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Wow! I used a hotplate to preheat/heat my mold for the first time ever today. I threw a pair of perfect bullets on the first cast, had very few rejects throughout the entire casting session and didn't have to balance my mold on top of the melting pot, which made it a lot easier to add my sprue back in. I'm not sure how I ever got by without it before.
I remember my first time using a hot plate and from that point on I decided I would never be without.
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Use one on my 8 and 10 cavity Hensley and Gibbs molds. Saves a lot of time.
Use the plate to also pre-heat all your feed ingots! Really shortens up the recovery time when adding them to your casting pot.
I have 1 hooked up to a pid controller and found that 450 is just right for lee molds. I set a small square piece of 1/4 steel plate on top of the element and place the mold on top of that.
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My first casting pot was a 10# Lyman with a cast iron liner and a wide lip around the top of the pot. It did the same duty that a hot plate does. When I graduated to a ProMelt the stainless liner did not heat the mold as well and it would take a few cast to get good bullets. Enter the Walmart hotplate and I'm getting good bullets on the first cast again! Yeah hotplate! I cut a 3/16 steel plate to fit the top of mine and use it to pre warm ingots also.
Now this is useful. I've been using my hotplate to heat my molds and ingots, but I had not thought about adding extra space to my heating plate with a steel plate. I generally do not have much space on my heating pad for more than one mold and an few ingots, but if I can add extra space, it looks like I can keep more heated on the plate. Thanks for that idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by lightman
Mine's setup with a TC guided by a PID. 1/4" aluminum plate on the heating surface. Did it first to "tame" a Lee DC but use it on my Lyman's too. Can repeat my settings accurately and the first bullets out are right on the money weight-wise. Also warm my ingots on there.
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Be careful heating ingots, I had a mess on my hands one day when the heat was up too high. I had a big ole mess on my reloading bench.
I place ingots around the rim of the pot now.
I keep a couple of used circular saw blades to spread out the heat. I do like the thermocouple screwed into the heat diffuser. When you're preheating ingots do they significantly reduce the work the pot has to do to get the alloy up to temp so there is less time heating? Do you cover the hot plate to keep it warm around the molds and ingots?
I have a two burner hot plate one keeps the molds hot and the other cooks my coffee and keeps it hot .
Hot plate is the way to go so little waste and the prewarmed ingots barely drop the pot temp.
I do cast inside and tried an insulated cover for the molds but found it not necessary and a nuisance for my needs. Have small aluminum shelves on my Lee 10# pots but find setting my hot plate at 390° gives me about 40° more heat. Mold is hot by time pot is up to temperature. Have weighed a lot of bullets and those first casts are always good. Hotter the ingots the better but not necessary in my case as I use a feeder pot up top and when I refill rarely get more than a couple degrees change in the lower pot. Wouldn't be without a hot plate anymore NOR my PID controllers. Flip a few switches, wait the 20 minute initial warm up time and I'm right where I want to be with repeatability.Quote:
Originally Posted by bbogue1
A hot plate and PID make a yuge difference! I used a #10 cut off can to make a warming oven.
badgers we don't need no stinking badgers ... oh hotplate ..yea we want one of those :) :)
Coffee can, cut a square out of the side for the mold handles to stick out, set over the hot plate, I also use an old saw blade with the teeth ground off over the element. My brass molds like 450 deg. ( they are drilled for a probe )
Went looking for a coffee can. They are all Plastic! Had to buy tomatoes instead. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by stubert
Get a hotplate with a metal housing. My last one was some sort of plastic and did not hold up under continuous use. I bought a stamped steel proctor-silex this time.
My hotplate is a freeby that was on the curb many years ago. A two burner with a cast iron porcelain covered frame and solid heating elements (yeah, that old!). Not too much heat adjustment as it has rotary snap switches with Low-Medium-High. It has many uses around the shop.