When my significant other brought her massage therapy practice home, I lost my casting/reloading room....it got remodeled into a massage therapy room. Nice lighting, exposed beams, etc.....very nice.
I had to relocate to the former horse stall in the barn. Actually it hadn't been used as a horse stall for probably a hundred years so it was clean, dry and not smelly. Rewired, tightened up and with a propane hurricane heater of about 11,000 btu's, it makes for a nice work area. I can even work out there in a raging snowstorm.
Today I decided to cast all afternoon. It was quiet, not too cold (40), and a bit windy so the heater worked OK but not great.
At a leisurely pace, I cast 1225 (by weight) in an afternoon...like maybe 4 hours or so. Took my time with no hurry at all.
This was with a Lee 4-20 (the drip-o-matic)) and a 4 cavity Hensley & Gibbs #51. I did not preheat the ingots on the top of the pot - when I ran down, I just loaded the new ingots into the pot and let it melt. I did create "setups" of 5 lbs ww to 1 lb linotype and had them stacked on the bench ready for action. Putting the ingots in cold gave me time to let the cast bullets cool and then cull them and then put into two coffee cans. I have to say that I had MAYBE 10 culls, if that for the entire session.
Next up size/lube them. Then I will load them into 38 specials with 4 gr WW231...my standard 38 round. I was getting a bit nervous because I was down to my last 400 rounds of loaded 38. Will have a total of 1600 rounds...probably a year's worth.
While casting and getting into the rhythm, it occurred to me that we are a lucky bunch. If we stock up on components, we will never worry about a shortage of ammo. We are the assembler and the manufacturer.
It also occurred to me that our hobby is a great way to relax and sort out our thoughts.
We are indeed fortunate.