Master Caster By Magma

[Ksub44]

I am new to the forum and was wondering if any owns or has used the Master Caster manual casting machine. I am considering buying one for a small part-time casting business and looking for some info. I appreciate any feedback that I can get. Thanks

[LAH]

I have 2. They are great, cast perfect bullets if you do your part. The only down side is the speed, especially with larger bullets............Creeker



Dry Creek Bullet Works
Dry Creek Firewood

[Ksub44]

Thanks for the response LAH. This would be a part-time venture and I think that I could keep up with demand with that particular machine. Also do you know if you have to have a FFL to manufacture and sell cast bulletts?

[Ruckus Ralph]

By Federal law you have to have a Type 6 FFL..

You can find some reading on this very subject at
http://forum.pafoa.org/general-2/75255-selling-cast-bullets-legal.html


Hope this helps.

[GabbyM]

You can order the ffl forms from the ATF dot gov site. A calss 6 is $30 a year. You have to go into your local Sherrifs office to be finger printed and background checked. The form to fill out is two or three pages front and back and you have a half dozen or so to duplicate.

with a MC machine and Star sizer you can finish 2K bullets in a ten hour day. You'll make about $20 per K so that workds out to $4 per hour. Do that for one hundred days and that's 200,000 bullets. I can about garuntee your elbow and wrist will be shot by then from the Star sizer lever operation.

Not trying to discorage you making bullets. Just wouldn't want you to think you were going to pay off many bills with it.

[fredj338]

I have had one for years. It casts great bullets. It's easy to use but not really any faster than say 6cav molds. The diff is you can do it all day. Best output w/ the fan running, about 500/hr. IMO, you can't make any real money casting that way. The time & alloy cost just eat you alive. I agree w/ Gabby. Figure at best, 3.5hrs/1000bullets ready to go. Throw in $1.80/# for alloy, lube & elec cost, doesn't leave you much of an hourly rate. Using 200gr bullets as an example, your cost to produce them, not countng time, call it $58. You can sell them for $75/1K + shipping. You will make less than $5/hr. Min wage is $7.25/hr now. At that return, it would take you about 90K bullets to pay for the equip alone.
Unless you have a source for free or really cheap alloy, it would be better to get a part time job & cast for your own use w/ a Lee pot & anyones molds.

[LAH]

Casting is a labor of love. I began in 1973 & simply love it. I've dealt bullets for the better part of 10 years. It's paid for all my shooting & firearms in that time period. Wouldn't be without a means to produce bullets.

My advice to you is simply go for it. If the venture fails, you still have aquired great bullet making equipment.............Creeker


Dry Creek Bullet Works
Dry Creek Firewood

[Ksub44]

I thank you all for all the great info and responses. I know that by no means will I get rich but am trying to see if atleast I could break even and pay for the equipment and materials. Hopefully over time I could get one of those automated machines. It looks like volume is the key to making money in the casting business.

[fredj338]

I thank you all for all the great info and responses. I know that by no means will I get rich but am trying to see if atleast I could break even and pay for the equipment and materials. Hopefully over time I could get one of those automated machines. It looks like volume is the key to making money in the casting business.
That or find a niche bullet marktet. I know of no one that does cast LHP & I think many shooter would pay jacketed bullet prices for a good LHP for hunting or SD.

[LAH]

That or find a niche bullet marktet. I know of no one that does cast LHP & I think many shooter would pay jacketed bullet prices for a good LHP for hunting or SD.


Good advice here............Creeker

[dicko]

I am new to the forum and was wondering if any owns or has used the Master Caster manual casting machine. I am considering buying one for a small part-time casting business and looking for some info. I appreciate any feedback that I can get. Thanks

I have been a commercial caster for several years, and have a lot of experience with the Mastercaster. I stopped using the machine years ago, but I still use the pot. I agree completely with the comments that have been made thus far. Bullet casting does not make a fat living. I also found that on average I could cast and lube 2000 bullets in a ten hour day using Mastercaster and Star.

The output depends on the bullet. 9mm and 38 will cast 500 per hour. 45 no more than 350 because the bigger alloy quantity gets the mould too hot even with the air blower. The little 32 cal cast faster, 600 per hour, and that's about as fast as you can physically go.

It is a well made and clever little machine. I stopped using it when I found I could cast faster with multi cavity moulds. I can cast 500 per hour with 4 cavity and 600 with 5 cavity. 5 Cavity ?? Yeah, the only 6 cavity at a reasonable price are Lee, but I found that the cavity nearest the cutter pivot soon gets damaged at the rim, so I use them as 5 cavity. You can buy a lot of moulds for the price of a Mastercaster.

Be aware that commercial casting differs in many ways from amateur casting. As others have said, it is a low profit business, in which you have to maximise output. Little nuisances for mateurs become major obstacles for the pro. Such as ? Well, to maximise output, you must cast at the lowest temp that will cast good bullets. Therefore you have to mainain a regular rythm to maintain mould temp. The slightest interruption for such things as screws and handles working loose will slow you down enough to let the mould cool below operating temp and lose production.

I modify my moulds to avoid those problems. I also make new steel sprue cutters because the aluminium Lee cutters don't work. You also need cast iron discipline. Even then you will get 2000 per day only if things run perfectly. I have cast as many as 3000 in a very long day but that is very rare.

One other thing. Don't use single or double cavity moulds unless your customer will pay enough, they are just too damn slow. I've seen claims of 500 per hour from double cavity but can they do it for ten hours? You can count on 350 at best and probably less.

Why do I do it if it is so unprofitable? Survival. I had the expertise and went commercial when the economy was in bad shape and I had no other living. You can survive on it if you live in an area where there is a lot of shooting and enough customers, but you will need to be well organised.

[casterofboolits]

+1 for what diko said. I did the same thing back in the 90's. I was out of work for seven months and used my casting hobby to supplement my unemployment.

I was casting and lubing twelve hours a day. I could usually cast six to seven thousand 38's a day using three four cavity Lyman molds and four to five thousand 45's with two eight cavity H&G molds. Lubing with a Star I could average about 900 bullets an hour. I added an MA Systems collater and auto feed to the Star and upped my lubing to about 1400 per hour. One time I busted my butt and did 2,000 nines in an hour, but had to take an hour break to recover!!!:sad: Pumping that Star handle for hours is hard labor! I now have a Magma Auto luber that does four thousand an hour. What a joy that is!!!!

I ended up with three of the Master Casters to maintain a good production rate with the larger 45 and 44 molds. The Master Casters produce excellent bullets, but the real production is nowhere near the advertised production rate. Cast out two full pots (about 90 pounds) and you will have to pop the mold out and clean it. This takes about twenty five minutes. NOTE: the single edge razor blade is your friend.

I even had good friends (mostly cops) who would stop by and help me out and they would run the Master Casters while I hand cast. Of course they always got thier bullets for free. But they made a heck of a lot more than they took home!

Your next consideration is a suitable lead source and the cost of that lead. I got free range lead by the ton for free for cleaning my club's indoor range. Also the local police indoor range as a friend was in charge of it. Llnotype/monotype was cheap and aubundent in those days too. I had a thousand pounds of lino delivered to me for twenty cents a pound and a twenty dollar delivery fee. :bigsmyl2: My latest Lino (50#) and tin (5#) was $205.00 from RotoMetals.
I use the lino/tin to adjust my alloy to throw boolit weights within plus or minus one grain of what the mold is rated for.

Also, how are you going to smelt the scrap lead you aquire. I have a propane plumbers pot that does sixty pounds at a time. Ingots are poured in cast iron muffin pans for an average of 2.2 pounds per ingot.

Another Friend dropped off 2,400 pounds of machine weights for free. So my material costs were very low. Nowadays it is becoming more difficult to find wheel weights for a reasonable price, if you can find them. Luckily I have a friend that takes care of the tires for a trucking company and brings me about a thousand pounds of WWs every three months.

Other friends on the city maintenance crews brought me all the lead pipe they replaced. Got about five hundred pounds of pipe coming next week.

Next, a place to cast not affected by the weather with good ventilation. I have an ex food service bldg behind the house and it has two exhaust hoods. One hood I smelt under, the other I cast under. Good ventilation is necessary.

Counting your boolits. I purchased an old parts counter scale and set it for either 510 or 1020 boolits. I always throw in a few extra, because you're going to miss a few poor boolits when you inspect them. Using the parts counter, I can inspect and count a thousand boolits in less than ten minutes.

Next, boxes. Youre going to need something to put the boolits in. You will need to find a local box company and buy them by bundles of 50. I use "white mailers" A 4"x4"x4" box holds 500 45-200-SWCBB H&G #68's. A 5"x5"x5" will hold 1,000 of same. 38/357 5"x5"x4" will hold 1000 158/150 boolits. 5"x4"x4" will hold 1,000 125 grn nines or 500 large 44 or 45 boolits. With some cardboard spacers they can also be used for 45-230-RN.

I have probably missed something important in this ponderous ramble, but please feel free to PM me and I will be happy to help you with any questions or problems that might crop up.

Fred AKA Old Fart