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Thread: Trying the Ladle

  1. #1
    Boolit Master ColColt's Avatar
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    Trying the Ladle

    I've used the bottom pour method of filling a mould for years be it a single or four cavity mould. I broke down and got the Lee Magnum Melter and thought I'd try my hand with the ladle. As for single cavity heavy bullets like the Lyman 457125 or the Brooks' 530 gr Postell bullet this method excels over a bottom pour as far as I'm concerned. The weights are much more consistent that what I was getting with the bottom pour method.

    A highly recommended item it you haven't tried it yet. It took a while to even want to try the ladle method but now it's quite enjoyable and I don't have to sort out so many different weights. Moreover, the finished product looks superb.
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  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Ive used the ladles for years for rifle bullets as the old 10lb lee bottom pour I had just would make really good bullets consistently. I went to a propane burner and bigger pot ladle casting and it got better. Open ladles spouts up to .200 and a little better still. Started "over pouring" sprue allowing excess to run off back into pot and things got very consistent. I now dont pour for a sprue but a ladle of lead keeping the base hot as long as possible. I actually peerfer the ladle method and casting that way. One of the friends I invite to cast with me cast his for years bottom pour He was in a bind I was casting the next day and he came out with his mould and used my spare ladle we cast and chatted for almost 4 hours went to lunch and He left from there for home. That evening He called and told me he had never cast as consistent a batch of bullets before. I ve since cut vents in my sprue plates to allow the over fill to channel away. My casting pot is an old propane tank cut 3 1/2-4" deep. Holds right around 100lbs.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master GhostHawk's Avatar
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    I had a Lee 20 lb bottom pour back in the late 70's, but it didn't really work for me. Constantly either plugging up, or leaking, or lift the handle a smidge too far and the whole stem came out dumping your pot. I was in no way ready for that. Now probably would have no problem with it but now I'm old and set in my ways.


    So I went back to a 7" cast iron fry pan and a Lymon ladle and never really looked back. No more problems no accidents, no mishaps.

    Some molds I will "pressure cast" with a full ladle load, making sure the spout is lined up with the hole to make a good seal then tip the whole thing 45 degrees so the hot lead flows and it has more hot lead behind it shoving it in.

    Most molds really don't need that, and just a good puddle or as country gent said let it run back into the pot while you keep it flowing from the ladle.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master



    NavyVet1959's Avatar
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    I have a Lee 20 lb bottom pour pot and decided to give ladle casting a try today. For a ladle, I used a stainless steel condiment ladle from a restaurant supply store -- about 1.0-1.5 oz. I started off with a 1/16" diameter hole in the bottom of it, but I eventually moved up to the next size drill bit -- probably 3/32". That ended up giving me the proper flow rate for filling all 6 of the 230 gr cavities on my Lee .45 mold. I think it might have even seamed a bit greater throughput than using the bottom pour of the Lee pot. One advantage of this method is that you can have multiple ladles, each with a different diameter bottom pour hole. I suspect that if you are casting .225 bullets, you would want to stay with the 1/16" hole, whereas if you were casting 12-gauge slugs, you might even want to go up to a 1/8" hole. These ladles cost about $1 or so.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master ColColt's Avatar
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    I only use the ladle for casting large caliber bullets like the 45-70 variety at 480-530 gr. That works much better for me than the bottom pour 20# Lee I have. Bullets turn out better looking, edges sharp and not such a fluctuation of weight. I have the RCBS ladle.
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  6. #6
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by country gent View Post
    Ive used the ladles for years for rifle bullets as the old 10lb lee bottom pour I had just would make really good bullets consistently. I went to a propane burner and bigger pot ladle casting and it got better. Open ladles spouts up to .200 and a little better still. Started "over pouring" sprue allowing excess to run off back into pot and things got very consistent. I now dont pour for a sprue but a ladle of lead keeping the base hot as long as possible. I actually peerfer the ladle method and casting that way. One of the friends I invite to cast with me cast his for years bottom pour He was in a bind I was casting the next day and he came out with his mould and used my spare ladle we cast and chatted for almost 4 hours went to lunch and He left from there for home. That evening He called and told me he had never cast as consistent a batch of bullets before. I've since cut vents in my sprue plates to allow the over fill to channel away. My casting pot is an old propane tank cut 3 1/2-4" deep. Holds right around 100lbs.

    Not sure what this means but it interests me.

    Could we see a photo or a better description?

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  7. #7
    Boolit Master



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    One thing that I noticed when I tried the ladle yesterday was that it was so much easier to see the mold and aim the lead stream into spruce plate hole. This might just be because the height of the table I was using was too low when I was seated and using the pot's bottom pour spout whereas it was at a better height when I was standing. I'm not sure if my back would start hurting from standing over the casting pot for a long casting session though. I'm pretty sure my bum knee will start complaining if I stand too much though. I'm thinking a bar stool would be welcome.

    Did a 15 minute test to see what sort of throughput I was getting with the ladle. It worked out to be 155 rounds of 175 gr in 15 minutes. At which time, it was time to put a bit more lead in the pot and go grab a beer.
    Last edited by NavyVet1959; 11-05-2014 at 07:46 PM.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master


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    I started with a Lee 10lb bottom pour, waiting for 20+ years to start ladle casting, but it definitely works better for me on some molds that can't stand as much head pressure.

  9. #9
    Boolit Bub
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    Navy vet- thanks for the heads-up on the condiment spoons. I have only ladle cast for 30+ years and hate fighting the "crud" that builds up on the lead surface. I was given a Saeco 10# bottom pour but could not manage the drips so I plugged the hole and ladle cast. After reading your post I went to Goodwill and bought a 2 oz condiment spoon. I used a 3/32 hole to cast 300 gr REAL bullets and was getting really nice slugs without the crud. Mold stayed hot and you get the pressure cast effect of a bottom pour without the drips or the sludge that oxidizes on the lead surface. My lyman ladles are now in storage. Thanks for the idea. Bruce H

  10. #10
    Boolit Master



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    Quote Originally Posted by bhuch5 View Post
    Navy vet- thanks for the heads-up on the condiment spoons. I have only ladle cast for 30+ years and hate fighting the "crud" that builds up on the lead surface. I was given a Saeco 10# bottom pour but could not manage the drips so I plugged the hole and ladle cast. After reading your post I went to Goodwill and bought a 2 oz condiment spoon. I used a 3/32 hole to cast 300 gr REAL bullets and was getting really nice slugs without the crud. Mold stayed hot and you get the pressure cast effect of a bottom pour without the drips or the sludge that oxidizes on the lead surface. My lyman ladles are now in storage. Thanks for the idea. Bruce H
    Thanks for the comment. At about $1 each (retail price at the restaurant supply store that I found them at), you can't really beat the price. My "casting bench" is just something that I threw together from things I had sitting around the garage. The basic frame started life as a SCUBA tank carry rack that I had built from 2x4s custom fit for the back of my pickup. It was basically two 2x4 pieces that ran from one side of the bed of the truck to the other with a few pieces that were about 30" long that ran lengthwise to the truck and were bolted to the longer pieces that ran across the truck bed. There was space between these shorter pieces so that the SCUBA tanks could lay in there and eye bolts for rubber straps and hooks to keep each tank secure. I took this and made both of the long pieces the same length and then added a piece of plywood on top of that and an additional metal top on that. The metal top is to catch any molten lead if the bottom pour starts to massively leak and distribute the heat from any ingots I pour from the lead left in the pot. This "table top" is then placed on some saw horses.

    It was just a quick and dirty solution, but it worked well enough and I could easily store it, so I never bothered to create a dedicated casting bench. I really need to quit procrastinating and build a proper casting bench though.

    The height is not too bad for sitting in a metal folding chair for bottom pour casting, but it's too high if I want to ladle cast with the condiment ladle. If I'm standing though, it's a better height for using the condiment ladle. I haven't spent any time trying to find the best ergonomics for casting this way though. I'm thinking that having a two level casting table might be a bit better since it would allow me to have the casting pot at a lower level and have a higher level at about bar height for placing the molds (when I'm running two molds at once), preheating ingots, setting the quenching water drop bucket, and place for the tools that I sometimes use (wooden stick knocker for the sprue plate on 2-cavity molds, the knife that I sometimes need to help remove the sprue from the 6-cavity molds, etc). The idea behind this is to reduce the number of times that I actually have to bend my back to do some operation. Besides, your beer should always be at elbow level for easy access.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check