You guy's are slackin....

[Mike / Tx]

Well been a while since I saw anyone posting up their wares so figured I would break the ice.

So yesterday after an early start I managed to pour up the following,


From top left to bottom right,
Lee 310-120 (quenched)
MP 452-200 (HG 68 clone)
NOE 454-230
More of the MP 452-200 (quenched)
another box full of the Lee 452-230(quenched)
and last but not least the HG 130 DEWC also quenched.

So all together around 65'ish pounds worth poured from a 1/3/96 alloy. In the past I have only used these air cooled, but this time decided to grab a bucket of water and get to dunkin. I poured all of them at a pot temp of 750 and all molds were plenty hot.

This evening after work I grabbed up six samples of each air cooled and quenched and ran one each through my Cabine Tree tester. The results were a bit surprising. The air cooled tested at a 75 and the quenched hit a solid 90. In BHN these would be around a 12-13, and the quenched would run around a 22-24.

I plan on testing one each per week over the next few weeks to see how things hold up.

So what is going on elsewhere??

[GunnyJack]

I love it!
It looks like the containers on my Dad's shop floor after I've traveled to his place for an extended weekend. I reload the .38/.357 and he reloads his .45LC with what we smelt & pour. Dad's pushing 80yrs old so the time is mostly for chatting while I've still got him with us. Major League Quality Time not too far from Uvalde, Texas. Then it's time to go expend a few rounds on the Feral Hog population.
Amen to you Sir, I enjoy your great work.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[Chainsaw.]

Nice work Mike. Havent been slacking over here, I am in fact cast and relading 9mm, trying to fill a full ammo can so I have a bit of back up plinking fodder. Also I cast all of my molds except 30-30 enogh to put at least 30#s of each bullet into platic candy containers. Im now considering getting a .224 mold for 223/556 just for my competition daus when Im shooting cardboard at close range. That would be a pretty good cost saver.

[FrankenMauser]

Purdy.

Well been a while since I saw anyone posting up their wares so figured I would break the ice.
...
So what is going on elsewhere??

Rough winter.

Most snowfall on record for December, January, February, and October-January. Coldest winter in 45+ years. Flooding. Property not holding up well to the conditions. Etc...

It'll all work out in the end.

But right now, even if I didn't have other things to deal with, it's just too bloody cold to be casting!


I'll get around to it, though. I still need to work out the bugs with my NOE .357-135-RF mold, and then get back to kicking out some .480 fodder and testing my custom .480 Ruger / .475 Tremor mold. I messed with them a bit in September, but didn't make much progress before 35 mph wind shut me down.

[res45]

I've casted some over the winter but it's been a crazy time an things are starting to calm down some so it want be long before I'm back at it. I did get out last weekend and make some ingots,about 35 lbs. of range scrap and 150 lbs. of wheel weights for a couple hours and about $3 worth a propane. I also have a new NOE 9mm mold to break in as well.

[reloader28]

One thing that I've noticed is there has been a lot of cast bullet question threads that go up in the main reloading section, just not in the casting section.
With that happening there is really no need for this section.

[doctor j]

Last week, I melted COWW for the first time. Got 75 lbs of ingots

I cast a couple of 38 wadcutters for the melt in order to evaluate hardness. I air-cooled one and water dropped the other. I let them age for 7 days and then read hardness with my Lee tester. BHN of air-cooled bullet was 13.9. BHN of water-dropped bullet was 24.

[Mike / Tx]

Ok I know how things get and how life sometimes pokes it's way into hobbies and pastimes. I'm just catching up on way overdue make-up.

Actually I threw my back out of whack a couple weeks ago. I've got a TON of work to be done in the country but have been taking it easy trying to get through this without making it worse. Just so happened that I was squaring away my casting area and figured rather than unload a box of ingots or try to pick it up I'd just pour some of it up to lighten the load.

Well next thing I know the box is empty.

So sometime here soon I'll be smelting up some more ingots and the two alloys I use for my HP's.

On the hardness testing, yeah that is about the same range I hit. I haven't quenches any of these particular bullets before and was simply curious if they would shoot any differently than the air cooled that I normally load.

[Chainsaw.]

65 pounds of casting in one session? How long did that take? I usually have enough doing ten pounds, maaaybe 20 if Im really feeling froggy.

[FrankenMauser]

65 pounds of casting in one session? How long did that take? I usually have enough doing ten pounds, maaaybe 20 if Im really feeling froggy.

I hadn't noticed that figure until now. (I'm a shameful thread-skimmer, sometimes .)

That does seem a bit high.

But... if he poured ingots, it's well within reason.

Personally...

Normally, I run 40 pounds per pot, when pouring ingots.
And most casting sessions run between 20-35 pounds.
A combination of the two could easily hit 65 pounds.

[Mike / Tx]

65 pounds of casting in one session? How long did that take? I usually have enough doing ten pounds, maaaybe 20 if Im really feeling froggy.

Well I will say that I took a break here and there but kept something going most of Sunday. I think I fired it up around 06:30 and shut it down around 2'ish. I set the temp on the PID hooked to my Lee 4-20, fill it up, and go off into my own little world.

Thing is when I pour ingots, they are in 6" 1.5"x1.5" angle iron molds I made myself. They stack really well,(as you can see in the above pic from Res45) into some flip top plastic containers I had from a while back. Each little box will hold around 80# if I stack it right. I usually use the large ISO cores for a base alloy and do two of those at a time which will yield around 65#. If I blend it into something else I can easily hit 75-80# per batch.

I was pouring 200 and 230gr bullets the majority of the time. The 310 and 358's were pulled out to simply use up what I had left in the pot. IIRC the smaller of the two large pans is like 4"x8" and not sure on the other one but it has about twice the bullets in it as the smaller one does..

To me I would rather make a little effort and pour up a big batch of something I know I will go through rather than run out and not have the time to get back to them later on. I think between these and the ones I poured a couple weeks back I should be covered for my 45's for a while anyway. On Feb 21, I made it through somewhere between 60-70# of alloy, in six different molds and 4 calibers. I started around 6am and shut it down around 5:30 that evening.

That was the easy part. The sorting, sizing and lubing will be the real work.

[Beagle333]

I don't think I have cast anything since somewhere around last June. I still got a few bullets rolling around in here somewhere, so I haven't really had a shortage yet. I do need to melt some lead though, because I'm still in the Group Buys and so the molds just keep showing up in the mail and I have several of those that I would like to test out. I think my problem here is my plumber, my gardener and my electrician....... I don't have any of those!!! That's my problem! I'm having to do it all myself.
The weather is nice again though, so I'm sure the pot will be calling to me soon.

[Beagle333]

I did get out today and clean out my ladle pot and melted 20# of pure ingots in there. I do need to cast some conicals and balls for my BP revolvers. So maybe I'll get the ladle busy in the morning, weather permitting.

[Mike / Tx]

I was wondering when you were going to pop in. I've missed your pretty pictures of all your cast up stuff. As you can see I still haven't gotten around to getting things in focus very well.

I know what you mean on those service folks, I'm there myself. I don't have a fence builder or fence clearer. I have a fellow with a dozer lined up when I get the T-post I want to reuse out of them so he can sqing by and clear them up for me. With the rain we have been having though, I haven't been able to get much done.

I decided to pour up some for later on this summer. I am going to blend up two 70'ish pound batches of my HP alloys tomorrow, and about that much more in straight ISO core ingots.

That should hold me through most of the summer and hopefully into deer season. Oh speaking of that I need to put out around a ton and half of feed for my babies while I'm up there working on that fence issue. Oh and got to mow, and disk as well. Yeah I know about that help, other than the sweetie, all mine moved to Maryland first of Feb. So it'll be till they get out of school for the summer before I get them back for an extended stay.

[Beagle333]

My pure lead pot is ready and waiting for me now. I just gotta plug it in while I lube up the sprue plate.

[Beagle333]

And of course..... we have rain. It's moving out though. Maybe casting area will dry off soon enough. Hopefully then I can flip the bucket off the casting pot and make a few round balls, at least.


edit: Nope! It's cold here!!!! It never warmed up. Didn't even get past going out to get the paper and then stayed inside and watched softball on TV all day.

[Mike / Tx]

Well it rained here too. All day Sat and most of the morning yesterday.

Here is that pic I was trying to send....


Don't really look like 120# worth, but after blending two batches I felt like it was a bunch more. I did this batch of the 1.75 and did the other in the 1.5 so I should be set for a while.

Now I have to do up a batch of pure and one of the views to replace what I used up to make the other.
Oh and I hope those ribs turned out as good as the deer shoulder the wife cooked up was. MMM MMM good

[Beagle333]

That's a nice pile o' lead! I only make 20# batches at a time because that's what my pot will hold. I don't usually cast more than about 40# a day on my best days though.

The ribs turned out great!!! I used hickory and smoked them nicely on the Big Green Egg.

[Chainsaw.]

Are you guys pouring ingots out of your casting pots? That'd take forever!

[Mike / Tx]

The only ingots that get cast in my pouring pot is the left over that I might have left when done with a batch of bullets. Sometimes I get a little ambitious and really load up the pot, then after pouring a bunch of bullets I might pour the left over alloy into a small ingot mold. That lets start fresh with what ever I need the next time.

When I'm smelting up a batch of alloy like above, I'm using a big cast iron Dutch oven pot. It will hold a good hundred pounds but I don't push it over around 65-70# at the most. I don't want to have a collapse and have to do any fancy dancing to avoid a burn.

[Beagle333]

I don't smelt in my casting pot, but I do smelt in a Lee 20# Magnum melter. Then I put the ingots in my ProMelt for casting. I don't need a lot of ingots and I don't want to build/buy a smelter pot and turkey fryer.

[FrankenMauser]

Are you guys pouring ingots out of your casting pots? That'd take forever!

Nope.
Bullets are cast from the casting pot.

Ingots are cast from the 'smelting' pot.
It's an 8" dutch oven on a turkey fryer base. The dutch oven could, theoretically, hold 90+ lb of alloy. But I try to keep batches to about 40 lb or less. Like Mike, I don't want a structural failure to leave me in a sea of 600+ degree alloy.

[armoredman]

...

[Chainsaw.]

Oh ok. That makes sense. I use a turkey frier and a dedicaded 10" cast iron pan. Itll do maybe 40#s a shot. I made two molds that make 5# ingots. Usually Ill cook up my scrap, with the molds sitting on top to preheat, a welders glove on one hand and a pair of channel locks in the other, a quick pour into the hot molds (makes for a nicer ingot) let those firm up and flip em, pour two more, let em firm up a flip em...till the pan is empty.

[Mike / Tx]

I have two if the 6"x1.5" angle iron ingot molds that I use the most. But when I pour up large batches I drag out everything and usually get about two pours per batch.

I like those ones from the angle Iron cause they stack in the Lee pot so good.