Equipment question.

[Felderthewelder]

I am going to start casting for myself. I have been reloading for a little while. I am mainly going to start with Buckshot and a few shotgun slugs then later as my skill with the subject incresses I'll start casting for my handguns and rifles. I have looked over the equipment needed for buckshot and decided to get one of these 20 LB bottom pour pots and decided on the moulds to get. One question I have is since I am mainly going to be getting scrap lead to work with like wheel weights etc. What should I use to melt the lead first into ingots before throwing them in the pot? I see there are some cast iron pots and stuff you can get but what heat source works the best? I don't think it would be very good to use my oxyacetylene torch. Any other tools I should have too?

Eric.

[fryboy]

hi eric and welcome to the wonderful world of cast boolits ( and the site too lolz )
as for alloy .... whatever u can get is a start but perhaps not the right one ( but workable ) for shotgun slugs i'd recommend about pure lead , perhaps with a wee bit of tin added to help castability same for buckshot but rifles and pistols are another matter , most pistols are very suited to WW alloy , mite also need to add a lil tin , as for smelting vs. casting - yes a different pot is recommended , one can use a empty propane tank or freon tank cut in half or thirds for a smelting pot , and as for heat .... turkey fryers work great as do various gas stoves ( think camping type stuff and various electric hotplates ) the smaller stuff of course wont heat as well or as fast and perhaps wont do a large pot well , alot of folks get a cast iron dutch oven from someplace such as harbor freight , these are inexpensive enough as long as u can find a burner that gets it hot enough , as for other tools ... a ladle to pour the ingots wiith and a slotted spoon to remove the bigger debris as well as a smaller one without slots to skim the smaller dross off umm and of course ingot molds of whatever that will fit into ur casting pot

[Felderthewelder]

Thanks so much.

[jmsj]

Felder,
Welcome the to the site,
I use a different set up for smelting and casting. You don't want all the trash and dirt in your casting pot, especially if you are going to use a bottom pour. Look up home made smelter set ups in the "sticky" section of this topic. There are many great ideas in there.