The hidden cost of Power Coating - your toaster oven

[weeple2000]

I hadn't caught anything on this so I decided to look into it. I have a number of spreadsheets that I put together to figure out how much every aspect of my casting and reloading costs. I try to do what I can to shoot quality components as cheaply as possible. I realized that spreading the cost of ~$20 for a lb of powder over 7-9k boolits makes the cost insignificant on a per boolit basis. But what about running the oven to powder coat them?

I have an energy monitor. I plugged my toaster oven into it to see how much power it uses. It is a smaller model. It uses $0.07 per hour. I have been standing my boolits on their base to bake them. I counted the last batch I did, I had close to 100 boolits on my tray. I figured that I am able to coat 7-9k, a lb of powder's worth, for about $1.63-2.10. Realistically I am probably using closer to $3. It takes time to preheat the oven. I also am losing some efficiency because I only have 2 trays. It takes a little while for a tray fresh out of the oven to cool. About 10 minutes. It also takes me close to 20 minutes to stand 100 boolits on their base using a pliers.

I did try using a wire basket and dumping them on top of each other. I found that to be less efficient as they would stick together and I would have to cull some after breaking them apart.

Figured I'd try a click bait title. Did it work?

[Hick]

My last powder coating batch was 50 every 20 minutes (150 per hour), which, a $0.07 per hour works out to a cost of slightly under $0.0005 per bullet for electricity. This makes the power cost is negligible on a per cartridge basis. This includes preheat, as I run batches of several hundred without turning off the oven, and can get each batch back in the oven in less than 5 minutes after I take a batch out, and I bake for exactly 15 min at 400 F.

[JBinMN]

If "I" were doing what you are describing, putting a "cost" on the little things, I would tell myself that I am overdoing the "bean counting", and I need to just have fun.", and, "Hey... it is your path, so who am I to tell you how to walk it!".
If you like to figure out what everything costs down to the minutia, so be it. Have fun!
;)

Personally, I do not worry about the "how much does it cost" much, as I do the handloading for the enjoyment of it & even just simple math tells me it is less expensive, after the initial investment, to "roll my own", than it is to buy factory made rounds. The time is not factored in , since I am doing something I like to do & do not consider it a "job", where I might feel the need to make $$ for my time.

I like to cook, BBQ, and smoke foods in the smokers. The results are as good or better than any restaurant, in my & others opinion, & it is less expensive than going out to eat those sorts of foods I like to prepare. The cost is minimal and the time is not counted, as compared to what I would have to spend if I ate out. Same idea, in my book, as handloading & shooting. Or any "hobby" type activity where one is getting satisfaction, as well as use, out of what they produce.

So, "Its YOUR party & you can cry if ya want to."....
LOL
;)

Once again, "Have fun!"! & G'Luck!
:)

[Dragonheart]

I have to agree, it's a hobby and I enjoy it. In my last cook I did almost 2500 bullets in my Hamilton Beach Toaster oven, so 7 cents sounds pretty cheap to me. But even if it were 7 dollars when we PC we are actually ending up with jacketed bullets. True they are not equal to a swaged bullet, but still all the benefits of a jacketed bullet.

[randyrat]

I like the idea of breaking cost down, it gives me an idea per round, justification to shoot a lot more, practice more.

BTW.....I did the Low heat method for my Powder coating (industrial) 250 F for 13 minutes, utilizing Parchment paper, no BBs, didn't cull any bullets and they shot great. Some sized before and after, some i just sized after. No leading after about 100 rounds.

More accuracy testing needs to be done yet, but looks very promising

[BNE]

For me to do the accounting down to that level would drive me crazy. I enjoy the whole process. Casting, coating, sizing, cleaning brass, reloading, shooting and even cleaning guns. So it is not really a money per operation thing for me. It’s more of “can I afford “X” to make this more enjoyable?”

[sureYnot]

I keep spreadsheets on every caliber. Takes less than a minute to enter the data on a batch. Unless I'm developing. In which case, I later return to add a link to a pic of the target. For fun, I include a column for $ saved per round, for that recipe. Cost is figured for the components and rounded up. For example, I think my last .223 costed 5.2 cents. I figure that as six cents in the spreadsheet and figure that covers electricity, PC, tumble media... And then some.
I have a formula in the sheets that calculates a running total of money saved. Once that number got bigger than my startup cost, I started buying more stuff. I think the first thing I didn't really need was a brass tumbler. It was awesome. Beautiful brass and no more washing it in the sink.
I keep the total spent on "stuff" lower than the total "saved" and it is a most excellent defensive weapon against the spousal unit. Kind of a fun game in itself.
More stuff currently being shipped. (That I don't really need.) Still plenty of slack in the budget. And a happy wife. Life is good.

Edit: I don't count my time, as it's all fun. Except trimming isn't my favorite. But a Frankford Arsenal case prep center is part of the inbound "stuff". Should be somewhat less tedious than the Lee case gage/drill setup.

[sparkyv]

Figured I'd try a click bait title. Did it work?

Yes it did.

[Walter Laich]

agree with many above: casting and coating is fun and I enjoy it.

Do enjoy trying to find ways to make the tasks easier and faster but that's just me.

to each his own is my thought on this

[weeple2000]

If "I" were doing what you are describing, putting a "cost" on the little things, I would tell myself that I am overdoing the "bean counting", and I need to just have fun.", and, "Hey... it is your path, so who am I to tell you how to walk it!".
If you like to figure out what everything costs down to the minutia, so be it. Have fun!
;)

Personally, I do not worry about the "how much does it cost" much, as I do the handloading for the enjoyment of it & even just simple math tells me it is less expensive, after the initial investment, to "roll my own", than it is to buy factory made rounds. The time is not factored in , since I am doing something I like to do & do not consider it a "job", where I might feel the need to make $$ for my time.

I like to cook, BBQ, and smoke foods in the smokers. The results are as good or better than any restaurant, in my & others opinion, & it is less expensive than going out to eat those sorts of foods I like to prepare. The cost is minimal and the time is not counted, as compared to what I would have to spend if I ate out. Same idea, in my book, as handloading & shooting. Or any "hobby" type activity where one is getting satisfaction, as well as use, out of what they produce.

So, "Its YOUR party & you can cry if ya want to."....
LOL
;)

Once again, "Have fun!"! & G'Luck!
:)

I have heard people say this and I am not saying that you or me is right or wrong. Different strokes for different folks. For me, part of the hobby is detailing the amount I'm saving. If I had to guess, I suspect that I am probably only saving about $10/hr for my labor when casting. But I agree with you that for a hobby I enjoy so much, the amount I'm saving is irrelevant.

[weeple2000]

I keep spreadsheets on every caliber. Takes less than a minute to enter the data on a batch. Unless I'm developing. In which case, I later return to add a link to a pic of the target. For fun, I include a column for $ saved per round, for that recipe. Cost is figured for the components and rounded up. For example, I think my last .223 costed 5.2 cents. I figure that as six cents in the spreadsheet and figure that covers electricity, PC, tumble media... And then some.
I have a formula in the sheets that calculates a running total of money saved. Once that number got bigger than my startup cost, I started buying more stuff. I think the first thing I didn't really need was a brass tumbler. It was awesome. Beautiful brass and no more washing it in the sink.
I keep the total spent on "stuff" lower than the total "saved" and it is a most excellent defensive weapon against the spousal unit. Kind of a fun game in itself.
More stuff currently being shipped. (That I don't really need.) Still plenty of slack in the budget. And a happy wife. Life is good.

Edit: I don't count my time, as it's all fun. Except trimming isn't my favorite. But a Frankford Arsenal case prep center is part of the inbound "stuff". Should be somewhat less tedious than the Lee case gage/drill setup.

This is an interesting idea to track savings over number of loads. I have an idea of how many bullets I have gone through to some degree. I did want to figure out how long it would take me to break even on my casting investment given my projected shooting amount. I don't know that my wife would care one way or the other about the actual cost - she will regardless complain (jokingly?) about buying more "gun stuff". But in general I want to keep my monthly nut as low as possible.

[GregLaROCHE]

Nice to know that that the little ovens don’t cost that much to run. I have always wondered about that, but never took the time to figure it out. It wouldn’t make any difference. I would still keep using mine.

[Willbird]

I heat my work area in the garage with electric heat, so the lead pot and the PC oven run for free any time I am using heat :-).

Bill

[brass410]

I hadn't caught anything on this so I decided to look into it. I have a number of spreadsheets that I put together to figure out how much every aspect of my casting and reloading costs. I try to do what I can to shoot quality components as cheaply as possible. I realized that spreading the cost of ~$20 for a lb of powder over 7-9k boolits makes the cost insignificant on a per boolit basis. But what about running the oven to powder coat them?

I have an energy monitor. I plugged my toaster oven into it to see how much power it uses. It is a smaller model. It uses $0.07 per hour. I have been standing my boolits on their base to bake them. I counted the last batch I did, I had close to 100 boolits on my tray. I figured that I am able to coat 7-9k, a lb of powder's worth, for about $1.63-2.10. Realistically I am probably using closer to $3. It takes time to preheat the oven. I also am losing some efficiency because I only have 2 trays. It takes a little while for a tray fresh out of the oven to cool. About 10 minutes. It also takes me close to 20 minutes to stand 100 boolits on their base using a pliers.

I did try using a wire basket and dumping them on top of each other. I found that to be less efficient as they would stick together and I would have to cull some after breaking them apart.

Figured I'd try a click bait title. Did it work?


yep, I just realized I've been using powder to coat, when I should've been using "power coat" (per click title) no wonder they seemed awfully slow no power coat on them!!!! just had to say it

[weeple2000]

Good catch, not sure I can update the title to fix it though. Freudian slip.

[b2lee]

I don't even want to even entertain the idea of spread sheeting all my costs. 3 Presses, dies, molds, tumblers, tools, dehydrator, case gauges, trays, powder hoppers, trimmers, annealers, primers, powders, bullets, lead, lead pots, oh my...my brain is starting to hurt.

For the amount of money I have in In Line Fabrication stuff...I could probably have bought enough ammo to shoot the rest of my life.

But alas...I'm in it for 1. Accuracy 2. Fun 3. Learning

I think I have about $1500 in 5.56 for 22lr to .224 dies, reloading dies, meplat trimmer, re-pointing die...not including shared expenses of press, Dillon swage, case trimmer, tools, powder, primers....again...my head hurts thinking about it.

[dverna]

I sure wish some of you guys that enjoy casting lived closer to me. You could have a great time casting for me and I would not have to deal with it. To add to your fun, I would give you 150 lbs of 92-6-2 alloy for every 100 lbs of bullets. I would even size them and lube them myself, unless you insisted on having more fun doing that too.

[Starvnhuntr]

As long as I keep track of my gambling debts my wife is happy. I can cast, load, coat, and shoot as much as I want to. Lifes to short.

[RP]

You may want to factor in the the heat from the oven if your in a AC room which would make your AC run more plus the fan sucking the fumes out doors will also increase the cost. But if your in a cold room the heat now is heating the room saving you some more money.
They say the more you shoot the more you save I should be making money by now but it still costing me. Its like going to the store and they say the more you buy the more you save. THATS A TRICK if you really want to save dont buy anything.

[Conditor22]

Who would want to powdercoat their toaster oven?

[Skunk1]

I started out years ago to save on 357 and 45 colt. Shortly after it was just a hobby cost didn’t matter anymore. Bought for more calibers and different hobbies inside this hobby.

[RogerDat]

I would do it for fun and the independence that comes from knowing I can make any ammo I might need from stuff in the "pantry" that said.... knowing what things cost and recording recipes that work or don't work offers another way to enjoy the hobby. How many times have folks discussed how elimination of a step or process worked just as well, or a less expensive source or choice of components? Other times folks will praise the advantages of a piece of equipment that speeds or eases reloading which can bring posts from others with home made or cheaper alternatives aimed at performing the same tasks. People debate (sometimes to death) the higher cost cry once items vs. the budget choice that gets the job done for less. So clearly cost and effectiveness are things we think about.

Collecting solid data so one actually knows costs and benefits seems consistent with all of that activity. As well as consistent with having a better basis for assessing the value of different components and activities. Saving a couple of bucks a pound on powder that requires larger loads might make the powder still a winner or tip it into being more expensive than an alternative. A machine or tool for annealing vs. standing brass in a cake pan of water to hit with a torch. And how many more reloads do I get for the annealing effort in different calibers?

Unless you know the lead goddess (not the evil fairy) there is a cost to the basic component of bullets. I sometimes sell off part of a find to offset my own purchase or recover some of the cash for other uses. It didn't take much math to figure out with what COWW's cost me selling that lead wasn't worth the effort. Printers lead, pewter, or solder are worth packing and shipping but if I hadn't done the calculations I would be hauling 65 lb. boxes of COWW's to the post office for less than 20 cents a pound to cover my considerable labor investment. 65 lbs. of printers lead has enough value to make it worth it. Takes same effort, time, fuel to make that 65 lbs. as it does the COWW's but the value of the alloy is greater.

Oh and then there is knowing the recover point for a piece of equipment. If a 4 cavity mold will cost more than a 2 cavity and the bullets cost X amount less than store bought how many do I need to make to recover the cost of the molds? The cost recovery might not be the only factor, making same number of bullets in half the time has a value too. Still knowing the mold "pays for itself" at 1000 bullets or 5000 bullets is worth knowing. Shotgun reloading is high up front cost with little saving per round. Metallic reloading of large or magnum pistol or large rifle ammo has a much higher return. Might explain why I don't have a shot dripper but do have a supply of H110 and 2400 powder plus a good stash of brass.

[weeple2000]

I am fortunate to have found a forum of shooters, reloaders and casters with a sense of humor.

[RogerDat]

I am fortunate to have found a forum of shooters, reloaders and casters with a sense of humor. You mean because we can suggest saving money reloading without laugh spitting so much coffee on the keyboard that we can't post?

[weeple2000]

You mean because we can suggest saving money reloading without laugh spitting so much coffee on the keyboard that we can't post?

Sorry was referring to earlier posts, not yours. Your thought process is more in line with mine.

[Three44s]

Everyone has some kind of vice or hobby. For me as a fourth generation rancher who loves firearms handloading made sense. Predators want to eat our livestock. They require above average ammunition to kill them. Handloading provides that along with enough economical shooting to enhance my ability to make use of more accurate ammo.

I embarked on this hobby of handloading when I was a “wet behind the ears age” of 19, so I have a good ride thus far with no end in sight.

Now as far as saving money in the strictest sense?

Yes that is do able ... you just get a very basic set up and stick with it. No added tooling, a very few calibers and don’t shoot more rounds than you would have if you were buying all your ammo.

You can take the time to count reloading savings and instead invest it in a vice/hobby that otherwise suits you and see how that stacks up.

Me .... I won’t spend time counting fractions of pennies when I could be racking up cattle eaters or getting prepared to. I added equipment to my loading as my awareness about accuracy and speed of accomplishing my loading tasks evolved.

No regrets and Best regards

Three44s

[OS OK]

Bean counting your hobby? Makes no sense...

what you need to do is justify your hobby and quit with all that spreadsheet stuff...JUST GO BUY A BOX-O-BULLETS...you'll get the point.

[Camper64]

Everyone has some kind of vice or hobby. For me as a fourth generation rancher who loves firearms handloading made sense. Predators want to eat our livestock. They require above average ammunition to kill them. Handloading provides that along with enough economical shooting to enhance my ability to make use of more accurate ammo.

I embarked on this hobby of handloading when I was a “wet behind the ears age” of 19, so I have a good ride thus far with no end in sight.

Now as far as saving money in the strictest sense?

Yes that is do able ... you just get a very basic set up and stick with it. No added tooling, a very few calibers and don’t shoot more rounds than you would have if you were buying all your ammo.

You can take the time to count reloading savings and instead invest it in a vice/hobby that otherwise suits you and see how that stacks up.

Me .... I won’t spend time counting fractions of pennies when I could be racking up cattle eaters or getting prepared to. I added equipment to my loading as my awareness about accuracy and speed of accomplishing my loading tasks evolved.

No regrets and Best regards

Three44s

Sounds like you have a pretty good case for a tax write off.

[coffeeguy]

Bean counting your hobby? Makes no sense...

what you need to do is justify your hobby and quit with all that spreadsheet stuff...JUST GO BUY A BOX-O-BULLETS...you'll get the point.

Amen to that! Reloading doesn't really save me any money; it just lets me shoot more for the same amount of money. Especially compared to the cost if I were to buy my ammo in stores or (gasp!) at the range!

I admit I will do a quick calculation in my head at times when looking at bulk ammo prices, knowing that I can load 50 or 100 rounds for x amount of money, and sometimes at least for jacketed bullets it's becoming a toss-up for some calibers. But by and large, my cost per round with boolits I've cast is still pretty darn good and it's fun when I come across a stash of lead or WW's (non-zinc, that is) at a good price or sometimes free!

[reddog81]

If my shoes cost $50 and I can make 1,000 trips back and forth to the toaster oven, each bake requiring 2 trips, each bake making 300 bullets. How much additional cost should I add per bullet for the wear and tear on my shoes?

[weeple2000]

You are getting exercise now so you're saving on the gym membership.

[fredj338]

I hadn't caught anything on this so I decided to look into it. I have a number of spreadsheets that I put together to figure out how much every aspect of my casting and reloading costs. I try to do what I can to shoot quality components as cheaply as possible. I realized that spreading the cost of ~$20 for a lb of powder over 7-9k boolits makes the cost insignificant on a per boolit basis. But what about running the oven to powder coat them?

I have an energy monitor. I plugged my toaster oven into it to see how much power it uses. It is a smaller model. It uses $0.07 per hour. I have been standing my boolits on their base to bake them. I counted the last batch I did, I had close to 100 boolits on my tray. I figured that I am able to coat 7-9k, a lb of powder's worth, for about $1.63-2.10. Realistically I am probably using closer to $3. It takes time to preheat the oven. I also am losing some efficiency because I only have 2 trays. It takes a little while for a tray fresh out of the oven to cool. About 10 minutes. It also takes me close to 20 minutes to stand 100 boolits on their base using a pliers.

I did try using a wire basket and dumping them on top of each other. I found that to be less efficient as they would stick together and I would have to cull some after breaking them apart.

Figured I'd try a click bait title. Did it work?
Get a bigger oven? I can do 600/9mm a pop in my conv pizza oven. I have no idea how much power it draws, do not really care. IF it was the same 7c an hour, I am getting more than 1200 bullets done for that. 1# of powder will easily do 5-6K bullets, a far greater cost item than the few pennies of elec.

[OS OK]

If my shoes cost $50 and I can make 1,000 trips back and forth to the toaster oven, each bake requiring 2 trips, each bake making 300 bullets. How much additional cost should I add per bullet for the wear and tear on my shoes?

To heck with them shoes...how about the wear and tear on those knees? Knee Doctors ain't cheap either...gotta factor the Doctor.

[randyrat]

Relaxing, enjoyment, honing our hand eye coordination= Priceless!

[Smoke4320]

How about how much the food costs to keep my energy up to make this post

[RP]

Spending time in the shop away from everything PRICELESS Thinking of putting a lock on my shop oh that locks on the inside only lol

[Lloyd Smale]

yup I don't meter the cost of my modem being on all night or how much it cost me per hour to watch tv or build a wood fire to cook over to save electricity or take cold showers to save a few pennys. Ive probably got 3ok worth of loading and casting gear out in the barn and another 10k building the loading room section of the barn. If I factored all the money I have there and in powder primers lead gas checks brass ect I could probably have bought factory ammo and it would have been cheaper in the end. but what fun is that. PC is just a small part of my big picture. Theres advantages to it and if it cost twice as much to heat my oven id still do it.

[Smoke4320]

Weeple2000 ...know we are having some fun at your expense.
Studing the expenses is not a bad idea. Your study just shows the baking expense is very minor

[JBinMN]

I am fortunate to have found a forum of shooters, reloaders and casters with a sense of humor.

And I for one, am glad to see you have a sense of humor as well.

;)


:bigsmyl2:

[sureYnot]

Weeple2000 ...know we are having some fun at your expense.
Studing the expenses is not a bad idea. Your study just shows the baking expense is very minorExactly. And I'm thankful he did it. I can now be sure that my fraction of a penny rounding is covering that cost. Wonder if we can get him to see how much our ten and twenty pound pots are using per hour.....

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

[weeple2000]

Exactly. And I'm thankful he did it. I can now be sure that my fraction of a penny rounding is covering that cost. Wonder if we can get him to see how much our ten and twenty pound pots are using per hour.....

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

I have a Lee 420, hopefully I can cast again this weekend and I'll update.

[weeple2000]

yup I don't meter the cost of my modem being on all night or how much it cost me per hour to watch tv or build a wood fire to cook over to save electricity or take cold showers to save a few pennys. Ive probably got 3ok worth of loading and casting gear out in the barn and another 10k building the loading room section of the barn. If I factored all the money I have there and in powder primers lead gas checks brass ect I could probably have bought factory ammo and it would have been cheaper in the end. but what fun is that. PC is just a small part of my big picture. Theres advantages to it and if it cost twice as much to heat my oven id still do it.

I measured just about everything I had plugged in back when I got the meter. Found out that I could replace my dehumidifier, it would pay for itself in short order, and I would save $250/yr. It did surprise me that it wasn't worth replacing an old fridge however.

[Lloyd Smale]

pretty easy to figure if you know your electric rate. You can either look at the wattage rating on your pot or more accurately use and ampmeter to measure amperage and multiply it by the voltage your using and it will give you the amount of watts your using. Your bill is based on kilowatt hours. that's a charge for how much a 1000 watt hours cost per hour. So if your pot draws a 1000 watts and you run it for an hour you used one kilowatt hour. that is if you pot runs constant. You also have to calculate how much of that hour its actually running. that will very some because it takes less to keep 5lbs hot then it does 10 but it will give you a rough idea. Our utility charges @10 cents a kilowatt hour so if my pot runs steady for one hour at a 1000 watts it costs me 10 cents to do it. factor in the pot is only probably on half the time and its closer to a nickel. But then I have a bad habbit of turning a pot on and letting it heat up and coming back in an hour or two to cast so that would have to be factored in too. Now you also have to factor in the flat rate meter charge of 15 dollars but spread over a month that's pretty minor.

[Lloyd Smale]

biggest draws in your home are water pumps, water heaters and anything with a compressor ie fridge freezer dehumidifier. theres also many things in your home today using power 24/7. Anything with a digital display and your modem, cable or dish box cordless battery tool battery chargers ect. When I was lineman I heard the complaining all the time. Old timers saying there power bills are much more even factoring in cost of living then they used to be. Ive walked a few around there homes and showed them the equipment like these examples that run all the time that didn't exist 20 years ago.
I measured just about everything I had plugged in back when I got the meter. Found out that I could replace my dehumidifier, it would pay for itself in short order, and I would save $250/yr. It did surprise me that it wasn't worth replacing an old fridge however.

[GARD72977]

I wonder what the hidden cost of documenting everything is? If you worked a part time job for the same hours you have spent with spread sheets what would the difference be? Factor in paper, meters, pens and other supplies.

I'm not trolling here just pointing out you are working and have to consider what your times worth?

[weeple2000]

I figure I probably "save" somewhere around $10/hr, maybe, casting. Obviously there is an opportunity cost here - if I wasn't casting, would I be shooting as much? As I mentioned I work in analytics and I am a numbers person. I enjoy trying to see what all of this stuff costs. I like to put numbers on spreadsheets and keep track of things. I don't look at this as work, but an enjoyable hobby. For me it is a way to relieve stress. I have run the numbers, and therapy costs about $250/hr. So you can see I come out pretty far ahead on this one.

If I worked a part time job instead making over $10/hr, I'd have a different problem. I'd have less time to spend on something I enjoy so much.

[weeple2000]

I spent a little over 2 hours casting boolits tonight. I used my energy monitor to see how much it cost to run my Lee 420 pot. I ran my pot about half empty as I feel like that gives me the best results. I continuously heat ingots on top and add to maintain the level. I also leave my pot half empty when I'm done. In order to melt the initial solid lead in the pot, it costs $0.087/hr. I assume the heating element is running nonstop for this. I checked the energy used throughout the whole session at the end. It cost $0.074/hr on average throughout the whole session.

Because some of you will demand the details, I cast using two two cavity molds at the same time. They were the Lee 148 grain TL mold for 38 special, and the Lee 200 grain GC RN mold for 308. I cast about 130 of the 38 special boolits and 192 of the 308 boolits. It was a total 8.24 lbs. There were some culls but those were the ones I kept. I didn't count the culls but there might have been 40 if I had to guess.

[Dragonheart]

If you used 4 cavity molds your production would double and cut the cost in half.

[weeple2000]

Not exactly, it would run the furnace more to melt more lead. I use 6 cavity molds for my high volume rounds. Unfortunate that Lee only does 2 cavity for rifle.

[Dragonheart]

Not exactly, it would run the furnace more to melt more lead. I use 6 cavity molds for my high volume rounds. Unfortunate that Lee only does 2 cavity for rifle.

And if I melt more lead I get more bullets and the entire reason I am there in the first place. When I run two 4 cavity molds I am dropping 20 bullets a minute.

[weeple2000]

I think you are probably right, you'd run the furnace fewer hours for the same production. I was curious how much more efficient a 6 cavity is vs the 2. You'd be saving time opening the mold less often but not when it comes to filling. I'll have to look into that out of curiosity. I suspect it isn't three times as fast.

[robg]

Factory ammo shoots shotgun patterns in my win trapper 357 ,my lead GC loads shoot little groups ,priceless.if you cost your time it probably costs more than factory ,who cares?we do it for pleasure and personal satisfaction.

[Dragonheart]

I think you are probably right, you'd run the furnace fewer hours for the same production. I was curious how much more efficient a 6 cavity is vs the 2. You'd be saving time opening the mold less often but not when it comes to filling. I'll have to look into that out of curiosity. I suspect it isn't three times as fast.

It depends somewhat. I personally don't think there is any method faster than running two 4 cavity iron molds like the H&G or old Saeco molds. They produce beautiful bullets with hardly a visible mold line. Regardless of cavities I set my mold under my Pro Melt on my self made SS mold shelf. The flat plate carries weight of the mold so I just open the valve and push the mold forward in a continuous motion, then close the valve. The amount of additional time it takes sliding the two extra cavities under the running spout wouldn't be worth mentioning. That mold goes to one side of my furnace setting it on a self made SS plate. I retrieve the other mold on the opposite side of the furnace, which was filled and cooling, tap the sprue cutter dropping the sprue to one side in my flat metal pan then tap the mold handle knuckle once and the 4 bullets drop out on the other side of the pan, refill the mold and the process continues until the pot is empty. My cut sprues are in a pile so they go in the pot with more ingots. Using this method I can drop a steady 20 bullets a minute until the pot is empty and end up with approximately 500 9mm bullet from a pot.

My Brass molds also drop well, produce very consistent weight and teriffic looking bullets, but the heavier molds are more fatiguing to use and I tend to slow down somewhat.

Big heavy molds like my old 6 & 10 cavity H&G produce more bullets in a drop, but I find the size & weight of these molds not pleasant to use.

I only have a couple of 6 cavity Lee molds and used them only once when I found the 6 cavities were not uniform they went to the junk box.

[weeple2000]

Yeah I thought that cast iron molds dropped quickest. I want to try shooting these hg 68 clones from a rest, maybe I'll get something where besides Lee eventually.

[Dragonheart]

Yeah I thought that cast iron molds dropped quickest. I want to try shooting these hg 68 clones from a rest, maybe I'll get something where besides Lee eventually.

Why don't you check out Evil Bay, I saw a H&G 4 cavity #68 plain base go for $70 a couple of weeks ago. I already have four 68's, 2 BB & 2PB, so I didn't need another one. You can't do any better as far the mold quality of H&G or the 68 bullet design for the 45 ACP. All the H&G molds originally came with the handles to fit the mold, so pass on those that do not have the handles.

My brass molds drop just fine it is just maneuvering that extra weight of the molds, probably not the problem for younger hands without arthritis.

My problem with Lee is my getting multi cavity molds and the bullets different dimensions and weights. In comparison I have several new manufacture NOE molds brass molds and the 8 bullets out of two identical 4 cavity molds are so close they could all have come out of a single cavity.

To save you some time, here are several Ransom Rest powder coated 45 ACP #68 loads that can group under 1-1/2" at 25 yards. (4.6gr Bullseye, 4.2 gr. Red Dot, 4.6gr. WW231, 5.8 gr. VV-N340, 4.4gr. WST, 4.2gr. Clays)