Has anyone made...

[Salmon-boy]

A multiple spout bottom pour melter?

Yes, it would be a super-drip-o-matic, but one shot to fill a 6 cavity mould..

[Wayne Smith]

Just off the top of my head I don't think the sprue hole spacing is the same for all 6-cavity molds. Might end up being a single use pot, for one mold? Or making sprue plates with a troth for all your molds?

[theperfessor]

I'm thinking that trying to keep six nozzles flowing evenly would be a real bear, plus what Wayne said.

[ReloaderFred]

My Magma Master Caster has two spouts for their two cavity molds. That's as many as I'd want to try, since they can get clogged, etc.

You could use a two spout system and fill your six cavity mold in three pours.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[shooter93]

At one time Veral at LBT made a 2 spout pot. Not for filling all cavities at once but for holding a soft alloy and a harder alloy for making softpoint bullets. It was a pretty clever arrangement but didn't sell well.

[Salmon-boy]

I remember Veral's dual injector, that was a piece of genius ahead of it's time...

I can see what you mean about clogging.. I was thinking along the lines of Lee's 6 cavity spacing and if others matched, had (what I thought to be) a brilliant idea to disconnect some of the spouts for 4 cavity moulds.

Guess I should do some measurin' now..

[theperfessor]

Salmon-boy, keep thinking of new ideas. Don't get discouraged just because you might encounter a few problems, but be realistic about what effect certain problems might have, and how to deal with them. I think multiple spouts on a furnace has certain merits as an idea, but I'm not sure I could keep them running smoothly and evenly. If you can figure out how to do that then I'd say you've got a pretty good idea.

Pour spouts are like wives, I have enough trouble with one, can't imagine having multiples of either.

[ReloaderFred]

The biggest problem with multiple pour spouts is the lead cooling before it reaches all the spouts. If there was some way to evenly heat the entire length of the spout that contains the holes, then it might work, but that's the key to success.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Salmon-boy]

Coming from someone who figured out make a "Tactical" nose-first sizing setup with RCBS/Lyman dies, I envision you're smart enough to not ask that question of your wife.. :KIDDING:

In the meantime, I will run though the mental exercises again! Thanks Perf!

Fred, I did think about using a lower, adjustable set of pour spouts, but didn't know how I'd figure out the cooling problem.

[jmorris]

The caster I built, by looking at photos of the master caster, has one needle/seat and pours into two cavities. Its stainless and has a channel milled into it that connect to two holes the correct distance apart. It gold in color in the photo below because it gets quite hot. To keep them flowing evenly you would need a large enough needle/seat to out flow all of the holes combined and likely a timer/solenoid to control how much you dump at once as the lead remaining in the milled slot will continue to run out as its above the valve.

As its bolted to the bottom of the melting pot it stays hot enough to melt lead itself, so lead doesn"t start cooling until its out of the melting machine, in the air, on the way into the mold. That is also the reason it won't drip any differently than a single hole pot, if the single valve doesn't leak nothing will run out any of the holes.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/caster3.jpg

[Springfield]

The Magma comes with an optional 2 hole spout. I have thought about making a 3 hole spout, then I could do my 6 cavs in 2 passes instead of 3. I love the 2 hole spout.

[Tonto]

Great idea, I suspect when the idea of multiple cavity hollow point moulds arose, same stuff occurred.

[Chicken Thief]

Regarding temp i would implement some sort of tubing that goes onto the 1-6 devider. In that tubing i would place the heating element from a good soldering iron in order to keep lead floating.

[jmorris]

Regarding temp i would implement some sort of tubing that goes onto the 1-6 devider. In that tubing i would place the heating element from a good soldering iron in order to keep lead floating. Not necessary if the "divider" is as hot as the pot.

[Chicken Thief]

Not necessary if the "divider" is as hot as the pot.
Yeah but a 1 in 6 rake will not suck enough heat from that puny spout sticking out of at least a Lee pot!