Pictures of your casting setup

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Figured since there is a thread for pictures of reloading benches, we may as well show off our casting setup. This includes melting pots, molds, lubrisizers, etc. Let's see what ya got!

[DiscoRacing]

Would have thought you would start us off with a pic of yours I C H.

[snuffy]

Mines spread all over the place, BUT I do have a few pics;

Smelting;



A mold I "altered" to make a .510 slug for a sabot 12 ga. load. Used a reamer to remove the lube grooves from a 500 S&W 440 lee mold and add .010 to the overall diameter.



Mold guide I made to alter that poor excuse for a mold guide that lee puts on their 4-20 pot. I've covered the wood with a sheet of thin aluminum since that was taken.




Here's the 4-20 with a 5 pound lee melter/ladle pot alongside it.



About half the range lead we processed last summer, at least a ton all told. Used the same smelter as the above pic.



I also have a 20 pound lee ladle pot I use for making the big bullets, like for 500 S&W, and my 45/70 bullets, but no pic yet.

[snuffy]

Here's a few more;

My PID temperature control,(proportional–integral–derivative controller) . Makes for precise control of the melt temp. That allows you to keep records at which temp a certain alloy and mold combo makes good bullets.





Thermocouple goes directly into the bottom of the pot.



Here it is in operation. I had to block the flash to get the LED digits to show up.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Snuffy, that is just too "high tech" for me. I wouldn't even be able to turn it on! Here's mine...

[GP100man]

I have no fixed area for castin , so it`s on a table in the barn for now !

[The Rock]

Ooh, I should take pictures and post them.

Let me post as a placeholder for now.

[QBall45]

Here's my setup. Its nothing fancy. But it gets the job done.

side burner on an old gas grill serve as heat source for melting wheel weights.

1x6 makeshift table top set on folding saw horse.


Someday I'll put together a nicer setup. But, this works for now.

[Ed_]

I cast in my workshop. Melt wheel weights outside, and reload in my house. I ordered a sizer lube thing but have not recieved it yet, I am not sure if that will be a in the house or shop operation. I did copy off of snuffys setup with the PID control...works good I dont have to mess with the LEE control anymore.

On a earlier post I was questioning the accuracy of my lyman thermometer
I even went so far as claiming it may be a POS. Well the thermometer is accurate and I would like to appoligize to Lyman for the bad press.

[Elkins45]

Well, I would show you mine but who wants to see an old cooking pot sitting on top of a Coleman gas-fueled camping stove?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Well, I would show you mine but who wants to see an old cooking pot sitting on top of a Coleman gas-fueled camping stove?

I do.

[GP100man]

Elkin

There`s 1 thing `bout this madness of ours , everybody has to start somewhere !!! & equipment does not make the caster , it helps but in the end it`s the casters call & skill !!!!

[Ed_]

I got my lubrisizer today! The site would not let me add this to my original post

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Nice star Ed! Is that a bullet I see stuck in sizer die?! BTW, when you take your sizing die out to swap calibers, you will probably bind it up on the top o-ring in the die housing. It takes a combination of upward force and twisting to get the die out (you will shear the o-ring). Once this o-ring is out, don't worry about replacing it. The lubrisizer works fine without it...it just oozes a little lube out of the top...not enough to get worried about. If it bothers you, let me know because I have like 500 replacement o-rings for it.

[Ed_]

LOL... I am not telling. Right now I only have one mold for a 45 acp so I wont be removing the die for awhile unless the unthinkable happens again lol.
I have another handgun a GP-100, but It is kind of like an ex-wife since I got my 1911. Who knows over time I might start missing her and buy a 357 mold after slugging her bore of course.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Ed, if you wanna try out a couple different style boolits for 38/357 let me know. I have a 148 grn wadcutter (Lee), 155 grn gas checked SWC (Lyman), 158 grn RFN (Lee), 75 grn wadcutter (Custom Lee), 170/180 grn WFN HP/FP gas checked or plain based (NOE Custom). All I ask is for some shipping $$$$.

[Ed_]

Thanks Coyote I sent you a PM

Ed

[rbf420]

Man there are sum very nice set ups... ill have to take some pics of my gheto set ups, to smelt i make a camp fire in the back... then to cast theres this old shack with no door in the back yard that i take out my small box of casting stuff to then hand cast out in the cold my lubesizers just next to my presses on my bench... if i had a nice set up like you guys id cast all day and night, but having to venture out in the snow for a couple hours is a large deterant lol

[reloader28]

[reloader28]

^^^^
This is where I cast. I can smelt either in here or outside depending on the wheather.
The lube sizer is in the reloading room.
Yes that is a furnace, but not for the house. This goes to my 30' x 30' personal bar/rec-room complete with everything including a spare bed-room for those that drank way too much.
Obviously if I'm casting, I'm not partying so the furnace aint on.
I used to blow the smoke out the window with a fan, but with the wheather one night, it would'nt go out. The next day I felt like I smoked 30 cigars.
I built the hood from a box fan and after fine tuning it, it sucks out probly 90% of the smoke.
Works great for BBQing and casting with the hinged bench behind the grill.
Thi is also the same room the becomes a cooler during hunting season. We can hang 6 deer / antalope or 3 halved elk and have plenty of room for butchering them. A cooler unit keeps the room cool while we're partying and staying warm in the other room.

No, the wall aint finished, but the rest of the room is and I needed bullets.

[Elkins45]

Here's my 20 year old Coleman stove melting down some gas meter innards. The old green gal is on her last legs, I'm afraid.

[chris in va]

That's great. Mine is really basic too, just a hotplate and small skillet. Not really enough heat, but can't afford anything more potent right now.

[TXGunNut]

So... a Coleman stove, a cast iron pot, a ladle, a few long spoons and some ingot molds will get me started smelting? Didn't realize a liquid fuel stove would put out enough heat for the job. How big a pot of lead can I smelt here? I realize even a small pot will hold 20# of lead so that should be enough, right?

[Elkins45]

So... a Coleman stove, a cast iron pot, a ladle, a few long spoons and some ingot molds will get me started smelting? Didn't realize a liquid fuel stove would put out enough heat for the job. How big a pot of lead can I smelt here? I realize even a small pot will hold 20# of lead so that should be enough, right?

The heat output really isn't an issue. A Coleman stove will put out plenty enough heat even in cold and windy weather. I cast with a ladle and after the pot gets melted I actually have to turn down the heat to keep my molds for overheating.

The problem with this setup is that the Coleman stove grate really isn't designed to hold 50-60 pounds of weight. If you do much more than 2/3 of a cookpot you will need to somehow reinforce the stove to transfer the weight off the grate. You can see the steel bar I have wedged under the grate in this picture.

As I said, this stove was bought in 1989 and has spent almost all of that time outdoors. I think I've gotten my money's worth out of it.

Muffin pans are all the ingot molds you will ever need, although I bought some stainless steel condiment cups from Wal-Mart (4 for $0.97) that make great truncated cones to help me differentiate between pure lead and the other stuff.

[TXGunNut]

No pics of my casting setup, looks like a bare stainless restaurant table at the moment...and it is! Toys all stowed neatly in a sturdy box waiting for a pretty day. Trying to decide between a hot plate and a Coleman stove for smelting tho.