Lee Ladle and trying to cast 230gr .452 boolits

[bruce drake]

Has anyone had success casting .452 size boolits with a LEE lead ladle (the little one they sell with thier casting kits)?

It works just fine for my 30 and 32 caliber boolits but that 45 ACP boolit mold just never fills out completely for me with that small ladle.

I'm debating on pulling my old leaky LEE bottom-pour off the shelf and deal with the drips to use this mold but I really like ladle casting as well.

I may have to bite the bullet and buy a Lyman ladle in the future...

Bruce

[HeavyMetal]

I have a Lee ladle and it makes a great pot scraper!

If your gonna ladle cast life will be much easier with the right tools! The Lyman or the RCBS are good ladles particularly for single cavity molds but to small for 6 and 10 banger molds.

[dromia]

From my experience the Lee ladle is worse than useless, so congratulations on successfully using it, I'm impressed.

I would recommend that you upgrade to at least a Lyman or an RCBS both of which are fine tools and light years ahead of the Lee.

You might also want to consider a Rowel bottom pour ladle, a No1 is now my go to dipping ladle.

They are available from the Antimony Man.

[stubshaft]

Bruce,
Put a sheetmetal screw in the spout of the drip-o-matic and remove the rod. It makes a great dipping pot and like the others have said get a Lyman or RCBS ladle.

I just seem to get better results when I ladle cast and do not find it any slower than using a bottom pour. Have been using an RCBS ladle for over 20 years now (drill out the hole in it for better flow).

[Bret4207]

Bruce, throw that thing in the trash and get a real ladle. I have an ancient Lyman that works great.

[DLCTEX]

Pre heat the mould, hotter than you would think, and you'll get better fillout. I've poured good 45 boolits with a teaspoon just to prove to myself I can do it if I had to. If you are not waiting a few seconds for the sprue to harden, the mould is not hot enough. Then, as with any method, leave a generous sprue puddle.

[bruce drake]

I've got two LEE Pots. One is a dripper (unmodified) and the other has been modified with the sheet metal screw already and is my primary pot.

I use the LEE Ladle because I'm a lefty and she has a spout on both sides and its the first one I bought and it works just fine for my single and double molds. It just doesn't work well for me in the 45 caliber mold.

I've been told that Lyman has modified thier ladle to be ambidextrous now where the handle can be mounted on either side but I haven't bought it yet.

Bruce

[fryboy]

the lyman ladle is ambi .... midway had some on clearance for down to like 12-13$.... rcbs claims theirs is ambi too but also state that u have to drill and tap the hole ermmm ok ....

[steve in kc]

Works fine for me. I've cast 1000+ boolits using it. I'm using a 2 banger mold and 'dip' the ladle for each cavity. I cast fast and have no fill out problems.

[Ben]

I have little use for the Lee ladle....not even close when compared to the Lyman or RCBS design.

Ben

[excess650]

I much prefer an older Lyman ladle to even an RCBS. I find the extended web(?) cast onto the RCBS to make it bulky, and the handle too long. I guess that I'll just have to do a little grinding and shorten the handle because I do like the extra capacity.

Another note, I've drilled the hole in the spout larger in my old Lyman so as to be able to pour more quickly.

I was casting this morning and could pour 5 of 6 cavities in a Lee 6 banger 45-230-TC. I think that the RCBS would have easily poured all 6.

My Rowell bottom pour would have easily poured all 6 cavities, but the handle is waaaaay too long, and it tends to suck too much heat away from my Lee 20# pot.

My thought on the Lee ladle was that it was too small to be of use other than scraping, fluxing, and skimming.

[45 2.1]

The Lee ladle is excellent for long skinny rifle boolits that don't vent air very well (6.5mm are notorious for this). Pour a thin stream into the middle of the sprue hole and get rewarded with perfect boolits. Bigger ladles block air venting and cause headaches with small long boolits.

[Mk42gunner]

Bruce,

My RCBS ladle, while not ambidextrous, does have a boss cast in the oposite side of the bowl. It should be fairly easy to drill and tap the bowl to reverse the pouring direction. Then plug the original hole with a bolt or by welding.

Robert

[ItZaLLgooD]

I have been using the Lee ladle and a 2 cavity TL452-228-2R mold for a few months now. It's a little small. As the pot gets low I have to dip for each cavity. No fill out problems though.

[bohokii]

try just using a spoon make sure when filling you just spill it all over the place it seems to work fine for me i get good fills

[mooman76]

I've also used the Lee ladle for years from 22 all the way up to 50 calibers. It works fine. Define not good fill out. Are we talking the whole bullet or just the base? Leave a good size puddle if the base isn't filling out right. Preheat it good. Each mould casts different, you may need more heat.

[bruce drake]

My 45 ACP mold is Lee's Tumble Lube Semi-conical and the TL bands and bases aren't getting filled out. My last run with it I was running the pot with the dial at 10 and the bullets were still coming incomplete. I'll see what this mold does after I preheat it on a burner longer.

[excavman]

My Lee 'spoon' is good for scraping, fluxing, stirring and skimming. For pouring I use a Lyman 'ladle'.

Larry

[jlchucker]

I use my Lee ladle to stir the pot, as well as to remove slag and other crud after fluxing. It is a good pot scraper. I use bottom pour pots for casting boolits, but if I did use the ladle method I'd probably opt for one like the Lyman ladle. It holds more, and has a neat little spout for pouring into a mold.

[mooman76]

Are you leaving a good size puddle on top of the sprue plate? The extra lead helps. I had a couple moulds that wouldn't fill out at the base and when I loosened the sprue plate, I got good base fill out in fact one had to be so loose that it was sloppy loose but it made good bullets after that.