I'm looking to purchase a Rowell bottom pour ladle. I'm going to be filling 4 cavity ingot molds that hold 2.5 pounds per cavity. My initial thought was to use a #3 or #4 ladle. But at 4# and 4.5# capacities neither one can fill even two cavities in the ingot molds.
Started looking at the #5 which can hold 9# of lead. I figure no problem to do 5# at a pour, or maybe even 7.5# and fill 2 or 3 ingots per pour. Both the #4 and #5 ladle have the D shaped handles with slide grip so two handed operations seems the norm for using them.
I don't normally use a larger ladle, when I do I usually use two hands in order to guide the pour into the molds with greater control. I haven't used a large ladle for pouring smaller ingots. Just use large ladle for larger ingots in bread loaf pans
My question is has anyone used the sizes mentioned #3, #4 and #5 that can comment on how easy or hard they are to use? Or if you used a larger Rowell ladle to speed production of ingots how did the extra weight vs. the faster production work out for you?
I'm really thinking the big production 9 pound ladle makes the most sense but can see where I might be able to use the smaller 4 or 4.5 pound ladle for more general uses. I only know folks with the smaller 1 or 2 pound ladles and they say good things about how clean they pour.