Ohio Rusty]

My bottom pour pot always leaked, so I tapped the spout the lead comes out of and screwed itr shut with a machine screw. I took the weighted arm off and now I use a lyman pouring ladle and make all my cast boolits that way. Everything turns out good for me.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[oldtoolsniper]

I just switch back and forth in one pot. I am using the lee 10# bottom pour that is at least twenty five years old. When it dies I have the RCBS 20 lb new in the box just waiting for the lee to die. This morning I did 200 boolits out of wheel weights for the 45 colt and switched over to straight lead for my muzzle loaders this afternoon. I poured 200 440 balls and a hundred 50 cal mini balls that I just came back from shooting some of. I just run the pot out, clean it with a small wire brush and fill her back up.

[malpaismike]

Thanks for the input, OTS. Being a newbie, and in my defense, I err on the side of caution. I'm kinda proud of my set-up; I'll have to take pictures one of these days--not to show off but to solicit advise/improvements/and such. Melter paperwork stresses watching for crud getting to valve. One of the things I haven't mastered is getting all the dross after fluxing--seems I can't make a skimmer small enuf to deal with all of it, especially around valve linkage. I'll give 'er a go, though I'm set on getting another small pot so I don't have to mess around. thxnregards mm