Potter #11 press?

[mikenbarb]

Anyone heard of one of these presses? I got one of these also with the lot I just bought from an oldtimer and it looks pretty neat for an old machine. He even has the original reciept for it and he bought it on 6-13-1941.LOL. This guy saved everything!(Im happy about that)

[mold maker]

I bid on a Potter ingot mold to use as a way to id alloy. It sold at a collector price, so I took a Lyman and ground the name out for the same purpose. I also grind the rough inner surface for easier drop out.
I aint tight, I'm thrifty.

[Bret4207]

Potter was a major player back in the day out of the Syracuse area of NY State. Our own KLW (Kenneth Walters) wrote an excellent article some years back entitled, "Don't pass up a Potter" that was in a Handloaders Digest IIRC. Maybe Ken could provide more insight.

[Charley]

Only place I've seen any Potter stuff is in Phil Sharpe's Complete Guide to Handloading, later edition published in the '50s. Apparently Potter had a pretty extensive line of tools.

[mikenbarb]

I have one of their original price sheets from the early 50's and they made some pretty nice stuff and im fortunate enough to have gotten a couple near perfect pieces of their equipment in the one lot I just bought.

[TAWILDCATT]

I have a potter melting pot,and we had a potter press for 38s at my club I sold the press to a collecter and bought two BAIR presses.they are still in use.
the the potters were popular before WW2.has yours got the built in powder measure??took from WW2 to the 70s to get a compare able tool.:coffee:[smilie=1:

[Cactus Farmer]

My first melting pot was a Potter bottom pour, about 5 lb capacity......bought used in 1962? I was a kid casting for my Dads M-1 carbine......hungry little devil. Still have it too,no thermostat,on and off,or more correctly,plugged in or not.

As it does get hotter than needed for alloy work I now reserve it for pure lead and my frount stuffers..I still have my first mold too,31133. It wouldn't feed very well so I got a double cavity 311359. Now I was cookin'.........[smilie=s:

[mikenbarb]

Cactus, I got that one also with this lot and it had that one heat thermostat and what I did was take one for an older BBQ grill and slap it on and it works great and allows you to regulate the heat good. It has to be one for an appliance that has a broil setting or it wont allow enough wattage to melt the lead. Im trying to figure out the camera thing and when I do I will post some pics of the stuff.

[klw]

Potter was a major player back in the day out of the Syracuse area of NY State. Our own KLW (Kenneth Walters) wrote an excellent article some years back entitled, "Don't pass up a Potter" that was in a Handloaders Digest IIRC. Maybe Ken could provide more insight.

That was a LONG time ago. I had a nearly complete collection that I sold in the mid-90's to Ron Peterson of Ron Peterson Guns of Albuquerque. He still has some of that stuff, a lifetime collection of reloading equipment, books, etc.

I tracked down the Potter family and got the history from them. I've forgotten the details but virtually everything I ever knew I put into that article.

The Potters were fun presses. Kind of wish I had kept one. You see them occasionally on E-Bay.

[TAWILDCATT]

I have a potter pot and had press in club.Potter engineering of calif then to florida.
I talked to them in florida.the only trouble with potter press is the dies go in from the bottom and are different thread.I wanted carbide and took a regular die and threaded the top part. :coffee:[smilie=1: