Casting

[bigbossman]

I picked up my lead pot for 8 bucks at an estate sale along with some 9mm molds... I still have yet to use it but I got a deal on it!

$8? With molds? I love a good deal.

Still...... I watched a good friend cast his 38-55 bullets. Fascinating to watch, but all the hot molten stuff near me..... no thanks. I still remember when I was a child, my father getting a pretty bad burn handling molten lead way back in his plumbing days.

[Hinnerk]

.... Fascinating to watch, but all the hot molten stuff near me..... no thanks. I still remember when I was a child, my father getting a pretty bad burn handling molten lead way back in his plumbing days.

It isn't a task to wear shorts and flip flops. Just gotta remember "Everything is HOT. Don't think its not".

[Lead Waster]

It took me just a few hours to get the hang of it (not perfect).
I have a lee bottom pour pot, lee molds and lead.

The great thing is if they are screwed up, just toss them back into the pot and try again!

[NapalmCheese]

$8? With molds? I love a good deal.

Still...... I watched a good friend cast his 38-55 bullets. Fascinating to watch, but all the hot molten stuff near me..... no thanks. I still remember when I was a child, my father getting a pretty bad burn handling molten lead way back in his plumbing days.

Well, the molds were separate.

It's a better set up than I used when I was a teen melting my old fishing weights to make new fishing weights using my mom's stove, and old spoon, and a chunk of wood for the mold.

[Abenaki]

This is some advice that I give to every one.

When your casting boolits.....Boolit fit is King! Lube is Queen. And hardness is an ugly step child!

Be safe and keep an eye out for the tinsel fairy!!!!!! She will get ya when you least expect it!

A visit from the tinsel fairy is when you have a pot of molten lead blow all over the place.....because of moisture getting in the pot.

Take care
Abenaki

[Psychbiker]

Great site with great info. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

A PID as mentioned is great as it keeps the lead usually +/- 10 degrees depending on quality of furnace.

You'll want to slug the barrels of the guns you wan to cast for. A 9mm might be .355 or up to .357. I cast .002 over usually.

You'll need a hot plate if youre using hand molds to get the mold up to temp or you'll be tossing back the first bunch of castings.

I would not mess with anything under 4 cavity molds. 5 and 6 cavity are nice.

I'm using a Lee 4-20 and it works. Drips but I've modded to fix that. Also built a PID to help with temp. The issue, I'll cast for about an hour I think the 20lbs of lead is gone and it takes awhile to melt another batch soooo....I bought another 4-20 lee and plan to mount that above and use it as my reserve pot so my bottom is always full. It's all about consistency.

If you havent bought a pot yet, I'd get a magma 40lb master pot or a master caster. The master pot holds 40 lbs and thats a good amount. Thats about 1500 180gr bullets and would take probably 2-3 hours.

1lb of lead is 7000gr. So figure out if you cast a 180gr bullet and have 20lbs of lead thats about 770 bullets but would be more like 650 because the sprue, what's trimmed of the top, is waste and will get added back to the pot.

Youtube FortuneCookie45LC. He has tons of videos.

Dont forget you'll need to lube the bullets after casting. Another process. You'll start off with stick alox and will eventually want to powder coat or hi-tek coat....don't fight it. You'll end up with a couple toaster ovens in the garage and odd looks from the wife.

Oh and sizing. The castings often will come out fatter and will need to be sized. Another process. Means sizing dies for each caliber. This means likely getting another press to mount the sizing dies in and once you look at your box of 1500 bullets and think to yourself..no way am I handling one by one to size and you'll look into a bullet feeder to mount on your press to help in sizing.

I enjoy it and haven't casted in about 8 months, had za baby. It's a process and if you shoot a lot you need to think about efficiency. If you don't shoot a lot, say under 500rds a month, then a single stage press and lee 4-20 would work.

Finding lead is hard in Cali and anything over $2lb I think is no longer cost effective.....granted that was before Biden so ammo is way more now.

Oh and lead hardness. Pistol rounds don't need that hard, like 8-10bhn is fine. You'll need harder lead the higher velocity. That means more expensive lead and paying attention to your lead ratio.

There's more to it like gas checks for rifle bullets. Mold lube. Fumes. I'm sure I', forgetting something.

[Psychbiker]

Lee 4-20 next to a magma master pot

[Lead Waster]

This is some advice that I give to every one.

When your casting boolits.....Boolit fit is King! Lube is Queen. And hardness is an ugly step child!

Be safe and keep an eye out for the tinsel fairy!!!!!! She will get ya when you least expect it!

A visit from the tinsel fairy is when you have a pot of molten lead blow all over the place.....because of moisture getting in the pot.

Take care
Abenaki

You can hide the ugly stepchild by powdercoating cast boolits.

[bigbossman]

It isn't a task to wear shorts and flip flops.

"........and for that reason, I'm out".

[bigbossman]

......Fumes. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Could be the fumes?

[Cowboy T]

OP, if you want to learn how to cast, from a n00bie's perspective. check these out.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sfliberal/videos

Most of the casting videos are the earlier ones. I use Lee six-cavity moulds, and they work very well. I also use the Lee Pro-4 20 melting pot. As you will see, they allow me to cast a whole lot of bullets.

Since you're in California, you'll probably want to powder-coat your cast bullets afterward so that you can use them at your local range(s).