Hubertus:
Your apparently simple questions could launch miles of discussion. Here are my stones for the soup:
Book? The Lyman Black Powder Handbook talks about casting, as you might suspect from a leading manufacturer of both lead furnaces and bullet moulds. It also has handy reference ballistics charts. If I could have but one reference work, this probably would be it. It's a large paperback, likely available at Amazon and other such places.
Equipment? It all depends...
Do you plan to cast a little or a lot? Purely for the sake of argument, I'll set the dividing line there at 500 projectiles a year.
If it's a little, I'd say go cheap. That's Lee products, which are generally serviceable but not built for heavy production. If it's a lot, I'd say a Lyman or RCBS electric furnace with Lyman or NEI heavy-duty moulds.
Type of furnace? Dip or bottom-pour are your choices, and this is largely personal preference. I cast minies and .69 roundballs, and I prefer bottom-pour for several reasons. Although some folks have problems getting large-volume, quality projectiles out of bottom-pour pots, I do not.
Or, if you want to dip and be really parsimonious, you can put an iron pot on the kitchen stove and melt lead that way. If you do this, I hope to Heaven that your spouse is a saint, 'cause most of us would be pushing the envelope with a bayonet to try that...
:cursing: :nono:
What do you want to spend?
Again, Lee products are inexpensive -- you can be in total casting business for less than a C-note -- but they'll have you mumbling under your breath if you use them much.
Where to get pure lead? Goooood luck. I go through 100 - 150 pounds a season. I patronize some folks in the N-SSA who buy it by the ton in 25-pound ingots from the smelter for resale. I also have a roofing contractor friend who, every month or so, leaves a couple 5-pound pieces of roof flashings on by back steps. Some guys tour scrap yards, or plumbing supply houses. It is, like happiness, where you find it.
Here's a handy Web site for lead market prices:
http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical_large.html
Right now it's running about a third of what it cost the last time I bought big :cursing: . But then, the world's going you-know-where in a handbasket, so stock up with what you can.
