Hot plate temperature

[Carrier]

What temperature do you all recommend a hot plate should be at for pre heating one to six cavity moulds? All my moulds are Lee but am looking at getting some steel moulds if that makes any difference in pre heating temperature.

[Froogal]

I set my molds on top of the lead pot. When the lead is ready to go, so is the mold.

[MarkP]

300 ish

[Carrier]

300 ish

Thanks Mark I was thinking somewhere around 300 or so.

[Mike W1]

I run about 390-400 F on my Lyman's. Gets and maintains the mould temperature mine like.

[GregLaROCHE]

I have a hot plate that I got just to use for casting. I still haven’t used it. I’m more worried about cooling down my molds. I don’t cast in the winter anymore. My feet get too cold.

[Carrier]

Just realized I have a induction type hot plate that we used when we had our travel trailer. Just have to put some sort of a ferrous metal on it for it to work with aluminum. Also has temp multiple temperature settings.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

375 to 400

[georgerkahn]

I have an older-style General Electric hot-plate with its thermostat lonnng gone (Why it was $2.00 at a garage sale). I shorted contact wires and feed it now through a PID set for 375*F. Also a worthy addition, I have a small galvanized bucket with a "door" cut in, upside down, on the hot-plate which allows mould to be inserted/removed with more than just its bottom getting the heat. I do not have this bucket shown, and you may also note the aluminum "heat sink" I keep on the hot-plate.

[Minerat]

..... Just have to put some sort of a ferrous metal on it for it to work with aluminum......

I use an old circular saw blade on the coils of my hot plate

[45DUDE]

I set my molds on top of the lead pot. When the lead is ready to go, so is the mold.

Works for me.

[poppy42]

Works for me.

Yep! Me too! Cheep Wally world hot plate, With an old saw blade on the coils. I turn it up high when I start. Once it warms up I keep it at about the middle setting. No clue what the actual temperature is. I have no need to know. If my sprue takes too long to solidify I turn it down. If I get port fill out due to cold mold I turn the hot plate up. Personally I’ve always felt that people put too much thought into actual temperatures. After all the temperature is nothing more than numbers on a thermometer. If your alloy isLiquid and your boolets are good does it really matter what Numbers on a thermometer say? Man has been casting projectiles for about 800 years or so. Do y’all think they had thermometers and PIDs on their melting parts back in 1288 when the first hand cannons were dated? Just saying

[kevin c]

The lip of my pot is usually covered with ingots, so no room for the mold.

I have a single coil electric burner that, at maximum setting and given enough time, has caused ~1/4” aluminum bar stock to melt, and has also warped a couple saw blades. So now I set it midway between max and medium, put the mold on top of the aluminum bar stock sitting on the coil, inside an insulated mold garage with a K probe in a cavity.

The mold’s ready when the probe reads around 400°.

[Shopdog]

An "oven" really makes a noticeable difference. I push 400 degrees.

Little sliding door opens to accommodate 1,or 2 moulds. Round plates; one under oven,one over.

[Rich/WIS]

Mine doesn't show temp in degrees, only low, med, high. Solid top type from Wally World. Set just below medium and with a cover made from the bottom of an old butter cookie tin will bring mold up to +/- 400 deg in about 20 minutes. Would likely heat quicker but starting I set it on low and then up the temp slowly. Haven't had issues and use the top of the cookie tin on the hotplate to preheat ingots.

[Loudy13]

I wait til the lead ingots that I have preheating with the molds melt then back it off a touch it only happened once lol

[Land Owner]

[SARCASM=ON]
Lick your finger. Stick it momentarily on the surface of the hot plate. If it goes "tsssst", with an unsatisfying "YEOW!" from you, it's "hot enough".
[SARCASM=OFF]

[OS OK]

A cheap, I think 1.2KW hot plate with adjustable rheostat to select ... 'off' to 'high temp'.

A saw blade with a tin can wired to it...

A bucket bail for a handle rail that keeps the moulds from falling off...

A replacement thermometer for a BBQ around $7...

All this becomes a pretty good mould oven & around 300ºƒ +/-50º is a pretty good 'all-around' range for any mould...steel, brass or aluminum.

[Bigslug]

Whatever the "1" setting is on a Waring.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Somewheres about #3 or 4 on the 1100w Wally World hotplate with a saw blade... I'm with the others, never bothered to check the real temp. Either the first few boolits cast well or they didn't, either way I would just keep casting till the mould cast right and cull out the "bad" after the session was over.