Time spent melting and then casting?

[TyGuy]

Something I haven’t seen mentioned but is definitely a time consumer for me is set up and clean up. I don’t have a dedicated melting/casting space. I set up under the overhang behind my garage. By the time I drag everything out and get to melting I’ve burned a good chunk of my limited free time. Then when I’m finished I have to wait for everything to cool before I lug it back into the garage.

I have a pretty slow but steady supply of free lead scrap but if I was buying it I would consider buying clean ingots of known alloy to save time and headache. By the time you buy the scrap and take the time to melt, flux, and pour it into clean ingots you may find it’s not that much cheaper than simply buying clean lead to start with. Don’t get me wrong, I get great satisfaction from turning trash into shiny silver bars and then into my boolits but again, my alloy only costs me time.

This hobby can also become very expensive if you allow yourself get drawn into the vortex. I don’t think I have saved any money by casting and handloading but I shoot a lot more than I would have and I don’t cringe at the thought of blowing through a few hundred rounds like many of my friends do now. I guess what I’m saying is welcome to the madhouse!

[gwpercle]

Mini-Muffin Pans ... a company named Wilton makes a line of Aluminum mini-pans... They also make steel pans , coated pans , silicone pans and they all look alike .
To get a aluminum pan do a search on the term " Wilton Aluminum 12-cup Mini-Muffin Pan" ...
Note ... the 12 cup mini-muffin pan is stamped from one sheet of aluminum , the "cups" are not 1 cup , (8 ounces) in size but are the number of mini-muffins it makes . The muffins are small and stack easily in a pot .
Wiltons also makes a 24-cup aluminum Mini-Muffin Pan but ... the muffin cups are pressed into the flat sheet .
I have discovered that Nordic Ware now makes a 24 cup mini-muffin that is one piece pressed aluminum .
I have been using the Wilton 12 cup for 25 years , recetly (10 years ago ?) bought a two piece 24 cup , so far none of the cups have popped out or come loose but I would prefer the 24 one piece pan by Nordic Ware had I seen it .
These aluminum pans never stick and I do nothing to them .
Do a search of the Nordic Ware site ...they may have more aluminum mini pans like mini loaf pans , that would make a good ingot .
All aluminum baking pans are hard to find but are the best !
Gary

[gwpercle]

Insanity may not be a requirement to join this outfit ... but it sure Helps !

My Mom never bothered to have me tested ... I didn't ride the short bus to school ... I Drove It !

[justindad]

Things I plan on to speed up my casting process:
1) Use a mold release (find one that doesn’t cause build-up). I think I could triple my output if I didn’t have to wack the mold handles every time I opened the mold. This is my biggest problem right now.
2) Cast with multiple molds. When a mold gets too hot, grab the second mold.
3) Get a 25 lb pot. My 10 lb Lee bottom poor pot holds about 8 lb, and the fill level affects bullet quality (for many reasons). So I added a small Lee ladle pot so I can refill the bottom pour pot with molten lead (keeps temperatures stable), maintaining a minimum fill level of about 70% full. This has improved my efficiency & the purity of alloy in the finished boolit. Casting with a single pot that holds 5X the amount of lead I pour into boolits per session would be better.
*
I get about 1 boolit per minute. I enjoy the slow process of making excellent ammo, and discovering how to make better ammo than I did last time.
*
Also, consider not smelting yet and buy lead from Rotometals or Missouri Bullet Company instead. The unknowns associated with alloy cleanliness and exactly what alloy you end up with may drive unnecessary confusion into the bullet casting process while you are first learning it. Plus, if you decide casting isn’t for you, you won’t have wasted anything on the smelting part. That being said, I’ve never smelted and I’ve only casted ~2k boolits so far.

[Rcmaveric]

One thing to help. Is streamling the process. After you try it. Take note of what obstacles or major time consumers. Then find a mitigating factor.

TyGuy mention set up. I had the same problem. Setup and break down took a few hours. I got one of the little husky boxes on wheels. All my reclaiming tools and materials and ingot molds are in it. I just grab that and go.

During the casting process over heating molds added added up to wasted hours. Using multi molds mitigated that.

I have a multi purpose small shop. Aka single car garage now. Before that i was in an apartment. I still dont have a dedicated casting area. But i have all my tools stored and organized so i can pull out job box X for this task. Set up my fold away table. And be ready to rock when i have time and not waste it..

So expect no matter what task. Your first time is going to be slow and low out put. Streamlining and experience will be spead. You will quickly be able to cast 5-10lbs of bullets an hour or more.

Even a simple dolly (60 buck investment) saves me over an hour to put away ingots.

[charlie b]

I don't use scrap. But, I cast smaller quantities. Takes me a few months to go through 40lb of lead.

Typical bullet making session:

Heat up pot, about 20-30min (Lee 20lb). During this time I set up the rest of my stuff.
-get hotplate and put mold(s) on it.
-put paper towel in tray with water (for mold cooling during casting)
-set up cotton towels to drop bullets on.
-put up box for finished bullets

When casting I use one mold. I use a specific process that I will not describe here since it involves wet cooling the mold during casting.

Number of bullets cast per hr depends on the mold. My two cavity molds I can get around 100-200 per hour. 6 cavity about double that (have to take a more breaks to add more lead and wait for it to get back up to temp). My arms are the limiting factor. I usually do ~100 and then have to take a short break. I put the mold on the hotplate. Sprues back in pot. Add anymore lead if needed, etc. The hotplate means I can go back to casting immediately with good bullets.

Powder coat. Again, small batches mainly because most of mine are rifle bullets and are stood up on the trays one at a time. First, gas checks and sizing. My favorite bullets also require nose sizing. Then clean with acetone. Shake and bake, about 50-100 at a time. Load a tray and put it in oven. While that batch is baking (20min) I will do the second batch, etc. Then I size again. 200-300 bullets takes about 3hr total.

Yes, you can do large batches of pistol bullets faster using a wire basket. Limit is the size of your oven. I don't shoot pistol that much so I process them the same as the rifle bullets.

Overall. I usually devote about 2 hrs to cast and another 2-3hrs to powder coat several hundred rifle bullets.

PS back when I did shoot a lot of pistol I did not size my bullets (.45acp). Lee molds dropped bullets that worked without sizing. I'd cast and tumble lube. Let dry a few days. Load and shoot.

[Wag]

You can scale it however you like.

Set up and tear down can be a significant percentage of time. For me, that time doesn't change much; I still set up the same equipment and tear down the same equipment every time I do a smelt.

As I recall, it seems I can smelt out a 5 gal bucket of wheel weights in about two hours with my equipment, not including set up or tear down. Set up takes about 30 minutes, tear down about the same.

At the moment, I have all of my wheel weights smelted into 1 lb ingots. I only have a single five gallon bucket of ingots (I can't lift it!) but it will keep me casting for some time to come, I have no doubt.

Break it into chunks of time:
Sort as needed one session for an hour or two.
Smelt for another session for a couple of hours.
Cast for another session for an hour or two.

It's doable. You don't have to rush it, either. Above all, don't rush. Better to do less smelting and castingf safely than take the risks that come with rushing.

--Wag--

[Rcmaveric]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Smelting scrap into Ingots.

It takes me about 2 hours to setup.
Then it takes about 2 hours to cleanup and put away equipment.

So I only do this when I have a full day and enough scrap to process over a few hours. Once setup, I can process about 100 lbs of scrap into ingots, in an hour. It's nice to have about 500 lbs to process...making for a full day's project.

[elmacgyver0]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.

[farmbif]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.

im not too sure about that- I was just looking through prices of some stuff at midway and mid south. for an example lets say if you work you make $25hr, forget about tax and other deductions.
if you had to buy ammo with that $25 you could afford to shoot 10 rounds of 444 marlin ammo if it was even available to buy when you went looking. or you could shoot 150 rounds of 22 ammo at current price of $8.50/50 rounds, or you could shoot about 75 rounds of some inexpensive 30 caliber 165 grain bullets if you had free powder and primers. yeah it seems the price of bullets by the 100 box to reload have gone way up in price as everything else goes up in cost. and most people can't just work additional hours to make more money. and that time melting lead and casting bullets for me anyway is relaxing non stressful quality time, I guess that's why its a hobby.

[farmbif]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

everyone has their own techniques. but I would never use moisture to cool any of the molds I spent my hard earned dollars on.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you are going to figure your time into it you are better to buy loaded ammunition, even at today's prices.

from what the OP posted, he didn't say he was worried about the value of his time, but maybe he's a younger fella with a wife and small kids, and just doesn't have much solo time?

[gwpercle]

Because of ignorance , my biggest slow down was a Small Pot ... 5 & 10 pound pots are worthless , you spend way too much time waiting for lead to melt .
I wish some one had told me to start with a 20 pound pot ... now that I have one I wish I had gotten it 40 years ago .
The Lee Magnum Melter , 20 lbs, , Lyman Ladle and a 4 cavity mould do me just fine because I like to pressure cast mine with a Ladle .
Another thing ... you do not have to use a bottom pour pot to cast good boolits , Ladle poring them works just fine ... you do want a big supply of alloy to cast with .
Gary

[jsizemore]

As with most endeavors, the more familiar you are with your tools and materials, the faster you get. That's if your paying attention and are willing to cut out the stuff that holds you back. I don't make ingots and bullets to admire. I make them to shoot. That doesn't mean I don't like the whole process up to the shooting. It's all part of shooting the ammo that fits my guns. I like cleaning my guns too.

[Rcmaveric]

everyone has their own techniques. but I would never use moisture to cool any of the molds I spent my hard earned dollars on.

Warping could be a potential issue. I dont see it as a serious threat since the mold is closed with a bullet in it. Its only slightly cooling and not quenching. Water cant get into the mold with it closed so that threat is mitigated. Most of my molds are aluminum so heat transfer is fast. My iron molds i can pace slow enough to not need cooling but the aluminum ones conduct heat to fast. My 6 csvity mold never seams to over heat.

I cam see tossing the mold in a bucket of water damaging it. I have had a pan warp before tossing it in water.

Find a way to pace yourself so you dont need to cool is my recommendation. But if someone has need, here is another tool for their tool box.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[fredj338]

Things I plan on to speed up my casting process:
1) Use a mold release (find one that doesn’t cause build-up). I think I could triple my output if I didn’t have to wack the mold handles every time I opened the mold. This is my biggest problem right now.
2) Cast with multiple molds. When a mold gets too hot, grab the second mold.
3) Get a 25 lb pot. My 10 lb Lee bottom poor pot holds about 8 lb, and the fill level affects bullet quality (for many reasons). So I added a small Lee ladle pot so I can refill the bottom pour pot with molten lead (keeps temperatures stable), maintaining a minimum fill level of about 70% full. This has improved my efficiency & the purity of alloy in the finished boolit. Casting with a single pot that holds 5X the amount of lead I pour into boolits per session would be better.
*
I get about 1 boolit per minute. I enjoy the slow process of making excellent ammo, and discovering how to make better ammo than I did last time.
*
Also, consider not smelting yet and buy lead from Rotometals or Missouri Bullet Company instead. The unknowns associated with alloy cleanliness and exactly what alloy you end up with may drive unnecessary confusion into the bullet casting process while you are first learning it. Plus, if you decide casting isn’t for you, you won’t have wasted anything on the smelting part. That being said, I’ve never smelted and I’ve only casted ~2k boolits so far.

Mold release can be a very bad idea, most of us do not use it.
Yes a 10# pot is a huge issue running anything but single cav molds.
Preheating the molds & ingots on a hot plate is a time saver. I add no more than 2# of ingots to my 20# pot when it gets 1/3 empty. I can usually just keep going without waiting more than a couple minutes for the alloy to come back up to temp.

[fredj338]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I think a small fan is easier. Open the mold, knock out the bullets in front of the fan. It keeps the mold temp just a bit lower & no worries about warping.

[414gates]

I alternate the moulds so one doesn't get hot enough to need cooling down.

On the odd occasion where I cast with only one mould on the day, I have a small rectangular block of sponge on the bench , lying flat in a water level that is one third the height of the sponge. With a bullet in the mould, I let the mould sit on the sponge for a second, and that takes the excess heat off without having to wait for the mould to cool. With the mould closed, no water can get in, and any water on the mould is vaporised before the mould is opened.

[dverna]

I wet cool my molds when using a single mold.

Take a saucer of water. Put a dollar store sponge in it. Cast around 3 to 4 times. You will het a feel for it when the sprues dont cool fast enough. Bigger molds are different. Then just quickly swipe the mold across the sponge. Less than half a second. If you cool it too much no worries. The sprue will just be harder to cut and you will learn.

Activily cooling the mold will double my production.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I had to wet cool a 10 cavity H&G. I used an old face cloth or dish towel that was wet. Laying the sprue on the towel for a couple of seconds was all it took. Once I found the right cadence, it was easy and like you mentioned productivity increased significantly. I never had a warping issue.