New Member Introduction

[WickedColt]

Hi All from Florida!

I am newer to handloading and brand new to casting...and extremely happy to be getting into it (my wife, wallet and free time, however are not). I'm a father of 3 kids (no more...son-7, daughter 10 and son 13) and have a beautiful and awesome wife...Seriously, she is great and I just bought her a 20 gauge shotgun, per her request. Now we didn't see eye-to-eye at first because she made me...I mean "we made a decision" to wait until the kids were older to buy some guns but it's all smooth sailing from here.

I love plinking around, am building a 300 Blackout upper (almost done) and love learning new info.

There is a ridiculous amount of experience via intelligence and experience on this board and I very much look forward to using it and repaying in kind in the future!

I'm on the lookout for a small quantity of lead to make my first batch of boolits and am open to suggestions for ease of use. Also, a good way to smelt the lead (unless my only option is to buy an official one made for it...with the 3 kids and me being the only person working, economics is a factor for the moment...partially because I got so much reloading equipment and guns lately haha!).

Nonetheless, I appreciate being here and look forward to the future.

Andy

[Reddirt62]

Welcome!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[buckwheatpaul]

Welcome Andy....you are among friends....I have been buying my lead from the members on this site...it has always been as good as they advertised and for the few cents worth difference a huge time saver plus you are keeping some of us off the road and out of trouble.....all kidding aside welcome....Paul

[OS OK]

Welcome aboard Andy...get those kids involved in your casting and loading and it will be something you'll share with them for life.

charlie

[starnbar]

Good deal glad to hear a new member and building their own rifle too thank you for joining have fun and get the family involved.

[pjames32]

I started casting 45+ years ago while broke and with a wife and child. Scavenged wheel weights (not as EZ now) and cast with a cast iron pot on a camp stove and a 2 cavity 38 wadcutter mold. I have a lot more equipment now!
I'd probably buy ingots on this forum if I didn't have 500+lbs of ingots. Great hobby that you can do or not do as time permits. Get the kids involved. My daughter loved to size/lube and I paid her per piece to do them. She was shooting a 1911 45ACP by age 8. Good luck and welcome.

[runfiverun]

them kids are definitely old enough to be helping and for sure shooting.

my youngest was writing articles here on stuff she was doing while I was gone to work.
she'd get her Mom to drop her off at the range with my chronograph a bunch of targets and a few rifles.
then she'd post up the results or send me PM's of the pictures so I could see them from the hotel room or the Camp's media center wherever I was.
she wrote a really nice thread on using fillers with different rifle powders when she was about 14.
get the kids involved and Mom will go a lot easier on the financial side of things.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

I'm on the lookout for a small quantity of lead to make my first batch of boolits and am open to suggestions for ease of use. Also, a good way to smelt the lead (unless my only option is to buy an official one made for it...with the 3 kids and me being the only person working, economics is a factor for the moment...partially because I got so much reloading equipment and guns lately haha!).

Nonetheless, I appreciate being here and look forward to the future.

Andy

Andy,
Now that you've stepped into the casting world, the biggest thing to do (to acquire lead alloy), is put the word out. Tell all your friends and family that you are looking for some Lead. It seems to pop up in the strangest places from People you wouldn't expect. The down side, is sometimes friends and family might not stumble into a stash and think of you for months or years...but that has been the best source I've found.

To get started, the second best is buying processed/cleaned ingots that are ready to go, from vendors here or also some members will sell some from their stash from time to time. The going rate is usually around $1 per lb...and yeah, shipping isn't usually free.

When I go scrounging for scrap Lead, from recyclers or junk yards or automotive tire shops, I will not pay over 60¢ per lb, as there is time and fuel and waste involved with processing/smelting...That is my personal guideline, others my pay more or less?
ALSO...wheel weights are more and more being made with zinc or iron or some other non-lead material...so becareful if you stumble into a deal on wheelweights in the raw.

If you read lots here, you develop your own feel, for what a alloy is worth.
Good Luck,
Jon

[bedbugbilly]

Welcome! Sounds like you are well on your way!

I have cast for 50+ years and I use a cast iron propane hot plate for heat source - single burner. I had one for years and recently had to replace it - I found one on evil bay that was around $20 or so - new - made in China but what isn't today? I use it with a 20# propane cylinder - I have a 10# Lyman/Ideal pot that is older than I am and a Lyman bottom our ladle that I bought over 50 years ago. You could scar up a larger cast iron pot for smelting. I just have always done it in smaller batches and used an old tin muffin tin for casting the ingots. Now, I usually just buy range lead or lead from members here in ingot form.

Lot's of good folks here so don't be afraid to "jump in"! Enjoy, be safe above all else and when you are doing things with the kids, stress the safety and importance of not taking "short cuts". Sounds like the whole family will be involved so have fun and be safe!

[funnyjim014]

My first smelting rig was a old chunk of steel roofing. Bent it into a slight u shaped channel. Rested it on 3 automotive jack stands to adjust the tilt. Put a pile of WW on it and blast it with a HF roofer torch. Lead would run down the steel and I would catch it in a cupcake pan to make ingots. Cheep and effective. As a greenhorn I would deff find a teacher to show you the ropes so one does don't get to frustrated. And remember it's a fun hobby

[jcren]

Welcome and congrats on a new addiction! Unless you just get a smoking deal on lead just check on here. The Captian keeps a good supply of clean, ready to go lead for a little over $1 a pound shipped, and you cut out the time and expense of smelting and cleaning scrap.

[quilbilly]

Welcome from the opposite end of the 48.

[David2011]

Welcome to a whole new world. Casting is as much a blend of science and art as any endeavor you'll ever pursue.

David

[WILCO]

I'm on the lookout for a small quantity of lead to make my first batch of boolits and am open to suggestions for ease of use. Also, a good way to smelt the lead....

Hi Andy. Welcome aboard. Save time and money by ordering from Rotometals.
Pick up some Lyman #2 and go from there. Also, a hotplate and Chinese cast iron skillet are great for lead smelting and casting boolits. A large table spoon will suffice for skimming and an RCBS ladle for pouring into a mold. LEE Precision mold will serve you well as a new caster. Keep it simple. Have fun.

[bullseye67]

Good evening,
Welcome to the forum!! Enjoy all the $$$$ you will be saving
There is a lot of really good information, humor and general good reading on this forum. I believe all members that post on a thread do so to help....might not help when you try it, but next time, it might. There are some parts of casting that can't be explained. I have switched molds and had horrible results, went back the the original mold and perfect boolits, switched again and this time perfect boolits!!!
Over the past 35 years I have poured a lot of lead and experienced all kinds of issues. If this forum was available then It would have been a shorter learning curve.
The easiest way to start is with a 2 cavity mold, known alloy(I would buy #2 alloy from Roto) and a bottom pour pot. Bigger boolits like 358 cal. and short pistol seem easiest to cast. One of the easiest mold I have ever cast with is a 2 cavity iron mold in 358 cal. RNPB 158gr. from Lyman. As you get better and want to increase all those $$$$ you are saving. You can add melting, ingot making and becoming a LEAD storage facility.
Good Luck, ask questions, read a bunch of posts, read Glen's book, get a Lyman Cast bullet manual, and have fun.....before you know it you to will be casting up 300 plus pounds of alloy a year

[Wayne Smith]

Unless you know a roofer, radiation technologist, or other source of disposable lead start by buying from S&S or Rotometals. This saves you from having to set up a smelting center as well. As you develop local sources you can look at a heavy duty or reinforced turkey fryer or Cajun Cooker.

Definitely get the kids involved. If they want to shoot they need to clean their guns and make their own ammunition. Then when they leave they are competent to continue.

[No_1]

Welcome aboard Andy! What part of Florida?

Robert

[FISH4BUGS]

Welcome to the site. People say that those that hang out on the internet don't have much of a life. Well, that couldn't be any further from the truth from what I have learned here.
I have found this place to be a wonderful source of information and reloading/casting stuff. I am beginning to actually enjoy the casting and reloading more than the shooting. I have bought moulds and brass here, and traded cast bullets for the same.
It can be a frustrating hobby. Someday I will regale everyone with my Star Sizer saga. It took me a year of off again on again efforts to get my Star to work properly. Lots of advice from those here. FINALLY someone suggested just throwing in the towel and I sent the item back and Magma rebuilt it.
Turns out it was a factory defect. I was beginning to wonder if I was somehow incompetent. What a wonderful feeling when it returned and it actually WORKED!
Good luck on finding wheel weights, particularly lead ones. Since the use of lead ww's was banned, all we seem to get now are zinc and steel. i would suggest buying your lead from people here. It saves you the mess of smelting.
The journey of casting brings a whole new aspect to the shooting sports. The learning process is never ending it seems. Buying and collecting moulds, alloying lead, scrounging components, smelting, casting, resizing/lubing, reloading, etc. Makes sense to me.

[w5pv]

Welcome and enjoy the benefits

[WickedColt]

Welcome aboard Andy! What part of Florida?

Robert

Panama City (Lower Alabama or LA as they call it )