Ok, Ok, I know you know.

[trixter]

I have read a lot of threads about getting the mold hot before you start, and I had tried them all; except for the hot plate. Yesterday I decided to try that method, but first, i needed a hot plate. OK first a little footwork on the net. Walgreen's had one, so I buzzed over there, nope out of stock, OK Wal-Mart , surely they will have one, but no just a 2 burner; maybe Harbor Freight, no out of stock. Well I am right next door to Fred Meyer, and sure enough they have one. And to boot, it is 20% off. I am not sure that the discount made up for all the gas I used, but the smile on my face was enough.
I get home get the table all set up and fire up the pot, get the mold out, and there is the wait for the pot to heat. When the pot gets to 450, I fire off the new hot plate and on the "e" on medium, it hits 600deg. Good enough. The pot gets to 650 and now the test. I drop lead into 6 holes of my trusty Lee 200gr SWC, count 1001 - 1005, open the sprue plate/cutter (with no effort at all) and drop out 6 perfect boolits. I AM A HAPPY CAMPER!! Repeat, repeat, repeat etc. When I need to reload the pot, I put the mold on the hot plate, and wait for the pot to come back up to temp and away we go, just like I knew what I was doing.

Thank you all of you 'hot plate' affectionados. Now I are one!

Moral to the story........... Go get a Hot Plate!! and use it a lot.

[Walter Laich]

I did pretty much of the same thing (though I found my hot plate on first try)

Now used to getting 'keepers' from the first pour on. Glad I gave this method a try.


w

[13Echo]

I use a hotplate for my molds also. I don't like the uneven heating produced by the coils only touching at intervals on the mold so I folded a bit of steel to make a plate to raise the mold about a quarter inch off the coils and made a small box to partially enclose the mold and hold in the hot air. Much more even heating and less chance of warping the mold.

Jerry Liles

[theperfessor]

+1 for a hotplate. I use it to preheat ingots along with the mold.

Preheating a Lee 6 banger is a good way to keep from snapping off the cam handle on the sprue plate.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Being as I`m old I use an old 2 burner hotplate. I had bought it for $2 at a flea market just to have it. Since it heats up like a mini volcano, built them better back then, I put a 10" square of 1/8" steel on each burner for a more even heat. Well this worked out so well I started pre-heating my lead ingots on one of the plate covered burners. I got so involved with casting at a session that I forgot about the ingots. The mini volcano had lived up to its nickname as I had melted lead, 50/50 alloy plus tin, running off the hotplate and onto my bench enveloping anything in its path. Lesson learned, don`t trust something to keep its cool just because it`s old.Robert