Shot maker

[GhostHawk]

I have seen a couple of different shotmakers for sale. Generally over 500$ and I have read story's of guys who fought for 2 years and never did get it to work right.

I wanted to let any of you who are interested know that there is another way.

I bought my shotmaker off ebay, welded steel box with 5 double drippers. Just a set of drippers costs 60$ on ebay. This guy was selling the whole thing for 90$. Free shipping, I figured if I can make it work and get 50 lbs of usable shot out of it that would cost over 100$ locally. I tried it once with an electric hot plate, just not enough heat. Even melting the lead with a hand propane torch it would not keep the dripper's running. It would only keep a circle about 3" in the center melted.

So I bought one of those Jet type cookers, 35$ no pot and waited.
It arrived and in order to use the tin box I had as a cooling tank I had to do a bit of surgery on the outer ring and part of the support. But once I fired it up it made shot.

Started short and small, 10 lbs first day, lots of snowflakes and crazy looking stuff. Added more dollar store fabric softener. 10 lbs the next day, shot looks real good, round. 16 lbs the the next day and today I ran a little longer session and cleaned out the box. 36 lbs today. 75 pounds total.

As far as I am concerned this paid off the shotmaker, the bayou cooker and put something towards the lead I used.

Pictures perhaps tomorrow I'm all tuckered after casting and cleaning.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252552300412...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[warpspeed]

Look forward to your tips & pictures!

[rancher1913]

would very much like to see those photos when you get the time.

[Smoke4320]

I would second the detailed write up on how you made it work , cooling technique ect

[Reverend Al]

I just sent him a message through eBay and asked if he'll be producing and selling any more of them. We'll see what he answers ...

[skeettx]

9 currently available
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262670950461...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[Smoke4320]

Ghosthawk what Alloy did you use ?

[copdills]

great information , looking forward to some insight and pics, thanks

[GhostHawk]

Ok point #1, coolant tank was a galvanized box similar in general size as a .50 ammo box, perhaps a touch taller. Coolant was roughly a 50-50 mix of water and dollar store fabric softener.

My wife bought me 10, I have used 6. If the lead had dents in it I would scoop some of the mix out and dump in another jug of softener. I think I did that twice the first day and left it be.

As to alloy I started out with some ingots of clip on wheel weights. When I ran out of those I switched over to range lead. Too much pure will make things funky. I had it stop on all drippers once today when all lead was melted and hot.

So I added in my last ingot of wheel weight lead and 5 min later it was dripping away.

I see this little one as more of a batch process. Put some lead in, melt it, add some more lead while the drippers are warming up. Takes time to get the heat all the way out there. Once I have a full pot I let it run till I see dripper nuts showing on the inside and add lead knowing that it will cool the melt down. But after all melts they start right back up again.

Ok pictures tomorrow of setup and shot. My coolant box is already empty, but won't be hard to visualize it full to an 1/8th inch of the top with pale blue stuff.

The more I got the hang of running it the more consistent my shot was.

[GhostHawk]

Well I'll do the best I can here guys.

First picture will be of the dripper side of the shot maker and the ramp that rolls the shot into the coolant tank.

It is I think pretty important to keep the end of that ramp close to the top of the coolant. Coolant I used was roughly 50-50 but chances are you will have to do as I did. Adjust as needed until you get round shot. Lots of variables in this process, coolant is one, coolant temp is another.



I have not yet taken a calibers to a random 10 balls to see what size they actually are. I will be pattern testing these hopefully soon. Will report results when I have them.

The main point I wanted to make with this post was to show that with 150$ investment that it was possible to make useable shot. I think wheelweights work best for alloy, but it is possible with range scrap. I suspect pure lead could be "fussy". I

The point is go ahead and find out for yourself!

And I do not know about you but I have had a blast.
I have also added another string to my bow. Just a little bit more self sufficient.
And for me that adds up to sleeping well at night which is priceless.

But I warn you, it is ART not science. Listen to your gut, your years of experience melting lead.

[too many things]

well enjoy your experiment only way you learn .
some things you will find
1 any water in coolant wont work
2 lead CO ww is only thing that will work
3 any coolant that is water solvent . will turn the shot black and will be very hard to coat with graphite. also it will start corroding very quick . cant be loaded for long
4 1 zinc will mess up the whole batch
the best way to tell about shot is to roll it down a 5% grade on glass . the ones that make it are good
what you have in pic would say about 1% will make it
this is what it should look like after its coated.
this has not been sorted but most was no7

[BigEyeBob]

When I was trap shooting , we had a shot maker at the club , IIRC we used diesel as the coolant in the catch can , we mainly used plumbers sheet lead for the shot as that is all we could get . Can't recall if the shot was of a good consistency or not ,I never used it for my loads , as Winchester shot was not really that expensive in those days . Probably need to take out a second mortgage theses days to buy it it and pay transport for it to my place. I still have 40lbs of that in no7 and 10lbs of no4 .
I don't shoot competition these days , hardly use my shotguns at all actually .Probably use it for cast bullets when I get desperate for lead.
We have bans on lead shot here on duck /goose swamps etc , steel or bismuth only .I don't want to get my English guns modified for steel so I dont do the duck and goose season anymore.

I have a friend who makes bismuth shot and he uses ethylene glycol (automotive engine coolant )for the coolant , bit Bismuth is very difficult to work with ,he has been mucking about with it for some time and seems to have it down to an art now.

[Vinne]

Nice work Ghosthawk. You will find that the more you work with it, the better you will get. WW metal is the best for shotmaking and if you can find a way to preheat your ingots it will recover faster or maybe not pause at all. You stated that you have double drippers. If you remove one or two drippers you might keep the shotmaking consistent all be it a little slower. I ordered a batch of doubles for my seven dripper and ran out of flow too fast also. I replaced three doubles with singles and I want back to it was before. So much for trying to speed things up.

[GhostHawk]

Thank you Vinne!

I really am not in any big rush. Yes I could in theory rig a bottom dump melter to feed it but I really am not in a hurry. I am 64 and retired and time I have in abundance.

Sitting out in the garage watching it drip for an hour is pretty easy duty. I have one of those portable outdoor chairs setup next to it where I can reach everything.

I am more likely to work on finding an easier way to get the shot out, other than having to shut down the system, empty the box of coolant, then pour the shot at the bottom into a container to be washed and dried.

Maybe some kind of small mesh basket under the dripper's.

And it may not be the best most perfect shot in the world.
But I'd not want to be on the downrange side of it.

[Ed_Shot]

Nice looking apparatus GhostHawk. I've made @1500# of #8 shot with my Better Shot Maker from Jim Stewart. I do batches of 130# ~ 150# at a time. As you can see the shot is very round and very uniform. Random samples measure .089 ~ .092 diameter. I use a mesh wire sieve (GRAINGER # 3GPH8) with openings of .097 to sort the shot before graphiting, so there is some 7 1/2 in the mix. I've never had more than 12 oz of shot that failed to go thru my sieve for a 130+ lb batch.

I would never assume to tell anyone what they CAN'T do but I will offer some things that worked for me for your consideration.

I have never used a wheel weight of any kind for making shot. You need clean alloy and VERY LITTLE or NO TIN in the mix. I have seen no difference in the appearance using 6% Antimony or 3% Antimony. I now use 3% antimony and 97% "mystery" soft lead and no added tin for alloy (does sound a lot like CO wheel weights). Mr. Stewart recommended at least 2% Antimony.

I use undiluted WALMART fabric softener for coolant. It works fantastic and it is easy to rinse off the shot with just water. Never had any problem applying graphite or with corrosion. The shot in the picture is over a year old. Some folks have good results using liquid detergent for coolant. I just wanted to avoid anything that was flamable.

The high temp Mr. Stewart sold to apply on the ramp under the drippers works perfectly. What ever lube you decide to use on your ramp is very critical to the roundness of your shot. Also, you don't show your apparatus with coolant in your tank but I found that I need the coolant within 1/16" from the edge of the ramp for best results. However, you don't want coolant splashing on your ramp.

You can line a colander with window screen wire to drain your shot and save the coolant.

Best of luck!


#8 Shot from Better Shotmaker.





130+ pounds of shot drying in the sun.

[warpspeed]

I ordered one of these and it arrive this week. I hope to get it set up and run a batch soon.

It looks well made and does come with some pretty complete instructions and suggestions for success including troubleshooting.

[Reverend Al]

I tried to order one from him, but because I'm in Canada and he didn't show shipping outside the USA eBay wouldn't allow me to purchase it. I contacted him and he said he posted another one for me that allows International shipping. eBay's software won't allow me to find it with a search! Even if I log into eBay.com instead of eBay.ca a search doesn't find them and when I ask to see his current listings it says there are no listings found. Very frustrating since the listings must be there? (I can go to the page for the link you sent me, but it doesn't show up for me on an eBay search.) I asked him to send me the link to the listing he says he put up for me, but he hasn't responded. It's all very annoying ...

9 currently available
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262670950461...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[warpspeed]

Here is a link to the sellers account : http://www.ebay.com/usr/maxx69.123

I don't see any listing with international shipping

USPS Priority Flat Rate has an international option so it's no more work to ship to Canada. Good Luck!

[True.grit]

What did you use to lube the ramp?

[GhostHawk]

I actually used 2 things. First I put on a coat of Liquid Wrench dry lubricant. Works great on my molds so I thought it might work well here.

On top kinda as an afterthought I put a layer of Ben's Liquid Lube.

Not sure which is working but I have had virtually no problems.