Pooped

[btroj]

Spent the last few days running pot after pot of lead to cast up some 9 mm.

That is just over 61 pounds of 125 RN. I better get going, that is going to take some time to coat with Hi-Tek.

Wife isn't as impressed as I was.

[Bzcraig]

DUDE, that's a mountain of 9mm boolits!

[btroj]

I have almost 2 K 45 200 swc cast too.

Sure is nice to have over 1000 pounds of range scrap in ingots.

[dverna]

btroj,

That is one reason I am looking at a Master Caster. It would do that in about 6-7 hours using a two cavity mold.

It would be interesting to see how long it takes you to HT 3400 bullets. Keep us posted.

Don Verna

[btroj]

I spent a total of roughly 30 minutes putting on coat one. I will let em dry overnight and cook tomorrow.

It is hard to say how long it takes, I coat some, spread em out, then go do something else. After 30 min or so I set those aside and repeat.

I will spend much of tomorrow baking bullets but actual time spent is hard to judge, much is down time I will spend cleaning the loading area.

[Bzcraig]

I have almost 2 K 45 200 swc cast too.

Sure is nice to have over 1000 pounds of range scrap in ingots.

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for some lead today!

[williamwaco]

61 POUNDS! I am impressed.

I just finished 33.5 pounds of Lee 358 158 RF today and I thought I was doing great.

[btroj]

I wanted to fill the container but I don't know if it would take the weight when, or if, I picked it up.

I need more brass!

[BNE]

Which mold are you using?

[btroj]

HM2 mould for a 125 RN. Drops fat enough that I could size . 359 if I wanted to.

Nice mould.

[leadman]

When I coat I normally do 60 to 90 pounds at a time. As said not all of the time is coating since I also do other things like clean brass, prime, etc.. 60 pounds usually takes about 3 to 4 hours with my 3 ovens.
I have several Lee 6 cavity molds that I can empty my RCBS #22 pot in a half hour. The guy on the handles is slowing down though and can't work that fast all the time! LOL.

[GaryN]

Hey I'm impressed. The last big batch I did was 55 pounds of 429421. That's less than half as many projectiles.

[olafhardt]

Last batch I did was about 2 pounds. I guess I have a short attention span.

[Jailer]

Last time I went through that much lead in one sitting it was with 2 pots going and a 4 cavity 45-70 mold.

I can't imagine sitting that long pouring that much in 9mm boolits. My back hurts just thinking about it.

[btroj]

Not one sitting. This was over 3 days this week. Three full pots from the RCBS is enough for me.

Goal was to get enough cast, coated, and sized to get me well into next year. I get tired of needing ammo and not having enough bullets ready to go.

[freebullet]

Lol ya gotta talk the wife into casting. You'd only be half as tired.

Btw inbox is full

[btroj]

Yeah, I got a nagging email

[bhn22]

Just think how you'd feel if you had used 4 or 6 cavity iron molds for this project.

[btroj]

A 5 cav Al mould wasn't bad. Steel or iron would be rough. Worst of all is my Mohec 4 cav brass mould for 200 swc for 45 ACP. That mould is a beast. Two pots and I am done.

I will say that the Lee 6 cav is my preferred mould for large volume casting. They are so easy to make run well and the cam lever is quick to use.

[geargnasher]

Amen to the Lee six-bangers, they really crank out the volume and deliver consistent quality boolits if used properly. I love my brass moulds, but for volume designs like the pistol boolits I go with 4-cavity aluminum every time I can. Most of the time I can run three batches through my Lee 20-lb pot (about 12-14 lbs per run due to keeping the alloy level at an optimum for flow) in one sitting and I'm done for about a week.

Looks like you and I are getting to be like Lamar, boolit count measured by the level in a 5-gallon bucket, or how many 5-gallon buckets are full of castings sitting around!

Gear

[btroj]

Took me 5 to 6 hours to bake coat one, recoat, and bake coat two.

They need to be sized and then loaded. Nice thing is I can store them this way for quite a while with no stickiness.

[btroj]

Gear, this is maybe a gallon to 1.5 gallons. I don't even want to think about how many bullets it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Yikes.

[freebullet]

Yeah, I got a nagging email

From the wife about casting fer ya...er the full inbox?

[btroj]

Full inbox. Wife is pretty tolerant. Paul raised her right I suppose.

[dverna]

Took me 5 to 6 hours to bake coat one, recoat, and bake coat two.

They need to be sized and then loaded. Nice thing is I can store them this way for quite a while with no stickiness.

btroj,

I am curious. You have about 5-6 hours in lubing them and still need to size them - say another 3-4 hours. With a Star you would have them all lubed and sized in about 3-4 hours. Does it seem like a worthwhile process?

Would you be kind enough to tell us what you were traditionally lubing with? Machine and lube. I have 10's of thousands of commercial pistol bullets stored and do see a lot of stickiness. But I am gearing up to cast 15,000 .40's and am wondering if I should stay with the Star and a hard lube or give HT a shot. Doubling or tripling the lube/sizing time is a negative though.

Thanks,

Don Verna

[btroj]

I have a Star. I have used numerous different lubes.

My problem is that I find softer, stickier lubes do a better job but they are exactly the lubes that make a mess in bulk storage. I don't have the patience or mindset to stack bullets in neat little rows in a box. Even then lube gets on the sides of the bullets and gets somewhat messy. This stuff allows me to use a bulk storage container and just dump bullets in. I also don't have to worry about letting my heater warm up or adding lube to the reservoir.

I spent that much time, sort of. I bake for 10 minutes. Eight minutes of that is down time, I used it to clean the reloading bench. It wasn't a solid stretch at all. I could have easily used the time to cast or load ammo.

The biggest advantage is cleanliness. The dies stay clean. My hands stay clean. The gun stays clean. None of this is a huge deal but is is nice. My ammo doesn't get lube on the case and it doesn't get all over my hands when I shoot.

Think of it this way. I spent about 30 minutes over a couple hours last night putting on coat one. This morning I spent a couple hours baking bullets and cleaning the bench. Took another 30 minutes to do coat two with down times pent cleaning and eating lunch. Spent he next few hours baking coat two and watching football. I sized a few hundred tonight so I had some to load for tomorrow.

It is sort of like smelting. A brief period of activity with a bunch of down time. Use the downtime to accomplish some others ask and it doesn't seem like that much time.

I don't view this stuff as the end all, be all but it does have some pluses. I plan to spend some time next spring trying it in a few rifles. If I can get good results in rifles I view that as a major plus.

[Hamish]

DUDE, that's a mountain of 9mm boolits!

Three thousand, four hundred and sixteen. Give or take,,,,[smilie=6:

[TXGunNut]

Amazing how quick a pot gets drained when using a multi-cav mould, especially a Lee 6-cav. Keep forgetting to drop in another ingot now and then. I spend my "downtime" here on the forum, loading bench is due for a good straightening-up tho. ;)

[runfiverun]

I see a 40 pound magma pot in your future.....

I finally broke out the HM-2 9mm mold, I was able to cast and lube/size about 2600 of them in an afternoon.
that mold just rattles the boolits out.
it's gonna get trial a run in the 357 lever gun pretty soon.

Don.
I can cast with a 4 cavity mold faster than I can with the master caster [that's why I use a 40 pound pot] I took it off the master caster and built a stand for it.

[btroj]

I really need to look hard at a magma 40 pound pot. Really, really need to look at one.

[paul h]

In the past week I've run 50#'s through the old Saeco pot, ran 10# batches of: Lee 105 swc, 120 gr 35 wadcutter, 359640 hp, 200 gr WFN 358, and H&G 78 45 215gr swc. I didn't mind the casting sessions so much, especially with the Lee 6 cavity 105, but I really need to get a Star as running ~2500 boolits through the 450 is time consuming! I finished sizing the rest of them last night.

Also need to add a Dillon 550 or two to Santa's list for the 38, 357, 45 acp and 45 colt. Wouldn't mind a master caster but figure the Dillon and Start would be big time savers to start out with.

[btroj]

A Star is so much faster than a Lyman or RCBS sizer.

[Leadmelter]

Love my Dillon 550 but guys at the club said I should look at a 650.
Leadmelter
MI

[paul h]

A Star is so much faster than a Lyman or RCBS sizer.

My buddy let me borrow his years ago, I know! When I order one it'll have the air pressure feed and collator, go big or go home. I plan on a pair of 550's, one for small primer rounds, 38, 357 and .223, one for large primers, 45 acp, 45 colt and maybe 480.

But I'm in the process of finding land to build a house and shop so am waiting on getting the shop built before getting the goodies. It's been a long time coming.

[dverna]

Don.
I can cast with a 4 cavity mold faster than I can with the master caster [that's why I use a 40 pound pot] I took it off the master caster and built a stand for it.


r5r,
I like speed for pistol bullets because I use a lot of them. I used to use a 10 cavity H&G but physical issues prevent long sessions with a heavy mold. I had a thread a few days ago "money no object" and have decided to add a PID to my old Lyman for ladle casting rifle bullets (where accuracy is far more important than quantity) and either getting a bottom pour 40 pound or the Master Caster. Still sitting on the fence and I wish I could use a bottom pour to see if I can cast with it for 3-4 hours at a time as that would allow me to use my current multi-cavity molds. The only advantage of the Master Caster is that all I need to do is operate the handle. It is slower, and I am forced into buying a few molds to feed the pistols.

How difficult is it to remove the pot from the Master Caster and then put it back on the Master Caster? That would give me the most flexibility if it is 15 minute job.

Don Verna

[runfiverun]

it's 2 bolts that come in from the bottom.

I made a little stand for the pot [out of some small angle iron] then cut and fit a wood box covered with sheet metal to hold my molds at the height I like.
I push or pull the molds on the box and just let them sit on it for the 5 count, then slightly turn left and open the mold to dump the boolits.
the top of the pot has a piece of 1/2" steel where I warm ingots waiting to go into the pot.
it will easily hold 8-10, 1-lb ingots.
I also use the 2 hole spout which really cuts the fill time down.

for other stuff I keep a 10 and a 20 lb lee on the bench and the wife [usually] uses another master caster we have when she casts.
the lee's are used for soft and harder alloys, to make swaging cores, round balls, single cavity molds, etc.

here is a couple of blurry pics of the set-up you can see how simple it is.
http://s417.photobucket.com/user/_DnA_/media/IMG_0039.jpg.html?sort=3&o=269
http://s417.photobucket.com/user/_DnA_/media/IMG_0038.jpg.html?sort=3&o=270
http://s417.photobucket.com/user/_DnA_/media/IMG_0034.jpg.html?sort=3&o=274

[JeffinNZ]

HM2 mould for a 125 RN. Drops fat enough that I could size . 359 if I wanted to.

Nice mould.

Single cavity? :kidding:

[btroj]

Yep. Single cavity. Odd mould though, it has 5 single cavities in one block. Weird.

[dragon813gt]

It took me two days to cast fifteen pounds of 359640s. I was fighting w/ the leaky pot the entire time. This is the first time it's acted up on me but it was very frustrating. I put the last five pounds of alloy into ingots as I had enough with the pot. The master pot has been calling my name for a long time. But I need a meat grinder more at the moment :(

Now I just need to find an easy way to clean the pot up.

[paul h]

A good way to get most of the crud out of an empty pot is to fill it with water, then plug the pot in until the water boils. Dump the water and crud out, and if there is some tenacious crud use a stainless steel toothbrush to go after it. You might need to lap the tip of the spout, but other than that you should be good to go. There is no risk of the tinsel fairy visiting because when you put ingots into the clean pot, the water will evaporate long before the ingots begin to melt.

Too bad the 359640 was giving you grief, mine amazes me at how easy it is to cast and I keep getting tempted to get a 4 cavity version.

[dragon813gt]

Problem wasn't the mold. It was the leaky pot. It wasn't just a small leak. I thought you just put water in the pot to clean it so I will give it a shot tonight.

[paul h]

I understand the problem was the pot, you spend so much time fiddling with trying to keep the pot from leaking the mold cools off, the bullets come out imperfect, you get frustrated with that, the pot keeps leeking. I can relate to several situations that can frustrate you when casting. Got the t-shirt, and the scars ;)

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Wife isn't as impressed as I was.

What is that like?:mrgreen:

[PalmettoShooter]

"Lol ya gotta talk the wife into casting. You'd only be half as tired. "

If you can make that happen tell me how. I can't even pay people to help me.

[Down South]

I've got to start casting for next years shooting. I do most of my casting in the cooler weather. I need to cast a bunch for my 45's and 9mm's. I usually run a 20lb pot a day, size and lube the next then start over. The cooler weather keeps the lube from making a big mess when mass storing plus I store a lot of boolits in the freezer to keep them from sticking.

[Mal Paso]

and the wife [usually] uses another master caster we have when she casts.


I give up. You Win!