Speeding up the casting process.

[Colorado4wheel]

Thanks Roger and Jack. Thats exactly what I wanted to know.

[MtGun44]

Hmm.

So every 6 cav Lee is junk and breaks and Bull Plate doesn't work.

Interesting viewpoint.

You may want think about why your results are so different than almost everyone
else's results with the same tools.

Best of luck with casting.

Bill

[Fly-guy]

I cast when ever it is cool enough or when I'm out of boolits. I will run up to three molds after I get them heated up and will make as many boolits as I can.

One problem I've run into is that my Lyman mag 20 will freeze up on me occasionally and then I have to reheat the molds - it's agrivating to say the least. I had a Lyman 10 pounder for years and never had that problem. In my opinion, the 20 pounder wasn't the best choice when I replaced my pot!

I am thinking about replacing the 20 pound pot or maybe using two pots when I cast, any suggestions on which pot to buy?

Thanks

[truckmsl]

Hmm.

So every 6 cav Lee is junk and breaks and Bull Plate doesn't work.

Interesting viewpoint.

You may want think about why your results are so different than almost everyone
else's results with the same tools.

Best of luck with casting.

Bill

I'm sorry, but I've got to second that comment. Six cavity Lees, Bull Plate lube, and speed casting works every time for me. I do use a second pot that starts out full and gets my sprues up to temp as well.

[leadman]

I have used 2 pots, RCBS for the casting pot, Lee #20 to supplement the RCBS. I flux both pots so as I cast out of the RCBS I can use an old kitchen ladle to move lead from the Lee to the RCBS. I then add to the Lee.

Nobody mentioned the use of a fan to cool the sprues. I use a 12v fan from an old semi, has metal blades and is high quality , not like one from Checker or Auto Zone. Mike Venturino uses and old manicurist fan, also high speed.
It is faster to run 2 molds even with the fans as it does take longer than the sponge method of cooling the sprue plate.

[Colorado4wheel]

Hmm.

So every 6 cav Lee is junk and breaks and Bull Plate doesn't work.

Interesting viewpoint.

You may want think about why your results are so different than almost everyone
else's results with the same tools.

Best of luck with casting.

Bill

Hey, thats not what I said at all.

EVERY 6 cavity mold I have gotten has had issues before you even try and cast with opening and closing.

Thats what I said. I said every Lee Mold I have gotten has had issues before I even cast with it. Brand spankin new out of the box. They all hung up a litttle bit to a lot. One was servicable with out working on the pins. Once hot it worked OK. It just cast really light bullets. It did that OK, but I didn't want 115 gr bullets, I wanted 124 gr bullets. The other two would not even open and close. New, out of the box. No way you can blame me for that.

Bullplate lube works OK. I don't like using it. Not going to apologize for that because it's not your concern. Even with the lube I could never open it as fast as you guys say. I get minor smearing. It's not a concern but it's not some miracle in a bottle. It does let you do it sooner but not as fast as some of the post seem to imply. Either way, for me, I get better bullets being patient, letting the sprue cool normally. Thats just been my experiance. Your welcome to come over and show me the error of my ways.

[686]

get you a magma 90 lb. 220 pot and you will never look back. i feed it 6lb. ingots , keep it 1" from the top max to 3" from top. i never have to wait. i run 3 6cav molds at at time. i use 2 8" fans to cool the molds. once you get going it is as smooth as silk.

[Colorado4wheel]

and speed casting works every time for me.

I get noticably less pretty bullets when I cool the sprue with a wet towel. The next casting the bullets just don't look the same. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Either way, I prefer to have bullets I am happy with then fight the process by artificially cooling the sprue plate with a wet towel.

[Mk42gunner]

... Either way, I prefer to have bullets I am happy with ...l.

And that is the whole reason for casting our own, to have something we are happy with.


Robert

[qajaq59]

One thing I noticed right away with the 20# pot was, don't use huge ingots. Make them smaller and add them more often. The temp comes back up much quicker that way.

[truckmsl]

I get noticably less pretty bullets when I cool the sprue with a wet towel. The next casting the bullets just don't look the same. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Either way, I prefer to have bullets I am happy with then fight the process by artificially cooling the sprue plate with a wet towel.

Colorado,

Maybe temperature is the difference. I cast aluminum 6 bangers at 830F to 840F and lay the sprue plate on a large sponge sitting in a pan with water in it, for about three seconds, before releasing the boolits.

Mine all look the same, and sprues are cut nice and flat. I also water drop as I find that helps speed the process, and my auto loaders don't mind the harder boolit at all. Neither do my wheel guns ( fit is everything).

I can comfortably cast 650 180 grainers in an hour with this method with very little variation in weight. The second pot almost doubled my production. It's a Lyman 10 pounder that cost less than $30 new.

[Colorado4wheel]

Maybe thats true. When the Lee ran for me they liked to run hot.

[noylj]

I assume everyone does it, but it wasn't mentioned. I always leave my molds on the pot while it is heating up. Never used a hot plate or torch.
I prefer iron, but have gotten good results with Lee 2 and 6 cavity molds.

[armexman]

I live in eastern Boldr Cnty; one of two things
1) I will pickup those molds from you and maybe get them to work.
2) If'n you are on the eastern side of the Front Range; I could help you make those molds work (not teach you, help you).
I like the 6-cavity molds because i cannot afford SAECO,LYMAN, RCBS OR NOE multi cavity molds
Deal?

[blikseme300]

get you a magma 90 lb. 220 pot and you will never look back. i feed it 6lb. ingots , keep it 1" from the top max to 3" from top. i never have to wait. i run 3 6cav molds at at time. i use 2 8" fans to cool the molds. once you get going it is as smooth as silk.

This echos my experience with working towards a high volume casting setup.

You cannot cast volume well if you cannot stabilize the melt & mold temperature. Consistency is the key here. Do some math: you want to cast 1000 .45" 230grn. You get approx 30 boolits/pound with no sprue. If you are using a 6 cavity mold you have only 5 casts/pound. So if you use a 20lb pot you can do 100 casts without refilling. This translates to only 600 boolits. During all this casting the temperature may or may not stay constant, depending on your setup.

Changing your casting tempo for whatever reason changes the consistency of your boolits.

Bigger is better & the more Watts/pound is important. (My opinion, of course.) What I ended with is a large pot that is PID controlled. It holds 70lbs of melt and is a pleasure to use. It actually makes casting boring it is so consistent. See it here: http://bliksemseplek.com/boolits.html

An additional advantage of the large melter is that my alloy is quite consistent during casting as I blend in tin and pure Pb to the harvested WW's untill it is what I want. The word is: consistency.

Bliksem

[cajun shooter]

Your alingment pins are sticking. Take a Dremel tool with a Cratex tip and do both the male and female parts of the pins. Try to go into the female as deep as possible. They sell pointed tips that work fine for this. Polish the male until they have a good shine. Your mold should just come apart with little or no force. After the mold is hot then apply the Bullplate. It does work and you should not cut off your nose to spite your face. Give it another chance. If you run more than one mold then it is a good idea to keep one of them on a hotplate. I use three 2 cavity RCBS molds for my 44-40. After one is dumped I refill it and set it on the plate and go to the next one. This plate is set about mid temp. It keeps the molds working but not over working them. All molds are used with Bullplate.

[mdi]

Geeze, with that much shooting/boolits needed, and being in such a hurry, just get a Magma commercial casting machine. Or buy cast boolits in bulk, like 10K or 25K at a time...

http://www.magmaengineering.com/

[fredj338]

Use at least a 20# pot, so adding alloy doesn't slow you down. Use two molds & alternate them. It allows one to cool a bit & helps things move along. Don't go much above 750deg w/ your pot. Add a fan blowing across the mold after you pour & while opening the mold.

[Bob.]

As already mentioned I keep a few ingots on the hot plate to preheat.
It's easier for me to keep a constant temp if I dont let the pot get over 1/3 or so empty before adding another ingot. The temp drops on the Lee 20lb pot but not enough to stop casting.
I also use a 12 or 14 inch fan on a floor stand that cools the sprue plate pretty quick.
You can go faster with bigger and better equipment,
but it's gonna cost ya!


Bob

[Cowboy T]

How's 6,000 boolits production in about 5-6 hours or so? Would that qualify for "speed casting"?

Here's how I did it. I use a Lee 6-cavity mould (358-105-SWC) and a Lee Pro 4-20 pot. I have a wet sponge that I use to cool down the mould periodically, maybe every 10th cast. I run my mould at about 750 deg. F. After I was done, my lower and mid back muscles really felt it, and after a shower, I took a nap. But when I got done counting up my boolits (excluding out the very few rejects), I ended up with about 6,000 of 'em. A good day's production.

That doesn't work quite as well when casting the 200 grainers for .45 Colt. It just takes more time to fill those bigger cavities. I'm only getting about 400-450 an hour, with lead melting time being the bottleneck. So, what to do then?

My solution was to buy another Pro 4-20 pot. Cast from one pot, while the lead is melting in the other. Just alternate between them. I have nearly doubled my production and can easily hit 800 of the bigger boolits/hour, not counting rejects. I have very few rejects, BTW.

The Lee 6-cavity moulds are a big part of making those numbers. I'm sorry to hear Colorado4Wheel is having issues with his. You might want to take a look at some videos I made on mould prep and casting with them, because I get really good results with mine. They're on my Web site and on YouTube (channel is "sfliberal").

- Cowboy T