Choosing a melting furnace.

[JDBraddy]

Trying to get started casting lead round balls for my T/C Hawken and black powder revolvers. Am sourcing equipment, have bought several molds and a ladel, ordered a Lyman Mag25 from ebay back in December, that never arrived, so got a refund from ebay. Still need something to melt the lead, looking for practical advice on choosing something simple, reliable, and preferably idiot proof, RCBS, Lyman, etc...

 

[leadhoarder]

The Lee bottom pours are an outstanding value and work well.

 

[Nazgul58]

The more expensive pots control the temp very minutely. I have 3 Lee pots the oldest is 30+ years old and still works. Precise temp control may be desirable for hardened match bullet casting but unnecessary for everything else.

Don

 

[Phil Coffins]

A cast iron pot and a camp stove is as simple and dependable as you can get. Your ladle works from the top so a bottom pour pot is not nessasary but they work very well. Don’t make the mistake of using a cast aluminum pot, I did and found it to contaminate the lead. A lead thermometer is useful in any pot so you can monitor the temperature.

 

[fleener]

I use a Waage pot. You have to ask for the bullet casters model. Great pot

Fleener

 

[maillemaker]

Hard to beat the lee drip-o-matic for the value.

 

[French Colonial]

I use a Waage pot. You have to ask for the bullet casters model. Great pot

Fleener

I have a Waage pot as well, I have had 2 Lees and gave one to my brother, so I have the Lee a 20 lb Lyman and the Waage.

The Waage is hands down the best pot I have ever used, holds heat exactly where you set it and really is ideal for casting a lot of big bullets fast.

But, for most on this forum it is to expensive and probably over kill.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Lyman the best. Lee the most affordable. I prefer the Lee dip pot. It will last many years.

 

[ZUG]

The Lee electric pot is hard to beat. Does everything you need it to do at a very affordable price. Camp stove and a small cast iron pot is ok also but for my money I'll take the Lee electric pot any day of the week.

 

[Kevin]

Lee pots work good and are a good value. Need a thermometer with it and you should be good to go. Much prefer the bottom pour.

 

[TDM]

I used a cast iron pot over a Coleman or propane cooker for many years, works fine. I have a bottom pour Lee now and love it. Well worth the money. Never used a Lyman, but have no doubt it’s a better unit, and more expensive of course.

 

[Timber Wolf]

I started with a Lee “dripper” pot and other that the dripping it was satisfactory. I quickly moved to a cast iron pot on a Turkey Fryer stand/burner and am a lot happier. When I cast, I CAST. I run my lead hot and run two molds so one can be cooling while I am running another one. Last year I laid in six gang molds for .45 & .50 caliber balls and along with large round balls I go through a lot of lead quickly. Having a larger pot of lead is nice. Once you get the technique down you can really turn out the balls. Now for just running a few of one size with a single or double mold, sure the little electric pot is the way to go. Unless, like me, you have camp and propane stoves sitting around anyway then a pot and dipper may make more sense.

 

[Greenjoytj]

looking for practical advice on choosing something simple, reliable, and preferably idiot proof, RCBS, Lyman, etc...

Furnace brand doesn’t matter they are all good. Furnace type and learning it’s idiosyncrasies is the thing. Ladle dipping or bottom pour I’ve done both, each system makes good balls or bullets. Bottom pour is faster.
Furnace set up and the area to do the casting in needs to be thought out.
The floor need a cover to catch lead splatter. An out door BBQ floor mat works great.
You’ll need welders leather gloves and an apron pants and boots and eye protection. That apron and floor mat will collect some lead splatter. A table for the furnace, standard height table for ladle dip casting.
A tall box placed on the table is required for a bottom pour furnace so you can see the lead stream entering the mold. A Back & Decker Work Mate table with a quarter sheet of strong plywood clamped to the table top work for me and a plastic milk carrier worked for me. This spring I’ll test a folding table I got from Costco. Low sided baking sheets/pan to place the furnace in to catch a catastrophic lead leak or spill or splashing. Small pan to catch drips from a bottom pour furnace. Small Quarter pound dead blow hammer works great to open the sprue cutter.
You’ll need a 9”x9” cake pan to catch the hot sprue cuttings.
Large low side baking pans and cheap Walmart grade cotton towels to cushion/catch the balls as they drop from the mold and to carry the balls into the house to weigh while the sprues melt and the furnace temperature stabilizes again.
Thermometer for lead casting as stable even temperature of the melt is the most important part of casting if you want all you ball to weigh the same.
Saw dust or corn byproduct kitty litter to flux the melted lead and cheap spoon to skim off the burnt flux. Lighter to light up the smoking flux.
2 cycle motor oil and Q-Tips to oil the mold.
Grain scale to weigh the cast balls.
A system to apply when weighing and sorting the balls, keepers and remelts.
A electric hot plate to pre-heat the mold(s) and to keep them hot while you take a rest or are weighing the 50 balls you just cast.

More how to advice should be forthcoming from others soon.

 

[Jay Templin]

I’ve used everything from a cast iron pot on a campfire to a brick furnace with side-draft bellows to propane jets and several electric pots. They all work, but when I need to run ball in quantity, nothing beats my Lee drop-bottom pot. If you’re only pouring a few at a time, a Hot Pot 2 is a good option- mostly I use mine for pewter.
Jay

 

[Nazgul58]

All of greenjoyjt's suggestions are valid. Couple of additions:

Stand up and cast, a spill will land in your lap if you are sitting.
I put my pots inside a cookie baking pan. It will contain a full pot if it decides to leak out.

The Lee drip is easily fixed, just clean the spout like they suggest.

Don

 

[45man]

Get the Lee pot without the bottom pour. The Lyman and RCBS pots have poor thermostats that fail. I melt lead in my Lyman and as I cast the lead in the pot cools and hardens. Replaced the thermostat with no help. The Lee will last forever.

 

[IanH]

Lee pro 4-20 bottom pour. Do the following modifications for fine flow adjustment and buy a thermometer for it or use a K-rype thermocouple and readout device of your choice.

Take out the pintle rod:

Sharpen it thusly and reinstall:

Remove the steel knob, redrill and tap it to the pintle threads (go shallow with a taper tap so it gets tight after about three threads, there isn't room for a jam nut under the knob):

Make a wooden control knob or buy a wood knob from the hardware store and install it on the lift.

Now you have fine control of the stream, positive sealing of the spout, heavy steel knob pushing straight down on the pintle to help it seal, and a knob on the pintle to grab with gloved fingers to make easy flow adjustments.

The Lee furnaces are more reliable than the current chinesium RCBS or Lyman furnaces that break down, have no warranty, and no service parts available.

If you have $800 to throw at it, buy a 40# Waage. If you have $800 to fhrow at ut and two years to wait, buy a Magma.

If not, get a Lee and a lead casting thermometer for about $100, have them in a few days, and be happy.

 

[TDM]

Yep, you can’t beat the dollar for dollar value of a Lee bottom pour pot. While they will leak to some extent eventually, mine never has more than a few drops. I keep a length of safety wire held with needle nose pliers to clear the nozzle. And I keep my pot in a large cookie sheet too.

 

[ZUG]

I started my bullet casting back in the 70's being mentored by a professional bullet caster. This guy used H&G 6, 8, & 10 cavity molds two at a time with large cast iron pots going full bore. He used a large ladle to get the molten lead into the molds quickly. I purchased some of his extra molds and set up a plumbers lead melting pot using 20 gallon propane tank and a 50 pound capacity cast iron pot. I used this set-up for 20 + years or so with great success. When my casting slowed down I purchased a Lee 20 pound electric bottom pour pot and used it for some time. It was ok but I did not like the drip - drip - drip of the bottom pour valve so I put it aside and bought a Lee 20 pound dip pot. I like it much better. Now I will use either one depending on what I am casting. Buy either of the Lee electric pots and you will be happy you did. Keep it simple at first and don't get tangled up with a lot of EXTRA stuff that you don't really need. You just need a mold, lead, a Lee electric pot, a cardboard box with a towel in it to catch the bullets, a hunk of wood as a club to wack the sprue and a place with ventilation -- and get to it! Add other stuff when needed.

 

[maillemaker]

Mine

Lee pro 4-20 bottom pour. Do the following modifications for fine flow adjustment and buy a thermometer for it or use a K-rype thermocouple and readout device of your choice.

Take out the pintle rod:
View attachment 292542

Sharpen it thusly and reinstall:
View attachment 292544

Remove the steel knob, redrill and tap it to the pintle threads (go shallow with a taper tap so it gets tight after about three threads, there isn't room for a jam nut under the knob):
View attachment 292545

Make a wooden control knob or buy a wood knob from the hardware store and install it on the lift.

Now you have fine control of the stream, positive sealing of the spout, heavy steel knob pushing straight down on the pintle to help it seal, and a knob on the pintle to grab with gloved fingers to make easy flow adjustments.

The Lee furnaces are more reliable than the current chinesium RCBS or Lyman furnaces that break down, have no warranty, and no service parts available.

If you have $800 to throw at it, buy a 40# Waage. If you have $800 to fhrow at ut and two years to wait, buy a Magma.

If not, get a Lee and a lead casting thermometer for about $100, have them in a few days, and be happy.

does not have a big steel knob like that on top. You said remove it. did you add it? I would think the big heavy weight would help keep the pintle seated.