A better pot

[huntincowboy]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. So I've been casting for about 6 months now and I have a question about my pot. When I first started (like when I truly began six months ago) I was getting frosty bullets, which my Lyman cast bullet handbook says means you need to lower your temperature. So I started lowering my temperature and for a while (several casting sessions) I was getting good boolits. I cranked up the ol burner at the beginning of the summer to make more boolits and I sat my mold in the smelt to bring it up to temps. It's a lee aluminum mold and shouldn't take long to bring up to temp, but it was freezing in the smelt and the smelt would turn all semi-liquid. I pulled it out and let it melt again and decided to bring the mold up to heat by pouring. Mistake, I couldn't get lead into the cavity without it freezing on the sprue. I eventually got a few poured but they did not fill out good. Only had 25 or so keepers out of a full 10 lb pot. I think my problem may be that the pot is just not hot enough anymore, but with my lack of experience I don't really know. I've been using the 10 lb Lyman Big Dipper pot to do everything from the WW to the boolit because I only do small batches as I need them for revolver plinking. I can see how maybe the pot has gotten dirty and affected the heat output but I've only made maybe 8 potfuls of smelt.

So I'm thinking maybe the coils have become damaged because I've seen a few threads with pics of the pots broken down to the coils. If this sounds on the right track, I'm thinking about buying a better quality pot or maybe even going the propane route. Any suggestions? I would be wanting to go dual duty with the unit, but if that's not really a good idea I could get set up to smelt for ingots and bullets in different steps. I'm looking for my equipment to last much longer than 7-8 casting sessions.

[waksupi]

Crank up the heat, especially if you are using an aluminum mold. Lots of us like frosty boolits. Pour fast, to get your mold hot enough, once you get good fill, start reducing heat a little at a time, until they are cooling at a consistent rate.
Keep in mind, Lyman comes here for answers.

Welcome aboard.

[GRid.1569]

Keep in mind, Lyman comes here for answers.

LOL... Lyman's R&D Dept = Cast Boolits.... 8-)

[Bret4207]

LOL... Lyman's R&D Dept = Cast Boolits.... 8-)

Probably true though!:holysheep

[Bret4207]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. So I've been casting for about 6 months now and I have a question about my pot. When I first started (like when I truly began six months ago) I was getting frosty bullets, which my Lyman cast bullet handbook says means you need to lower your temperature.

Lets just start there. Frosty boolits doesn't mean you need to lower your melt temp at all! It means your mould is nice and hot. A boolit with a light, even frosting is fine, in fact is likely filled out more perfectly than the pretty, shiny boolit. If you don't want frosted boolits the answer is very simple- slow you casting rate down! Most people don't cast fast enough to get a frosty boolit and they keep turning the pot temp up and still can't get good fill out. Pot temp, mould temp- two entirely different things! So, if the frost bothers you either slow down a bit so the mould runs cooler or load them and then give them a light swipe with some 4/0 steel wool. The steel wool will give you beautiful, shiny boolits!

As for you pot, see if there is an adjustment for temp. It may have slipped or become loose. I will say though that 10 lbs of alloy is just enough to barely get a a good casting session going. I use a pot that holds over 40 lbs when full and I've seen days I added to it 3 or 4 times. Makes a nice pile of boolits!

[MBTcustom]

:goodpost:
Took the words right out of my mouth, exactly what I was about to write.

[huntincowboy]

Thanks guys! I wasn't really concerned about frosty bullets just saying I was once able to get them and now I can't get a good enough temp to keep the pot melted when I try to warm my mold up. I guess I didn't mention but the pot is cranked to max and will melt alloy until I start sticking a mold in there. I guess I'll try waiting longer after I stick the mold in.

[D Crockett]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. So I've been casting for about 6 months now and I have a question about my pot. When I first started (like when I truly began six months ago) I was getting frosty bullets, which my Lyman cast bullet handbook says means you need to lower your temperature. So I started lowering my temperature and for a while (several casting sessions) I was getting good boolits. I cranked up the ol burner at the beginning of the summer to make more boolits and I sat my mold in the smelt to bring it up to temps. It's a lee aluminum mold and shouldn't take long to bring up to temp, but it was freezing in the smelt and the smelt would turn all semi-liquid. I pulled it out and let it melt again and decided to bring the mold up to heat by pouring. Mistake, I couldn't get lead into the cavity without it freezing on the sprue. I eventually got a few poured but they did not fill out good. Only had 25 or so keepers out of a full 10 lb pot. I think my problem may be that the pot is just not hot enough anymore, but with my lack of experience I don't really know. I've been using the 10 lb Lyman Big Dipper pot to do everything from the WW to the boolit because I only do small batches as I need them for revolver plinking. I can see how maybe the pot has gotten dirty and affected the heat output but I've only made maybe 8 potfuls of smelt.

So I'm thinking maybe the coils have become damaged because I've seen a few threads with pics of the pots broken down to the coils. If this sounds on the right track, I'm thinking about buying a better quality pot or maybe even going the propane route. Any suggestions? I would be wanting to go dual duty with the unit, but if that's not really a good idea I could get set up to smelt for ingots and bullets in different steps. I'm looking for my equipment to last much longer than 7-8 casting sessions.Huntincowboy are you cleaning dirty lead in your pot. if so I belive that is part of your problem. another problem is your pot it is to small I know lots of people use them but they were not designed to cast bullets with I would get a biger pot at the very minum a 20 lb pot .one trick that you might want to know is get a hot plate to heat your moulds on instead of using your pot . another thing is get something else to clean your dirty lead in. such as a steel pot on a turkey fryer. going dual duty with a casting pot is a bad idea I would not do that . just to let you know I have been using my RCBS promelt for about 15 years now and my magma equiptment for about 10 years now and all are still going strong .my RCBS pot is a 20 lb pot and my magma pots are 40 lb pots . D Crockett

[David2011]

Huntincowboy,

Welcome to the addiction and the forum.

You might want to empty your furnace and make sure it's clean, especially if you have smelted your gathered lead in it. A dirty pot will not transfer its full heat into the melt.

Just so we're all using the same words for the same things:
Smelt= refining your collected lead into clean ingots, to be done in a cast iron pot over a Cajun Cooker or similar heat source
Melt= the refined ingots melted in the pot and ready to cast

Keep us posted with your success and trials!

David

[huntincowboy]

You might want to empty your furnace and make sure it's clean, especially if you have smelted your gathered lead in it.

I know it isn't clean it has black crud built up in it. What would be a good way to remove it?

[wallenba]

First, like they have said, keep the pot hot. Second, pick up a cheap hot plate to warm the mold on. That said, each mold you will get, will have it's own personality. Some get too hot between pours. When you get the right rythmn going they don't. When I get one that builds heat, I slow down a bit and for a few seconds, and I leave the mold open to cool a bit. Others, you need to pour again right away to keep the mold temp up.

[waksupi]

How are you fluxing? I see no mention of that.

[huntincowboy]

I am fluxing with straight paraffin

[Bret4207]

Thanks guys! I wasn't really concerned about frosty bullets just saying I was once able to get them and now I can't get a good enough temp to keep the pot melted when I try to warm my mold up. I guess I didn't mention but the pot is cranked to max and will melt alloy until I start sticking a mold in there. I guess I'll try waiting longer after I stick the mold in.

Well yeah, when you stick the mould in the pot it's going to take a while for the temp to come back up. I would expect with a 2 cav iron mould you'd be 6-10 minutes before it comes back to temp and larger moulds take even longer. If that's the issue then your pot may be fine.

[huntincowboy]

It's a two cavity aluminum mold and it's staying frozen well past 10 minutes. I'm going to clean up the pot and see how that helps

[David2011]

I know it isn't clean it has black crud built up in it. What would be a good way to remove it?

It sounds like you've gotten down to the problem. Once it's empty you might try a stainless steel pot scrubber or some very coarse steel wool. I wouldn't use a hand held wire brush- you don't want to scratch the pot. A well broken in wire brush for a drill might be OK, though. Just avoid anything that might scratch the pot and make bad stuff stick better. The cleaner you can get it, the better it will transfer heat to the melt.

David

[10 ga]

Start fluxing with a high rosin sawdust. It'll clean your pot right up. Or any sawdust will due but fir, pine, cedar, best but hardwood better than any other. 10 ga

[GP100man]

Melt in what/how you will(no aluminum pots) , clean the way ya want (don`t inhale the yellow dust) but a good thermometer is $$ well spent.

& WELCOME !!!

[Bret4207]

It's a two cavity aluminum mold and it's staying frozen well past 10 minutes. I'm going to clean up the pot and see how that helps

All right, then heat the pot up and get the alloy melted. Then start scraping the sides and bottom of the pot with DRY stick- paint sticks work good. This is about the best cleaning method I've seen, there's no need to drain the pot and wire brush things. Just keep scraping at the sides and bottom. As the stick chars it is turning to carbon which acts to flux the alloy and the scraping will clean all the "black gunk" off the pot. Don't be afraid to work it around, wear gloves and whatever other PPE you feel is needed. Do this till the sides feel as smooth as they'll get. If the pot is cast and has a rough surface it'll be a different feel than a smooth sided pot. When you get it as clean as it'll get, let the sides alone and just stir the pot for a minute or 2. Then let it rest for a minute. By now your pot should be as clean as it'll get of "crud" and the alloy should be fluxed. Skim the krap off the top. Now try casting. If the melt temp is still low, then go back to my previous post and look for a broken or maladjusted control.

You will likely get scads of dusty debris out of that pot. You will get that with any ferrous pot, my dross dropped by 1/2-2/3 when I went to a stainless pot.

If you are "smelting" raw WW or scrap in your casting pot- stop it! Get something else for that. Even an old sauce pan work fine on a hot plate, but don;t put dirty metal in your casting pot. It's not worth it.

[dromia]

Concur with Bret.

Dry wood is the best flux you can get especially if it is the form of sawdust.

Using a dry stick as described means that you can get all crud that has been forced out of the melt and is trapped against the sides of the pot scraped off, moving and getting to the surface for removal.

[Silver Hand]

Melt in what/how you will(no aluminum pots) , clean the way ya want (don`t inhale the yellow dust) but a good thermometer is $$ well spent.

& WELCOME !!!

Very good point it might be worth a few more words.

From what I understand some aluminum will melt just above the melting point of lead. Using a gas burner to smelt lead, the pot can get much hotter much faster then one may realize. It is very dangerous smelting lead in an aluminum pot.
Never - Never do it.

[huntincowboy]

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't heard that before

[Silver Hand]

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't heard that before

You are welcome, People enjoy the art of shooting in many fashions. One thing we all have in common is safety.
Have fun huntincowboy

[huntincowboy]

So I am looking at getting a seperate setup for smelting. Is a turkey fryer burner money well spent, or would the hot plate be just fine? I kinda need a hot plate either way to warm up the mold with.

Pot (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUS4QI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
Burner (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002913MI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
Hot Plate (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TOBFM2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A2NVEKMQTGKOW8)

[Boyscout]

I just went to a cast iron pot to melt my wheel weights. It is a lot easier to fill my ingot molds with a large ladle. With two Lee ingot molds and a muffin tin I can empty about 20 lbs of clean wheel weight in about 15 minutes. I have been using stick Alox for flux; I will try the saw dust next time. I fill the molds at varying levels to make it easier to get the exact amounts of weight when I am measuring out my lead to alloy.

[huntincowboy]

I linked the stuff I am looking at in the previous post, has anyone had a chance to check it out?

[Bret4207]

I linked the stuff I am looking at in the previous post, has anyone had a chance to check it out?

It all looks good to me.

[GP100man]

Yep , it`s all good & for 25.00 I`ll grind the legs off the pot any day!

[Silver Hand]

So I am looking at getting a seperate setup for smelting. Is a turkey fryer burner money well spent, or would the hot plate be just fine? I kinda need a hot plate either way to warm up the mold with.

Pot (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XUS4QI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
Burner (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002913MI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
Hot Plate (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TOBFM2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A2NVEKMQTGKOW8)

The gas burner in your link is very much like the one I use. I can safely smelt fifty pounds on it. I would suggest not smelting over fifty pounds at a time. The burner legs will start to fold at some point above fifty pounds wile approaching seventy five or more pounds.
I was going to smelt one hundred plus pounds - watching things carefully before turning on the heat! The legs started to move inward and close up well above fifty pounds.
So I made two batches. Very fast way to get lead Flowing. The only problem you will have is not over doing the heat. That lead will hit 1,000 degrees in short order. Don't forget to lower the heat once the pot is fluxed and skimmed. Maybe sooner.