How long does it take to cast...

[kellyj00]

I'm new to casting, and I'm getting into this in order to save some money. Bullets are getting more expensive every day, and I can't justify buying them any more.

I'm going the direction of a Lee bottom-pour melter for $45 through Midway and a Lee 6 cavity mold for my 45acp rounds. I will get into 9mm later on.

How many rounds can I produce in an hour with a 6 cavity mold? I'm new to the process, so I'm thinking that the lead takes a little while to harden in the mold and you just drop it into a bucket of water so it'll cool the rest of the way. Does the casting stick to the mold?

I've also got a pal who wants 40s&w bullets but doesn't want to go to the trouble to cast, that's ok with me. He's offered $25 per 500 for me to make them. How long will it take to cast 500 bullets with a 20lb furnace, bottom pour spout, 6 cavity lee mold, in garage on a cold winter day?

Thanks!

[Pepe Ray]

San Diego cold or Buffalo NY, cold?

[kellyj00]

Kansas cold. ;) Does it really matter?

you should know though, I've got a friend from Quebec who came down last January, he told me "this place is almost the coldest I've been to!" it was a particularly cool day, about 10 F as the high, cloudy. I asked him where the coldest place was, he said "Manitoba, the wind blows hard up there.... but not as bad as it does here!" We had average wind that day!

Kansas is a pretty nutty state, our winters aren't that cold but the winds blow so consistently and harshly out of the north that the wind chill here can be -40 during the coldest days in the winter. Does that affect the speed of my casting?

[targetshootr]

Once the lead and the mold are at the right temp you could cast 1200 in an hour but your pot may not hold enough for that many so you'd have to wait and melt another potful. Considering the time spent for the whole casting/smelting process, $25 per 500 is giving them away.

[454PB]

A Lee bottom pour for $45? That's a heck of a deal for a 20 pounder. Sounds more like a 10 pounder price. The Lee 20 pound pot actually holds around 17 pounds of WW alloy. That's 517 230 grain boolits.

The size of the pot will slow you down more than the speed of casting. I use two cavity moulds and a 20 pound Lee and can crank out about 400 boolits an hour once the pot is up to temperature. It takes a good 20 to 25 minutes just to get the alloy up to temperature.

[EMC45]

Just feed the pot the ingots and keep a steady rhythm and you will have a pile in no time!

[Pepe Ray]

At 0*F outside, if your casting pot is the only source of heat in an uninsulated room, your casting rate will be reduced by 50%. You'll be troubled by wrinkled boolets as well.
Pepe Ray from mid Maine.

[mooman76]

Make sure you ahve everything ready and at hand. It's hard to get that 6 manger up to temp and once you do you don't want to have to stop to get more lead or something else you need. Keep stoaking that pot as you mould so you don't have to put allot in at once and cool the lead down. If you want speed you also might want to use a cook stove and big cast iron pot using the top pour to keep the heat up.

[Springfield]

With one pot it will be difficult to keep the pot stoked without the temp dropping and the spout will freeze up. I used to use 2 20 pounders and fed one from the other and I could do 800 an hour with 1 six cavity mould. But I like to go for 3 hours at a time.

[Adam10mm]

I can drop about 600-800 an hour.

Remember legally speaking you need an 06FFL to sell ammunition or components like boolits.

[Taylor]

Midsouth Shooters in Tennesse has some good prices on reloading stuff. That's who I do business with. A plus is that they are 20 minutes away for me.

[montana_charlie]

I've also got a pal who wants 40s&w bullets but doesn't want to go to the trouble to cast, that's ok with me. He's offered $25 per 500 for me to make them.
I don't know what an average weight for a .40 S&W bullet should be, but I picked 190 grains. 500 bullets would require over 13 pounds of alloy.
If that was store-bought alloy at $2 per pound, it would cost you $26 for enough to make the bullets...that you then sell for $25.

I would reconsider his offer...
CM

[Adam10mm]

A good bullet for 40 S&W is a Lee 401-175-TC. Drops about 179-180gr with WW. The 40 likes 170-180gr boolits. Still about 13lbs of alloy.

Casting is the quick part. Now you have to size and lube them. About a half hour to drop 500 boolits, twice that time to lube them. So at $25 for two hours of labor is $12.50 per hour. Then take out your cost for lube and alloy. Ain't making much money if at all are ya?

I am in the process of getting licensed to sell boolits and slugs on the local scene and online and the companies that sell for $30/500 have large commercial machines that will smoke the pants off of us hand casters and their lubers will do the same. Plus when you are running machines for 14-15hrs a day, you have the quantity to make it worth while.

For the hand caster, I'd say closer to $35-40/500.

[leftiye]

Iff'n ya have a small pot, then git ya another melting pot an put it on top of a hot plate and melt more as you cast. You can even throw your sprues and rejects in there and melt them as you go. Flux it and then add it to your casting pot. Keep a layer of ground up charcoal on top to keep down oxidation (if you use a bottom pour, then do this on both pots).

[NuJudge]

I can cast 24 bullets per minute for long periods of time when using 6-cavity Lee molds.

Both furnaces are on their maximum power setting, the 20 pound Lee I am casting from and the 10 pound Lee I am melting in. I have 1 pound ingots resting on top of both furnaces preheating. I occasionally slip one into the the 20 pounder as I cast. Slipping in the occasional ingot into the 20 pound furnace will not keep up, so I pour from the 10 pound furnace to fill it occasionally.

Mold spray and Bull Plate mold lube are really important. The mold spray causes the bullets to drop easily. The Bull Plate lube prevents galling of the top of the mold and prevents Lead smears on top of he mold. Do not get the Bull Plate near the cavities. Lube the locator pins on Lee Molds.

I use Brake Cleaner to clean molds before casting, and preheat them by setting them on top of a full furnace.

The water bucket is a 5-gallon plastic bucket.

Do this outside so you do not poison yourself. Do not stand over the furnace to avoid breathing fumes. Use a mold guide if bottom pouring. Do not eat or smoke while casting because of possible Lead ingestion. Change clothes and shower after doing this. Do this when kids and pets are not going to be around to cause distraction or be a nuisance.

[bushka]

just for those who dunt know,casting odd ball shapes,weights and diameters is
where you make out casting.
schuetzen rifles,old euro mil single shots,etc simply because if its not available and you get the lead free,what the hay?

[Forester]

With a 6 cav. 200gr mold and 1 Lee 20lb pot I can run about 1000 per hour. That only works if I cast for several hours though because the first and last hours are significantly less. I am now running 2 20lb pots and that has sped things up some but I don't have a good # estimate yet.

With a Star Sizer you can size about 1200 an hour, lube is so cheap as to not be worth calculating. I use Magma lube on pistol boolits and Thompson Blue Angel on Rifle.

You have to decide what kind of deal to offer in boolits to a friend. I have 2 friends I sell a few thousand a year to and I charge them $20/M for pistol boolits (.358 and .452) and $20/C for rifle boolits (.308 only). Thats a steal for them and a couple cases of beer for me. They also help in the WW scrounging operation so I figure it is worth it to me to keep them interested in that.

[imashooter2]

How fast will a bicycle go? Depends on who's riding it.

2 pours a minute will get you 720 an hour and it's easy to do. After you get the hang of it, you can build speed. When you are starting, concentrate on making all keepers first. It's better to do 2 pours a minute with all keepers than 4 pours a minute with a 25% rejection rate.