I think I need a bigger lead pot!

[tazman]

I tried the routine with 2 six cavity Lee molds today for the first time.
I made sure I had everything hot and hot started. I had good boolits from the first pour.
Boy does that 10 lb pot run out fast!
I didn't time it but after what seemed like a very short time I was loading ingots in the pot again.
I had just under 1000 boolits in my boolit pail after roughly 1 and 1/2 hours from my first pour. For me that's way fast.
I may need to get one or two 20lb pots to keep up.

[retread]

Do yourself a biggggg favor and get some sprue plates from 338RemUltraMag. I switched over to them and what a difference. His price is great. He also has the sprue levers replace Lee"s that break easily. The aluminum sprue plate the comes with the Lee will start galling a the hinge point real quickly no matter what lube you use. I would make the change to save the 6 banger from galling as soon as possible.

[Beesdad]

I tried the routine with 2 six cavity Lee molds today for the first time.
I made sure I had everything hot and hot started. I had good boolits from the first pour.
Boy does that 10 lb pot run out fast!
I didn't time it but after what seemed like a very short time I was loading ingots in the pot again.
I had just under 1000 boolits in my boolit pail after roughly 1 and 1/2 hours from my first pour. For me that's way fast.
I may need to get one or two 20lb pots to keep up.

I run two Lee 20 lb pots filling three 6 cavity Lee molds and I still run out. We are working in pairs... One pours and the other empties the mold.

We have cast 20 K in the last few months. We have broken only one sprue lever and it was our fault (sprue too cold) and Lee replaced it for free. Bee's wax is used and I have not experienced any galling on any of the molds I have.

[wv109323]

I did not realize how long it took to get the lead temperature back up to casting temp.( when replenishing lead) until I got a PID controller.
If I were you I would get a 20 LB. pot and use the two together. Cast out of the 20 until it needs lead, switch to the 10 while the 20 is getting up to temp.

[tazman]

I did not realize how long it took to get the lead temperature back up to casting temp.( when replenishing lead) until I got a PID controller.
If I were you I would get a 20 LB. pot and use the two together. Cast out of the 20 until it needs lead, switch to the 10 while the 20 is getting up to temp.

Now that makes a lot of sense to me. I'll have to give that some serious consideration. Thanks.

[blikseme300]

Do yourself a biggggg favor and get some sprue plates from 338RemUltraMag. I switched over to them and what a difference. His price is great. He also has the sprue levers replace Lee"s that break easily. The aluminum sprue plate the comes with the Lee will start galling a the hinge point real quickly no matter what lube you use. I would make the change to save the 6 banger from galling as soon as possible.

I must be doing something wrong as I have never had a Lee 6-banger sprue lever break or have the sprue plate gall at the hinge point. This is after many 1,000's of boolits across many calibers. I use synthetic 2-cycle oil for lube and this just plain works. The most common problem people seem to have is not to pre-heat their molds and then to force the sprue lever.

Tazman, you need a bigger pot. I ran into the same problem you encountered and solved it by making a pot that holds 70lbs and is controlled by a PID.

[tazman]

Tazman, you need a bigger pot. I ran into the same problem you encountered and solved it by making a pot that holds 70lbs and is controlled by a PID.

Somehow I think you must be casting much larger boolits than I do. I cast for 9mm and 38/357 currently. It would take me a long time to run through 70 lb of lead even with 2 molds running.

[bangerjim]

Somehow I think you must be casting much larger boolits than I do. I cast for 9mm and 38/357 currently. It would take me a long time to run through 70 lb of lead even with 2 molds running.

Those are small boolits. Try casting 45's in the 255-300gn range! Those eat lead very fast. I keep at least 20# of "spare" ingots sitting on my ingot hotplate to feed the pot. Preheating them to around 550F really speeds up the recharge time.

banger

[blikseme300]

Yes, I do cast boolits in the 230-320gn range from time to time and the larger pot helps to get a high yield per hour as there is no waiting for the melt to get up to temperature after adding more alloy.

Another benefit of the large pot is that it is easier to be consistent in the alloy mix throughout the casting session. Adding to the melter is also easier and repeatable as I have different alloys such as WW's and pure in 5lb ingots and have tin and lino in 1/2lb units. I document which mix works best for rifle or pistol and can recreate it better by adding the same ratios. I actually have 2 x 70lb pots and 1 in 50lb the reason being is that I use different alloy mixes in each.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Not being a bottom pour user/liker, my 40 - 45lb. pot on the old Coleman stove with the Rowel bottom pour ladle just keeps rolling em out.

Enough heat to add the sprews back to the pot or new ingots when needed.

Yes, I know this is old time technology, but it sure works well and there is no shortage of alloy during the process.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[ffries61]

I did not realize how long it took to get the lead temperature back up to casting temp.( when replenishing lead) until I got a PID controller.
If I were you I would get a 20 LB. pot and use the two together. Cast out of the 20 until it needs lead, switch to the 10 while the 20 is getting up to temp.


Now that makes a lot of sense to me. I'll have to give that some serious consideration. Thanks.

or just use the 10lb pot to keep the 20lb'r full, if it'll keep up, I use a 20lb bottom pour to cast and a lee 20 lb melter to keep alloy ready and just ladle into the bottom pour every so often
.

Fred

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Something else you can do with two Lee bottom pour pots:

Build a rack to hold the pots out of aluminum or steel. Mount one pot so it's drip spout pours into the other pot. You'll have to reverse the pot on it's mounting, not a difficult thing to do.

Once you do this, you fill both pots with lead and let them heat up together. At casting temps, cast out of the bottom pot and put cut sprues and add lead to the top pot. When your bottom pot runs low, add already melted lead from the top pot.

[Gunslinger1911]

I have run 2 or 3 Lee 6 bangers with the Lee 20 lb bottom pour. One trick is to run it wide open, and put the sprues back into the pot right as they are cut - 2-300g hot lead - hate to waste that heat ! Add 1/2 lb ingots as temp allows. By the time the lead is too low, I need a break anyway - fill er up and have a smoke ! (Yes, I wash my hands).

Now the RCBS with bigger pot and more juice can pretty much keep up with two 6 bangers (as long as they aren't both 300+g monster slugs)
A thermometer is key to knowing when you can add ingots !!!

[shadowcaster]

Something else you can do with two Lee bottom pour pots:

Build a rack to hold the pots out of aluminum or steel. Mount one pot so it's drip spout pours into the other pot. You'll have to reverse the pot on it's mounting, not a difficult thing to do.

Once you do this, you fill both pots with lead and let them heat up together. At casting temps, cast out of the bottom pot and put cut sprues and add lead to the top pot. When your bottom pot runs low, add already melted lead from the top pot.

It sounds like a lot of work and could be a safety hazard if not done correctly. I run 2 Lee pro 4-20's side by side. Fill them both with ingots and help one of them heat up with a propane torch from the top. While using the 1st one, the other one is full and coming up to temp. When the 1st pot gets low, refill it with ingots. Move over to the 2nd pot which is now full, hot, and ready for more casting. Repeat the process until you are finished.

Shad

[Beesdad]

106625

Two 20 lb. pots side by side and I still have a hard time keeping up with 2 or three 6 bangers.

[David2011]

Recently I spent a few evenings making a good quantity of boolits. I started with the 452374 4 cavity which is like the original .45 ACP ball ammo. I cast about 25 pounds of them and then went to a 175 grain 40 Cal. TC. It's amazing how much faster the 175 grain mold filled compared to the 230 gr. .45. It was more noticeable because I cast them back-to-back. There was enough difference that the casts per minute went from 3 to 4.

I'm seriously considering adding a 10 lb pot to feed molten metal to the RCBS furnace like DaveInFloweryBranchGA suggested.

David

[ghh3rd]

A good friend gave me a 10 lb Lee pot to go with my existing 20 lb pot. I recently cast a pile of boolits, and kept adding a large (2 lb?) ladle full of lead from the 10 lb pot whenever the 20 lb pot started to get low -- worked great!