Show your setup! Pics and descriptions, please...

[dragon813gt]

And since there seems to be a ten pic limit here is where it all used to happen.

[Mark Daiute]

not much to go on but it gives you some idea. If I get better photos I'll post them

[madsenshooter]

Unusual pot there Mark. The Electro Melter. Nice stack of 311284s there. I'd take some pics of my setup, but I don't think you'd like seeing the mess. I have a homemade bench under there somewhere!

[Mark Daiute]

It was one year ago this week that I got the Electro Melter for 40 bucks at a gunshow. Wow. Hundreds of pounds of alloy later what can I say but wow! If you eve find one grab it! 50 lbs of alloy at a whack.

[McE1911]

I am a casting virgin, hard to say I am a virgin at anything at 54 years old.

I am in the process of investigating setting up to cast in low volumes ( 100 or so at a run ) and I envision casting in 45-70, .30 rifle, and .38 revolver / pistol. Although I own guns in many calibers, these seem to be the candidates. I could add .40 pistol, but I digress.

Like many noobs I am contemplating Lee, Lyman, and RCBS smelters, but what I would like to see and hear about is how you are setup.

I live in South Florida, and casting in my garage would be in 90 F heat, not ideal. I might want to setup outside on the north end of my house. I have nothing really to start with, except guns, and ammo.

Please school me and the others that would like to see your bench.

D

That makes the two of us BigDanS!
I also 'am a virgin from Miami who's looking to get into casting. Have you made any progress on what to get or how to set up yet?

[Bullwolf]

I often cast smaller batches of boolits. It's easier on the old body, and still gives me a decent sample group to test a new boolit, new lube, or to work up a new powder load with.

Not very high tech, I am simply casting on the picnic table, and dropping boolits on a soft old towel. I set my hand held pot up on a fire brick. I have glued a wooden handle holder together, and have a piece of old plywood on the table top so as not to scar the surface. My mould and ingot pre-warmer is an old skill saw blade set on top of an inexpensive electric hot plate.

Here's a small batch of 100 or wad cutters I cast during a cool evening.


A photo of my electric hotplate mould pre-warmer oven.
(Thanks to JohnB_in_Glencoe for the handle idea)
It works great when there's a breeze or wind blowing while casting.


A container of 250 or so Lee 358-158-RF. Also cast using my little Palmer Hot Pot.


When I cast in small batches like this, I often use something called an Electric Ladle. Mine is a Palmer brand Hot Pot. I found this larger better image online, of a Palmer Hot Pot.


There are also a few other threads on Cast Boolits about their use. A quick search turned up this one.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...th-A-Hot-Pot-2

Basically the Palmer Hot Pot is a small hand held melting pot that you pour from like a giant electric plug in ladle. The downside is that it only holds a few lbs of molten alloy at a time, and requires a much smaller ingot.

I've found that mini muffin ingots work well with the Hot Pot, so I often custom blend up mini muffin ingots just to use with the Palmer Hot Pot.

I like to smelt my lead into ingots using a gas, or a propane Coleman camp stove and a cast iron pot. Here's a few images of me making a small batch of mini-muffin ingots on the Coleman stove from Dental X-ray lead backing film foils.

Melting down some X-ray lead foil backings. I flux and reduce with sawdust and paraffin. (I also stir & scrape the mixture with a dry hardwood stick)



Some mini-ingots for my small hand held electric pot. The ingots sure drop easily from my old rusty mini muffin pan.


Finished product: A handful of mini muffin ingots. Shown next to a few larger bottom of the pot ingots.







- Bullwolf

[BigDanS]

That makes the two of us BigDanS!
I also 'am a virgin from Miami who's looking to get into casting. Have you made any progress on what to get or how to set up yet?

Not yet... I have acquired a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights I am sorting through.

D

[McE1911]

Due to where i live in the city, I think i will have to buy some clean ingots instead. Not sure i will be able to smelt any wheel weights eventhough i have a pretty big backyard & a garage.

[el34]

Due to where i live in the city, I think i will have to buy some clean ingots instead. Not sure i will be able to smelt any wheel weights eventhough i have a pretty big backyard & a garage.

Got a BBQ grill? The sideburner works great with a Walmart 6qt stewpot, $6.97. Lay out muffin pans/ingot molds on the grill, fill 'em with a SS soup ladle.

[1911KY]

I have been messing around with my hot plate and smelting just outside of my garage. If you get a pot with a base the size of the hot plate burner then this is doable. Do it at night when everyone is asleep, no fume complaints!

[dragon813gt]

Got a BBQ grill? The sideburner works great with a Walmart 6qt stewpot, $6.97. Lay out muffin pans/ingot molds on the grill, fill 'em with a SS soup ladle.

I would not recommend this if you still use the grill to prepare food. It's general practice to keep lead processing away from food production. There is all types of nasty garbage that comes along w/ wheel weights. I want that around food production even less than lead.

[el34]

I would not recommend this if you still use the grill to prepare food. It's general practice to keep lead processing away from food production. There is all types of nasty garbage that comes along w/ wheel weights. I want that around food production even less than lead.

Copy that!
Now to figure out how to keep bird poop from getting too close

[Mike W1]

Here's mine. Stacked pots with PID on bottom one. Fan box to cool sprue cutter (as needed, it's switched), removeable catch boxes for the sprues and drips from spout. Padded sloping shelves to catch bullets that eventually dump into boxes in the rear. Upper pot is reversed and has spacers to nicely clear bottom pot which can slide back for filling. Upper is lag screwed to unit, can't tip. Lower pot has smooth aluminum floor spacered to get proper clearance and rounded front lets you sweep the drips into that little catch box. LED to light up the sprue holes for visibility. Aluminum warming shelves on both pots to preheat the moulds and ingots to add to the top pot while casting. Everything there and minimum shuffling.

[el34]

Mike that is a sweet rig! Lot of thought and energy went into it.

[Catshooter]

Sweet well thought out set up Mike.


Cat