PDA

View Full Version : Magma Master Caster



Sundogg1911
01-13-2007, 11:47 AM
I've been casting now a little over 10 years, using mostly Lyman moulds (I think I have about 20 of'em) I have a few RCBS, and a couple of Lee's too. Some friends have asked me If I would consider casting for them. (Pistol Boolits, mostly .40's and '45's) I was wondering if I purchased a Master Caster, if this would be worth the expense. I don't know anyone that currently uses one. I have a never ending supply of WW's, and about 1 ton of Lino. (Which i'm very stingy with) :twisted: I'm sure if wouldn't be worth my time to do this using my current equipment. to this point other than for personal use, i've only cast them as gifts for friends, or bartering (I have a good friend that ties flys, and we do a boolit for Bugs swap a few times a year) I would not want to do this as a career switch by any means, but it would be nice to make some beer money.
:drinks: and help out a few shootin' Buds with inexpensive plinkin' :Fire:

LAH
01-13-2007, 12:14 PM
The Master Caster is a very good machine and will last forever. It's easy to use and once you get your stroke it will make as good a bullet as can be made but fast it isn't. You can cast much quicker using 3 or 4 moulds in rotation. I use a Master Pot for this. BUT.....................

You can use the Master Caster in like manner simply my placing the mould carrier in it's dump position and using some type of mould guide. Doing this you can use your MC in much the same way you would use the MP. This way you can use your MC for both hand held moulds and machine moulds.

I failed to welcome you to the board so let me do so at this time. BTW nice ride.

God Bless
Creeker

Springfield
01-13-2007, 03:07 PM
If you only have Lyman moulds then it might be worth it. Personally, I use almost only Lee 6 gangers as I can cast faster than a Master caster and my hands are free. And I sell commercially. Figure out how many bullets you will really sell and balance that against the cost of a Master caster. But if you are like me it is hard to factor in the cool factor of some tools. It's kinda like buying guns, you don't have to "need" it to get it.

Sundogg1911
01-13-2007, 04:36 PM
LAH. Thanks for the welcome, and the Softail compliment! If the master caster is really no faster then I really see no point in getting it. Although I do see some "Cool factor" in it like Springfield says :mrgreen: I usually cast with 3 moulds at a time. That seems to be about the correct speed for me with keeping the moulds up to temp. I think to speed things up I may go with a Star sizer, and just use the Lyman 450 for my rifle, and smaller lot bullets (like .380 and .32 auto) and eventually switch over completly to the star. I have way too many sizing dies, and top punches to do it all at once. I'm using a lee 20 lb. bottom pour pot now too, and another 10 lb. pot to mix the alloy and feed the Lee. I think a bigger pot would also speed me up a bit. Maybe it makes more sense for me to start there.

LAH
01-17-2007, 02:22 PM
Hey Sundogg1911...............why don't you email me a picture or two of that bike?

creeker44 at verizon dot net

rmb721
01-17-2007, 05:41 PM
Sundogg 1911: I used to use three moulds too, but then only one third of the bullets are what you need at the time unless you have duplicate moulds. I now use the Bruce B. method of speed casting. It works great for me with a double cavity or a six cavity mould. You can find it by clicking on "home page" at the top and then click on "Members Articles". Bruce B. method of speed casting from Jan. 28, 2005. You will get more bullets using one mould than you did before using three and they will all be what you need at the time. This also eliminates sorting different bullets.

cbrick
01-17-2007, 08:30 PM
Sundogg1911, welcome to the BB.

Creeker is right . . . . . Nice ride.

From what you have said I'd recommend getting the Magma 40# pot and the Star lubri-sizer. Could well surprise you how many bullets you can get from 40 pounds of alloy and four and six cavity moulds.

Rick

Springfield
01-17-2007, 08:46 PM
I have found that my RCBS 22 pound pot and a 17 pound LEE to feed it is minimum to keep my six cavity moulds fed. I keep thinking about a Magma 40 pounder but don't have the extra money right now. Using the LEE 6er's and the 2 pots I can cast 8-900 an hour with very good quality. I used to do 2 sixer's at a time but I found the quality was less as it is harder to keep 2 moulds at the right temp compared to only one. Way less hand movement also. Ride an '82 R-100 beemer myself, never owned a Harley. Like the look of the Road King, though.

Sundogg1911
01-22-2007, 10:11 PM
rmb721, im gonna check out the bruce b method. If i end up liking the Lee 6 cavity moulds, I may get a pair of each design that I like . I've had bad luck casting with a single mould. the mold gets too hot and I get frosty bullets. 2 or 3 give me a nice pace. Here's a pic of the 3 Bikes that I currently have. The Chopper is leaving my garage (the Guy that i've been helping doesnt seem to want to build a bike, as much as He enjoys drinking and sleeping all day) if anyone is interested in the purple sportster, it may go on the block. The Softail looks a little different than the pics, and will look a lot different by the time it's nice enough to ride http://choppdaddy.com/cycleprojects/

klw
01-22-2007, 10:23 PM
I looked into the Magma casting machine and bought one of their 40 pound furnaces. The furnace went back. Every time I used it it blew the circuit breakers in my new house. Eventually Magma determined that there was occasionally a problem with these furnaces doing that and came up with some kind of a recommended fix but by then I had sent mine back.

There are two of these casting machines, a Magma and a Ballisti-Cast. If you want to go this route I'd suggest studying both.

But two of my friends owned Magma's. One absolutely loved it and one absolutely hated it. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why. The answer was obvious once I thought of the right question.

Apparently these machine have NO problems with pistol bullets. The one fellow was only casting pistol bullets and his machine worked great.

The other guy was only casting bullets for his 50-70. Must have needed a lot of these. But these big bullets just didn't cool properly between cycles. So from his viewpoint the machine was a mess.

The critical issue seems to be cooling time. REALLY heavy bullets might well be a problem.

44woody
01-22-2007, 11:17 PM
I do alot of pistol bullets on mine I also do a 405gr rn 45/70 on it it is a single cavity and have no problem in keeping the mould cool enough to cast with I have found out that I do have to slow down some to cast nice shinny bullets out of that 45/70 mould and I am in the Ilove my master caster camp :castmine: 44Woody

LAH
01-23-2007, 09:04 AM
I with Woody. The larger the bullet the longer the dump cycle. No voodo here. Casting has aways been temp & time............Creeker

Forester
01-23-2007, 04:01 PM
+1 for the Bruce B method and one mould. I just started in this casting game a couple months ago but this method seems alot faster to me. I tried it with 2 and 3 moulds at a time but the extra hand motions made it seem pretty inefficient to me.

I can run off almost a thousand pistol boolits an hour without really pushing too hard using Lee 6 cavity moulds. The only holdup is runing the 20lb Lee pot near empty all the time. The other small issue is my cooling method, my wet hand towell only barely works for 20lbs of alloy, then I have to switch it for another one.

Sundogg: If you do decide to let go of the Sportster, how about shooting me a message...Likely I can't afford it but maybe...

RANGER RICK
01-24-2007, 08:06 PM
Sunndogg

Nice bikes .............

I have had the Cast Master Melting Pot - 90 lb. capacity for three years and love it .
I run 4 molds at each setting and my molds range from 975 Grain through 265 grain ,1 through 6 cavities .
Most of the time it is all large cavity molds and the bullets are just fine .
Not a problem at all .
Good thing about the pot is I keep ingots under it while it is in use and it pre heats the lead before adding it in .

You can be my new best friend with that pile of Linotype !!!!!!!! Buddy !!!!!!

RR

txpete
01-25-2007, 07:57 PM
I bought my master caster back in 94.love it and last year finally replaced the pot after a zillion bullets made.I also bought a star lube sizer to go with it and it is a great set up.
shhh ...when I retired fromn the army in 94 I took some time off(just burn't out) and just started casting up a BIG bunch of bullets and 3 guns shows I paid for my stuff:-D .

nice bike:-D :-D
mine
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/txpete/18july06003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/txpete/bonnie010.jpg

Sundogg1911
02-01-2007, 11:15 AM
wow. Nice Triumph! TXPete. I've had a few of them over the years. (A Bonny and a Tiger) I think i'm gonna save my pennys and buy a Master Caster.

Springfield
02-01-2007, 11:26 AM
I'm halfway there. I just ordered the 40 pound Magma lead pot. I wish I could find someone who had a Master caster so I could try it out.

44woody
02-01-2007, 11:58 AM
sundogg1911 you can get a 40 lb pot and make a stand for it and use it for pouring lee 6 cavity moulds with you don't have to have the master caster stand to use it I have one on a stand I made out of a old bead frame and it does work well for hand mould casting :castmine: 44Woody

Sundogg1911
02-01-2007, 03:21 PM
that sounds like a good idea. feeding the little Lee pot is what slows me down the most. I have an electric pot made my C.Palmer called a super pot that says 15#, but I think it's only about half of that that I use to preheat alloy and dump it into a Lee 10# bottom pour. before that I used go have a beer each time I added ingots to the lee pot while I waited for it to reach casting temp. I had to take too many P-breaks once it reached temp. so I Didn't cast too many boolits ;-)

LAH
02-02-2007, 08:29 AM
If you choose to get a Master Caster instead of the Master Pot you can always secure the mould carrier is it's dump position and fashion a mould guide for the use of 4 or 6 cavity moulds. I used a board with no stop and really no guide. We were casting thousands of bullets per day and after a while, well you just know where to place the mould. HEE HEE

The right hand pot is a MC with board inserted. Not the best set up but it does show what can be done. With your bike tools and such I'm sure you can come up with something much easier to use..........Creeker

txpete
02-02-2007, 10:14 AM
wow. Nice Triumph! TXPete. I've had a few of them over the years. (A Bonny and a Tiger) I think i'm gonna save my pennys and buy a Master Caster.


thanks.been riding harleys and triumphs since 68:mrgreen: .my first triumph has a daytona twin carb then a 66 bonnie.my dad had harleys and it took some time before I went over to the dark-side:-D .this bonnie just fits me now as a geezer I don't ride long distance anymore.
pete

Sundogg1911
02-26-2007, 01:22 PM
Creeker,
That is one Hellova nice setup. I think I am going to get a Master caster, and have all of my RCBS/Lyman doubles converted to fit. If it can work for me the way you are using it for all of my larger moulds, it will be worth the money. :drinks: I just picked up a Star Sizer last week, so once I get the correct sizing dies for it, I should be in Business. I found out i'm going to be getting a bonus check a little over 3 grand. I wonder where that money will go [smilie=1:

LAH
02-27-2007, 09:06 AM
I used a simple board for a mould guide but I'm sure something a lot better could be designed without much trouble. I used a coffee can behind the MC for the board to rest on and set some lead on the board to hold it solid......Lynn

AbitNutz
02-27-2007, 02:45 PM
Check out Ballist-casts MK1V. It is more expenssive than the Magma Master Caster but it is it looks freakin' machine...

Sundogg1911
02-27-2007, 04:14 PM
AbitNutz,
I have talked to a few people that have used bot, and both like the MK1V, but liked the Master Caster a little better. If they were excatly the same quality, i think I'd like still stick with Magma, just because I use a Star sizer, and but my sizing dies from them. and it is a bit cheaper.

LAH
02-28-2007, 08:09 AM
Check out Ballist-casts MK1V. It is more expenssive than the Magma Master Caster but it is it looks freakin' machine...

It's a good little machine which uses two moulds. Interesting indeed.

Sundogg1911
02-28-2007, 02:25 PM
hmmmm.... 2 molds ya say?:???:
now ya got me thinkin' [smilie=1:

Lloyd Smale
02-28-2007, 02:27 PM
I didnt know it used two molds myself. Thats got me thinking of one as the only reason i never got a magma was there to slow.

LAH
03-01-2007, 06:59 AM
Yes two moulds on a wheel that rotates a full 360. Filling at 12, dumping at 6. The handle works on a rachet set up plus it comes with a cooling fan. Unless things have changed these use only two cavity moulds as the pour spout does remove.

little willie
03-03-2007, 04:13 PM
I had one of the manual Ballista Cast MK4 machines, that used 4 moulds, I also had (have) a Master Caster. The Ballista Cast was too complicated and more trouble than what I wanted to fool with. I kept on using the Magma Master Caster.

The Master Caster and Star Package is now (still) for sale.

little willie

3sixbits
03-03-2007, 11:24 PM
Little willie: I do not find your ad in the swap section. What ya got and what do you got to have for it?

little willie
03-05-2007, 09:16 AM
3sixbits, It was listed a while back, Jan. 30, I believe. Go back in the archives and you can view it. little willie