Ladel casting

[RedHawk357Mag]

Just wanted to share what has really been working great for me in casting. I recently purchased a second cast iron serving pot in the photo. It's a 2 quart pot from Amazon for about 32 dollars to my door. I bought the second one so I could switch easily between the two alloys I normally use. This pot works so much better than anything else I have tried. The normal Dutch oven is a lot wider and holds a lot more alloy but the ladle can't seem to get very close to the bottom as the level drops. With nearly 40 lbs of lead I don't seem to have much issue of temperature fluctuating. With the Rowell #1 I can pour lots of heat to the mold so I can run the alloy at a cooler temperature and still get superb fill out. The Lyman in the picture isn't as nearly as effective at getting heat into the mold. Just thought I'd share what I have found. 165515

[ncbearman]

Good stuff Redhawk. Are you strictly ladle casting or do you have bottom pours also?

[country gent]

I have cast over a big pot with the ladle for years when running 2 cavity 550 grn bullets it takes alot of lead to make a run. I perfer my rcbs ladles for casting. Ive opened the spouts up to .210 dia and they fill these big cavites quick. One trick if your pot is flat bottomed is to block one side up on 1" - 2" spacer bar this puts the bottom at an angle and allows you to fill ladle from the lower corner of the pot.

[RedHawk357Mag]

Started bottom pour with Lee equipment. But had way too many culls due to less than razor sharp bases. My hypothesis is misaligned pours due to location of pour spout and difficulty seeing sprue hole. Changed height of melter but never found a workable solution that was comfortable. If you ask me the location of Lee's spout is a much bigger issue for me than the ol drippy pot. Tried ladleing, rejected bullets went way down but had grief with depth of alloy using cast iron skillets. 5 qt Dutch oven was too much surface area and really too much alloy to be fooling with. The Lee is still out with a PID heat control, just not used.

[RedHawk357Mag]

That's a good tip about tipping the skillet. Biggest I pour is a smidgen under 280 grns. I really think being able to actually see my sprue hole helped tremendously. Being able to lower alloy temperature helped reduce drossing of tin. And Rowell really helps in keeping the mold temperature in the sweet range with cooler alloy. And all this together allows me a leisurely pace to cast bullets. With the Lee and tiny 38 caliber waddcutter bullets in a four cavity aluminum mold I looked like a cat trying to cover poo keeping that mold temperature usable.

[ascast]

Redhawk, I have used a similar set up for many years. If you tip the edge up, be extra careful. It may slip, slid and spill. Also, I put bricks around the pot to help hold in the heat. It helps a lot when the pot is tipped up a bit.
I also use the RCBS dipper and opened up the spout.

[country gent]

I dont set the one edge of the pot on a narrow short bar the bar is long and wide almost square actually and sticks out on both side of the pot. This gives a pretty solid 3 point bearing. The idea of bricks or a ring around to hold heat in is a good one also. My current pot is a cut down propane cylinder with the rounded bottom so I can dip with the rcbs ladle down to about 4-5 lbs left. Working with the rowel ladle not only allows the sprue hole to be seen but it has one of the biggest spouts in the industry also. increasing pour volumne considerably. I wish they made on in 1/2 size of about 1/2 lb of material.

[RedHawk357Mag]

I use a cut down Propane container for rendering ingots. I use a banjo cooker for that which is considerably lower than my casting cooker. The two quart serving bowl is about three inches high and in the picture is about 3/4 of an inch from the top. Sitting square on the burner it allows me to get a good amount of bullets cast before refilling with lead. I would say I get pretty efficient fuel economy as the burner flame is just a smidge bigger than the serving pot. That banjo burner on the other hand sounds like a jet engine but it melts lead lickity split. The Rowell can be a beast but it makes maintaining mold temps so much easier. I have attached a corner bracket on the burner that functions as a mold pedestal which helps a bunch with steel and brass four cavities. While cheaper methods abound out there I know these things have certainly made this hobby way more enjoyable and more efficient in time and fuel expenditures to more quality bullets. But I will hazard a guess that I will miss the less environmental heat of the bottom pour pot later this summer.