My Stress Free Casting Station

[101VooDoo]

Casting Station:



Hot Plate:



Pot w/accessories:



PID & Darkroom Timer:



Darkroom timer footpedal under the bench:

[101VooDoo]

And the boolits (7lbs 13oz in about 45 minutes):

[Paul_R]

Nice!

[lolbell]

That is sweet. Mine is never that clean or neat.

[Markbo]

Nice set up. I appreciate order and a smooth process. What is the purpose of the darkroom timer?

[LUCKYDAWG13]

look's way to clean

[ph4570]

Well done but I must agree with others -- much too tidy!

[101VooDoo]

Nice set up. I appreciate order and a smooth process. What is the purpose of the darkroom timer?

Thanks. I always had problems with consistent timing; tried watching the second hand on the clock, counting etc. But I'd forget to start, or lose track of the count during the middle, or get distracted by something. Mould would get too hot or cold, I'd try speeding up or slowing down to adjust mold temp, then the melt would get hotter as the pot emptied, just a PITA to get consistent boolits.

With the darkroom timer I hit the foot pedal when the mould's full, the light comes on, 7 seconds later the light goes off, I cut the sprue and dump. Gives me about 2.5 seconds after the sprue changes color. The PID keeps the alloy at a constant temp, and the shelf and mould guide make it easy to hit the sprue hole consistently.

Makes casting a piece of cake. After filling the mould I can leave it on the shelf, and spot check the just dumped boolits without having to worry about the time, since the timers running.

[Leadmelter]

Similar to my set up. The pot is at 12 o'clock The sprue catch is next to me at 30 degrees and the drop box is 30 degrees to the left. I keep a radio on to some tunes to keep track of my pace. I set a timer in the house of about 100 minutes.
Works for me especially with a 4 cavity mold.
When done I reload the pot since I already know the next project.
Leadmelter
MI

[stag15]

Very nice!

[Baja_Traveler]

Man - My ProMelt hasn't looked that nice in nearly 35 years...

[Walter Laich]

for me the pot lid and shelf has made a great addition.

Your set-up looks great

[zubrato]

Beautiful! Clean & organized, love it!

[catmandu]

What's the purpose of the long bolt on top of the hot plate?

Paul in WNY

[Mk42gunner]

I'd say it is to keep the handles from tipping the bottom of the mold up off the hotplate.

My Promelt sits a few inches behind and to the left of the Rockchucker bolted to my bench. This lets me rest the heel of my hand on the press while filling the mold. Kind of hard to describe, but it gives me a smoother opening of the valve.

Robert

[OS OK]

I like the deep 4S box 'mold garage'...innovative thinking!

[101VooDoo]

What's the purpose of the long bolt on top of the hot plate?

Paul in WNY

Paul,

I set the long bolt underneath the mould handles' bolt, to prop the handles up so the mold lays flat on the hot plate.

Jim

[Calamity Jake]

So where do you dump your boolits? Nice setup by the way!!!

[101VooDoo]

So where do you dump your boolits? Nice setup by the way!!!

Thanks.

Boolits go in the middle between the pots. Metal tray for sprues/rejects goes next to the pot in use (it has a bunch of undersized Saeco 115s in the photo), with the dump box next to that. I sit in front of the metal sprue pan, with the pot on the left and the dump box to the right (reverse for the other pot). This pic shows the left pot in use. Pot on the right contains Lyman #2 for rifle boolits, while the other pot has WW or ISO lead for pistol boolits.

I dump them on costco terry cloth towels that fit in the cardboard tray. That way I can just pick the boolits up in a towel to move them.