Time spent melting and then casting?

[Dahak]

I'm new to the forum and did not see this addressed in a FAQ - if the answer is there and I missed it, please send me a PM with a link and remove this post.

I've been loading powder coated lead for pistol for almost 2 years now from various online vendors. Local indoor range has offered to sell range scrap at a very discounted price and about the same time, YouTube decided that I really want to watch casting videos. I'm about ready to jump in BUT how much time should I have in mind for melting/making ingots and then for casting the actual bullets (newbie - should I be using the alternate spelling here?). 2 hours chunks of time are very do-able, 3 hours not so much, and 4 hours + would be a rare luxury that I am not sure I would devote to casting.

The first few times for each process with the associated learning curves don't count, what I am curious about is a year after I jump into the hobby, how much time will I be spending to melt (clean, flux, ingot-ize)... call it two 5 gallon buckets of range scrap and then later, how much time to cast hmm... call it 100 bullets (is that a reasonable production goal for a casting session?)

Thanks!

[openbook]

I'll leave it to more experienced "smelters" to answer the amount of time to get 10 gals of lead into ingots.

For boolit casting, your rate depends greatly on what mold you're using. A one-cavity vs. a 6-cavity there is no comparison in speed. 100 bullets is highly doable in less than an hour. Most of my casting sessions are 45-90 minutes. I use 2-cav, 4-cav and 6-cav molds. In about an hour I will do probably 200 bullets, and I'm rotating through several molds. Focusing your efforts exclusively on a 6-cav, or two, you could do many more.

With gas heat your melt time will be low. I often light up the 10# Lee pot, go inside to change into casting clothes, and when I get back out the lead's nearly melted. I've found it's very practical to just do a quick casting session.

[reddog81]

Melting scrap into ingots is going to depend on the heat source and setup. I use a wood fire pit and set the cast iron pot on hot embers, toss in some more wood and then come back half an hour later. It probably takes about an hour start to finish to melt down 40 pounds but that hour only includes 5 minutes of work.

I don’t recall ever timing myself but I know I could easily cast 500 bullets in an hour with a 6 cavity mold.

[Huskerguy]

There are multiple variables in your questions. For the melting into ingots I assume you have an old turkey fryer that can put out some heat. I have one and an old plumbers pot that is much slower. How many ingot molds do you have? That can slow you down as well. I have 6 mostly full buckets of range scrap, nasty stuff, but good lead and free. I will do it all in a long, nice, cool and windy spring day. It wears me out but dragging all the stuff out is a lot of work as well.

As for casting, as was said, number of cavities makes a huge difference. I usually try to fill my 20lb pot twice in a session, which is about all I want to do. So figure 18 or so lbs, 7,000 grains divided by the size of your bullet. I too, start melting my pot while I am doing something else. Once things are hot, get after it and pour like crazy.

[Dusty Bannister]

There is a search feature in the upper right hand corner of the page. Type in your question and see if your question is answered. Here is a link to re-melting range metal that might help you figure out what you need and the time you have to devote to the project.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?362935-Range-Lead-Remelt&highlight=long+melt+clean+50+pounds+scrap

[Dahak]

Thanks for the responses so far. I was worried that casting would end up being an all-day affair. Seems like I can be productive in 2 hour blocks of time. Great. I'll keep reading as more posts come in, but I found the 182 page "From Ingot to Target" book in the FAQ and then will have to decide how much of my current vision for how all this works (based on YouTube so very much subject to change as I learn more) survives.

I suspect questions about what type of casting pot to get and what a good 147 grain 9mm mold is have been repeatedly answered so as I lurk for a while and learn. Plus, my work is seasonal and busy season is almost upon us - April 19 may be the start date for my casting journey (gee 1 guess on what I do for a living with that clue :) )

[tazman]

For me, smelting scrap lead into ingots took quite a bit of time. I didn't have a very powerful burner so doing roughly ten pounds of scrap lead into ingots took nearly an hour. A more powerful burner and larger smelting pot would have made things MUCH quicker.
I also purchased lead from an indoor range and use it quite successfully.
I use a 20lb Lee pot for casting. When full, it takes about 25-30 minutes to get up to heat. Using a six cavity mold, I can crank out about 600-900 boolits per hour. A lot depends on the size of the boolit. Smaller calibers don't take as long for the mold to cool off and can be refilled quicker. Also smaller molds don't run through as much lead and therefore don't need to refill the pot as often. 200 grain 45ACP boolits only get 35 boolits per pound. You can run the pot out in less than an hour if things are going well.
You will also need to consider time spent sizing and lubing the boolits. Powder coating is another method that requires time due to the curing process.
For powder coating, you need to be there all during the process since the curing is timed. With a lubrisizer you can do it as you have time since there is not normally a warm up period(unless using hard lubes).

[Papercidal]

Processing scrap is limited by your ingot molds. With a turkey fryer burner I can melt the 60# that fits into my melting pot in about 10 minutes, it takes little time to fill the ingot molds and the bulk of time is spent waiting for lead to cool so you can dump the ingots out and refill the molds. If you have enough molds to empty your melting pot all at once it can be under 20 minutes to process and pour into ingots from a cold pot to a empty pot and full molds.

For casting my primary match bullet I use 2 matched 8 cavity mounds in tandem and can cast out a 25# pot in about 45 minutes (around 1200 bullets).

I use hi tec coating which takes about 80 minutes of bake time for two coats on a thousand (4 250 bullet batches for 10 minutes x2 coats) but it’s is all offline stuff that you can have going on while doing something else.

Sizing I do on a star clone or a Lee APP that I feed with a mr bullet feeder and can do about 4000 a hour. I do this while baking another batch.

From scrap to finished coated and sized bullets for the 60# that fits into my scrap processing pot (about 3000) I have about 5 hours total invested.

[ryanmattes]

For a shortcut on the number of molds issue, I use standard muffin pans. Full size has fewer ingots but a over a pound each, the mini muffin pans have make more ingots but a smaller size. The important thing is, they're cheap. You can get a half-dozen pans at the size you want for pretty cheap at walmart, and empty the pot in no time. When the pan is full you just have to let it sit until it's cool enough to turn over and dump out the lead. Then you can fill it again.

They don't have to be nice pans, either. After all, you're going to fill them with lead. So a stack of cheap muffin pans stacks for easy storage, doesn't cost much, and will let you melt and empty a large pot in a short time.

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[jsizemore]

It takes me an hour to melt and pour 150lbs of lead scrap or wheelweights into ingots. I can cast 500-750 bullets, depends on bullet weight, in 2 hours from loading the pot to finish. PC takes about an hour from coat to finish. Sizing 750 bullets takes about an hour. I load about 300 rounds on the Dillon in an hour.

I usually do the cast, coat and size in an afternoon. Bullets are still fairly soft and don't put much stress on the sizer. Depends on the alloy and time after casting how hard they are.

[Iron369]

Idk what kind of ******** process people here try to sell you turning wheel weights into loaded bullets within an hour. If you aren’t doing it for the pleasure of the process, you’re not going to be rewarded.
On a small scale, you aren’t going to compete with commercial production. Idc what anyone here says. Without thousands invested and lack of automation, you can’t compete. You can produce what YOU need for YOUR firearm to achieve it’s best performance based on what YOU do. Disclaimer…
Your results may vary. My opinion usually is wrong; ask my wife.

[414gates]

The most variable factor is the melting of the scrap, because it depends on what you're using to melt the scrap, and how much there is. A high pressure gas powered burner under a cast iron pan is much quicker than any electrical unit for processing scrap.

I built a large gas powered melter that melts 300 pounds of scrap in one hour. It has a 600 pound capacity, but I've never done that much in one session.

If all you have is a lee 10 lb pot, it's going to take all week to process your two buckets of scrap.

The second factor is the pot you use to pour into moulds. I built a small one for bullet moulds that takes 40 minutes to get 40 pounds of ingots to pouring temperature.

The small Lee pots work well enough for a few pounds of lead at a time - the smaller the pot the longer it takes to melt the ingots.

100 bullets can be done in under one hour, depending if you use single, dual, quad or six cavity moulds. The more cavities in the mould, the less of one hour you will take.

The third time factor comes in getting set up to cast. Unless you have a dedicated casting area, it takes some time to get all the equipment together in the designated area ready to begin smelting or casting.

I devote a few days a year to casting bullets outdoors, when the weather turns cool and the wind picks up. It takes some time to assemble and move the setup outside and get all the bits and pieces on hand ready for use, so that stays in place for the couple of days I'm casting, then packed away again till the next year.

[TjB101]

When processing range scrap (1/2 full 5 gallon bucket) I’m dedicating about 2 hours to melt it down into ingots (outdoors, turkey fryer and large cast iron pot). Keep the jackets and recycle them for $$$.

Typical 10 pound pot to heat up and cast the entire pot while recycling the sprue’s back into the pot … just about one hour. (That’s with a 2 banger mold) ( much longer if I’m casting 95gr projectiles vs some 1oz slugs)

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220124/c403617818504dc0302a46591aaf6ac8.jpg

[Iron369]

When processing range scrap (1/2 full 5 gallon bucket) I’m dedicating about 2 hours to melt it down into ingots (outdoors, turkey fryer and large cast iron pot). Keep the jackets and recycle them for $$$.

Typical 10 pound pot to heat up and cast the entire pot while recycling the sprue’s back into the pot … just about one hour. (That’s with a 2 banger mold) ( much longer if I’m casting 95gr projectiles vs some 1oz slugs)

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220124/c403617818504dc0302a46591aaf6ac8.jpg

Thanks for being honest.


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[Iron369]

I enjoy my time melting wheel weights into ingots then ingots into bullets. Idk how much time I spend. I do it because it’s what I like to do. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220124/a08d8847e19bbf809e06bae177bb9af5.jpg

[Wayne Smith]

For bullet casting you can easily do it in a couple of hours - and that includes the time for the lead to melt.

Smelting, or melting sourced lead into ingots, is another matter. It is more room and equipment intensive, and you should figure on dedicating a Saturday or day off to do it. You won't require all that time, but to be relaxed and enjoy the process you don't want to be rushed. Once you have done it a couple times you will get into a much more relaxed state and know how your process works. Having room to set up and a friend to help makes the process faster and much more enjoyable.

[remy3424]

Not sure who these guys are, but some of the replies are not realistic. 10 minutes to melt 60 pounds of scrap, seems impressive and it is. You won't do that and you won't have 600 useable boolits an hour after turn-on your pot. Set aside as much time as it takes to get the lead in to ingots, after that it is much easier to work for shorter time frames. You want to do this when your work ISN'T in its busy season. Good things generally aren't happening when you are racing around molten metal. You will become more effiecent with experience.

[SSGOldfart]

You can't really put a time on art,as you have already seen/read.
Casting is art and science mixed together, read on. And welcome to our world. :roll:
Simper-Fi

[dverna]

Your question is simple but not simply answered.

On a separate topic, I had questions about how much effort it took to pump up a PCP air gun with a hand pump. That is a much easier question but got all sorts of answers. I went and found a couple of YouTube videos and that was educational.

I smelted range scrap once but it was all lead bullets. If you have jacketed bullets in the mix it will take longer...I think a lot longer. So not easy to answer IMO.

As to casting bullets...I figure about 80-100 bullets per cavity per hour. With a Master Caster about 350-400/hr with a 2 cavity mold.

[fivegunner]

Good post, I melt and mix my lead in a 350+ lbs johnson furance the one thats in my avatar , works great . but for me the real work is sorting out the lead wheelwights form Zink and steel ,It takes alot of time. I still have several 5 gallon buckets to make into Ingots. after I get them sorted out It will take me a full day to put them into nice Ingots. If I was Rich , I would just buy boolits And have more time for other thing`s in Life.

[lightman]

First of all, Welcome to our site and to the hobby of casting!

The answers to all of your questions are, it depends!
Smelting ;
What kind of pot and burner do you have or plan to get? If you are doing 10-15 pounds at a time with an iron skillet on a camp stove it will take you several hours. If you have a Turkey frier burner and a cutoff propane tank for a pot you will probably be 4 hours on 2 5 gallon buckets of weights. It depends on whether you have to store your smelting gear away or leave it set up.
Casting;
What type of casting pot and molds are you thinking about. With a 20# bottom pour pot and a 4 or 6 cavity mold you could get several hundred bullets in 2 hours. Once again, set up time will cost you. Can you leave your casting pot set up or will you have to store it away?

Sorting weights;
There are a few stickies about sorting weights. Some casters don't sort and try to keep the heat under the melting temp of Zinc. Thinking the Zinc will float to the top to be skimmed off. Others sort and only have lead weights in the pot. Once again, the question comes up can you sort for an hour or so and leave everything out or do you have to put it away?

My methods;
My smelting pot will hold 400 pounds of molten lead and my burner will melt it in 20 minutes or so. I use 8 of the Lyman style ingot molds so I don't have to wait on them to cool off between pours. I use a nice Rowell Ladle and a heavy duty skimmer. I have maybe $100 invested in the two of them. The time they save was worth it to me. I save wax products and sawdust for flux. I usually save my scrap all year and a buddy and I will spend a day melting his and mine. It helps to have some help. To do your 2 buckets of weights would probably take me 3-4 hours to melt, counting time for set up and putting things away. Once set up I can have 400 pounds of ingots about every 2 hours. I have to put my smelting stuff away, but its in the corner of the shop near where I use it.

I cast with an RCBS ProMelt pot that holds 20 pounds of lead and I cast with 4 cavity molds. It probably takes me 45 minutes to get my first bullet. Loading the pot, cleaning the mold, pre heating the mold, lubing the mold, staring and fluxing the pot --- yeah, probably 45 minutes to an hour to get started. I figure 300-400 bullets an hour after getting started. I can leave my pot and everything on my workbench if I want to avoid the set up time.

Sorting weights. I hand sort, picking up each weight and looking at it. I use a pair of electricians dykes to make a test cut on any suspicious weights. I sort until I get tired and quit. I try to sort as I acquire weights so as to not be hopelessly behind. I've never checked the time when I'm sorting. I can leave the buckets where I sort, not having to put them away or get them out.

You are right to expect some wasted time and lost production the first few times you do each of these processes. But you will develop a technique and a comfortable way to work.

I hope you can find something useful out of all of that!

[oley55]

I'm new to the forum and did not see this addressed in a FAQ - if the answer is there and I missed it, please send me a PM with a link and remove this post.

I've been loading powder coated lead for pistol for almost 2 years now from various online vendors. Local indoor range has offered to sell range scrap at a very discounted price and about the same time, YouTube decided that I really want to watch casting videos. I'm about ready to jump in BUT how much time should I have in mind for melting/making ingots and then for casting the actual bullets (newbie - should I be using the alternate spelling here?). 2 hours chunks of time are very do-able, 3 hours not so much, and 4 hours + would be a rare luxury that I am not sure I would devote to casting.

The first few times for each process with the associated learning curves don't count, what I am curious about is a year after I jump into the hobby, how much time will I be spending to melt (clean, flux, ingot-ize)... call it two 5 gallon buckets of range scrap and then later, how much time to cast hmm... call it 100 bullets (is that a reasonable production goal for a casting session?)

Thanks!

first of all welcome, second good on you for seriously inquiring about the time drain. Obviously you have plenty on your plate and are being realistic about your time resources.

As has already been mentioned, smelting will take more than two hours. But honestly how often you expect to find yourself smelting. For me that's a two or three times a year activity and you will likely need at least four hours.

As for casting, powder coating and sizing these can easily be broken down into two hour blocks. To some degree the same for smelting. Sort as you have time and smelting once you are all ready to go.

Again good on you for digging deeper before taking the plunge.

[gwpercle]

#1 - I consider casting as one of my Hobbies , (the others being reloading and shooting) so I don't view it as work where a time clock has to be punched and I enjoy casting .

Making a batch clean ingots you should allow at least 3-4 hours , it all depends on how hot your burner runs and how much metal you are trying to render . You have the burner and pot to set up , load with lead and fire up ... melt and a couple three fluxes to clean the metal of trash then ladle out into ingot moulds ... when your done ... you have to pick everything up and put away . So 3 - 4 hours is about what you want . But ... you only need to do this once or twice a year ...

Casting boolits ... I leave my pot in my casting building , all set up on the bench with moulds , ladle , fluxes , mould lube all ready to go . allow 1/2 hour for a full pot to melt ( I use a Lee Magnum Melterthat holds 20 lbs.) Now you want a good hour to cast with ...less than an hour and you can't run enough boolits ... the mould has to get hot and once pot metal and mould are hot you don't want to stop till the pot is depleted ... So allow for minimum 1 1/2 hours .... 2 hours is better .

I save my ingot making for the times I can steal 3-4 hours and do it only once maybe twice a year , do it when the wife and kids are gone somewhere !

Casting boolits is whenever I can get a couple hours ... If interrupted I simply un plug the pot , set the mould down and come back another day ... I leave everything set up and in place on the bench waiting for the next time I can get away .

Hope this gives you an idea of times ... it isn't all that time consuming .
If you use 4 and 6 cavity moulds you will probably make more boolits / hour .
Gary
Pouring Lead since 1967

[WRideout]

Welcome to the forum, Dahak. I have lately campaigned about two full buckets of range bullets, which were full of sand from the bottom of the bullet trap. It took me a while, because I smelt them over a wood fire, about thirty pounds at a time. After getting them smelted and cleaned up, I guess I have a couple hundred pounds of casting lead. It makes sense to do this as a multi-step process (smelt, then cast) since putting the bullets in your casting pot will take a lot of time just to clean up the dirt and etc. For smelting, I have in the past used a rocket stove fueled with wood (see Youtube videos) and also a hot plate. With a small amount of lead, perhaps ten pounds, it does not take long to make clean ingots. As far as muffin pan molds, I had several stick in the pan until I left them outdoors for a while to get rusty. Alternatively, I have smoked the pans with wood fire which also makes them non-stick. My casting sessions last about an hour to make 100-150 boolits, depending on the mold.

I didn't see what your projected boolit use is over time. If you only use a small number infrequently, it's almost better to buy clean lead. Many members here have lead ingots they will sell or trade; look in the swapping and selling section. Good luck on your endeavors.

Wayne

[bangerjim]

It's called A HOBBY! I sure do not calculate and classify the hours I spend at my several hobbies. Things that go bang are just one of my several past times. Nor do I worry about the money they save or cost me.

If you enjoy doing it, DO IT! And enjoy life while you have it.

[oley55]

Banger, I'm pretty sure you didn't really mean to say the only reason for casting our own bullets is as a hobby? Is that how you started casting, just sitting around one day you decided you needed a new hobby and decided it would be casting boolits. It turned into a hobby, but I doubt that was your initial reason.


I read the OP's post and imagined a guy (probably much younger than myself) who's hauling his kids to this and that activity and a hundred other things and is trying to decide if he can fit boolit casting into his busy life. Casting becoming a hobby is a hoped for fringe benefit IMO.

[dverna]

It's called A HOBBY! I sure do not calculate and classify the hours I spend at my several hobbies. Things that go bang are just one of my several past times. Nor do I worry about the money they save or cost me.

If you enjoy doing it, DO IT! And enjoy life while you have it.

Not for me. It is more like cutting grass or gardening....oh heck...some people enjoy doing that too...lol

The only gun stuff I enjoy doing is shooting. If I could buy 9mm and .357 bullets for $50/k I would never cast another bullet.

[Dahak]

Starting to wrap my head around the scale of production. Sacrifice most of a Saturday to make a lot of ingots, then have lead to use for casting for a long time. Bullet making can be done in smaller chunks of time; while ingot making can but probably should not be compressed into smaller time blocks. At least that's what I've picked up.

I'm sure many of you reload, so you recognize the research, check another source and then research some more mentality before pulling the lever. I just wanted a reality check to make sure that I would be able to actually use the casting equipment that I'm already shopping for. :)

Thanks again for all the input!

[GregLaROCHE]

Don’t forget the first time will take the most time. After you will become more organized and faster. You can certainly get something accomplished in two hours.

[Rcmaveric]

For making ingots and reclaiming lead, you should make a day out of it. I will spend months collecting lead. When i have enough tonwarrant processing i spend all day doing it. I can process about 300 lbs in a day with my process. You should only have to do that a few times a year. So spare 2 to 3 days a year to make stock.

As for casting. A couple or few ours a day. I have kids and a full time profession and school. I find time to sit and cast for a bit. You will get a feel of how much you need to keep on hand. Or a high and low stock. I know how much i jeed and when to make more. I keep a bunch sized and ready to load. Stock pile old containers. Those square pickle jars and coffee cans are my go to for bullets and cigar boxes for storeing greased bullets.


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[unclemikeinct]

If you have two five gallon pails of range/lead scrap. You need to get busy making ingots. Plan an afternoon into the early evening to process that load. It is smelly hot dirty work. No Kids or pets on the "Patio" during that job. I use an old gas grill [really old] with the lava rocks in it. A Tag Sale 8 Qt. cast iron dutch oven. It holds between 40 to 50 lbs of lead & alloys I blend into my mix. A few muffin tins. Sturdy ladle n stirring spoon. Candle bits & saw dust to flux the mix clean. Lots of old pewter. weighted out by the pound. one pound for pistol per pot full. two pounds for my rifle mixture. Then you can get busy. More if you ask. unclemikeinct.. ps. I stamp my ingots "SN1" "SN2" & when I have clean pure lead stamp in Just "PB"

[Rcmaveric]

I second marking the ingots.... my wife organized my lead for me once. It would have been bad had i not stamped them. I have an ingot molds the have the lead rype embossed. I judt nick next to what it is like a check mark.

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[mjwcaster]

Just like racing- how fast do you wish to spend?
I started with a $10 Coleman stove, fine for casting, slow for smelting. Add enough wind on a cool day and smelting just couldn’t happen.
Bought a good Turkey fryer and ingot production went way up. Now I just need a bigger pot, the cast iron Dutch oven isn’t that big any more.

If time is short just buy your ingots. Unless your lead supply is extremely cheap and your smelting setup efficient you won’t save as much money per hour smelting.

Start simply and see if you like it.

As far as casting output I figure an easy 1k per 2 hour session with a 6 cavity mold, startup to cleanup. 3 hours can yield closer to 2k bullets and a sore back.
I maximize my time by doing something else while the pot/molds are heating up. Lately it’s just been cleaning the garage, but used to be sizing or coating bullets.


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[Springfield]

With a good high pressure turkey fryer and enough ingot moulds to do 50 lbs at a time, doing 150 lbs an hour is very doable. Wheel weights take longer as you have to scoop off the clips, same for range scrap that includes lots of copper jackets. If it is just odd shaped pieces of lead, or lead sheets, it goes a bit faster.
As for casting speed, I use mostly 5-6 cavity moulds and can do 600 an hour easily, but you will need at least a 20 lbs pot to keep up that pace.
I don't ever smelt and cast the same lead the same day, but then I usually save up and do 3-400 lbs in a long morning and don't feel like casting after that.

[openbook]

but for me the real work is sorting out the lead wheelwights form Zink and steel ,It takes alot of time. I still have several 5 gallon buckets to make into Ingots.

^^ This. Going through 130 lbs of tiny wheel weights is not a fast process.

One other note: you can smelt as much or as little as you want, it doesn't have to be all day. I don't have the huge process that many here do. I'm getting about 30 lbs of lead out of a 5gal bucket of wheel weights. I sort the weights little by little, and when it comes time to melt them into ingots, I do it all at once. Figure 15 minutes to melt and then 20-25 minutes to pour. I'm using two 4-pound ingot molds and a muffin tin.

I'm sure doing a whole smelting day is much more efficient and overall, better. But at this point in my hobby I don't have the time (or the lead!! :-)) to smelt all day. My point is that this is a hobby that can easily fit in your life, even if you've only got couple hours here and there.

[LenH]

One thing about melting range scrap, don't put too much in the pot especially if the majority is jacketed. The top 3rd acted like a layer of insulation. After having the fire going for an hour plus
I got to digging into the pot and there was a large layer of lead below. I had to dig the top layer out and back in the bucket. I fished out the empty jackets and poured the ingots. I put the top layer back in the pot and and had the rest of the lead melt in short order. Even an old fart messes up from time to time. I still have about 300 pounds of the stuff to melt but am in no hurry.

[fredj338]

A lot of the time issue is gear & alloy oriented. The lead wheel weight is becoming extinct so for me its range scrap. I pickup range scrap while out shooting. So I am getting mostly lead splatters or whole lead bullets. Turning those to ingots is pretty quick & easy with a good propane burner. Fill a cast iron pot, turn the burner on & do something else, like reload or sort brass or whatever, while it comes to temp. Flux & pour into ingots is just minutes. Buying ingots from a vendor here would cost more but you eliminate the time issue. Its a hobby, all hobbies are a time suck, but this one actually gives you a cost benefit in cheaper shooting.
Casting, again gear determines time. A good 4-6cav mold produces a lot of bullets in just an hour, like 800-1200 using a Lee 20# bottom pour pot. Then powder coating is again, gear dependent on time & technique. I use a 2 rack pizza oven that allows me to do 600 at a time. The greatest time there is coating & setting them in the trays but there are diff techniques. I usually setup 450, then into the oven while I setup the next 300 & just keep at that pace. So I can do 1000 in a bit over an hour.
As to marking ingots, I dont. I have 3 alloys; clip ww, range scrap & pure lead. They all go into diff shaped ingot molds for easy ID. I have lino but keep it in type form & just add it by weight. I still have a few 10# pigs of lino, I just melt off what I need in my casting pot.

[bangerjim]

Banger, I'm pretty sure you didn't really mean to say the only reason for casting our own bullets is as a hobby? Is that how you started casting, just sitting around one day you decided you needed a new hobby and decided it would be casting boolits. It turned into a hobby, but I doubt that was your initial reason.




Actually......YES! I got hooked on the idea of casting Pb alloy boolits years ago after going to some gun shows and seeing all the casting stuff. Being an engineer by occupation, and I love to mess with chemistry and metallurgy and electronics, it was a perfect fit to my knowledge/skill set. I did not start out cheap using an old pan on a Coleman stove. I bought all the commercial molds I wanted/needed at the time (18), ingot molds, tools, melting/casting pots.......brand new. Later my Dad gave me a plumber's furnace from the 1930's and it melts 60# of Pb faster than you can pour it!

To my wife's surprise, I came home one day with a boatload of new casting equipment, and later built a 10x12 "casting cabin" in the back yard, and have been slinging molten metals ever since.

Since then, I have been a casting fool.....not to save money (we all know that joke!), but just to have fun. I actually enjoy making/loading the boolits far more than shooting them. And I do not shoot & kill living things. Only lots of paper and water bottles. I get all my meat supplied by the local butcher in the big food stores.


To each his own.


banger [smilie=s:

[farmbif]

lots of good advice and answers to ops original question. but when it comes down to it everyone is different. I used to try and melt down buckets full into ingots .
not any more gave up on that years ago after having sorting problems. now I like to leave all my raw materials in original form and melt down a little less than a gallon at a time when ingot making. and always do it way before my last batch of ingots is used up. once equipment is set up and raw materials are in order It usually takes less than an hour.
then I use clean ingots in the little lee bottom pour when I get a desire to cast for 1 or 2 calibers. with a good mp 4 cavity brass mold once its up to temp it does not take long to cast 100 good bullets. primarily because of physical limitations I do what I can when I can and a casting session never goes on for me more than an hour to 90 minutes and that's plenty of time to cast a couple hundred good bullets. the key for me is having everything set up and ready to go. so I can cast any time I want and getting everything up to temp while changing Lube size die or filling lube tank, keeping things in order and such.

[45DUDE]

I must be running on 33 & 1/3/. I takes me about 3 hours to cast 9 pounds target quality boolits.

[TyGuy]

Something I haven’t seen mentioned but is definitely a time consumer for me is set up and clean up. I don’t have a dedicated melting/casting space. I set up under the overhang behind my garage. By the time I drag everything out and get to melting I’ve burned a good chunk of my limited free time. Then when I’m finished I have to wait for everything to cool before I lug it back into the garage.

I have a pretty slow but steady supply of free lead scrap but if I was buying it I would consider buying clean ingots of known alloy to save time and headache. By the time you buy the scrap and take the time to melt, flux, and pour it into clean ingots you may find it’s not that much cheaper than simply buying clean lead to start with. Don’t get me wrong, I get great satisfaction from turning trash into shiny silver bars and then into my boolits but again, my alloy only costs me time.

This hobby can also become very expensive if you allow yourself get drawn into the vortex. I don’t think I have saved any money by casting and handloading but I shoot a lot more than I would have and I don’t cringe at the thought of blowing through a few hundred rounds like many of my friends do now. I guess what I’m saying is welcome to the madhouse! :D

[gwpercle]

Mini-Muffin Pans ... a company named Wilton makes a line of Aluminum mini-pans... They also make steel pans , coated pans , silicone pans and they all look alike .
To get a aluminum pan do a search on the term " Wilton Aluminum 12-cup Mini-Muffin Pan" ...
Note ... the 12 cup mini-muffin pan is stamped from one sheet of aluminum , the "cups" are not 1 cup , (8 ounces) in size but are the number of mini-muffins it makes . The muffins are small and stack easily in a pot .
Wiltons also makes a 24-cup aluminum Mini-Muffin Pan but ... the muffin cups are pressed into the flat sheet .
I have discovered that Nordic Ware now makes a 24 cup mini-muffin that is one piece pressed aluminum .
I have been using the Wilton 12 cup for 25 years , recetly (10 years ago ?) bought a two piece 24 cup , so far none of the cups have popped out or come loose but I would prefer the 24 one piece pan by Nordic Ware had I seen it .
These aluminum pans never stick and I do nothing to them .
Do a search of the Nordic Ware site ...they may have more aluminum mini pans like mini loaf pans , that would make a good ingot .
All aluminum baking pans are hard to find but are the best !
Gary

[gwpercle]

Insanity may not be a requirement to join this outfit ... but it sure Helps ! :drinks:

My Mom never bothered to have me tested ... I didn't ride the short bus to school ... I Drove It !

[justindad]

Things I plan on to speed up my casting process:
1) Use a mold release (find one that doesn’t cause build-up). I think I could triple my output if I didn’t have to wack the mold handles every time I opened the mold. This is my biggest problem right now.
2) Cast with multiple molds. When a mold gets too hot, grab the second mold.
3) Get a 25 lb pot. My 10 lb Lee bottom poor pot holds about 8 lb, and the fill level affects bullet quality (for many reasons). So I added a small Lee ladle pot so I can refill the bottom pour pot with molten lead (keeps temperatures stable), maintaining a minimum fill level of about 70% full. This has improved my efficiency & the purity of alloy in the finished boolit. Casting with a single pot that holds 5X the amount of lead I pour into boolits per session would be better.
*
I get about 1 boolit per minute. I enjoy the slow process of making excellent ammo, and discovering how to make better ammo than I did last time.
*
Also, consider not smelting yet and buy lead from Rotometals or Missouri Bullet Company instead. The unknowns associated with alloy cleanliness and exactly what alloy you end up with may drive unnecessary confusion into the bullet casting process while you are first learning it. Plus, if you decide casting isn’t for you, you won’t have wasted anything on the smelting part. That being said, I’ve never smelted and I’ve only casted ~2k boolits so far.

[Rcmaveric]

One thing to help. Is streamling the process. After you try it. Take note of what obstacles or major time consumers. Then find a mitigating factor.

TyGuy mention set up. I had the same problem. Setup and break down took a few hours. I got one of the little husky boxes on wheels. All my reclaiming tools and materials and ingot molds are in it. I just grab that and go.

During the casting process over heating molds added added up to wasted hours. Using multi molds mitigated that.

I have a multi purpose small shop. Aka single car garage now. Before that i was in an apartment. I still dont have a dedicated casting area. But i have all my tools stored and organized so i can pull out job box X for this task. Set up my fold away table. And be ready to rock when i have time and not waste it..

So expect no matter what task. Your first time is going to be slow and low out put. Streamlining and experience will be spead. You will quickly be able to cast 5-10lbs of bullets an hour or more.

Even a simple dolly (60 buck investment) saves me over an hour to put away ingots.

[charlie b]

I don't use scrap. But, I cast smaller quantities. Takes me a few months to go through 40lb of lead.

Typical bullet making session:

Heat up pot, about 20-30min (Lee 20lb). During this time I set up the rest of my stuff.
-get hotplate and put mold(s) on it.
-put paper towel in tray with water (for mold cooling during casting)
-set up cotton towels to drop bullets on.
-put up box for finished bullets

When casting I use one mold. I use a specific process that I will not describe here since it involves wet cooling the mold during casting.

Number of bullets cast per hr depends on the mold. My two cavity molds I can get around 100-200 per hour. 6 cavity about double that (have to take a more breaks to add more lead and wait for it to get back up to temp). My arms are the limiting factor. I usually do ~100 and then have to take a short break. I put the mold on the hotplate. Sprues back in pot. Add anymore lead if needed, etc. The hotplate means I can go back to casting immediately with good bullets.

Powder coat. Again, small batches mainly because most of mine are rifle bullets and are stood up on the trays one at a time. First, gas checks and sizing. My favorite bullets also require nose sizing. Then clean with acetone. Shake and bake, about 50-100 at a time. Load a tray and put it in oven. While that batch is baking (20min) I will do the second batch, etc. Then I size again. 200-300 bullets takes about 3hr total.

Yes, you can do large batches of pistol bullets faster using a wire basket. Limit is the size of your oven. I don't shoot pistol that much so I process them the same as the rifle bullets.

Overall. I usually devote about 2 hrs to cast and another 2-3hrs to powder coat several hundred rifle bullets.

PS back when I did shoot a lot of pistol I did not size my bullets (.45acp). Lee molds dropped bullets that worked without sizing. I'd cast and tumble lube. Let dry a few days. Load and shoot.

[Wag]

You can scale it however you like.

Set up and tear down can be a significant percentage of time. For me, that time doesn't change much; I still set up the same equipment and tear down the same equipment every time I do a smelt.

As I recall, it seems I can smelt out a 5 gal bucket of wheel weights in about two hours with my equipment, not including set up or tear down. Set up takes about 30 minutes, tear down about the same.

At the moment, I have all of my wheel weights smelted into 1 lb ingots. I only have a single five gallon bucket of ingots (I can't lift it!) but it will keep me casting for some time to come, I have no doubt.

Break it into chunks of time:
Sort as needed one session for an hour or two.
Smelt for another session for a couple of hours.
Cast for another session for an hour or two.

It's doable. You don't have to rush it, either. Above all, don't rush. Better to do less smelting and castingf safely than take the risks that come with rushing.

--Wag--

[Rcmaveric]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Smelting scrap into Ingots.

It takes me about 2 hours to setup.
Then it takes about 2 hours to cleanup and put away equipment.

So I only do this when I have a full day and enough scrap to process over a few hours. Once setup, I can process about 100 lbs of scrap into ingots, in an hour. It's nice to have about 500 lbs to process...making for a full day's project.

[elmacgyver0]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.

[farmbif]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.
im not too sure about that- I was just looking through prices of some stuff at midway and mid south. for an example lets say if you work you make $25hr, forget about tax and other deductions.
if you had to buy ammo with that $25 you could afford to shoot 10 rounds of 444 marlin ammo if it was even available to buy when you went looking. or you could shoot 150 rounds of 22 ammo at current price of $8.50/50 rounds, or you could shoot about 75 rounds of some inexpensive 30 caliber 165 grain bullets if you had free powder and primers. yeah it seems the price of bullets by the 100 box to reload have gone way up in price as everything else goes up in cost. and most people can't just work additional hours to make more money. and that time melting lead and casting bullets for me anyway is relaxing non stressful quality time, I guess that's why its a hobby.

[farmbif]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk


everyone has their own techniques. but I would never use moisture to cool any of the molds I spent my hard earned dollars on.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.

from what the OP posted, he didn't say he was worried about the value of his time, but maybe he's a younger fella with a wife and small kids, and just doesn't have much solo time?

[gwpercle]

Because of ignorance , my biggest slow down was a Small Pot ... 5 & 10 pound pots are worthless , you spend way too much time waiting for lead to melt .
I wish some one had told me to start with a 20 pound pot ... now that I have one I wish I had gotten it 40 years ago .
The Lee Magnum Melter , 20 lbs, , Lyman Ladle and a 4 cavity mould do me just fine because I like to pressure cast mine with a Ladle .
Another thing ... you do not have to use a bottom pour pot to cast good boolits , Ladle poring them works just fine ... you do want a big supply of alloy to cast with .
Gary

[jsizemore]

As with most endeavors, the more familiar you are with your tools and materials, the faster you get. That's if your paying attention and are willing to cut out the stuff that holds you back. I don't make ingots and bullets to admire. I make them to shoot. That doesn't mean I don't like the whole process up to the shooting. It's all part of shooting the ammo that fits my guns. I like cleaning my guns too.

[Rcmaveric]

everyone has their own techniques. but I would never use moisture to cool any of the molds I spent my hard earned dollars on.Warping could be a potential issue. I dont see it as a serious threat since the mold is closed with a bullet in it. Its only slightly cooling and not quenching. Water cant get into the mold with it closed so that threat is mitigated. Most of my molds are aluminum so heat transfer is fast. My iron molds i can pace slow enough to not need cooling but the aluminum ones conduct heat to fast. My 6 csvity mold never seams to over heat.

I cam see tossing the mold in a bucket of water damaging it. I have had a pan warp before tossing it in water.

Find a way to pace yourself so you dont need to cool is my recommendation. But if someone has need, here is another tool for their tool box.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[fredj338]

Things I plan on to speed up my casting process:
1) Use a mold release (find one that doesn’t cause build-up). I think I could triple my output if I didn’t have to wack the mold handles every time I opened the mold. This is my biggest problem right now.
2) Cast with multiple molds. When a mold gets too hot, grab the second mold.
3) Get a 25 lb pot. My 10 lb Lee bottom poor pot holds about 8 lb, and the fill level affects bullet quality (for many reasons). So I added a small Lee ladle pot so I can refill the bottom pour pot with molten lead (keeps temperatures stable), maintaining a minimum fill level of about 70% full. This has improved my efficiency & the purity of alloy in the finished boolit. Casting with a single pot that holds 5X the amount of lead I pour into boolits per session would be better.
*
I get about 1 boolit per minute. I enjoy the slow process of making excellent ammo, and discovering how to make better ammo than I did last time.
*
Also, consider not smelting yet and buy lead from Rotometals or Missouri Bullet Company instead. The unknowns associated with alloy cleanliness and exactly what alloy you end up with may drive unnecessary confusion into the bullet casting process while you are first learning it. Plus, if you decide casting isn’t for you, you won’t have wasted anything on the smelting part. That being said, I’ve never smelted and I’ve only casted ~2k boolits so far.
Mold release can be a very bad idea, most of us do not use it.
Yes a 10# pot is a huge issue running anything but single cav molds.
Preheating the molds & ingots on a hot plate is a time saver. I add no more than 2# of ingots to my 20# pot when it gets 1/3 empty. I can usually just keep going without waiting more than a couple minutes for the alloy to come back up to temp.

[fredj338]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I think a small fan is easier. Open the mold, knock out the bullets in front of the fan. It keeps the mold temp just a bit lower & no worries about warping.

[414gates]

I alternate the moulds so one doesn't get hot enough to need cooling down.

On the odd occasion where I cast with only one mould on the day, I have a small rectangular block of sponge on the bench , lying flat in a water level that is one third the height of the sponge. With a bullet in the mould, I let the mould sit on the sponge for a second, and that takes the excess heat off without having to wait for the mould to cool. With the mould closed, no water can get in, and any water on the mould is vaporised before the mould is opened.

[dverna]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I had to wet cool a 10 cavity H&G. I used an old face cloth or dish towel that was wet. Laying the sprue on the towel for a couple of seconds was all it took. Once I found the right cadence, it was easy and like you mentioned productivity increased significantly. I never had a warping issue.

[Wag]

Fastest way I've found to cool a mold between pours is to set it on a block of lead. It takes a LOT of heat from the mold and does so very quickly. Over several pours, it may start to heat up so I'll use a different block as needed.

--Wag--