Question about furnaces

[kellyj00]

I'm about to buy a brand new Lee 10 pound bottom pour furnace from Midway to get started into casting.

I have two 45acp 6 cavity molds and some lead I've gotten through the very generous members of this forum. I can never say enough to share my gratitude with those who have given me so much in knowledge as well as materials.

I would like to know you alls opinions about the Lee furnace mentioned above. It's only $41, so I'm not sure if it's good quality. Also, I have no handles on the two 6 cavity molds and I'd like to know if I can use one set between both molds or if I should get two? I'm just beginning, thank you for your patience with my basic questions.

Thanks again.

[bradh]

I cast 44 cal 240gr SWC at drains a Lee 10 pound smelter pretty fast. If you're going to cast
with a six cavity mouls I would go with the 20 pound smelter.

[Rick N Bama]

You can use one set of handles for both molds but if you have some extra cash laying around, I would go ahead & get 2 sets, especially if Midway still has them on sale.

I would also go with the 20# pot, as I think you'll be much happier with it. When you get started casting with the 6 cavity mold, 10# simply would not last long at all.

Rick

[gray wolf]

Two 6 bangers will drive you crazy trying to keep that little pot filled.
I have one (its my only one) and I like it a-lot. It is fine for my 1 and 2 cavity molds.
BUT when I use it with my H&G # 68 4 cavity I spend more time chasing hot lead than I do casting. It's just to small, Remember it does not hold 10#'s. I think mine gets about 7 1/2#'s
to fill it.
With that said I can still cast 500 bullets in about 3 hours. But that is with a trouble free
mold. I have to do tricks to keep the pot filled.
Spend the extra $$ and get the bigger pot you wont regret it.

[GrizzLeeBear]

What the others said, spend just a little more and get the 20 lb. pot. I have the one with 4" clearance under the spout and it works great. With the 6 cavity mold you can empty the 20 lb. pot quickly, refilling a 10 pounder all the time would get old in a hurry. Also, the larger pot is going to be easier to flux and skim in.
You can use one set of handles and switch back and forth, but Midway has them on sale right now, so buy 2 and save!

[mooman76]

ditto

[kellyj00]

Great information! I'll probably go ahead and spring for the 20 pounder. ;)
Here's a really silly question... I have a friend who is interested in the process, would two fellas and two 6 cavity molds be twice as fast as one guy using one 6 cavity mold?

I'm thinking we could basically keep the spout open with two guys running 6 cavity molds, but I have never cast a single bullet so I'm again asking silly questions.

thanks!

[leftiye]

FWIW, I use a coleman stove and melt my next batch in it in a small cast iron pot (Cal Ranch had it in their BBQ section, it's for use with basting sauce). I only have 10 lb furnaces (Lyman and Saeco = same thing. You can get them - the Model 61s off of fleabay) and this keeps me well supplied with hot lead. Also is great for remelting rejects and sprues as you go.

[mooman76]

Kelly
Not really a good idea. You would probubly be bumping into each other and possibly getting a bad burn and even if it did work you would run out of lead quicker and your furnace wouldn't be able to keep up. With the 6x by yourself you would be able to put out something like a thousand in just two hours!

[kellyj00]

thanks for the advice gents.

regarding:
"With the 6x by yourself you would be able to put out something like a thousand in just two hours!"
I would like to reply
"With 1911 magazines being so cheap, we're able to put something like a thousand rounds downrange in half an hour."

;)

[MT Gianni]

Great information! I'll probably go ahead and spring for the 20 pounder. ;)
Here's a really silly question... I have a friend who is interested in the process, would two fellas and two 6 cavity molds be twice as fast as one guy using one 6 cavity mold?

I'm thinking we could basically keep the spout open with two guys running 6 cavity molds, but I have never cast a single bullet so I'm again asking silly questions.

thanks!

If I were to try it, I would have one guy filling molds and the other cutting sprues and emptying. Fill, hold till the sprue changes color then set it down and grab the empty. 2nd guy cuts sprue, empty's mold and adds sprues to the pot or keeps them gathered, whatever you do. It would keep the mold getting things done the same way each time. If you switch off keep the boolits seperate and weigh a few to examinw technique. Gianni

[mooman76]

Ditto what MTG said. You have to keep that pot hot and keep adding as you go so it won't cool the pot down too much at once. Have everything ready to go so you aren't stalling or the mould will cool off and you won't get good bullets.
If you haven't cast before you might want to practice with a smaller mould til you get the hang of it. The 6x can be a little tempermental.

[NuJudge]

Using Lee 6-cavity molds, I cast from a 20 pound Lee. I have the power turned all the way up, and I add a 1 pound ingot when the metal gets down by that much. I'll have the ingot on top of the furnace pre-heating.

I also like to have a second 10 pound furnace melting Lead, and pour from it into the 20 pound furnace I'm casting from. If everything is going well, I get 24 bullets a minute, and if the bullets are big the metal level in the 20 pound furnace drops very quickly.

With Iron single cavity molds, sometimes it works better to alternate between two molds, but it has ever worked for me with 6-cavity aluminum molds. Two persons casting would not seem to be a good idea.

Bullplate Lube for your aluminum mold will prevent galling. Get it.

Some molds I have like graphite spray of some sort. Some do not.

Give some thought to how you are going to handle all those HOT bullets. While hot they are very soft, and in addition to burning you, they ding each other. If I have any kind of decent casting session, I may have 40+ pounds of bullets. After experimenting with a variety of things, I just drop them all in a 5-gallon bucket of water. They come out hard. If I need a softer bullet, I can put them on a sheet of steel in SWMBO's oven (when she's not around).

[montana_charlie]

"With 1911 magazines being so cheap, we're able to put something like a thousand rounds downrange in half an hour."
Uhh...why would anyone do that?
CM

[snuffy]

Definitely get the pro 20 lee pot. The "so called" 10 pounder will drive you nuts with it's constant dripping. The angeled valve rod takes up a lot of room in the already small pot, and it doesn't seal well, hence the dripping problem. My pro 20 is a very nice pot, works well.

I'd like to witness 2 people casting from the same pot. It would be worth a laugh, maybe even a you-tube video!:roll:[smilie=1:

[Swamprat1052]

I use the Lee 20 lb pot and have not had any of the problems folks say they have with the 10 # er. It just works. As far as 2 people casting from one pot, I dont want anyone near me when I'm casting. I have managed to have no accidents when I am alone and dont want to add to the possiblities.

Swamprat

[leftiye]

Yeah, whut snuffy and swamprat said. Plus if you use to six holers, you'll still need a second pot to melt lead to keep up with only one caster casting. Have the other guy inspect boolits (use dissection tweezers to handle the hot boolits).

[deltaenterprizes]

I started with one but I only had a 2 cavity 38 150gr bullet mold,I quickly moved up to a 20 lb pot. With the 6 cavity molds I would start with the 20 pounder.Get the extra handles so you can use both molds at the same time,pouring one while the other sprue hardens and watch the bullets pile up!

[Crash_Corrigan]

When I first started casting some years ago, I had a Lee Six Banger in .358 LSWC. It did not come with handles.

I did not know any better so I cast my boolits without them. True! I wore two pair of leather gloves of different sizes to fit one over another and I learned real quick how hot molds get.

I rigged up a support for the mold so when I poured out lead into the mold I was not holding it. I would let it cool a bit and then pick up the mold and open it and decant the boolts and close it again. HOT HOT HOT.

I then placed the mold under the spout again and let the gloves cool down some and kept on going. After about 500 boolits this got old and and eventually I learned about mold handles!

I welcome help when I am casting. I only use one mold at a time and having a buddy to pick up the hot sprues and put them back into the pot and to add small amounts of ingots to keep up the alloy level is a blessing.

I work on a patio table frame (round 36") with two by fours making a solid base covered with a handy hunk of plywood of about 36" x 18". We work on opposite sides of the table. I cast, open sprue plate and dump boolits into water bucket covered with styrofoam peanuts (keeps splashing down) and then cast again.

I bend to the right to dump boolits. He on the other side of the 18" deep table rounds up the hot sprues and recants them into the Lee 4-20 furnace. He also keep monitoring the temp of the alloy with a thermometer and adds ingots as needed to keep up the level.

By the two of us working together I am able to at least double my production and I get a really good quality boolit. I do not have to stop and mess with the sprues nor add ingots to the pot. The alloy temperature is kept at a constant level as when it drops too much he tells me to slow down a bit as the mix is too cool.

When working alone I would empty a 4-20 in 15 minutes and then have to wait for another 20 for the mix to reach casting temperature. My rythem never got going. It was stop and start.......

On the con side my buddy begged to cast some and we swapped places. He loved it and went out and bought a Ruger BH .45 LC and he wants to keep some boolits. I agree but he must also scrounge up some WW's.

We both wear leather gloves, long pants and shirts, safety glasses and ankle hight leather boots with the pants outside of the shoes. Nobody had even gotten a near burn this way.

We are sharing the fun and work and it makes for a good arrangement. Just make up some ground rules and follow them to prevent a dance around a spilled pile of molten leatd.

[kellyj00]

Thanks again for all the advice!
another concern comes to mind. I'm figuring a pound of lead is 7000 grains, and I'm casting 230 grain 45acp bullets, so I should be able to get about 600 bullets out of 20 lbs of lead, right?

Is my 7000 grain amount accurate and am I not accounting for waste of the material somewhere?

[MT Gianni]

You will have some slight loss but that should be close. The sprues will flake or break occasionally and some bullets will not be keepers but that just means they get remelted. Gianni

[TAWILDCATT]

your right on numbers,so you see how fast the 10lb would empty.

[Ricochet]

And that assumes you're returning the sprues to the pot as you cast.