sprew in the pot

[lead chucker]

Just wondering when you cut your sprew are you supposed to cut it back into the lead pot or is that a no no. I have been cutting it back into the pot.

[No_1]

A lot of people drop them back into the pot as soon as they cut them. It contributes to longer casting session between refills.

[jeepguy242]

i was doing that when i first started casting a couple of weeks ago, but one splash changed my mind, got a little bit of a burn on my hand, and now i drop them in a small pan next to the pot, and drop a few in when they are cool enough to touch...

[Bret4207]

If you want to do it that way and your pot temp holds well enough then sure, go ahead. I don't generally do it that way myself but there's no reason not to.

[winelover]

I usually cast outdoors in cool weather with my 20# Lee at the highest setting. It's been my experience that I get too many rejects if I continually add the sprues back to the pot. The only time I do is when I purposely want to cool the melt if "frosting" becomes too frequent. YMMV

Winelover

[ku4hx]

I accumulate the sprew on a creased piece of 10"x10" (or so) cardboard and slide them all back into the pot about ever half dozen castings. The creased cardboard allows me to easily fold it slightly in the middle and let the chunks slide down a slight incline into the melt. No muss, no fuss, no splash and temp of the mold is not adversely affected as far as I can tell.

[Shepherd2]

I drop my sprues and rejects into a small metal pan and add them back into the pot from time to time. If my melt is getting a little too hot it is a good way to drop the temperature.

[MBTcustom]

I have always tried to cut the sprue back into the pot. as well as any rejects that invariably happen. If you do it right, you can slide the srues back into the pot without causing a big splash. However, you need to realize that if you work around a liquid that is 700degrees, you are going to get burned! The trick is to keep the burns small little dots that heal in a few days.
Recently, I have found a way to cast that is easier on the mold, safer for your hands and just plain pleasant to do. FirstBrit recommended that I quit banging on the mold with a piece of timber, and simply where a thick pair of gloves. Now I just cut the sprue into my gloved hand and then use that hand to carefully slip the sprue back into the pot, then I open the mold and drop the boolit into the same hand, inspect, then drop them carefully onto a wet rag. Talk about civilized! I dont think I will ever cast any other way ever again.

[bobthenailer]

When i cut off my sprues they drop into a retiangler metal pan, when theres enough like 1/2 a cup i put them in the pot that is up to operating temp @700 degrees and usually try to keep the pot at least 3/4 full at all times so the colder sprues dont lower the pot temp down to where i have to wait for it to recover . and i allways use a thermometer to keep a eye on alloy temp.
When using most 4 ,6 & 8 cavity moulds i usually preheat my ingots to approx 400 degrees before putting them in the pot while casting.

[btroj]

I have never added them back while casting. I keep the sprue in a pile and add that is used to fill the pot when it is empty.

This is a thing where it is more a matter of style than being right or wrong.

[cbrick]

This is a thing where it is more a matter of style than being right or wrong.

That's true to a point, I do it both ways. When bottom pouring I keep a layer of sawdust on top of the melt and add nothing to the pot while casting. When ladle casting, as goodsteel does, I cut the sprue with a gloved hand and drop the sprue right back into the pot. I give the alloy a quick stir with the ladle with each pour plus I use a 40 pound pot so the mass of a sprue has no effect on pot temp.

If your using a smaller pot and a 4 or 6 cavity mold (larger sprues) it would probably be impossible to keep a uniform pot temp when constantly adding the sprues and/or rejects. In the interest of a uniform mold temp I don't inspect the bullets while casting so that's a non issue for me.

Rick

[Cherokee]

I add sprues and rejects back to the pot while casting., get more bullets from a pot of alloy that way. Never seemes to hurt the temp.

[beagle]

Probably, you'll get a more consistent melt and retain your temperature better by adding them back in immediately but I've always captured mine in a 6" metal cannister lid and when it gets full, I add in batches. Seems to work all right like that for me./beagle

[Beau Cassidy]

I never understood why people don't put their sprus right back into the pot. Th lead is already somewhat hot. It is costing you power to have to reheat the sprus you add later. I put them right back in but then again a use a 40 lb pot and keep it half to 3/4 full. You will occasionally get a little splatter if you aren't careful but taking appropriate precautions, it is a non-issue. I always cast with a hat, safety glasses, painters face mask, long sleeves, and pants. I also pre-heat ingots on the rim of the pot.

[MT Gianni]

I have a layer of cardboard under my pot and 6" in front. I leave sprues there until I get 10 of them. They go back in the pot, the mold cools a little and Lee's dial indicator of a thermostat gets left alone if temps are maintained. This varies as to the mold temperature and mold but I like a big sprue and measure pot temperature while casting. Doing this helps me to maintain temps.

[geargnasher]

I never understood why people don't put their sprus right back into the pot. Th lead is already somewhat hot. It is costing you power to have to reheat the sprus you add later. I put them right back in but then again a use a 40 lb pot and keep it half to 3/4 full. You will occasionally get a little splatter if you aren't careful but taking appropriate precautions, it is a non-issue. I always cast with a hat, safety glasses, painters face mask, long sleeves, and pants. I also pre-heat ingots on the rim of the pot.

Good point. There is, in fact, only one good reason why not to add them back as you go: It can drag the oxide "skin" on the sprues/culls to the bottom of the pot and cause a gradual accumulation of dross trapped under the melt which can get bad enough to cause drip-prone Lee pots to be insufferable and cause inclusions in the boolits. If you ladle pour you'll never experience this. Also, if you do like CBRick pointed out and keep a layer of sawdust on top of the melt when bottom-pouring, the sprues can float on the mess and melt in from the top rather than sink to the bottom, and avoid the trash on the bottom issues. If you do like Goodsteel mentioned, cut the sprue by hand while still hot and soft and immediately put it back in the pot, it will likely be molten again well before it hits the bottom and any surface oxide traces on the sprue will float to the top. The only time it's a problem is when adding back cold sprues, and it takes a few pots full of casting and adding to create the issue.

If you don't have an issue with oxide scum on the bottom, and your pot can keep the heat up (add as you go to conserve BTUs), then do that. I did what Beagle mentioned he does for nearly 20 years (only I used a disposable aluminum pie tin instead of cardboard), but since I started adding them back "en masse" only when restocking the pot with ingots and doing a good pot scraping at the same time, I have better luck. My sessions between pot refills are, of course, shorter, and I find my PID controller works its butt off keeping the temperature from climbing as the lead level drops, but I get better boolits and the shorter sessions between pot fills gives me a welcome break from casting.

Like Btroj said, do what works for you, it really is only a matter of preference.

Gear

[A J]

An injured left shoulder forced me to buy a Master Caster. (Love it!) Have it mounted high 'cuz I like to cast standing. The top of the 40lb pot is at eye level. Made a coat hanger jig secured to pot with a giant hose clamp to keep thermometer angled facing me so temp can be checked at a glance. Sprues are dumped in front of me into a stainless drywall taper's mud pan. Use a large stainless kitchen cooking spoon to scoop and put sprues back into pot while monitoring temp to keep "in the zone". The long spoon keeps me away from the pot and allows me to easily control the rate of speed the sprues fall into the pot thru the sawdust layer without splash or spatter. Returning sprues to pot about once a minute right after filling mould and wainting for the sprue to cool only takes a few seconds with no delay in production.

I used the spoon and mud pan method for many years while hand casting and carried it over to machine casting. The shape of the mud pan makes it easy to scoop up the sprues with the spoon and the spoon makes it easy to return the sprues to the pot fast and safe. (I cast and shoot 25M+ boolits a year.)

A J

[Mal Paso]

I don't add sprues until I refill the empty pot.

It takes too much time to be careful with sprues. My sprues go into an aluminum cake pan next to the water bucket. I don't stop casting 'till the pot is low, then the mold goes on a hot plate and I take a break while the new batch melts. I'm running a single brass 4 cavity at about 10 boolits a minute.

I still envy the guy on this forum with his TWO 20 pound pots each refilled by a Linotype Melter each with a chain fall feeder for Linotype style ingots!

The first time I cleaned my pot I could not believe the amount of crud I found Under the lead and I think Gear might be right about the heavier cooler lead (sprues) pulling **** to the bottom. I quit mixing alloy in my casting pot and using a wood stir stick too and the chronic dripping and boolit inclusions are gone!

[Char-Gar]

I don't think it matters where the spru goes, back in the pot, with the bullets or where ever. I had done it all ways. I usualy cut them over the padded box where I drop the bullets, as that takes less time than moving the mold from under the spout to the top of the pot and then to the drop box. The way I do it only requires one movement instead of two.

[prs]

I bottom pour and take advantage of a nice thick layer of clay based oil dry granules floating on my melt. I cut spru right over the pot and let the strip plop right onto the "bed" of clay granules where it slowly melts and sinnks in with no splash, no splatter, no noticable decrease in heat of the melt, and no bottom crud. The clay aslo helps extend the flux state and probably reduces oxides since little aid can penetrate the flotsum. Win, win, win.

prs

[Echo]

I wear gloves, and pick up the fresh sprue and place it back in the pot - then refill the mold and inspect the fresh boolits while waiting for the sprue to harden. It makes sense to me to put the hot sprue back in the pot. And I have a fresh ingot sitting on the pot ledge to pre-warm prior to introducing to the pot. I try to keep the pot fairly full, so there is little drama in re-introducing a slightly-cooled sprue back to its brethern.

[geargnasher]

Mal Paso, stirring with a stick is the one way I've found to keep the sides of the pot nice and clean and alloy reduced at the same time, but if you touch the bottom of the pot with it, ash will slough off and stay there for sure and cause problems! I use a long-handled stainless steel teaspoon to scrape the bottom of the pot, but it's rarely necessary. My stick does the rest, and I use the stick to wipe around the edges of the melt and draw all the dross into a pile where I can mash it against the side of the pot and force it to reduce as much as possible by direct exposure to the charring stick. When I'm done, there's only a pinch of dry, grey ash left to skim, the melt is shiny clean, and the sides of the pot are clean too, with no dross boogers streaking down. A wood stick is like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for hot lead oxide crud and buildup.

PRS, great method, solves the problem of cold sprues carrying their surface oxide layer to the bottom. Kitty litter doesn't reduce the oxides, though, because it contains no un-reacted hydrocarbons. If you want, and have the ventilation to handle it, add a spoon full of sawdust to your kitty litter from time to time to help reduce the oxide skins left floating behind when they melt.

Gear

[MikeS]

I always put the sprues back in the pot while casting. But, I also have a fairly thick layer of wood flux (either PatMarlin's CFF, or hamster bedding) on top of the molten lead, so the sprues lay on top of the wood until they heat to the melting point, then the lead melts thru the flux, so only clean lead alloy gets thru the flux. This avoids the sprues dropping to the bottom,and dragging oxides to the bottom of the pot. On my own I never would have thought to use wood as a flux, I learned that here on this site, so I thank everyone here for their help.

I tried not putting the sprues back in once, and that made my pot empty MUCH faster than it does when I put the sprue back in. I'm usually casting with either 4,5, or 6 cavity moulds, and the sprues from them can get pretty large.

[RevGeo]

I always ladle pour so I just knock the sprues in a pie pan and during a smoke break I chunk 'em back in the pot. After the break and adding sprues I reflux. Never had a problem.

George

[imashooter2]

I cut sprue into a pan by the pot. Then I dump the mold, close and refill. Then I pick up the last sprue and add it back to the pot while I wait for the current sprue to cool.

Repeat as necessary...

[Mk42gunner]

I wear gloves, and pick up the fresh sprue and place it back in the pot - then refill the mold and inspect the fresh boolits while waiting for the sprue to harden. It makes sense to me to put the hot sprue back in the pot. And I have a fresh ingot sitting on the pot ledge to pre-warm prior to introducing to the pot. I try to keep the pot fairly full, so there is little drama in re-introducing a slightly-cooled sprue back to its brethern.

This is pretty much the way I do it. When I cut the sprue on a two cavity mold by hand, the sprue is in the glove already.

The only time I really waste by cutting sprues with a gloved hand is when the boolits stick and I have to pick up the stick to tap the hinge pin/ bolt/rivet.

With four or six cavity molds; I cut the sprue, dump the boolits, refill then pick up the sprue and put it in the pot.

Robert

[big dale]

I try to keep from splashing lead whenever I can, so I seldom put the sprues back into molten lead.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
It was said that every time you add Pb you need to flux, as the tin would separate.
So I got in the habit of casting till my pot was about1/2 full, then dumping the sprues back in. I keep a empty 2lb peach can next to the pot & just dump the sprues off the mold into it. Then pour them back in, buy that time my 4 cav. molds need to cool a bit anyway. Repeat the process at 1/4 full, then just dump them back into pot near the end.
This allows me a break as a new melt is cooking.:Fire::Fire:

[Moonie]

I bottom pour and take advantage of a nice thick layer of clay based oil dry granules floating on my melt. I cut spru right over the pot and let the strip plop right onto the "bed" of clay granules where it slowly melts and sinnks in with no splash, no splatter, no noticable decrease in heat of the melt, and no bottom crud. The clay aslo helps extend the flux state and probably reduces oxides since little aid can penetrate the flotsum. Win, win, win.

prs

This is EXACTLY the way I do it, it is just so simple and only took me casting for 20 years to figure it out lol.

[mpmarty]

with my LEE six cavity molds I cut the sprue over the pot and let them fall into the melt. Conserves heat and prolongs the casting session before need to refill pot with ingots. Two cavity molds are opened with a gloved hand and sprues are put directly back into the pot.

[Blackwater]

I confess. I'm a long term sinner in dropping my sprues back into the pot, even though I know it's not conducive to throwing the very best bullets. I stir at least one full round before dipping each ladle full, trying to convince myself that this prevents cold spots, but having worked in a foundry lab when in college, I know this ain't exactly "kosher." It probably helps make for longer casting sessions, and when I cast, I usually like to cast at least a pot full of lead, but I'm probably fooling myself that it matters as much as I'd like to think. I did a lot of casting in college, using free lead - the only kind I could afford at the time - and got in the habit, and just continued doing it more as a behavioral habit than from not knowing better. Still do it a lot.

One thing I've learned is that big sprues splash little dits and dots of lead onto the outside of the moulds, and I am at least pretty scrupulous in keeping those rubbed off with wooden sticks. For most casting purposes - which is practice and plinking fun - it probably doesn't really matter, but remember if you DO do it, to keep stirring the pot to keep the sprues from creating cold spots near the surface. That'll affect the wt. consistency of at least some bullets.

I do NOT dump them back in, however, when casting for my BPCR. Those guns really need the best bullets you can cast, and I take extra pains when I'm casting those, thus showing that I CAN do it right when I WANT to. I'm just a habitual sinner that tends to go more with habit than rationality sometimes.

[HangFireW8]

I have two Lee pots, a 10 lb and a 20, and the 10 lb. runs rather cool, even on high. I found I had quality problems if I dumped the sprue in the 10 pounder, I was better off not. Being small and cool, it brought down the temps too much.

I now run two side burners- one to preheat molds, the other to pre-heat the next batch of ingots and sprues. I don't drop the current batch of sprues in the pre-heat pot as I cast, too much trouble, I let them gather up and then put them in the pre-heat pan after I dump the last set of sprues and ingots in the pot. Once I get rolling, I can keep up the momentum without waiting long for the next batch to melt.

I ladle cast from an iron dutch oven when doing very large things, like 45/70 boolits or casting 12ga slugs. That pot is so large, and the propane so strong, that I can drop sprues in there all day without affecting the melt temp much.

HF

[Mal Paso]

Mal Paso, stirring with a stick is the one way I've found to keep the sides of the pot nice and clean and alloy reduced at the same time, but if you touch the bottom of the pot with it, ash will slough off and stay there for sure and cause problems!
Gear

I'll give it a try your way. You've been spot on and really helped me find my "groove" with brass molds.

What Cooling Time? 10 seconds after filling the last cavity I'm cutting sprues. 12 seconds the boolits are dropped and the mold is heading for the pot.

Cooling time sounds like an Iron mold. I'm running a brass 4 cavity, 250 g Boolit. What's yours?