Why buy all this when you can just buy a Cast Master and be done?

[KohlerK91]

Just starting convsersation here. Its ok to disaggre with me.

I have read a bunch of threads about casting enthusists(myself included) that have turkey fryers($20 flea market) with propane($20) and dutch over($20), a bottom pour pot (RCBS($300+, Lyman?) with a PID controller ($200 ).

I am thinking that by time you all that up you could just buy a Magma Cast master 90 pound pot and do it all.($525) No it doesnt have a digital thermostat but do you really need that. Assuming you had 220V outlet available. You can Smelt wheel weights, pour ingots, use the bottom pour to cast or dip out of the top with a ladle. The larger capacity itself will help to maintain a constant temp as long as you arent putting 20 pound ingots in the melt.

And I think the cost to smelt wheel weights all day is less than what propane costs.

Gotta go eat dinner................

[fishhawk]

Nope not smelting the WW in the same pot I cast the boolits from for me!

[Whiterabbit]

yep, that's kinda the long and the short of it. That leaves your $500 RCBS (plus PID) to compare to the master caster @ 25 bucks more. But my leadpot cost $50 retail, so I'm kinda up $475 by my book.

[starmac]

I wouldn't compare it to a smelting pot, and sure wouldn't use it foe a do it all. Most folks (at least nearly every body that I know) already has a fish fryer/ turkey frier so that leaves the pot which is free to what ever you want to spend for a smelting setup. That leaves the master caster pot compared to your casting pot, which again is pretty much what a guy wants to spend, from a 20 dollar lead pot to the cadillac master caster setup, they will all get the job done in the end the only difference is time and money.

[blikseme300]

Bad Ju-Ju to render WW's in the pot you use to cast boolits especially if it is a bottom pour. Don't do it!

[KohlerK91]

Bad Ju-Ju to render WW's in the pot you use to cast boolits especially if it is a bottom pour. Don't do it!


I have done it before in a lee and an RCBS bottom pour. Just flux and scrape the bottom of the pot and the garbage comes to the top.

The only time I can remeber having problems with the bottom pour was with it freezing up.


Wheres the "bad ju-ju" in that?

[Guesser]

I enjoy casting, always have. I especially like my older SC Ideal molds. I use a couple 10# bottom pour and an old Saeco #24. A turkey fryer et al for refining. I sold my progressive press too, because I enjoy my single station presses. I like doing it 100% my way. Can't do that with automation.

[jmort]

Makes sense except for smelting as noted. I guess, you just get what you can and move forward from there. Got a $50.00 Lee Precision Magma Melter and a $200 PID so I'm half way there. Probably will have $250.00 in my smelting set-up, (most of it in the Blichmann Engineering burner) but both set-ups are for dedicated operations. So I guess I could have got a Magma Engineering pot after all.

[KohlerK91]

Can't do that with automation.


The Cast Master is not automated. Just a big bottom pour pot.


87506[

[paul h]

Smelting is a filthy, stinky opperation. You will get bits of dross, lead and gunk all over your smelting equipment. I have done it on occasion when I'm out of ingots and need/want to bang out some bullets from my bottom pour.That said, it's much more enjoyable to have a pile of nicely fluxed ingots next to your furnace for casting, and leave the crud outside with the smelting equipment.

That logic to is akin to building a bathroom and getting a marble sink and no toilet, figuring you can just pee in the sink.

[ReloaderFred]

The Master Pot isn't the Master Caster. For one thing, the Master Pot is $575.00 for the bottom pour pot, which is designed for smelting. The Master Caster is the casting machine, and it's $995.00. These are both new prices, of course.

http://www.magmaengineering.com/products/masterpot/

http://www.magmaengineering.com/products/master-caster/

I have both. In fact, I have two Master Casters, and a Master Pot. It's simple to smelt in the Master Pot outdoors and make your ingots to feed the Master Casters.

I think most of the posters in this thread are confusing the two.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[DHC]

Smelting is a filthy, stinky opperation. You will get bits of dross, lead and gunk all over your smelting equipment. I have done it on occasion when I'm out of ingots and need/want to bang out some bullets from my bottom pour.That said, it's much more enjoyable to have a pile of nicely fluxed ingots next to your furnace for casting, and leave the crud outside with the smelting equipment.

That logic to is akin to building a bathroom and getting a marble sink and no toilet, figuring you can just pee in the sink.

And, for the record, Magma states that people should NOT be smelting in their casting pot (reference their video for the Cast Master). Their Cast Master, however, is specifically designed for initial smelting, including wheel weights. Its 90 pound capacity is approximately what my propane-fired cast iron pot accommodates. While I did not spend as much for my smelting setup, I'd give serious consideration to the Magma pot if I'd known then what I know now.

FWIW

[KohlerK91]

leave the crud outside with the smelting equipment.


I didnt think of that because I smelt and cast outside. At least under the drip edge by the garage.

[KohlerK91]

I think most of the posters in this thread are confusing the two.




1 Master Caster Semi auto manual crank casting 40 lb pot

2 Master Pot 40 bottom pour (looks to be the same as the pot on the Master caster with a different base

3 Cast Master 90 pound bottom pour

4 Bullet Master Automatic with 8 moulds

All are different.

[dragon813gt]

Please let me know where the mythical $20 Dutch Ovens are. They are nonexistent by me. A lot of the tools I use have multiple purposes. I use the propane burner for canning and cooking large pots(like corn) when grilling so I don't heat up the kitchen. The propane tank gets used in my grill and I have some construction heaters that will run on it of need be. I use my PID to control an electric smoker for precise control. I plan to eventually use it for Sous Vide cooking. My 20# Lee pot is economical. And while the dutch oven I use wasn't $20. It didn't break the bank either. Plenty of people use old propane tanks instead of cast iron pots. I spent way less than $525 for "strictly casting" items which is what a Cast Master would be.

[beex215]

just buy an automatic bullet caster and connect it to an automatic progressive press. you'll make tons of ammo with no effort. its only a few thousand to put together.

[Mk42gunner]

One big reason I see is that a lot of people are curious about casting; but aren't sure they will like it, so there is no way they are going to spend $500.00 + before they even get a boolit mold.

I started with a small pot on a Coleman stove that I already had. With the cost of the pot, a small SS ladle that I bent into a lead dipper, a Lee mold and a bag of shot, I was out less than fifty dollars if I didn't like it.

Of course then I found Shooters.com and things took off from there.

Not everybody has up to a thousand dollars to start a new hobby to see if they like it or not.

Robert

[dtknowles]

Yeah, I expect that a lot of us started small and then things got out of control :-) I started with a small cast iron pot, a ladle, a bunch of wheelweights, a box of gas checks, a few sticks of lube and a Lyman luberisizer. I was 15 and used my mother's stove. Those bullets were as good as most of the bullets I make today. I don't have a PID but I did buy an electric pot and a thermometer. I almost never put the thermometer in the pot, I just know my pot after so many years and bullets. I don't have a smelting set up but I don't smelt much the little old cast iron pot (you know the one, flat bottom, almost as tall as its diameter, maybe holds 5 pounds) I do some range scrap and whatever wheelweights or other clean scrap I come by. I have traded for a fair amount of clean ingots and know where I can buy lead at a good price. I don't have a lot of equipment but buy what you like because you will be happier using it and good equipment is not going to lose value fast, sometimes it even appreciates.

Tim

[454PB]

To really save some money, you could always do this:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?10127-1-Lead-Smelter

[dikman]

Smelting range scrap, as has been pointed out, is a smelly, messy, grubby job (at least it is the way I do it, and with the scrap I get). So far all it's cost me is for the coke I burn, which I buy anyway for my forge, and a bit of time making everything. The propane tank pot is great - simple and pretty bullet-proof. While I spent a lot on the RCBS for casting, keeping things cheap and simple is, imo, the best way for smelting.

And I'd hate to think of the electric bill if I used an electric unit for smelting!

[6bg6ga]

I melt WW in one pot and make ingots. When I get time I use these CLEAN ingots and cast bullets. Its not bright to melt down WW in the same pot your going to cast out of.

[paul h]

A smelting setup doesn't nead to be big bucks. I use a $1 ss pot I got from a thrift store, it'll hold 40#'s of ww's and I use a coleman white gas stove to heat it, which was maybe $40. An old kitchen spoon to scrape off the dross and clips. The ladel and ingot molds were traded into. I could setup the pot on a steel grill over the fire pit, that would be near free for fueling it.

I'd say put the $ into a good bottom pour furnace and molds. Unless you're planning on smelting thousands of pounds of lead a year I can't see a benefit in putting big dollars into your smelting setup. Heck, if you save $200-300 on your smelting setup, you could order 200-300 pounds of fluxed ingots shipped to your door and have the time you'll save smelting to cast bullets.

[dtknowles]

I melt WW in one pot and make ingots. When I get time I use these CLEAN ingots and cast bullets. Its not bright to melt down WW in the same pot your going to cast out of.

Depends, most of the wheelweights I melt are as clean as ingots just have a steel clip no mess. I sometimes fill my casting pot with sprue, rejects and maybe a few wheelweights if I have them. I think would be better to say don't put trash or dirt in your casting pot.

Tim

[oldgeezershooter]

Dang! I guess I will just go buy some bullets!