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Thread: Fast casters, who’s got hot hands?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    farmerjim's Avatar
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    I can do 1,000 an hour with 2 lee 6 cavity 358-125-RF molds. My lyman mag 25 starts out full and is full when I finish. I preheat Ingots to just below melting and continuously add them as soon as there is room. I wish that I could do 2k an hour.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  2. #22
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    I’d have to see it to believe it! Just sayin.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by DonHowe View Post
    Makes me think of younger guys at the public range I shoot at. They tend to shoot ARs or high cap a city 9s at big targets at 50yds or 7yds and shoot big patterns real fast. If that's a person's brand of fun it takes lots of boolits that are just boolits.
    Not knocking it, just not my thing. One really good group can be more enjoyable than a hundred rounds downrange but into less satisfactory groups.
    Perfect Practice makes Perfect. At the police range next to the public range it's empty the mag as fast as you can. That has always bothered me.

    Hot and heavy can get you into trouble with brass molds. Some areas heat faster than the mold can absorb it and "tinning" on the grooves next to the block face can be a real problem. I think I was up to 3 casts a minute with the MP 503 solid 4 cavity but cleaning the mold killed any speed record.
    Last edited by Mal Paso; 06-04-2021 at 10:32 AM.
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  4. #24
    Boolit Master Sasquatch-1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DonHowe View Post
    Makes me think of younger guys at the public range I shoot at. They tend to shoot ARs or high cap a city 9s at big targets at 50yds or 7yds and shoot big patterns real fast. If that's a person's brand of fun it takes lots of boolits that are just boolits.
    Not knocking it, just not my thing. One really good group can be more enjoyable than a hundred rounds downrange but into less satisfactory groups.
    These guys will be at the range when I take one of my flint locks. In the time it takes me to fire off 5 or 6 shots they have unpacked, shot a hundred dollars worth of ammo, packed up and left. I am still sitting there enjoying a days worth of shooting. Oh yeah, they also come over and admire what I am shooting like it's an early Colt Snake gun or a 50 bmg.

    Slow down and enjoy.
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  5. #25
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    I know I’m bragging about my speed here but honestly it’s just the fact that it’s a small Bullet and an 8 cav mold, and a bit of practice. The combo of those factors makes them rain like mad!

  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim22 View Post
    I ain't much into speed. I find going fast always magnifies the troubles. YMMV.
    You mean Momma was right when she kept telling me ... "Haste Makes Waste !"
    Gary
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  7. #27
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    In My youth I used to cast from a pair of Lyman 4cavs using a Lyman XX 20lb pot and an RCBS Pro-Melt 22lb Pot. A Hot Plate too.
    About 1,000 - 1,200 an Hour. Problem was I couldn't keep enough going thru the pots. It took a good 10min to refill a pot. And then switch over to the other pot, then 10min later I had to go back to the 1st pot and top it off. Fluxing took up time too.
    Did 25,000 bullets in one weekend, Boy Howdy, was I sore come Monday morning. That is I ended up with about 25,000 with that many, about a 5% rejection rate.
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  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Drew P View Post
    I have been working my way up in total casts per session and per hour lately. I’m able to consistent,y hit 1500 per hour with several molds. Many many mods to my casting setup have refined it to the point of perfection so I did a speed run this weekend starting with a hot mold and hot pot (Lee 4-20) I set forth on a speed run and got 1940 cast in a solid hour. Wasn’t really rushing, just stayed focused which is hard for me. These were small air gun pellets too, 47 grain, in an 8 cav mold. I don’t think my Lee pot can physically keep up with remelt if I push much faster. I tried running two of these molds simultaneously but it doesn’t really increase the rate that much and it becomes too hard to keep the molds hot enough. These smaller boolits don’t put enough heat into the mold, but that means I must drop them at a very fast rate!
    Anyway I can see that with a tiny bit more effort I can hit 2000 per hour. Anyone able to top that?
    Can you do that with a REAL boolit mold? Not some 47 gr pellet mold? I doubt it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mal Paso View Post
    Perfect Practice makes Perfect. At the police range next to the public range it's empty the mag as fast as you can. That has always bothered me.

    Hot and heavy can get you into trouble with brass molds. Some areas heat faster than the mold can absorb it and "tinning" on the grooves next to the block face can be a real problem. I think I was up to 3 casts a minute with the MP 503 solid 4 cavity but cleaning the mold killed any speed record.
    That's the favorite saying of my Senior Drill Instructor.

    With my eight cavity MP mold I can cast 1000 125 gr 9mm boolits in right around two hours. This includes feeding the sprues back into the pot. If I didn't put the sprues back in I'd run out of alloy in my PMII.

    2000 of those little pellets equals 752 of my 9mm boolits. I could match that in a hour. That would be one pour every 40 seconds.
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  9. #29
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    My normal pace is 700-750 per hour with a Lee 6 cav 125RF. I use the "BruceB" wet rag method on the sprus and drop them back in the pot. I have the bottom cut off a plastic jug with a wet wash rag in it. As soon as the spru flashes I turn the mold upside down on the wet rag for a second or two and then cut the spru. That keeps the hot spru from smearing molten lead on the blocks and lets you cast quickly without waiting for the spru to harden. I had a friend using the old Saeco 10lb 1000 watt pot with 2 H&G 4 cavs did 1000/hr for his reloading business. He started with a full pot and heated the ingots as he went on the top of the pot.
    "Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyrannies.” Aristotle

  10. #30
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Drew P View Post
    Okay I’ll send pics tomorrow. My sprues are large on these, as the mold just won’t seem to heat soak no matter what, and I like a log shape sprue so I can grab two at a time to put back in melt, every pour. This keeps pot heating at full power and limits fluctuation. I do this while letting pour harden up. I’m also using a thick steel plate for cooling most pours once up to full speed and this was a game changer for my setup. I tried again today with my 25 cal mold and results slowed a little, mostly due to the pot no being able to keep up melting sprues. Fred is right it’s largely about how fast the sprue sets up. These small pills set quickly and the thick plates on my mp molds do great at sucking the heat out of the sprue.
    To those who say slow is better quality I disagree. Casting the fastest pace possible for me means consistency, flow, and high mold temps which all leads to quality casts.
    Also important is an aluminum mold. After much experimentation I’ve concluded that I’m definitely an aluminum man when it comes to preferred block material.
    Yup. I can cast more 9mm than 45 in the same 6cav molds, the sprue just takes longer to setup.
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  11. #31
    Boolit Master
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    With my 8 cav 147 gr 9mm aluminum MP molds and a bottom pour with a feeder pot, a nice cadence allowing inspection and culling (actually very few rejects when at optimal mold temp) is right around 1000 an hour. I can go two or three hours before stopping from being plum wore out.

    Faster is possible if I use two molds or the speed casting technique involving wet sponge sprue cooling, but with the first I get sloppy with an unacceptable reject rate unless I can stay in the right temp range (harder with two molds), and with the sponge technique, I got rust on the steel hardware unless the mold got completely broken down for oiling, a pain when necessary every day in a week long casting run.

  12. #32
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    Yep here I’m bragging but in all honesty I just listen to the mold and it tells me how fast to go and these pellet molds demand a very high speed. Doesn’t mean I can’t revel in my production rate tho! Lol. I just did a stopwatch timed hour, and I banged out 2295 keepers! I made a time lapse movie but it didn’t come out as I’d planned so I’ll have to see how that works but yeah, it’s possible, with the right setup AND mold.

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy Phlier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Burnt Fingers View Post
    With my eight cavity MP mold I can cast 1000 125 gr 9mm boolits in right around two hours. This includes feeding the sprues back into the pot.
    That's my exact speed with my MP 125 gr 9mm mold, too. Lots of down time waiting for lead to melt.

    I need to stop being lazy and get my second pot (Dad gave me a vintage SAECO pot that still runs beautifully) going, so I'll be able to run non stop... run a pot, switch to the other while the first pot melts new alloy, rinse and repeat.
    "Things sure are a lot more like the way they are now than they used to be." --Yogi Berra

  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phlier View Post
    That's my exact speed with my MP 125 gr 9mm mold, too. Lots of down time waiting for lead to melt.

    I need to stop being lazy and get my second pot (Dad gave me a vintage SAECO pot that still runs beautifully) going, so I'll be able to run non stop... run a pot, switch to the other while the first pot melts new alloy, rinse and repeat.
    I have both a PM and a PM II. I could run two pots but right now the PM is full of pure lead for casting lures and jigs.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Though I must have a couple hundred pounds of slabs in my boat
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  15. #35
    Boolit Buddy Phlier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Burnt Fingers View Post
    I have both a PM and a PM II. I could run two pots but right now the PM is full of pure lead for casting lures and jigs.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Though I must have a couple hundred pounds of slabs in my boat
    Wow, those are some beautifully done lures!
    "Things sure are a lot more like the way they are now than they used to be." --Yogi Berra

  16. #36
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    It has nothing to do with 'being in a hurry'. Time is precious and I have better things to do than cast. I'd rather shoot. If I could make a robot pump out boolits all day long I'd press the on button and walk away.

    Anyways, I think I am doing a rate of 720 per hour, 4 cavity MP452-200 HP mold, Lee 10lb pot.

    Ya I'd say 14 to 20 seconds is the time it takes for me to fill the mold, wait for it to solidify, cut the sprue, dump into the water bucket, close the mold and sprue plate, and then fill again. I dont see how that part could be sped up really.

    My bottle neck is reprocessing the cut sprues. The little Lee 10lb pot (with PID) drops very quickly in temperature if you start putting sprues back into it. Also, putting ANYTHING in the pot will probably drag some charcoal from wax/sawdust to the bottom and clog it.

    So for max speed, might want to have perfectly clean lead, so you can use the pot up almost completely, then drop in all the sprues at one time to remelt.

    And of course, the hot plate to preheat and maintain the mold temperature at any time you take a break or during start-up really improves things.

  17. #37
    Boolit Master
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    This helps a lot:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Sprues and fresh ingots into the top; hot alloy into the bottom. Both PID controlled, and if the sprues are added as cut and if the ingots spent time on the lip of the top pot before taking their lead bath, there isn't much temp drop in the top, and none, of course, in the bottom. The flow of immediately available and optimally heated molten alloy is essentially endless.

  18. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phlier View Post
    Wow, those are some beautifully done lures!
    Thanks. Those take a lot of time. Quality top coats are required to keep the paint on them. Quality top coats aren't cheap and are a pain to work with.
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  19. #39
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    Kevin has the right idea. I MAY try that. When I cast, it's usually two days runnin'. This weekend, I sat down for both days, for about 8hours each, and I don't think I got 2000 for the entire weekend.
    I don't feel too bad(except for the sun part) as my melt-time was reduced by using two different alloys, one a day.
    I use 2 similar molds at a time, both steel, or both aluminum.
    While one is cooling, the other is being cleaned, and repoured.
    using two Lee six-holer .40s at 175gr the production goes right along.
    With Ideal 1-hole .44s at 240grs...not so much.
    The Lyman iron 4-hole .45s and Lyman 4-hole .357s make your hands tired.
    the Lyman iron 2-holers .25s...the "tired" is a little lower.
    I use an RCBS 20# pot, and keep the heat turned up a bit. Periodically, I'll drop spues back in, and toss some more wood chips in to keep the oxidation down.
    The RCBS and Lyman (heated) lubri-sizers are gonna B busy for a while, though I do PC a large percentage.
    Have fun, Gene
    El plomo ES oro

  20. #40
    Boolit Master bruce381's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevin c View Post
    This helps a lot:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Sprues and fresh ingots into the top; hot alloy into the bottom. Both PID controlled, and if the sprues are added as cut and if the ingots spent time on the lip of the top pot before taking their lead bath, there isn't much temp drop in the top, and none, of course, in the bottom. The flow of immediately available and optimally heated molten alloy is essentially endless.

    Kevin I have seen your ingots do they fit?

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check