lead casting

[Sharpie44]

I would really like to get into casting my own bullets but I’d like to keep the cost low.

I’ve watched “how to” videos on youtube and it looks easy enough. I messed with the foundry, and forge at my high school a lot and I worked in a welding shop for two years so I’m not afraid of molten metal. I’m sure I’ll set myself on fire once or twice but it wouldn’t be the first time.

I have a micrometer, I think we have a big spoon that would work or I can make a steel one, I also have a very old crucible.

I was thinking of taking the crucible or an iron pot and setting it on a bonfire with a lot of hot coals so it’s nice and stable. We also have a propane turkey cooker that I use to make all grain beer recopies on, that might work but it would use up a lot of propane.

I also have a brass hammer mold(made of cast Iron.) that we use to use when we collected enough brass from the range. I could put the extra lead in that to make hammer shaped lead ingots.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Why not simply buy a large- 20 lb.-- electric, bottom pour pot from Lee Precision( see Links) and a Lyman ingot casting mold( or two) and pour ingots that way??

For what its worth, when I was a kid, we wanted lead " ingots" that would melt fast so we could feed the smaller pot we had during short breaks while casting bullets. We drew long grooves in garden soil, with our fingers, patting the soil down flat and smooth, and then poured lead into these long grooves. The " Sticks" were about 1/2 across, and after washing off the dirt, and letting them dry, they worked very well for feeding the pot. Because of the small diameter, and long length, they heated up quickly, and slowly melted down into the existing lead. It proved to be the quickest way for us to refill our 5 lb. pot and get the lead up to casting temperature, again.

As for casting over a wood fire: paper and wood burn at about 451 degrees F. Lead melts at about 650 degrees. The only way to get a wood fire hot enough to hold casting temperatures with lead is to have some way to force air into the wood embers-a bellows, etc.

I have watched this done at club demonstrations, where a member cast RB for the crowd, using a traditional scissor style mold. Most of the balls came out wrinkled because the lead was not hot enough. Even fanning the wood embers would not give him enough heat to cast very many good balls. He didn't really care, as the bad ones were just put back in his pot, and remelted. He kept the few good cast balls to show the crowds what the capability of the mold could be when it was hot enough.

Suggestion: If you want to try the wood fire, FIRST dig a pit with a small ditch running to it off to one side. Dig the pit Narrow and deep. Same with the ditch. The deeper the pit, the faster air will rise as its heated. You can put your pot on top of the pit, and the wood inside it. This creates a chimney effect, with air being drawn into the bottom of the fire through the ditch. The rising air also expands, but if the pit is deep and narrow, it can only expand by rising faster. That is how fresh air is "sucked " into the pit through the ditch. Some people will use a hollow tube, in the ditch, and cover the ditch up so that the wall of the pit is not compromised, improving the natural "draft" of air through the pipe to the bottom of the pit. This is the way early(primitive) blast furnaces were made to turn iron ore in to cast iron. With this set up, you can expect it to eat up wood fast, but you will get a lot of heat to keep your lead at casting temperatures. Just use a good hardwood for the fire, such as poplar( a/k/a cottonwood or aspen).

 

[mazo kid]

I would get a small cast iron lead pot and a lead ladle,either a small one made for casting or a small plumbers ladle. I have both. You can usually find these for very small cost at yard sales or flea markets. I have cast many good round balls over a good bed of coals while at rendezvous. I believe the trick is to use a small lead pot; yes you do have to replenish the lead often but this is not a timed event! A good buddy of mine uses a small brazier to cast round ball at events and that works good too.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

I can soft roundball for my flinter, and hard wheel weight for the 30-30.

Here is what I use.

Coleman camp stove
cast iron pot
Lyman themometer
cast iron Dipper
moulds

Thats it.

Heat it up, pour it in, let it cool, load it up

 

[lonehunter]

look around you should be able to find a cast iron lead pot and ladle cheap, flea markets,yard sales ect. Your turkey fryer should work fine(thats what i use)make sure the pot fits on the fryer good and solid!!! cant stress that enough, last night i had a full pot tip over :cursing: that was not much fun, good thing it was outside.
Make sure you cast in a well ventilated area, and absolutly NO LIQUIDS anywhere near the work space
one drop of sweat can make for a very bad day.
With some common sense and a few precautions you can roll your own for very little money. A thermometer is nice, but you can read the balls also, wrinkled too cold, frosted too hot.
good luck and be safe :v

 

[arquebus]

Propane ring, cast iron 'dutch oven' of the size appropriate to your needs, ladle, mold, & short length of wood dowell & you're good to go. I'd recommend buying one of the spouted ladles from RCBS or Lyman, rather than the open 'spoon' type from Lee you'll get better results, I feel. The dowell is to open the sprue plate with & tap on the hinge-joint of the mold handles to loosen the balls (if needed).

 

[pulaskius]

I have cast lead bullets, sinkers, and jigs, since I was a little kid .. my Dad started me out with a Lyman pot on a 2 burner gas stove with a Ladle.

Today I only use the little Lee electric melting pots one that is a bottom pour and the other that is an electric pot for use with a ladle.

That little Lee ladle pot is dirt cheap and a great way to start especially for bullets and balls.

Here it is at Midway for $ 32.99 ... http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=476462

I think that this little pot with a ladle makes better balls than my bottom pouring pot does and it's a great way to get started for little money.

 

[Many Klatch]

I cast up a about 100 ball as a demonstration at a historic event a couple of months ago by using Cowboy charcoal and a flea market ladle and lead pot in a period brazier. Melting lead is not rocket science. For years I used a Coleman stove and the same flea market pots and ladles. Now I have a 20 pound electric pot and I still use a ladle. The bottom pours are nice when they work, but I get tired of having to clean the spout out.

I cast about 300 ball last weekend with the electric pot and flea market ladle.

Spend your money on good molds, the lead melting equipment doesn't have to be expensive when you are starting out.

Many Klatch

 

[cowpoke1955]

Pulaskius,
Check out F&M Reloading on prices. Save yourself a few bucks: http://www.fmreloading.com/cgi-bin...TGY&Store_Code=FMR&Category_Code=Melting+Pots .

 

[pulaskius]

Pulaskius,
Check out F&M Reloading on prices. Save yourself a few bucks: http://www.fmreloading.com/cgi-bin...TGY&Store_Code=FMR&Category_Code=Melting+Pots .

Thanks for the tip !! I bookmarked that one :grin:

I keep my bottom pour flowing properly by taking a screwdriver and turning the spout from the top back and forth 3 or 4 times during a casting session. It seems to work for me

 

[pulaskius]

Cheap pot fluxing tip :

I've read about many different ways to "flux" a pot of molten lead and I wanted to give you a cheap and easy way that I do it.

I use Lyman bullet lube and take a pea sized piece of it and drop it onto the molten lead ... as soon as I do that I light it with a match and let the flames burn until they burn out naturally ... then I stir the pot and skim off the impurities.

You don't need any more than a pea sized piece and don't blow out the flames prematurely ... with a single stick of bullet lube you can flux hundreds of pots of lead.

I don't know anything about the other methods other than what I have read ... but this one has worked very well for me for almost 4 decades

 

[MikeChapin]

The setup I have used for over 30 years is a single burner, electric buffet range, a lyman cast iron pot and a Lee lead ladle. For cleaning up scrap lead and making ingots substitute a medium sized cast iron skillet and aluminum muffin tins for ingot molds.

 

[sniper68]

To me casting is part of the shooting sport. Yes it's cheaper, but you'll by in large not even think about that. For me, it's fun and relaxing. My Dad casted for everything..When he went to a bottom pour, in the mid sixties, I soon found out that it was way to hard and messy to cast round balls with out void/vacuum pockets. So don't be thinking you have to spend a lot to get good results. I pretty much do the same as Mike2005 and I've been casting for almost 50 years and have 2 or 3 bottom pour furnaces somewhere...

 

[pulaskius]

I wonder how many lead balls have been cast out of those Lyman pots over the years ! Bet it rivals the number of Big Macs sold :haha:

Wanted to add one more thing ... the Thermometer. I cast without one for many years and then decided I had to have one ... I have went thru a couple of them over the years now and don't want to cast without one again ... but by far the best one I have used is the RCBS Thermometer.

The other 2 or 3 that I have owned developed one problem or another but the RCBS has lasted longer and stayed accurate for over a decade

 

[MSW]

now, i'm not you mothet, but "Be careful..."

cast outside, wear gloves, long trousers, and proper footgear (i.e. not sandals). Don't eat or drink anything while casting and of course, don't smoke while you cast. Be extra careful to avoid getting any liquid (even a drop of sweat) anywhere near the molten lead- it will ruin your entire day.

you want to be upwind of the pot if there's a breeze, and you want to wash your hands when you're done.

i've tried dropping the balls into water, byt didn't see any significant change, so i went back to dropping them on a folded piece of towel (which is reserved for that function).

it's a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon!

make good smoke!

 

[R.M.]

Be extra careful to avoid getting any liquid (even a drop of sweat) anywhere near the molten lead- it will ruin your entire day.

Yes water that somehow gets under the surface of the melt will certainly ruin your day, but if it only sits on the surface, no big deal. It just bounces around until it is completely evaporated. Adding cold lead to a melt can be disastrous if it has any condensation on it, because that moisture gets under the melt and turns to steam.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have burn scars on the back of my hands and wrists from lead popping out of the molten lead pot, when some lead added to the molten lead apparently had small drops of water in it. The hot lead exploded from the pot and hit my hand and arms.

You can't wipe off molten lead from your skin fast enough! :shocked2: :hmm: :surrender:

At least I was wearing an apron, and shoes, which were also hit. No damage to either, altho the shoes required a lot of work to get the polish back on them.The lead had cooled enough by the time it hit my shoes, so that there was only superficial scarring left on the leather uppers.

I bought some heavy gloves with wrist guards to wear when casting. They are Hot to wear, but I can put up with that compared to the pain of those deep lead burns. :thumbsup:

 

[hatchetjack]

Watch out for bugs when casting also, they have the same affect as sweat.