Hot plate

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Will a 2 burner electric hot plate, 1500w provide enough heat for molds, warming ingots, preheat ww's etc?

One side is med heat (750w) and the other side is high heat, 1500w,
with temp adjustable knobs to control the heat selections on each side etc.

Tia,
Don

[Hossfly]

Yes that will do nicely, i have one put a piece of metal on top to Dist heat it will melt ingots tho so watch carefully.

[skeet1]

I guess I must be the cheapest of the cheap but I don't know what the wattage of my hotplate, I just know that I cost me about nothing from Harbor Freight. It works just fine and yes I know that it wont last long but who cares. When I goes bad I'll just get another one.


Ken

[Hossfly]

I found mine in an old horse trailer that had living quarters, was old when i got it, been using it now for about 2 years, its about the same wattage with two knobs for control of each side. One keeps ingots warm other for mold and it gets read hot under neith. Will melt the ingots.

[Grmps]

That's a smart idea keeping the ingots warm on one side

[Mike W1]

Guess I've evolved a bit over the years. Been using Lee 10# pots for probably 40+ years and still like em'. Made warming shelves for mine after a discussion on the old CB-L and could see definite improvements with them. I'm sure some pot designs and shelves are better than others but the best I ever got out of the shelf was about 300° F. Now with PID's and thermocouplers of various vintages I've got a better idea of what's real with my setup. I run a PID controlled 1000W hot plate set at 400°F. In the time (20 min.?) to get up to temp with the pot the mold will be at about 320-340° F as will the ingots. First bullets are good visually and by weight. Never had much luck with a Lee mold till I went the hot plate route and that alone made me a believer. Another thing I'd wondered about and recently measured was how much even a hot ingot could drop pot temperature. Guess I had 6-7 lbs in the pot at 365° C. Dropping a 340° F ingot into the melt dropped the temp to 335° and it took 4-5 minutes to get back up to 365°. In the future will monitor that aspect a little more closely time and temperature wise.

I really believe it's just easier to use a hot plate and PID's and "perhaps" the results are a bit better. Certainly is nice to flip a few switches and achieve a more level set of variables. My plate is closed coils but I use a 1/4" aluminum disc on there. Little block on there is to secure the TC. Plate temperature is consistent across the whole of the disc. So far I've not detected disagreements with the various TC's, PID's and the VOM I also use.
Mama says I love toys anyhow!

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Thanks Guys

One less item I have to update or buy.

Tia,
Don