Keeping a Lee 10lbs’er topped off

[Joel Chavez]

So, currently I have a Lee 10lbs’er that’s going on 15yrs strong. Just this past weekend I started bottom pouring with it(Thanks to Lee Precision for the parts needed), but now I’m having to stop casting after about 200 boolits cuz my pot gets very low on Pb. It takes a bit of time to get it back up to temp after adding more ingots. Do you gents with the 10lbs’ers keep a side pot with molten Pb to top off the 10lbs’er? I know going to a 20lbes’er would slice this, but at the current prices I’ve seen(upwards of $150) that’s out of the question.

[AndyC]

I keep spare 1-lb ingots by the pot - heating one ingot on the rim at a time before sliding it in. I don't let the pot get close to half-empty as it takes too long for 5 lbs of lead to get back up to temp again, so I try to add an ingot every 5 or 6 cycles of my mold, depending.

[Joel Chavez]

I keep spare 1-lb ingots by the pot - heating one ingot on the rim at a time before sliding it in.

Now why didn’t I think of that......... Man, getting old(er) stinks lol.

[AndyC]

It's always the simple things that elude us :drinks:

[Bazoo]

When I ran a 10 pounder, I'd stack 3 ingots around the rim. I have stacked a couple on my magnum melter but since I pour over the pot, they get in the way.

[Hossfly]

I keep mine on a hot plate set @ around 400’ but you need to check the temp often, i had some got real soft and a lot harder to pick up LOL

[onelight]

Midway will accept a back order on a Lee 20lb pot if I needed one I would place the order 96.99 with them or another vender . And just get by with the 10lb pot until yours comes in.
I know how you feel I tried to feed a 4 cavity 44 Keith bullet mold with a 10lb pot and all my time was spent waiting for it to heat back up , gets a bit frustrating .

[Joel Chavez]

Midway will accept a back order on a Lee 20lb pot if I needed one I would place the order 96.99 with them or another vender . And just get by with the 10lb pot until yours comes in.
I know how you feel I tried to feed a 4 cavity 44 Keith bullet mold with a 10lb pot and all my time was spent waiting for it to heat back up , gets a bit frustrating .

Yeah, I was running’ and gunnin’ using a 9mm 6cav Lee mould and within 30 mins of casting my 10lbs’er was waaaay low on Pd. Gonna get me a hot plate to help warm up ingots and speed up the process of heating up the mould too.

[Joel Chavez]

Midway will accept a back order on a Lee 20lb pot if I needed one I would place the order 96.99 with them or another vender . And just get by with the 10lb pot until yours comes in.
I know how you feel I tried to feed a 4 cavity 44 Keith bullet mold with a 10lb pot and all my time was spent waiting for it to heat back up , gets a bit frustrating .

I recall seeing the 20lbs’ers for $68 before the “Madness”. eBay has them for $200+ hahahaha. Not me sucker, not me. I’ll hold off until either prices come down or I make my own. I have an idea in my head just need to put it in Autocad to see how it looks “on paper”.

[imashooter2]

I keep spare 1-lb ingots by the pot - heating one ingot on the rim at a time before sliding it in. I don't let the pot get close to half-empty as it takes too long for 5 lbs of lead to get back up to temp again, so I try to add an ingot every 5 or 6 cycles of my mold, depending.

I keep 2 ingots on the rim, sliding them in alternating back and forth and replacing as required. Let’s them get a little hotter and keeps the temperature even more uniform.

That said, it’s hard to keep the Lee 10 pounder at temperature running 6 cavity molds and heavyweights make it about impossible.

[onelight]

A really small stainless sauce pan on your hot plate might melt or preheat an ingot at a time to top off with.

[dddddmorgan]

My .02, I have a couple of small (think probably 5 lbs) round cast iron pots and I'll put one on my little hot plate and since I have a Lyman thermometer I get both to the same temp and will keep my Lee pot topped off this way.

Works good for me especially when I'm running my 6 cavity mold.

[Mike W1]

When money's a little short my system sure isn't going to be of any help to you. I use 2@ 10's stacked to feed the lower one. The hot plate that maintains/warms my moulds to casting temperature also preheats the ingots. Every thing is all PID controlled so 1st bullets out are good. Only down time is refilling the lower pot from above with HOT alloy. Might take 2 minutes depending on how low I let the lower pot get. No temperature drop at all this way. A hot plate for your moulds and ingots would probably be your best solution and you may melt an ingot on occasion till you get the setting right.

[Targa]

Great ideas here, I love my 10lb and probably use it more than my 20lb due to most of my casting sessions being shorter with only about 300 bullets cast, but it does get frustrating with multiple cavity 200 plus grain molds. By the time you are in the sweet spot you have to stop and wait for the pot to heat back up after filling it.
Now I pretty much just use the 10lbr for aluminum molds that cast well within a pour or two and are nice and light to use without a mold guide. The brass and iron molds get the 20lb pot with the mold guide and a longer casting session in my.

[243winxb]

At age 76, i need the break between pots.

[Murphy]

A budget (doesn't that sound so much better than cheap?) electric single burner hot plate from The Dollar Store, flea market or yard sale sure has been a time saver for me. Once I've filled my casting pot up, while waiting for it to get to temp, I place my mold to preheat on the hot plate. Usually, within 3-4 fills of the mold I'm off and running.

I've acquired several casting pots down through time. My latest several years back being an RCBS ProMelt. I have a LEE 10 Lb bottom pour I honestly don't know how long I've had. Once I moved up to the LEE 20 Lb bottom pours, I started tossing my sprue into the 10 Lb pot to pre-melt. Once I moved up to the RCBS pot, I started using the LEE 20 pot for sprues. Once my RCBS is low enough (or I decide I want a break) I dawn a pair of welding gloves and pour the smelted sprues into the RCBS pot. While all of this is going on, I place my mold on the hot plate to keep it up to temp. I also keep a metal plate handy to set ingots on hot plate for preheating before adding them to the main pot. Another plus in preheating ingots that is a comfort to me, it pretty much insures any moisture (I live in a very humid area) is gone. Good luck on finding your solution.

Murphy

[robg]

i throw the sprews back in the pot every 10 mins or so and top up when pot gets to half way.

[44magLeo]

When running two pots, instead of stacking them couldn't thery be set side by side. When one pot gets low fill with ingots and switch pots.
Leo

[BamaNapper]

I run the pot down and load it up with ingots. While it's coming back up to temp I inspect again and set the boolits aside to cool. Then I PC and shake the previous pot worth (in 2 batches), dump them onto hardware cloth trays, and put the first in the oven. By then the pot's usually back up to temp. Back to casting. I take a 60 second break mid-pot to pull the tray from the oven and replace it with the second batch that was sitting ready. At the end of the afternoon I can relax, grab a beer and sit down at the bench to push them all through the sizer. After a couple times it gets to be a rhythm.

[GregLaROCHE]

A hot plate to warm them up is my vote. Make sure to get one with a solid plate surface. Even at 350* it won’t take long for your pot come back up to temperature. Of course the size of the ingots makes a difference as to how fast the pot gets back up to temperature.

[Conditor22]

hotplate and a small pot might even get you melted lead to pour in.

I use a hot plate @ 400° to pre-warm my molds, which really helps

[Dancing Bear]

i throw the sprews back in the pot every 10 mins or so and top up when pot gets to half way.

That's how I do it too.

[country gent]

The hot plate and a Pan would do it. use a cooking spatula to pick the ingots up if they get soft, if an opps occurs and they get molten the pan saves you just pick it up and pour in. An old 6 X 6 cake pan would be good.

I also used the 2 10lb pots one above the other. Bottom to cast from top to refill. Set the top 20-25* higher than the bottom as it lost a little draining down into the bottom. At 1/2 way point I would refill and top off the top pot with ingots. Could cast most bullets all day with out running out of lead.

[Froogal]

When my 10 pounder is down about 1/2, I just drop another ingot in and then take a short coffee break. Walk around, stretch my arms and legs, etc. and then go right back to casting.

[Soundguy]

I just top mine off with 1 or 1/2 pound ingot as I go. Half empty is way too low to start topping off.

[LenH]

I do what Country Gent does a cheap dollar store cake pan. I went to a cake pan to warm ingots because of the mess on my bench without one.
It amazed me how quick an ingot can melt on the hot plate. I had it turned down and the still melted.

I have set some ingots across the pot, these were from an angle iron mold. I looked up and the ingot was sagging in the middle and then if slid into the pot. it startled me
a bit so I quit that practice.

[imashooter2]

The ingots I use are Lyman bricks. I’ve never had one slump before, but I sure can understand stopping if one did!

[Joel Chavez]

I found a hot plate at the local Salvation Army store for 6bucks the other day. I heated my mould for about 20mins prior to casting and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the insight gents.

[rintinglen]

When I was using my 10 pounder, I, too, was impaired by a lack of funds. So I learned to put my ingots on top the pot to preheat and every 20 to 40 boolits I'd slide another brick into the pot and replace it. Not only does this practice allow you to prolong your casting session, you actually are saving money on electricity by using the heat rising from the pot that would otherwise go to waste.

[fiberoptik]

Coleman camp stove with a thrift store stainless pan.


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[kevin c]

When I was using my 10 pounder, I, too, was impaired by a lack of funds. So I learned to put my ingots on top the pot to preheat and every 20 to 40 boolits I'd slide another brick into the pot and replace it. Not only does this practice allow you to prolong your casting session, you actually are saving money on electricity by using the heat rising from the pot that would otherwise go to waste.
Before stacking a feeder pot on top of my 20# bottom pour, this is what I did.

Basically I figured how many bullets to an ingot, and would put a preheated one into the melt when I'd cast that many. A preheated 1# ingot added to 16-17# in the melt didn't seem to dip the melt temp much, and likely 1# into 8-9# would be similar. The sprues go in as they're cut, along with culls, while they're still hot, cutting heat loss.

Even with the stacked 20# capacity pots, I preheat the ingots going into the feeder; I refill after no more than a quarter pot to keep head pressure up, and per my PID readout, the four or 5# of cold ingots added drops the temp so much that the temp hasn't recovered by the time I want to refill again.

[farmerjim]

I use a lyman mag 25 set to 725. I keep 1 lb ingots stacked on a hotplate on high. They will sometimes get soft but I have them in a pot in case they melt. I use a large cooking spoon to put them in the pot as soon as there is room for 1 lb. The temp will drop 15 to 20 deg when I put the ingot into the pot.

[JM7.7x58]

I use an electric panini press, it was all they had at the thrift store. It has a heating element top and bottom, kinda like a George Foreman grill. It does a great job preheating a mold.

Well a tuna fish can holds a muffin pan ingot just fine. The can will smoke a little bit the first time you use it. That’s how I preheat ingots. I ladle cast so balancing on the edge is a splash asking to happen.

JM

[jschance]

If I'm just running a 2 cavity mold, I will stack ingots on top of my 10# pot to preheat, and keep feeding sprues back into the pot as I go.

If I am running one of my 6 or 8 cavity molds, I will put a small cast iron pan on a hotplate and load it up with ingots. I can melt down a load of ingots in that and then using a small stainless steel ladle, I will feed the 10# pot liquid lead as it gets low (around 1/3 down) and then add an ingot to the pan. I'm able to run this way as long as my attention span allows me, and can rack up quite a pile of bullets without any significant down time.

[Soundguy]

Angle iron mold.... Now why didn't I think of that... New welding project for next day off...

[Joel Chavez]

Angle iron mold.... Now why didn't I think of that... New welding project for next day off...

Lol you and me both brother.

[Soundguy]

Lol you and me both brother.

I have some bedframe angle iron I got from the roadside ( I love how people set these things out.. free angle iron )... just waiting to lay down under my chop saw blade.

I'm pretty sure I have some 1" dowel rod that wants to be a handle too.... I can already hear the arc crackling... ..on friday...

[gitzitfish]

Throw the sprues back in the pot as they are cut. Also have small ingots sitting on the top rim to keep warm. As the level goes down drop another in. The molten is hot enough that the temp of the small ingot doesn’t drop it much if at all

[Joel Chavez]

Throw the sprues back in the pot as they are cut. Also have small ingots sitting on the top rim to keep warm. As the level goes down drop another in. The molten is hot enough that the temp of the small ingot doesn’t drop it much if at all

Yeah, I toss the spruce back in after ever cast. The hotplate idea has worked like a charm.

[pastera]

2lb Ingots in the toaster oven at 400 - Refill around 1/2 - 1/3 of a pot left (I have a 20lb pot)

10lb of alloy gets you around 200 230g bullets before you need to refill - The few minutes of wait time doesn't slow the process too badly

[wv109323]

Small pots and large multi-cavity molds do not go well together for the reasons you mentioned. When I got my PID I was surprised how long it took to get the added lead back up to proper casting temptrature. Before it was a guess when the lead was back to proper temp. and in hindsight I was starting to cast with lead that was too cool. My quality suffered.
I have a 20 lb. pot and 2, 4, and 6 cavity molds. I also use a hot plate to keep my molds up to temp. when I add lead. I cast till the pot is low and add lead, I put my molds on the hot plate to keep warm. While the lead is coming back up to temp. I visually inspect the already cast boolits and cull any bad ones. This works out pretty well and is time efficient.
Using a 10 lb. Pot, I would constantly be waiting on the lead to get back up to temp. I would be forced to have a second source to melt lead and ladle feed the 10 lb. pot. This also causes a problem if the source to melt additional lead is electric. That means you would be running a pot, a hot plate ,and a means to melt lead off one electrical circuit. I don-t see anyway to heat molds and melt lead unless you had a 2 burner hot plate. I would opt to use a Coleman stove to melt the additional lead. Any solution requires a lot of table top space.

[pastera]

I have some bedframe angle iron I got from the roadside ( I love how people set these things out.. free angle iron )... just waiting to lay down under my chop saw blade.

I'm pretty sure I have some 1" dowel rod that wants to be a handle too.... I can already hear the arc crackling... ..on friday...

The free HF screwdriver sets work great as ingot mold handles

[imashooter2]

The free HF screwdriver sets work great as ingot mold handles

Simple genius!