How many of us cast lead

[boondocker]

I enjoy making my own ball and also cast for cartridge. I gather up all the lead I can. Lead pipe and flashing,cable sheathing and wheel weights. I just built this dandy waste oil smelter i found on another website and it works like a charm. I always have a large amount of used motor and cooking oil on hand so why not save the propane. Here is a link to my latest tinkering and I have a blast messing with it. :thumbsup:

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c277/boondocker6/Casting furnace/

 

[wcassidy]

I use a couple different production pots from Lee and SAECO and cast for some milsurp, pistol, .30-30, and of course roundball aplenty.

 

[MSW]

cool looking gadget! wish i had the time/skill/wherewithall to build something so neat!

 

[misher]

Just got my first mold (.490)in the mail. Hopefully get to using it soon.

 

[boondocker]

I am a mechanic by trade and have acquired the tooling in my journey in life. I have been fortunate enough to be able to build a large garage and equip it. I do like tinkering .

 

[Tumblernotch]

I enjoy making my own ball and also cast for cartridge. I gather up all the lead I can. Lead pipe and flashing,cable sheathing and wheel weights. I just built this dandy waste oil smelter i found on another website and it works like a charm. I always have a large amount of used motor and cooking oil on hand so why not save the propane. Here is a link to my latest tinkering and I have a blast messing with it. :thumbsup:

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c277/boondocker6/Casting furnace/

Been casting round balls and Minies for years, mostly over a Coleman Stove, but also the campfire and forge. I have a forge and a small lathe/mill as well as acetylene equipment and a mig welder. I'm a tinkerer as well and would rather make my stuff than buy it if I can. In the process now of making a new set trigger for my old flintlock.

I've been considering building a furnace myself. I have a lot of brass cuttings and scraps as well as a bit of aluminum. I would like to start casting buttplates and trigger guards. I have some waste oil and I can tap into my natural gas, but if I build it, I may go with propane. I'll just have to see what will work best for me. There are a lot of furnace designs out there to choose from. Just have to pick out the handiest to build and the best size for what I want to do.

Speaking of casting balls, I need to run a batch of .40's real bad. Been shooting them up purty fast.

 

[david50]

i cast roundballs for .310,.390,.490 use a steel pot a colman stove and my bag molds,i try to keep it simple.

 

[mazo kid]

Hi Steve, nice little smelter. I would love to see pictures of the burner assembly. I like tinkering too and like to make as much of my "stuff" as possible. I cast for all my black powder guns, my BPCR guns, and a lot of centerfire guns as well. I have used everything from campfire, hotplate, propane stove, and electric melting pots to melt the lead, alloy, or wheelweight ingots. I like your ingot mould also; I tried to make one similar to it a couple of years ago, but my welding sucks as far as smoothness goes and I never tried using it. I'll have to try again after seeing yours. Nice work all around. Emery

 

[larry wv]

I like casting balls and conicals. Its a good part of the hobby. Larry Wv

 

[boondocker]

Hi Emery
Thank for the comments, I just took 1ft squares of 1/8 plate and welded them together with a 2" lip below a 10" door.I put a 4" pipe on the right side down to within 2" from the bottom to act as the air intake and welded a 4" stack on the left side. The fuel is used motor oil from the 5 gallon pail with a bulk head fitting in the side and a ball valve to adjust the oil flow. I build a little stick fire in the stove and start the oil to drip thru the 1/4 in copper tubing. Wrap the tubing around the stack to preheat the oil and once things get hot adjust the oil and it gets a roaring. Sounds like bacon frying and she is off and roaring smelting lead. the tube goes thru a hole 3" down the intake to drip right above the fire and that chimney pulls a great draft and no smoke comes from the intake side. Its smokes some on fire up but once warm no worse than a home heating furnace. I mixed a Qt of gas with the oil to help the flow and a little punch. The molds are just some 1 1/2 angle welded up , I should of put a little draft(taper) on the end to drop easier but if I dump them on the table they drop easy. I will try to get more detailed pics taken. Steve

 

[rdillion]

Been casting my own bullets for years. Muzzle- loader and centerfire. About all I shoot anymore is my cast bullets.

 

[44-henry]

My father used to cast a lot when I was growing up and I did a fair amount of it in the past. I kind of quit doing it for awhile but have lately returned due to the cost of commercial fodder. When a box of .490 balls starts costing $11-12 it seems like it pays to mold again. This isn't just something the muzzleloader guys are facing as it is getting darned expensive to reload modern cartridges also given the cost of lead bullets, not to mention jacketed. Right now I doubt you could find much more than a few odd Lee molds and perhaps a pot at any of the local dealers around here, but I would guess in the near future there will be quite the selection of casting equipment on a lot of their shelves.

 

[Cutfingers]

Just acquired a chunk of pure lead 9" by 7" by 4" and guess it wt. as about 250#. Need something like what you made in size "gigantic". Any ideas out there as to how to reduce this thing to manageable chunks?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

fingers - if you know of someone with an hydraulic wood splitter sharp the blade well and press your lead ingot through it, should work ok.
I've been casting rb, Lee REAL slugs and pistol slugs and balls for 20+ years.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I would find a machine shop with a power hacksaw, and hire them to cut it down to size.

 

[boondocker]

Fingers I would hit the 2nd hand stores and acquire a 8qt dutch oven and melt it down on a camp stove or hot plate, turkey fryer outside and pour it into more managable ingots. Once you start casting some nice bullets and balls you will buy this stuff anyhow. Some folks pour into old small muffin pans but make sure they are not coated or cheap aluminum. Be carefull as lead is hot and not moisture should get to the pot as a lead steam explosion will occur. Boon

 

[larry wv]

How would a torch work? Just use the heating part not the oxy cutting part. Larry

 

[Bubba45]

Very cool set up ! I made up a pot around 12"dia. x 8" tall for melting scrap lead and wheel wts . Found an old gas burner from a hotplate and fashioned a stand for using propane . I like the idea of using used oil and look forward to seeing more pics when you have a chance ! :hatsoff:

 

[paulvallandigham]

A torch will work, particularly if you cut off " corners". However, its time consuming, and you will go through a lot of gas. You have to weigh the costs.

Melting in a large pot is OKAY, IF YOU ALSO HAVE a large source of heat. That huge block acts like a heat sink, sucking the heat away from all but the contact surface between the block of lead and the container, or torch flame. My first " ingots" were made by drawing finger wide grooves in soft dirt, the day before the casting. We let the dirt dry out in the sun and bake the next morning before we poured lead into the grooves. The sticks cooled quickly and were easily removed with pliers. We threw them on the patio and turned the hose on them to cool them sufficiently to handle. The grooves in the flower bed were reused over and over again. I won't say the sticks of lead were pretty, but they melt fast when fed into a pot with some molten lead already in the pot. Years later, Dad found a Lyman Ingot mold and bought it. Fancy. But really not necessary for those rough first casts of large pieces of scrap lead.

I recommend getting rid of the hand held dipper style casting " pot", because its so dangerous to be handling molten lead in such a container. Buy a standard casting pot- either the solid bottom, or the bottom pour pots. I like the bottom pour ones, because I can run any number of different molds under the spout, and mold one, two or 4 cavity molds at will. If you like using a dipper the top pots are the better buy for you. Buy a thermometer for measuring molten lead. Don't depend on the readings on the pot. Everyone has to learn a Rhythm that works for them when casting balls or bullets. Some molds cool down faster than others.

Like others here, I developed a rhythm that would allow me to cast bullets or balls as fast as I could fill the molds. When I got a mold going well, I got very few rejects. BUT, I went through a steep learning curve to get there.

I recall one of my first evenings, I cast for more than 4 hours, and got less than 25 GOOD bullets out of all that. The mold was not hot enough, and neither was the lead. I kept getting wrinkled balls/bullets. I learned. :surrender: :thumbsup:

 

[the11]

Just acquired a chunk of pure lead 9" by 7" by 4" and guess it wt. as about 250#. Need something like what you made in size "gigantic". Any ideas out there as to how to reduce this thing to manageable chunks?

Use a reciprocating saw, with a long blade.