I've yet to give my new Lee 4-20 Electric Bottom Pour Pot, but I believe that I have everything that I need to get started.
I've got Gulf Wax whittled with a knife into a sandwich bag as a flux, some dollar store aluminum pans from a dollar store to deposit sprues and boolits, and sacrificial towels to provide extra heat insulation for the cooling lead. I have some flat wood chunks I could use in case more insulation is needed. I also have a box fan to promote airflow out of my work area.
My work surface is most likely going to be a sturdy plastic folding table in the middle of my garage, more than 20 feet away from anything flammable.
Would this be adequate for my first cast? I now have in total about 100 lbs of lead. 60lbs hardball and 40lbs pure lead. Not enough to go crazy on it, but it's going to be enough that I won't have to worry about acquiring boolits for my loads for probably a year or so. If anything, I hope that it will allow me to get to the range more often.
The great thing is, even with the inflated prices of materials these days, I'm still paying about half-price for lead compared to manufactured cast boolits. I just have to get through the effort of doing it myself.