Bottom Pour -- Why?

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

Why do you use bottom pour furnaces?

I like my little Lee, what, five pound? It's their small one.

Granted, I'd like it to be bigger and might invest in a bigger one when business picks up again. (Everybody's out shooting and I can't blame 'em!)

I do really like my dippers, though. The small Lee is light and easy to use, and the big one has a large reservoir and a spout. I don't use it as much as I would with a bigger mold -- I have single and dual cavities, but nothing larger -- or with a bigger melt pot.

Still, I use it when I rotate molds, casting with more than one at once. It works really well.

With all the problems I read on here with pour spouts, I can't figure out why the increased complexity is worth it. Heck, if I couldn't cast hot because the valve would drip, I'd be very unhappy.

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Josh

[country gent]

While I do use a bigger pot (125lbs) I still ladle cast my bullets. I feel on the bullets I cast the ladle gives the most consistant bullets. Also when I set up to cast it usually a group of three of use around the pot. Three people casting 400-550 grn bullets together really drop a pot fast LOL. I Like my set up though its not fancy and did have a learning curve to it. Its a simple gas fired pot made from a cut down 25lb propane cylinder with a clip mount for a thermometer. And a bigger ring added for the base.

[Beagle333]

For me, the bottom pour is a lot less messy. I can pour the cavities full and leave a beautiful puddle on top, and all while sitting down. And I also don't have to clean off the top of the lead constantly. I can even just dump shavings or cat litter on the melt and use 90% of the pot without ever touching the lead. My Pro Melt never drips, at any heat.

I still ladle my pure lead for round balls and conicals, but that's just because that pot is a ladle pot. If I had the $, I'd have a Pro Melt for each of my alloys.

[bangerjim]

My bottom pours fill my 4,5,6 cavity molds FAST!!!!!!! That's why! Ladle pouring is too slow for me. I have a good CI side/bottom pour one but rarely use it.

With my bp's, I can make a mountain of slugs in no time. Each & every one perfect.

And my heavier slug molds cannot be filled with the ladle I have. I end up wasting 1 or two cavities each time refilling the stupid ladle.

Each method has it's place. Do what works for your needs!

[rancher1913]

what beagle333 said

[GhostHawk]

I too use a small Lee pot, I had a used one I bought cheap here that I used for 2 years. Old style, no control. But it worked fine.

New one has the control is nice to be able to turn it up to 4.5 for melting, once all is hot and running dial it back to 3.5 simmer.

I have considered buying a bottom pour. Don't really want a 20 lb, 10 might be ok. If I did I would plug the spout and just dipper from it. Probably remove all the unneeded hardware.

And if I ever find one for a good deal at a rummage sale, or something I might bite.

But I prefer to tinker at my casting. Get the pot and mold hot, pot full, pour till I am scraping bottom, then unplug and walk away.

And I too cast sitting down in my nice comfy office chair, with a table at just the right height so the mold holding hand (my left) can brace on my knee. That leaves my right hand to alternate between lyman ladle and mold knocker. Simplicity.

I have cast 30 7/8ths oz Lee drive key slugs from a single fill of my pot. It will easy do 50 of most bullets, 100 or more of .30's or smaller .38 9mm. I've never reached more than 1/3 of a pot gone with the 6 cavity bator mold.

If I am casting buckshot for the shotgun I often do not remelt the sprue's on those until the pot is empty. Drop in a couple of ingots, clip like crazy while they melt and get as many of those sprues melted as I can without overflowing. Then cast like crazy till I'm scraping bottom.

My rule, one batch to load, and one batch to store. I did a lot of buckshot last year. From now on I can just replace what I shoot. I know I am sitting on around 300 rounds of #1 buckshot, 9 pellets, with filler and OS card. It is a lighter tactical load. I don't need the pounding.

I have cast bullets of all sizes and description cast, lubed, sized, gas checked and stacked up in sealed plastic tubs and bottles. Not counting the loaded ammo. If I had a couple of extra hands I could start a small war. Not that I want one.

Everyone eventually finds what works for them, for their lifestyle, wallet, interest level.
If you are not happy with what you are doing look around a little. There is always more than one way to do something.

For starters you have the right way, the wrong way, The Army way, your way and my way.
YMMV

[Reddirt62]

I currently ladle from both a 5# and 20# Lee but have my eye on a Pro melt. 😊

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[OptimusPanda]

I'm with bangerjim a few posts above. I'm too impatient to ladle cast. Tried it, my first few hundred boolits were cast by ladle from a dutch oven. Immediately after that casting session I ordered my lee 20 pound pot.

[NavyVet1959]

I alternate between the bottom pour pot and a bottom pour ladle that I created by drilling a 3/32" hole in a stainless steel condiment ladle. If you want to be seated while casting with a ladle, you need to have a lower counter top to put your casting pot on.

[wv109323]

When I cast I want quananity and quality. I usually cast 500 to 1000 boolits at a time. I mostly cast three different pistol boolits. 200 .45 SWC, 158 .38 SWC and 125 RN 9mm.
I think bottom pour is much easier though I have only tried ladle casting once or twice. I used 4 or 6 cavity molds on these.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I must admit I always use a ladle. It is true that casting large slugs or bullets in two pours is unlikely to be satisifactory, or even just a little unsatisfactory. But having an alternative ladle isn't much of an investment.

The great nightmare of some, the spout becoming obstructed so that a bottom pot urinates its full contents while you try to devise some way of stopping it, is something unlikely ever to have happened to anybody. I suppose if you lost a piece of gold jewellery, heavy enough to sink in lead, it could happen. A shallow baking pan under the nozzle is all you need.

[NavyVet1959]

I must admit I always use a ladle. It is true that casting large slugs or bullets in two pours is unlikely to be satisifactory, or even just a little unsatisfactory. But having an alternative ladle isn't much of an investment.

The great nightmare of some, the spout becoming obstructed so that a bottom pot urinates its full contents while you try to devise some way of stopping it, is something unlikely ever to have happened to anybody. I suppose if you lost a piece of gold jewellery, heavy enough to sink in lead, it could happen. A shallow baking pan under the nozzle is all you need.

I used to use a cookie sheet / shallow baking pan under my Lee pot. I was through casting for the day, so I just put an ingot mold under the spout and went off, figuring that if it kept dripping, it would just fill up the ingot mold and then create a stalactite until it hit the bottom pour nozzle and then that would stop it. I had seen that happen before. Well, it didn't quite work out that way that particular time. It overflowed the ingot mold, then overflowed the bottom surface of the casting pot stand, and then proceeded to fill put the cookie sheet. Well, that cookie sheet was tin coated, so it ended up soldering the sheet to the casting pot stand. I eventually got it "unsoldered", but the cookie sheet was shredded by the time I got through. From that point on, I always drop a few cold ingots in the casting pot after I get through so that the pot solidifies. If the pot is full, then I cast some ingots and put them to the side and replace the lead in the pot with some cold ingots. I also just use a large piece of steel under the casting pot instead of a tinned cookie sheet so that it won't stick as readily.

[Jal5]

I cast both ways but fir producing # s of boolits i like the bottom pour best. Mine is just lee 10# but if I find a good 20# pot that would be the best

[runfiverun]

going out of the LEE realm of casting products will let you see that all of their products [while usually okay enough] are mostly entrance tools to the sport.

bolt a 40-90 lb magma pot up on the stand, put the dual pour spout in.
grab a 4-10 cavity mold and warm it up for a bit then start throwing boolits on the towel add an ingot to the pot every 10-15 casts.
put in about 6 hours of that on a Saturday.

that lyman lube sizer is gonna start looking like your best friend for the next month or two so you might as well mount the TV set behind it.

wanna ladle pour? or have a buddy come over and you both ladle pour.
put the blank spout on the bottom and un bolt the spout rod from the top and have at it.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've never tried the ladle, I started with the Lee 20lb pro bottom pour and had success, I can't really imagine going to a ladle, although I've read with interest that other members like the ladle and some have solved some problems they had with a bottom pour when they switched to the ladle (usually large boolits, IIRC?). I can't really answer your question "WHY?"...each of us has their own needs and style...I say, to each their own.

[dragon813gt]

Work smarter, not harder. The less physical work you have to do the better. I don't cast any real large bullets that require a ladle.

[Reddirt62]

Work smarter, not harder. The less physical work you have to do the better. I don't cast any real large bullets that require a ladle.

I don't consider casting work, putting a clutch in a Freightliner... .now that's work! 😊

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[dragon813gt]

Physical effort is physical effort. While casting is just a hobby for me I prefer to keep physical expenditures to a minimum.

[grumman581]

I don't consider casting work, putting a clutch in a Freightliner... .now that's work! 

From an aspect of the ratio of the cost of parts to amount of aggravation in installing / replacing the parts on a vehicle, I would have to say that changing the inline fuse under the panel of my aircraft is probably the worst that I've experienced. Very low cost (i.e. about $0.07), but a lot of contortions and sharp metal protrusions hitting you in the ribs and everywhere else while you are hanging inverted through the canopy and hoping that you don't get heatstroke because you can't easily crawl out of there. Whoever decided to put an inline fuse in the middle of a wiring bundle and tuck it up under the panel in a way that it can only be accessed while you are inverted deserves to be hung by his 'nads from rusty barbed wire and given a dull rusty knife.

[Reddirt62]

From an aspect of the ratio of the cost of parts to amount of aggravation in installing / replacing the parts on a vehicle, I would have to say that changing the inline fuse under the panel of my aircraft is probably the worst that I've experienced. Very low cost (i.e. about $0.07), but a lot of contortions and sharp metal protrusions hitting you in the ribs and everywhere else while you are hanging inverted through the canopy and hoping that you don't get heatstroke because you can't easily crawl out of there. Whoever decided to put an inline fuse in the middle of a wiring bundle and tuck it up under the panel in a way that it can only be accessed while you are inverted deserves to be hung by his 'nads from rusty barbed wire and given a dull rusty knife.

Indeed, I have been cursing engineers for more then 40 years.

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