If you started over today...

[WestKentucky]

If your entire casting operation were to vanish today, what would you restart with? Is there a tool that’s worth trying but you won’t because you already have something else, or something you would avoid? Molds, pots, ladles, lubes... Dedicated sizing press?

I’m new to this... or rather I will be new to this soon. I have not bought a thing yet. I’m of the variety of folks who go with what is reasonably priced but will pay a premium for a really good product, so help me spend my money wisely. I will start small and build up slowly but surely. Is there a kit worth considering or are the kits like reloading kits that you get 1 good item and a bunch of mess that just kinda works ok. Separate pots for casting and cleaning for ingots? Y’all tell me, what’s your new setup so that I can figure out what to buy.

[Hossfly]

I never buy kits. Just buy what you need to get started like Lee 20# bottom pour pot and 4-6 cavity mould then go from there.
Welcome to the madness.

[Gtrubicon]

I’d still buy the Lee 4-20 bottom pour, I’d go straight to MP molds over the rest.

[Targa]

Yes, definitely process your lead in a pot other than your casting furnace. I use a $20 cast iron pot and a cheap fish fryer to melt wheel weights. For molds I would suggest trying out a Lee 2 cavity mold to get you rolling. They cast quality bullets and are around $23 handles included. As for sizing, NOE and Lee make very inexpensive sizers that will also seat gas checks. Like already mentioned, the Lee 4-20 pot is hard to beat. Also get a Lyman 4th edition cast bullet handbook.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I should have bought a hot plate sooner, and should have used a large tin can to make a little mold oven on the hot plate right after I bought it.

Lots of opinions on powder coating. But a second hand toaster oven, a wire basket, and a pound of good powder will get you started for under $20 or so.

Should have bought some 2 stroke oil to lube my mold pivots and sprue plate sooner.

The Lee Turret press, Lee dies, Lee pot, and Lee molds have all treated me well. I have one die I had to grind a bit off the bottom to allow a 44 Russian to fully enter, and a couple of the molds hang on to boolits a little tighter than I want, but that is fixable, I just haven't bothered.

[Chad5005]

im with others,i like my cheap lead dripping lee 20# bottom pour pot.ive got a few lee 6 cavity molds for high use plinking calibers, then ive also got good steel molds ive bought used from members here and mp molds for heavy hunting and hollow point round

[Eddie Southgate]

Already been through that , lost everything to a dope head thief years ago . Hunted down all the old stuff and would do it again if I had to . Newer is not always better .

[dverna]

What are your needs and expectations
.

[Land Owner]

Read, read, and read some more. What I have not learned about this hobby will fill a library...and KEEP COPIUS NOTES. You will thank yourself later for your own "Quick Reference" notes.

My "first" was an aluminum Lee 358-150 WC mold that I would neither trade nor sell today. I love shooting those cylindrical "ash cans" down range and could have stopped there...but we all know the drill of this "shoot more to save $$" habit.

ESSENTIALS

Lead (Pb), COWW's, pewter, and tin (Sn) - if free, all the better.
Choose an alloy. I like this percentage: 49/49/2 of Pb/WW/Sn.

Smelting pot - 1/2 propane tank, melts ~100#'s, and a propane "turkey fryer" burner.
Smelting molds - welded bed frame that cast triangular ingots ~3# each.
Flux with saw dust and candle wax.

Buy a boolit mold.
Choose dip or pour. A melting pot is needed to pour boolits. Typicals are Lee and RCBS.
Flux with saw dust and candle wax.

Try tumble lube. Few components required, which are easily hand made.
Try lube/size. Sizing die & nose punch per boolit shape, lube/sizer, and lube, required.
Try PC. All for lube/size, plus coating, and components for coating & baking are required.

Try with and without gas checks.

'bout all I can think of...

[wv109323]

I think what you buy depends on your requirements. A high volume competitive shooter's set up would be different than a plinker with several calibers.
My needs are at least a 20 lb. pot with 4 and 6 cavity molds. I highly recommend a PID and a hot plate to preheat your molds. A low volume shooter could get away with a 10 lb. Pot and 2 cavity molds.
Smelting or ingot making is varied. Also depends on volume. The turkey fryer and a steel pot is common.
Sizing and lubing has the PC or lube-sizer route. I can size and lube through a Star sizer quicker than I can powder coat. YMMV

[Lefty Red]

Wish I didn’t stumbling on this thread.....

Newly moved and starting over on casting, and basically reloading as well but most likely just unpacking.

I too would stick with Lee bottom our pots, and have two in order.

Lee six bangers work great for me, and when they get back in stock, I will get three of each model I like. And if I can’t get Lee in the design I want, will get another six-five banger mold. I won’t mess with single and double cavities anymore. If it’s worth getting everything set up to cast, it’s worth getting the most for your time.

I tumble lube, and will have a stock pile of Alox.

Have a couple hit plates going at all times. Like the idea of a “oven” someone mentioned. Will look for an old Coleman stove oven to use.

This is the fourth major shortage I have been through. I have learned and adjusted my preps in every single one of them. I wont lie, I got caught with my pants down on this one. Never thought it would be this hard to get primers and brass and bullets. But when everything comes back to normalize state, I will adapt.

Lefty

[Targa]

wv109323 mentioned a PID, if you don’t go with a PID a lead thermometer, at least in my opinion is a must. I picked one up from Rotometals (if I remember correctly it is an RCBS without the name).

[BUFFALOW RED]

I buy the 650 Dillon reloading press first I love the 2 I have should have started with them.

[Rich/WIS]

Lee 20# pot, Lee 6 banger for pistol, NOE 5 banger for rifle, Lyman/RCBS sizer and sizing dies/top punches, Gator checks, XLOX 2500 lube, hotplate, lead thermometer. Decent press, dies with neck sizer die and M die for rifles, universal de-capping die, bullet puller. Case trimmer, micrometer and deburring tools. Scale and powder measure.

[Lloyd Smale]

id did that after a fire about 10 years ago. Made some smart choices and some not so smart. I bought two new rcbs pots (good move) Got a new 550 from dillon for free (great move) bought 3 lnl progressive hornadys to replace my melted square deals because they gave away a 1000 bullets with them bullets are now gone and im stuck with 3 lnls when i could have bought two 650s or replaced my square deals for about the same (stupid move) Replaced my destroyed lyman and star sizing presses with a new star (smart at the time but with pc it collects dust) so a 50-50 move. If i lost everything today heres what id buy. A 1050 or if money was tight a 750 with conversions for 556 308 9mm 40 and 45acp. A 550 for anything else or small batches of pistol and my 300 bos 6.5 grendels 300 hamrs and beowolf loading. A rock chucker for specialty stuff and bolt action hunting loads and would replace my two rcbs pots. Maybe another press or set up for sizing cast bullets with lee push throughs. Add to that a couple cheap shotgun presses like rcbs presses i have now because i have a ton of shot gun stuff loaded and rarely shoot it and dont use those two presses more then once every couple years. but there wouldnt be much that wasnt green or blue in the room.

[farmbif]

I cry foul, not a fair question.
when I cast my first bullets with my cousin for a 44 cal 1860 copy. we used some lead plates from a battery we found out back that had probably been destroyed many years earlier, and a hot plate a small cooking pan and an old tablespoon and we cast bullets, we couldn't afford much more. and when I got 357 mag and got into casting for it it was with the least expensive mold and makeshift hot plate, pan tablespoon and wheel weights. it wasn't till many years later when I was working 3 jobs at the same time I could afford the stuff that was on the pages of the catalogs.
I'm willing to bet many others here have similar stories just not being able to afford all the fancy stuff in magazines when starting out

[onelight]

I cry foul, not a fair question.
when I cast my first bullets with my cousin for a 44 cal 1860 copy. we used some lead plates from a battery we found out back that had probably been destroyed many years earlier, and a hot plate a small cooking pan and an old tablespoon and we cast bullets, we couldn't afford much more. and when I got 357 mag and got into casting for it it was with the least expensive mold and makeshift hot plate, pan tablespoon and wheel weights. it wasn't till many years later when I was working 3 jobs at the same time I could afford the stuff that was on the pages of the catalogs.
I'm willing to bet many others here have similar stories just not being able to afford all the fancy stuff in magazines when starting out

Yup I started the same way on the same budget I made my first dipper out of a pice of pipe in the motorcycle shop where I was a mechanic ( I still have it 45 years later ) I also still have my spoon that I crudely attached a wooden handle to and use it for stirring and fluxing to this day.

[Old School Big Bore]

I started casting (1975) as soon as I started loading. My first press was an RCBS JR and my first pot was the flimsy Lee stamped steel pot. I started casting by smelting wheelweights on the KITCHEN STOVE with the Lee SINGLE cavity moulds in .44 and .38, and pan lubing with the Lee pan and hammer-driven punch/die set. I made my own lube out of beeswax and petroleum jelly, and the Lee cake-cutter that came with the kit soon became hammer-driven as well.
You have not fully lived the low-budget, entry-level casting and handloading experience til you've loaded a thousand rounds of .44 wadcutter to support yourself through a law enforcement academy using your Target Bulldog (couldn't afford an M29 then, thanks, Hollywood!) by ladle-casting on the kitchen stove, hammering each boolit through the sizer (I thought then, "why don't they put threads on this thing so you can use it in a press?") and assembling the rounds on a single station press with homemade powder scoops.
So my casting and loading has evolved into a pair of 550s, one each for small and large primers, a 20# furnace for casting with 4 & 6 cavity moulds, a 10# furnace suspended about that for premelting alloy ingots, lube-sizing the boolits through a 450 or powder-coating them and shoving them through a Lee push-through, and loading them on one of the two 550s. But with the drought, I'm into my cobwebby stash of crimped-primer cases and decapping/swaging pockets on a single station press. And I have to go out to the shop right now to try to finish prepping about 4-5 K of military 9X19 brass right now. Maybe I'll make some brunch first...
Ed <><

[engineer401]

I tried bottom pour and ultimately settled on ladle cast. I started out with Lee products to decide if this is something I wanted to continue with. After awhile, I upgraded my molds and began to use a Lee 20# Magnum Melter. I have to watch the temperature. As the lead level goes down, the temperature goes up. I have an old Saeco bullet sizer I at a pawn shop for a good price. I recently began powder coating bullets using a toaster oven I bought on sale at Target. If money is of concern there are a lot of creative ideas offered on this forum. Good Luck. Please let us know how it goes for you.

[Prairie Cowboy]

I think what you buy depends on your requirements. A high volume competitive shooter's set up would be different than a plinker with several calibers.
My needs are at least a 20 lb. pot with 4 and 6 cavity molds. I highly recommend a PID and a hot plate to preheat your molds. A low volume shooter could get away with a 10 lb. Pot and 2 cavity molds.
Smelting or ingot making is varied. Also depends on volume. The turkey fryer and a steel pot is common.
Sizing and lubing has the PC or lube-sizer route. I can size and lube through a Star sizer quicker than I can powder coat. YMMV

I would agree that many bullet casters would be better served with a 10# pot and 2-cavity molds. Not everyone wants or needs to load bucket-fulls of ammo.

Furthermore, rather than a 10# electric pot, many would do just fine with a 10# cast iron Lyman style of pot and a Lyman egg ladle. This served me for many years and still does. While I own a 20# Lee Magnum Melter, I hardly use it.

It all depends on your needs, and you should not be discouraged away from bullet casting because you don't want to become a commercial smelting operation.