Things a newby caster learned today

[jimlj]

My only casting experience is from about 30 years ago casting round balls for a muzzle loader. A little pot on a Coleman stove and a ladle was what I used back then. I have a lot to learn.
Equipment used for this lesson is a Lee bottom pour 20# pot and Lee TL 356-124-2R mold.
1. Temperature matters. I know not all Lee pots will act like mine, but it seems I have to set it on 7 to melt the lead, but if I turn it back to 5 while casting it seems to work better.
2. Amount of lead in the pot matters. I've always been of the "if a little is good, a lot is better and too much is just right" crowd. A full pot causes too much head pressure and lead likes to go everywhere. About half full is where mine likes to run.
3. Sprue plate screws back out. I'd read about this but thought it wasn't that big of a problem. I was wrong. I drilled a hole and tapped it for a set screw and have had zero problems since. I also put just a little dab of high temperature anti seize on the plate at the screw hole. Huge difference.
4. Fill your mold with lead and leave it while adding more lead back to the pot. Adding lead after cutting the sprue and dropping the boolits caused my mold to cool enough it took a couple casts to get the mold back up to temperature.
5. 10ish pounds of lead makes a whole lot of 9mm boolits.

[bangerjim]

Buy and use religiously an electric hotplate! Bring your molds to FULL CASTING TEMP B4 you ever start ( not just warming them on the edge of the pot like in the olden golden daze!). Also preheat all your feed ingots on that same hotplate to about 10-15F below liquidous temp. That way your ingots melt almost instantly when you put them in your pot. And if you pause for something, put your mold back on that hotplate to keep it at full temp.

I do the above and get perfect boolit drops from the FIRST pour! And my reject rate is less than 1% thru a 2 hour casting session usually. Your results may vary.

Good thing you are only casting tiny 9mm lightweight 124 slugs. I would be constantly re-filling my pot if I ran it only 1/2 full and cast some of the HUGE boolits I make ( 45LC @ 300+)! And then there is my flint lock pistol that shoots 65 cal balls. That is a lot of Pb in there!

Good luck on your new-old adventure! You will definitely need MORE molds!

I lived near Evanston for a decade one year ! Way toooooooo much snow and blow.......even for this old Iowa/Michigan boy. Sunshine is very easy to shovel here in AZ.



banger

[Conditor22]

IF you are going to leave lead in the mold while adding lead to the pot, I recommend cutting the sprue first.

I agree with banger get a hotplate (mine was 5$ at a thrift store) prewarm the mold to 400°

I would at least get a lead thermometer, if you plan on doing a lot of casting I'd recommend a PID.

[TjB101]

If you are so inclined a PID makes a great addition to the Lee pots. Keeps temp stable throughout your entire session.

[jimlj]

Thanks for the input. I'll cut the sprue first.
I have worked as an industrial electrician for over 30 years, and hooked up hundreds of PID controllers supplied by others. I never thought of adding one to the melt pot but it makes perfect sense. Perhaps with better control of the melt temperature head pressure may not be as critical as I have found it to be (for me at least). I'm thinking of doing powder coating and I can see where hooking one up to the toaster oven would be beneficial as well.

[MOC031]

I'm thinking of doing powder coating and I can see where hooking one up to the toaster oven would be beneficial as well.

Going from lubing to powder coating changed my life!

Okay... didn't change my life. But I did get back into casting for rifles in a big way after it had become a chore I did for the one rifle that absolutely needed it. Lubing and dealing with lube, for me at least, was the part that was the biggest pain in the butt. Somewhere in my stuff my last boxes of Gray's bullet lube is gathering dust. Never did cast for pistols with bulk commercial pistol bullets being so inexpensive, so don't know about that angle.

A PID from Hatch is on my Christmas list. Because I should never be allowed to do anything dealing with putting together electronics. House fires are more expensive than buying a complete PID.

I bake my PC bullets in the kitchen oven: bigger volume for one thing. I doubt I'll worry about not having PID control there.

The el cheapo Taylor oven thermometers are pretty accurate for getting the temperature you want. If I turn the oven on and then check the oven thermometer to fine tune the temp I want, by the time it's been heated up for half an hour or so while I do the powder coating bit, stand the bullets on cookie sheets, etc, watching through the oven door window after putting the cookie sheets in the oven... I don't see the elements cycle on and off much at all. Like pre-heating the oven for half an hour before throwing the sourdough loaf tins in there to bake bread - I think a full sized oven is sort of like it's own heat sink. After my first experimental PC sessions (which weren't a disaster by any means) I have a process that delivers the desired results.

Depending on what your Residential Sergeant Major thinks of you baking bullets in the kitchen oven... your mileage may vary. Mine just demands that some of the bullets are for her BLR in 358 Winchester.

[Petrol & Powder]

Your experiences seem pretty normal.

The Lee 4-20 Drip-O-Matic has a fairly arbitrary temperature dial but your settings seem normal. I turn mine to about 7ish to start (not that it matters, the thermostat merely cycles the element on and off as needed - it doesn't make the element get any hotter). The only reason I don't start on 10 is so that if I get distracted while the lead is melting the pot will not sit there at the highest temperature until I get back.

Yes, the amount of lead in the pot matters a bit. Too little and the temp goes up, too much and there's more head pressure. I use the computer between my ears to adjust everything as I go - works just fine.

Sprue plate screws - Yep, they can be a bit annoying. A set screw is a big help. Once I find the right tension for the sprue plate, I really try hard to not mess with it.

As for the proper cadence while casting, I can't offer anything. I believe everyone just has to find what works for them. I mostly use iron molds and tend to cast rather quickly once I get everything up to temperature. YMMV.

10 pounds of lead makes a lot of bullets until you start shooting, then you start looking at your lead stockpile differently.

Sounds like things are going well for you !

[BK7saum]

You can adjust the flow on the Lee pot so that you can keep the pot full and have a better temp buffering effect when you add ingots to pot.

[Thumbcocker]

I have seen pictures of a bracket put on Lee pots that is held on by one of the screws around the edge of the pot that was tapped for a thumbs crew that allowed for the adjustment of the amount the lever controlling the lead flow could be raised. Similar to the RCBS pot. Much easier to make than for me to describe.

[BK7saum]

If this is your pot (and it should be) Just turn the threaded end of the rod to adjust the flow from the spot. Turning CW will raise the bracket and limit how far the spout can be opened. CCW will allow more vertical movement from the flow adjustment rod and allow full flow from the spot.

Just fill the pot full and adjust to the desired flow you need.

[TexPatriot]

I tried casting ingots for the first time. #fail because my electric hot plate couldn’t get the lead hot enough to melt all the way through.

Yesterday - Plan B - the 200k btu propane Turkey fryer solved that problem. I now have 10lbs of inedible cornbread sticks.

[David2011]

Jim, the best part of this thread is “new caster”.

[44Blam]

If this is your pot (and it should be) Just turn the threaded end of the rod to adjust the flow from the spot. Turning CW will raise the bracket and limit how far the spout can be opened. CCW will allow more vertical movement from the flow adjustment rod and allow full flow from the spot.

Just fill the pot full and adjust to the desired flow you need.

This is an interesting thing. I notice with big boolits, I turn it until it starts dripping and then turn it back a little. With little boolits, I make it so it is much slower so it doesn't splash up when filling the cavities...

[Boolseye]

Empty it out one time and lap that pour spout, then hang a couple heavy washers behind the wooden spout handle. Your drips will almost entirely disappear.
If it's not dripping yet...give it time

[Tazman1602]

Buy and use religiously an electric hotplate! Bring your molds to FULL CASTING TEMP B4 you ever start ( not just warming them on the edge of the pot like in the olden golden daze!). Also preheat all your feed ingots on that same hotplate to about 10-15F below liquidous temp. That way your ingots melt almost instantly when you put them in your pot. And if you pause for something, put your mold back on that hotplate to keep it at full temp.

I do the above and get perfect boolit drops from the FIRST pour! And my reject rate is less than 1% thru a 2 hour casting session usually. Your results may vary.

Good thing you are only casting tiny 9mm lightweight 124 slugs. I would be constantly re-filling my pot if I ran it only 1/2 full and cast some of the HUGE boolits I make ( 45LC @ 300+)! And then there is my flint lock pistol that shoots 65 cal balls. That is a lot of Pb in there!

Good luck on your new-old adventure! You will definitely need MORE molds!

I lived near Evanston for a decade one year ! Way toooooooo much snow and blow.......even for this old Iowa/Michigan boy. Sunshine is very easy to shovel here in AZ.



banger

Absolutely invaluable advice, hot plate CURED a ton of issues for me about 20 years ago. Can be had at Walgreens etc for about ten bucks.

[RogerDat]

Plus one for drillng and tapping a set screw for the sprue plate hinge bolt of a Lee 2 cavity mold. The more expensive molds tend to have that already done. I think Lee does it for their 6 cavity molds. Know that NOE or MP molds have them. I found it made such a difference to have the sprue plate tension not change that I went through and added set screw to all my Lee two cavity molds

Older hot plates have a rheostat temperature control. The control the flow of current to maintain a certain temperature of the burner. Newer models have a thermostat that cycles the current on and off to maintain a temperature.

The rheostat type are much better for melting lead, these will tend to be the old style "coil" burners. Set on high they will pour steady heat into the melt. However it can be a struggle to melt plain lead on a hot plate in a cold garage, I find that 750 watts or above is desirable.

The "solid" top electric hot plates tend to be better for pre-heating molds. The solid surface avoids hot spots that a mold would have resting on hot coil, hot spots can warp a mold as can over heating it. If you use a coil type burner setting an old circular saw blade on it can be a good way to even out the way heat is delivered to the mold.

I cut and drop sprues, once the pile gets large enough I drop them back in, set the mold on the hot plate and give the melt a chance to come back up to full temp. I think the adding a cooler sprue makes it harder to have a consistent temperature. I also ladle cast and dropping bits of lead in repeatedly increases surface oxidation dross. I have to skim that to avoid dipping through it. Less of an issue with bottom pour. I drop from mold on a folded old towel so the bullets have a soft landing.

I don't think it is as much use for two cavity molds but larger molds can benefit from a large can with a notch "door" cut in it for the handle to stick out. The can is inverted over the mold on the hot plate. Traps the heat so the top of mold is heated. Seems to help get a larger mold up to temperature faster and I think more evenly. Not my idea but seemed to help. Hollow point molds especially seemed to benefit.

Congratulations on your new hobby/addition it is fun, useful, and can last a lifetime. Also expect some of your neighbors and acquaintances to think you are a bit weird, your friends probably already do but like you anyway.