Fun with bullet casting!

[marlinman93]

Went out this morning to do a little casting. Cast up about 70 .412" 400 grain RCBS CSA bullets when my trusty old bottom pour pot stopped letting lead out. I poked a piece of wire up the spout, but still no luck. Decided I'd pull the stopper rod up a little to see if it drained. That worked great except the rod came completely out and molten lead started pouring all over the bench and floor in the shop. I finally got it back in place and had probably 5 lbs. of lead mix on the bench, floor, and over some tools I had sitting nearby. Stopped and cleaned it all up (lead breaks loose pretty easy!) and then went back to casting.
Got my target of 200 bullets cast, and will lube them all tomorrow. Half will get loaded for my .40-65 Rolling Block, and half for my .40-85 Ballard Pacific. Should have started this a month ago, but forgot to check my ammo stash to see what I had loaded already.
Should have gotten these cast, lubed and loaded a month ago, but thought I had plenty made up already! Took a look in my ammo locker and quickly noticed my memory wasn't that great. Long range shoot the end of the month and need to get this ammo loaded soon!

[Ysabel Kid]

I've had that happen!

I have a couple of ingot molds on my casting cart now for just that issue. If the spout starts pouring and won't stop, I fill one, set it aside, then fill the next. Before the second one fills, I drop the ingots out of the first and flip the two molds.

Unfortunately I've had to do this more than once!

[GunnyMack]

I had an old Lee pot, had to be at least 30years old that started to just pour molten lead. After it self emptied I realized it wasn't the pour spout but that the bottom of the pot had rotted out!
Since I hadn't used it much since the 90s and left it empty I guess the relative humidity was enough to make it rust out around the spout fitting.

[6pt-sika]

I’ve got three Lee pots . I used to take the little plunge
R thing loose and lap the seat with grinding compound and it helped some with the incessant “Lee drip” . Now I cast very little each year so an ingot mold and handy screw driver handle the problem . I may cast 100 or so roundballs for the the 8 and 10’s and a couple hundred of the .410-.415” roundballs for 000000 but that’s it anymore . On a side note it’s kinda funny now but when casting rifle bullets I was anal about wrinkles etc but with roundballs or buck for a smoothbore shotgun I’ll let slight imperfections pass .

[marlinman93]

I have two Lee molds in 10 lb. and 20 lb. but rarely use the old 10 lb. anymore. The 20 lb. has had the occasional drip, but a screwdriver in the stopper rod to give it a little twist stops the drips. I've only had it not pour once before and I lifter the handle and pushed a wire up the spout and it immediately began to drain that time. Didn't work this time, thus the big spill.
I think that running all that lead out as I tried to get the rod back in might have actually cleaned it better. It didn't drip again afterwards, and worked great once I got it back together. The remaining 130 bullets poured without issue.

[earlmck]

Bullet casting is one of my favorite "Fun Things" -- usually fun and occasionally a bigger adventure than you really wanted. My biggest (mis)-adventures happened back in those good old days when you got wheel weights that were dependably lead for a few cents per pound. I seldom cast them into ingots but just fed them direct into the pot and skimmed off the clips and crud that accumulated. And sometimes the wheel weights had some crud that held moisture and would create the dreaded "tensile fairy".

Only in the last decade or so have I got smart enough to avoid such bother by melting everything on the old turkey-roaster burner and casting up nice ingots, pre-alloyed for the stuff intended for rifle bullets. Slow learner here, but looking forward to more fun with bullet casting.

Thanks for the reminder Marlinman!

[6pt-sika]

I have two Lee molds in 10 lb. and 20 lb. but rarely use the old 10 lb. anymore. The 20 lb. has had the occasional drip, but a screwdriver in the stopper rod to give it a little twist stops the drips. I've only had it not pour once before and I lifter the handle and pushed a wire up the spout and it immediately began to drain that time. Didn't work this time, thus the big spill.
I think that running all that lead out as I tried to get the rod back in might have actually cleaned it better. It didn't drip again afterwards, and worked great once I got it back together. The remaining 130 bullets poured without issue.

I truely think the valves in two of mine were messed up when I first started turning WW’s into ingots and there was a fair amount of dirt/trash involved I bought a 10 and a 20 brand new and I still have them . But over the years people have given me or sold me for virtually nothing used Lee pots , but only one has stood the test of “my time” the others were usually useless after awhile even after lapping compound .

[Bill in Oregon]

I have a habit of turning on my Lee production pot, losing focus, and wandering off. A couple of times I have returned to find that the stopper wasn't full seated and half the pot had drained out. I always fire the critter up sitting on a sacrificial hunk of plywood dotted with many scorch marks, but have bent the aluminum base trying to pry the lead loose. I'd be right up there in the casting fails army.

[marlinman93]

I have a habit of turning on my Lee production pot, losing focus, and wandering off. A couple of times I have returned to find that the stopper wasn't full seated and half the pot had drained out. I always fire the critter up sitting on a sacrificial hunk of plywood dotted with many scorch marks, but have bent the aluminum base trying to pry the lead loose. I'd be right up there in the casting fails army.

Never had any bad leaks with mine, but I have turned it on to heat up while I gathered molds, and tools to begin casting and come back to see just a solid stalagmite of lead from the spout to the base. Nothing any larger than that before.

I got 200 bullets sized and lubed today, and then got 100 each of .40-85 and .40-65 cases belled and ready to prime and load. After that my lower back was aching and I decided to find my east chair and wait until tomorrow to do more.

[GunnyMack]

Yep, the dreaded backache is why I stand while casting ( and reloading) . I also made a riser platform for my pot , just a 5 sided box. Works nice as I keep the tub of flux right there in the box.

[marlinman93]

Yep, the dreaded backache is why I stand while casting ( and reloading) . I also made a riser platform for my pot , just a 5 sided box. Works nice as I keep the tub of flux right there in the box.

I have a tall stool at my bench so I'm almost standing, but not putting full weight on my feet. My feet are also bad from years working on hard surfaces, so standing too long hurts them too!

I got all my cases prepped, and reloaded today! Came home from our weekly car club breakfast and from around 11:30 straight through to 4:30 I had a marathon reloading session, and finished all I need for our shoot the last weekend of this month!

[Walt]

I normally cast with 2 sets of molds so that one cools while I'm dumping out the other. If the bullets begin to frost I turn on a fan which blows across the molds and also the aluminum heat sink they sit on so the molds cool more quickly. I put a couple of sponges in a small pail of water so that my bullets are delayed a moment before dropping to the bottom of the pail. I built a cart and welded casters to the legs so I can roll the cart to the garage door for better ventilation. I've been doing it for years and it works well for me.

[marlinman93]

That was 4400 grains of 4198 powder used to load all the ammo. 2/3rds. of a pound! Not counting an unknown amount of powder dropped on the floor when I was refilling my hopper on my Harrell's measure and lost a good half pound on the floor. The Harrell's hoppers screw into the measure and have a plastic fill plug on the top of the hoppers. But I usually prefer taking hopper off and quickly pouring powder into the threaded neck vs. using a funnel to pour through the plug. But I forgot to push the plug in snug, so when I turned it upside down and began pouring powder in, the plug suddenly popped out and dumped it all on my feet. Fortunately my foam mats I have on the floor to help my aching feet also caught most of the powder and were clean. So I scooped it up and dumped it back in the hopper. Probably lost some, but not a lot. At today's prices I sure don't want to lose very much!

[GunnyMack]

Sounds like MEC and Harrell used the same system of wasting power and shot!

[Griff]

My cast station is at one end of my main reloading bench, and near the sliding door to my workshop for ventilation. I don't cast too often in hot weather, much over 70ºF and it becomes a bit much. I normally use 3 molds and rotate them in order, a 4 hole .30 caliber for the .30-30, a two hole .45 225 grain for my BP and now a 3-hole for the .32-40.