Designing a casting pot.

[stanford]

Since I recently got back into reloading I starting purchasing all new equipment, since I didn't do any casting many years ago I figured this would be a good time to start. After looking at many videos on casting lead into ingots and pouring lead into molds to make boolits I decided to go with the LEE pot. Now to me the pot looks extremely big like a crock pot in the videos I have been looking at. When I ordered my pot and it arrived I though they made a mistake, how could a pot be so tiny, it actually looks like its a toy. I still haven't used my pot yet but I will soon.

Something that has been crossing my mind ever since I purchased my LEE pot is how would someone make a bigger bottom pour pot that will hold something like 100-200 lbs of lead. There are a lot of machinists online here and I know they can probably guide me in the right direction in trying to make an idea become reality. I cut my first 15lb propane tank today and it went well. I used two 10" cutoff blades on my table saw in order to completely cut the tank the way I want it. If this tank had a flat bottom that would be perfect.

Anyway back on task. The propane tank is something like 1/16" in thickness, I don't think its 1/8" Now if this tank can hold a few hundred pounds of lead and not fail, this is just the start.

My idea for a bottom pour pot will be something like this.

1. 1/16"-1/8" thick rounded pipe about 9" in circumference and about 9"-10" in height.
2. Circular piece of pipe for the bottom, welded on the inside and outside then grinded down to make it smooth.
3. In the inside of the pot in one corner will be the hole for the rod to turn off the flow of lead.
3. Also a weighted handle to lift the rod up and down.

Now this is where it gets gloomy for me. In the LEE pot they are using some sort of coiled copper as the heating element, how would someone come up with something like that in order to make it work on a pot that you built. Hook it up to a PID and you are good to go.

I know someone on here has to have done something like this already.

Please share your thoughts....

[GhostHawk]

LOL

I admit, I cheat. I have reclaimed wheel weights, cannonballs for downriggers, big huge ingots of range lead that won't fit in my little Lee pot.

And I did it all with an inexpensive 7" cast iron fry pan and a gas stove. The time I tried it outside on the grill it was slow but it worked.

I recently realised that I needed to have an small ingot casting session, so I grabbed my fry pan, another old pan I use for cooling off skim, my ladle, and my old Saeco 4 place ingot mold.

For lead I used 1 very large, heavy cannonball for a Downrigger. Had a steel loop at the top, one at the back with a big fin. Put it in my pan and wait, and wait. Put in some sprue's I had, some old skimmings that had usable metal left in them. And eventually I started getting lead in my pot. That cannon ball and 3 big ingots of range lead made me 53 ingots that average around 12-14 oz each.

Bright, shiny, hard enough to mark with a thumbnail, but just barely. I'm ready to rock and roll.

Maybe next year or the year after I'll have to do it again.

On the long bar's about 10 or so dippers of hot lead poured in one spot cut them in half very nicely. Then I'd grab the half hanging over the edge and ease it into the pot and go back to filling ingots.

I don't use the nipple on my lyman ladle, just rotate it so the lead can come back out of the hole it just went into. 2 ladle full's per ingot.

Last run I grab the pot with my pliers and just edge it over the ingot mold and tip till that section is about full and move and pour some more.

The best things in life may not be free, but they can be simple.

And lord there is nothing like a whole stack of ingots surrounding my point just waiting to be added. Life is good :)

[NavyVet1959]

Since I recently got back into reloading I starting purchasing all new equipment, since I didn't do any casting many years ago I figured this would be a good time to start. After looking at many videos on casting lead into ingots and pouring lead into molds to make boolits I decided to go with the LEE pot. Now to me the pot looks extremely big like a crock pot in the videos I have been looking at. When I ordered my pot and it arrived I though they made a mistake, how could a pot be so tiny, it actually looks like its a toy. I still haven't used my pot yet but I will soon.

Something that has been crossing my mind ever since I purchased my LEE pot is how would someone make a bigger bottom pour pot that will hold something like 100-200 lbs of lead. There are a lot of machinists online here and I know they can probably guide me in the right direction in trying to make an idea become reality.

You might want to differentiate between a casting pot and a smelting pot. I can see wanting 100-200 lbs of lead in a smelting pot, but that might be a bit too much for a casting pot. Are you planning on casting a few thousand bullets at a single sitting without taking a beer or bathroom break? I will admit that the 20-lb Lee pot is a bit small if you are casting heavy bullets (e.g. 405 gr for a .45-70), but preheating the ingots that you are going to add on a hot plate does help somewhat.

[el34]

You might want to differentiate between a casting pot and a smelting pot. I can see wanting 100-200 lbs of lead in a smelting pot, but that might be a bit too much for a casting pot. Are you planning on casting a few thousand bullets at a single sitting without taking a beer or bathroom break? I will admit that the 20-lb Lee pot is a bit small if you are casting heavy bullets (e.g. 405 gr for a .45-70), but preheating the ingots that you are going to add on a hot plate does help somewhat.

I have to agree.
Smelting 100lb would be cool but possibly a clumsy size for casting. Even casting with a 6 cavity mold it takes a while for me to get the Lee pot low. I throw sprues back in as soon as they're cut. And in a way the need to add ingots and wait for them to melt is a refreshing break- beer and bathroom both. It doesn't take long.

[country gent]

Alot cut a 25 lb propane tank to make a pot they are a nominal 1/8" thickness. How high up determines the amount it will hold. The bottom half makes a very nice dipper pot with the rounded bottom. If you pull the valve its 3/4 pipe threads I believe and a pi[pe set up can be made up 2" close nipple 3/4" a bell reducer to 1/8" or 1/4" pipe ( depending on flow you want) close nipple and elbow then elbow and close nipple The first nipple need to be cut with a counter sink to form a seat. a rod turned up with a stem to hold it in alighnment when openedand matching seat that is of the correct dia to allow lead past it into the nipple to flow thru. This will need to be lapped into each other to seal. a limit to keep from opening to far is a plus also. a ring from the left over tank can be cut to give better support to the pot and raise it for the spoit to clear. Set on a turkey frier stand and a weed burner for heat and your good to go. A propane bottle tourch may be need to initally get the spout to pour.

[country gent]

I cast from a shallow pot made from a propane tank with a ladle It may be 3" deep I cut it an 1" or so above the radious. works great and 3 of us can cast around it. It hold slightly over 100lbs of alloy. With a weed burner to heat it can be ready to cast in 20 mins ( I need to lower the burner a little bit on the modified weed burner to get better heat flow). It works good and allows for a large amount of alloy to be heldfor consistency. We may cast for 4-5 hours 3 of us All are 400+ grain bullets so we go thru lead pretty quick. Makes for an enjoyable day of casting, visiting and lunch afterwards. Being single I perfer to have someone around when working with molten lead just in case. The 2 friends dont have a good place to cast so it works out well for all of us.

[Tazza]

I was going to say the same, who would need that much lead for casting. I cast many thousands with my little lee pot and a 6 cavity mold. I pre-heat my ingots on the ledge of the pot before dropping them in to the melt.

As for smelting, i have a large cast iron pot that i melt in. It can hold quite a bit, but again, why does it need to be a few hundred lbs? You still need the heat to melt the lead, then the heat to keep it molten. When i do batches, i do enough so that two people can get hold if it and pour it out, so it would be 30 or so kg (about 60lb). Not a huge pour, but more than enough really.

[dragonrider]

Here is a photo of mine, mine give you some ideas. It is about 10" O.D. and about 9.5" I.D. 6 or 7 inches deep.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/PaulGauthier/SMELTER/IMG_0155.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/PaulGauthier/media/SMELTER/IMG_0155.jpg.html)

A pic of the bottom.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/PaulGauthier/SMELTER/IMG_0154.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/PaulGauthier/media/SMELTER/IMG_0154.jpg.html)

and an overall with the shelter and table
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/PaulGauthier/SMELTER/IMG_0153.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/PaulGauthier/media/SMELTER/IMG_0153.jpg.html)

[NavyVet1959]

As for smelting, i have a large cast iron pot that i melt in. It can hold quite a bit, but again, why does it need to be a few hundred lbs? You still need the heat to melt the lead, then the heat to keep it molten. When i do batches, i do enough so that two people can get hold if it and pour it out, so it would be 30 or so kg (about 60lb). Not a huge pour, but more than enough really.

Well, it's nice to have a pot large enough to handle all the lead you are going to be smelting at one time since it means that all of it will be the same alloy. I prefer not to spend the time to separate my stick-on wheel weights from the clip-on ones, so whatever alloy I get, I just go with that. Theoretically, I might have a load of wheel weights that have a higher percentage of clip-on ones in one batch and as such I would end up with a softer alloy, but from a practical standpoint, I'm only casting for handgun and lower velocity rifle, so it probably doesn't matter as much.

[el34]

A possible advantage of a smaller pot for casting is the bottom pour option. Mine always has charred flux floating on top and I don't care about keeping it skimmed to dip out of. If I see shiny lead at the surface it signals me to add more wood chips.

[NavyVet1959]

A possible advantage of a smaller pot for casting is the bottom pour option. Mine always has charred flux floating on top and I don't care about keeping it skimmed to dip out of. If I see shiny lead at the surface it signals me to add more wood chips.

I recently tried casting with a ladle and I think it might have even been a bit faster than with the bottom pour pot. The ladle that I made is a stainless steel 1-oz condiment ladle with a 3/32" hole drilled into the bottom, so it's in essence a "bottom pour ladle". These ladles can be picked up at the restaurant supply store for around $1 and a small amount of time with a drill and you've got yourself a bottom pour ladle.

[jmorris]

I made my way into casting after a friend gave me a bunch of 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights. With no way of melting them down I took a section of 3/8" wall pipe and welded a plate to the bottom trunnions to the side and notched the to edge for a section of pipe to pour ingots. Used a 3500 watt oven element wrapped around it and held inplace with a stainless steel band I rigged up. About 15 gallons worth of wheel weights another friend stopped by and said he had a better device for the job that he would give me, so I began the conversion to a bottom pour.

I drilled and tapped the bottom plate and machined a counter sink from the inside. Then machined a 1/4" stainless steel rod to act as a needle in the seat at the bottom of the pot. The oraface plate is just a section of stainless steel bar stock with a slot milled in it on the pot side that diverts the molten lead to the two holes on the mold side.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/caster5.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/caster3.jpg

As it turns out it will hold more than 60 lbs of lead but that's about all I ever put in it.

[M-Tecs]

jmorris - like always very nice!!!!!!!!

[dikman]

Before I bought my melting pots I read a lot of posts, looked at the photos and consequently never thought they looked like crock pots! I knew just what I was getting.

As for a casting pot that would hold 100-200 lbs of lead very few here would ever have need of a monster like that. It's going to take a lot of fuel to get it melted, plus keeping it hot given that casting is a relatively slow process, and if you don't use all the lead that you've melted then you've just wasted a lot of fuel. If you have two or three people using it at once, or have an automated production facility then it might be a viable proposition, but for most of us a Lee or RCBS is more than adequate.

[stanford]

Appreciate all the feedback. I will be casting as soon as I make my 50/50 mix. Hopefully I can stop by NavyVet one of these weekends when he is casting so I can learn the tools of the trade.

When I spoke with el34 he was telling me that I should be able to cast a lot of 230gr in the pot before having to fill it. Maybe I am jumping the gun, once I start casting I will know for sure.

But you know this is Texas, everything is BIG.

[jmorris]

Not sure what "a lot is" but my machine can cast 230's for over 3 hours on one pot full, shy of 2000 of them though.

[NavyVet1959]

Appreciate all the feedback. I will be casting as soon as I make my 50/50 mix. Hopefully I can stop by NavyVet one of these weekends when he is casting so I can learn the tools of the trade.


I prefer to smelt my ingots to just wheel weight to pure lead and then to add the ingots in equal quantities to the Lee casting pot at bullet casting time.

[el34]

I was trying to generate a perspective on the 20lb pot in terms of boolit capacity. I've made 1000's of 230gr 45's with a 6-cav and I never had a sense of "this pot just runs out of lead too fast". And it lasts twice as long doing 120gr 9's. I add an ingot every so often, no biggie.

Assume 16lb to start-

16lb = 112,000 gr
112,000gr = 487 230gr boolits. So maybe roughly every 400 it's time for a short break, and let the mold cool off. Smaller boolits- well you know.

To help a little I use 6-cav molds, cut the sprue and tip the mold so the sprue drops in my gloved hand, and drop it back in the pot. Max heat retention, min pot loss.

[wv109323]

I would think a 30-40 pound casting pot would be big enough for any home caster. No one has mentioned the band heaters that can go around the outside of the pot. It would take a lot of power to keep more than 40 pounds of lead up to casting temperature. I have not seen a homemade casting pot with good outside insulation that was attractive to the eye.