What Bottom Pour Furnace Do You Use?

[nvbirdman]

I use a Saeco that I bought at a yard sale in 1973 for fifteen dollars.
It paid for itself long ago.

[Lloyd Smale]

I started with lees and eventually went with two 20lb lymans. there a giant step up in quality over the lees. When i had my fire and lost my two lymans i went with rcbs mostly at the time i did it because rcbs has a much better warantee program. I found the added bonus was the pots are even a bit better then the lymans. If price wasnt a consern id go with a magma. My buddy has a big magma and its a great pot. It heats up as fast as my rcbs and holds about twice the lead. Problem for me is i sometimes run two differnt alloys at the same time and wanted two pots and could buy two rcbs pots for less then the price of one magma.

[Bret4207]

I've been a ladle man for 30 some years. I tried a Lee BP and invented several new curse words. While I love many Lee products, their pots are not among my list of recommended buys. Last year I finally got a SAECO. Night and day from the Lee IMO. I still am not tossing my ladle, but this BP has possibilities.

[Bob J]

I have 3 Lee BP pots.... One for WW, one for RL and one for pure lead.... Have had no problem 2+ years now....

[59sharps]

I have a lee 4-20 and the RCBS. like them both. If I had to replace one I would go w/ a Lee only because of price.

[475/480]

Magma 40lb ,best thing I ever did was changing from ladle pour to bottom pour. I bought mine at $395 then they jumped to $575

Sean

[MakeMineA10mm]

I learned on the old-style round Lymans, and then started using the Saeco round pot that I inherited from my dad, but it got a short. A friend got me into a bunch of used casting gear, including an early NIB (NOS) Lyman Mag 20, that I then used for several years. Then a Ballisti-Cast came along with a 100-lb pot, and I got hooked on the big ones.

I now cast from a 90-lb Magma bottom-pour pot. It's awesome. I can cast for hours without re-stocking the pot. Just take a break now and then to put sprues back in and flux, and then off I go, usually pouring 6 at a time...

[bob208]

i have one of the old round 5 lb. laymans. got it in 71. about 90 the thromostat. bruned out . sent it back they put one on from a 20 lb. pot. no charge i was willing to pay for repairs. i bought a 20 lb. pot in 85 when i started shooting muzzloaders. i use the 5 l.b for pure lead and the 20 for mix for the center fires.

[.30/30 Guy]

I started out using a Lyman 61. I wanted a larger capacity so I tried a Lee 20#. Big mistake. I now use a RCBS.

The most important thing is the bottom valve. I would rate the RCBS a 10, the Lyman a 8 and the Lee a 2.

[Ole]

I use a Lee and am quite happy with it.

I guess ignorance is bliss, because Lee is all i've ever used.

[buck1]

"Just wondering what brand most of you are using."

Perhaps the more useful question would be "What pot would you prefer?"

RCBS! But I have lyman,saeco, and lee. RCBS is king , but they all work well.

[fcvan]

As a kid my Dad had a Saeco. When i started buying my own gear I bought a Lee pro pot 4 and Lee double cavity moulds. I still have Dad's Saeco but haven't fired it for years.

Years ago I read a newspaper article about a man from Idaho who dipped from a gas fired pot. His two tips (as I recall) were gas with a large pot kept the alloy at a more constant temp and the swirling effect of pouring onto the sprue plate as opposed to directly into the mould.

From that point on I started pouring onto the sprue plate somewhat between the two cavities. If the larger sprue is still somewhat liquid as i am setting down the mould i know the temp is right. I get a drippy spigot now and again but i simply clean the opening with a bent wire and get back after it.

I preheat the two moulds I'm using by setting them on top of the pot. A tin can lid covers the pot and makes a good surface to lay the moulds onto. I always have an ingot laying on the rim of the pot and i keep the pot topped off. This seems to keep the temp pretty constant. I typically cast about 500/hour and usually alternate between a 35 cal 125 gr lrn and a 40 or 45 cal ranging between 180 and 230 grns.

I recently purchased a Lyman mould .225 cal 55 grn flat point gas check for my Mini 14. For years I avoided it because I had read so much about what a Pain In The um Neck it is to get good castings in such a small pill. Poppycock. The first two dropped beautifully and perfectly. The gas checks were easy to seat. 14 grains of IMR 4227 cycle my old 180 model Mini like a champ and tin cans roll pretty much the same when hit at 2250 fps. I especially like pulling the trigger and hearing 'dime, dime, dime' instead of 'quarter, quarter, quarter' Frank

[John Guedry]

I use a 10# Lee. It works fine in spite of being all bent and lopsided.(got dropped,it was cold at the time.)

[69daytona]

I have a Lee with a pid controller on it and it works very good for all the casting I have done in the past 4 years. When it burns out I will probably buy an RCBS as they are better built of better materials, Nothing wrong with the Lee except for the temp control.

[59stude]

I started with a Lee production pot about 20 years ago. Last year I bought an Lee Pro 4-20 and it works well for my use. I would like to have an RCBS pro-melt or an Lyman Mag-20 but the price is to high for me.
An example of prices here in Sweden for casting equipment.
Lee production Pot S.kr 967 = US$ 138
Lee Pro 4 S.kr 1055 = US$ 150
Lyman Mag-20 S.Kr 4402 = US$ 628
RCBS Pro-Melt S.Kr 5841 = US$ 834
all prices are from Midway-Sweden today.
And if I would be lucky to find any second hand equipment, it would cost about half of new.
So be happy when you buy for prices less then we have to pay here.

59stude

[blikseme300]

I use a DIY brand bottom pour. It is PID controlled and contains 70lbs of melt when full.

See it here: http://bliksemseplek.com/boolits.html

Here is a pic of the yield of one casting session, without refilling the pot, of approx 3500 120gr .358 boolits.

Bliksem

[geargnasher]

Very nice job, Blikseme. I think I found your site a while back looking for "smelting" pot designs, particularly bottom pour.

Where would a person find a band heater like that new? Never seen anything like that before.

Gear

[lurch]

Gear,

Just did a quick look over at McMaster-Carr and Grainger. Both have heaters that while not exactly like that, have some that could be used to fill the bill.

Maybe this:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TEM...d-Heater-2VYU9

Not exactly cheap but...

[lwknight]

My Lee drip-O-matic works just fine for a cheap melter.
My old one got so bad that I just plugged the spout and use it for a pre-melter or minor smelter.
Best of all , they were pretty cheap.

[CiDirkona]

Big Drippy just got a new buddy, Lil Drippy, thanks to some sold j-words.