| Posted: Thu Oct 8th, 2009 08:20 PM |
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woodsman777
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I have been slowly getting a few bits and pieces to get started casting .
I went and picked up a lee Pro 4-20 melting pot ,I guess molds are next on the list
anybody got one of these ,any thoughts
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| Posted: Thu Oct 8th, 2009 08:52 PM |
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2nd Post |
fryboy
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ventilation ! no i dont have one of those , i have two other ones(the 10#'s 1 short 1 tall )one thing i would say ( besides the ventilation..)is that IMO they work much better for casting/alloying as opposed to smelting,u can make a decent swizzle stick/skimmer by taking a old tablespoon and adding a long wood handle and keep a old tin can ( of some size) close by to drop ur skimmings in , i have thought about making a few mallets on my lathe for the sprue plates but i just use an old hawk handle for mine ,kinda beat up but doubt that i'll ever wear it out ,btw ? welcome to the molten world ummm it's about addicting too btw lolz
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| Posted: Thu Oct 8th, 2009 10:31 PM |
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Charley
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Don't have a 4-20, just the 10 pounder. Most important thing on a bottom pour pot is to keep the seat for the spout's plug CLEAN. Otherwise, it's gonna be a drippy mess. Don't smelt in your pot, just use it for clean alloy.
Have fun.
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 12:47 AM |
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miestro_jerry
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I cast out of my pots, but I smelt in a dutch oven with a turkey fryer burning. One thing I did with my Lee 4 - 20 pot was take a paper clip and wrap it around the lift arm and the plunger. This stopped a big dripping problem.
Jerry
Attachment: cookingleadalloy1a.jpg (Downloaded 49 times)
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 02:51 AM |
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Don Fischer
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I have an old Lyman pot and yes it does drip if you smelter in it! Got my new Lee 30cal bullet mould and sizer today plus 1000 gas checks. Works pretty good! Got 60 bullets on the table letting the liquid lube dry right now. Bullets with the gas checks on came out to 184grs. Not so bad, I ordered a 180gr mould.
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 12:08 PM |
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woodsman777
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lets see
1) ventilation, yes lots of fans
2) for smelting have a old gas burner and couple of cast iron pots
3) welding gloves, check
4) eye wear ,check
5)very stout fold up plywood work table with sheet metal top , check
6) ingot molds 2each, think i need more ?
7) 200lbs of scrap lead and WW , check
8) lyman casting book , check
9) long handle metal spoon, metal tongs
on the still need list
1) bullet molds (duh)
2) flux
3) antimony/tin
4) thermometer
5) hardness tester
6) lubrisizer
7) gas checks .308 , .45
8) ? ? ?
what else guys ,what kind of warnings ,advice ,tips ect
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 03:15 PM |
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miestro_jerry
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If you are using WWs, you don't need to add any tin or antimony to the mix. Flux, you can us dry saw dust or 20 Mule team Borax that is sold at the grocery store.
Fot luber sizer, I highly recommend that you start out with a Star, it is expensive, but well worth the money in the long run.
Jerry
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 04:52 PM |
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fryboy
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warnings ....anything i say would be repetitious of what u will read in ur lyman cast boolit handbook... but ...wash ur hands before eating , smoking etc
ignot molds ... many things work , i use different ones to tell me the alloy at a glance , old cast iron muffin pans work as does the corn looking pans, i came across two ignots of lino type that some one had made by pouring into a old paper quart milk carton ...wow
a metal spoon with slots makes a great rough skimmer for wheel weights and a soup/gravy ladle makes a decent from smelter to ignot dipper,the long handled spoon i mentioned earlier is reserved just for my casting pot
many many things work for flux , lyman list wax as well as marvelux and i think they mention the boric part , the sawdust does indeed work but best to use a pine dust , it has alot to do with the rosin in it , i have read of a guy using chunks of a potatoe on a fork but some thinks i approach cautiously
when u get ur mold u'll want a mallet of some sort to open the sprue ( unless u get the lee 6-cavity)
i suggest wearing heavy cotton pants and shirt and perhaps a shop apron never hurts
for safety dry materials is imperative, molten water and lead doesnt react too well in fact just a bit of condensation can almost empty a 10 pound pot of lead ( never a pretty thing ) i store the lead that i want to smelt or cast in the driest spot i can find in my garage for quite some time before i attempt to do anything with it
u'll want a old towel or two or something similarly soft to drop ur boolits onto unless u do the water quench method , when i do that i make sure that i have to turn away from the pot and reach to drop them so as to make sure i get no water splatters into the pot
mm i forget the rest atm lolz
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| Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 09:40 PM |
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miestro_jerry
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Wash your hands with some type of basic lye soap and use a small scrub brush, scub for at least 90 seconds.
Jerry
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| Posted: Sat Oct 10th, 2009 01:08 PM |
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10th Post |
daboone
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woodsman777 wrote:
on the still need list
1) bullet molds (duh)
2) flux
3) antimony/tin
4) thermometer
5) hardness tester
6) lubrisizer
7) gas checks .308 , .45
8) ? ? ?
what else guys ,what kind of warnings ,advice ,tips ect"
Molds for handgun fodder I use Lee 6 bangers. I lot of people hate Lee molds. I have 6 and 3 of them did need leementing but worked fine after a little lapping. Dropping 6 at a time is the way to go!
molds for rifle, go to cast boolits and look for specifics, what shoot well in your rifle and the purpose, hunting, target, etc.
Flux: Sawdust! you might want to read : The simple act of fluxing
Antimony/TIN. What will you be using WW? Again it depend on what your casting for. I personally like to keep tin on hand. Adding 1% to 2% tin makes the fill out happen if that's a problem that isn't fixed by prepping the mold and the temp of the melt and mold.
Rotometals, and the Antimony Man are great sources for alloys. I just did my first alloying of pure lead/tin/antimony last week and found it was much simpler than what I heard and read.
Thermometer: I never use one for 20 years. I got a cheap one for a turkey fryer and liked it but but finally got RCBS's and don't cast with out it now. It helped me figure out why same days were great for casting and some days sucked! I just ordered and PID temp controller for my pot and can't wait to stop fooling around with the adjusting the knob to stay in the temp range I like for the mold I working with.
Hardness tester: I got a Saeco and the Lee. Go with the Lee. The microscope it comes with sucks. everything is upside down and backwards, so holding it by hand wasn't working for my old hands. Someone suggested slipping it into a 45acp bullet seater and using the punch of a Lee sizer to set the bullet on (all mounted on an old C-frame.... well this works great and results are repeatable.
Lubrisizer: I've Like both the Lee push through and the Lymans 450. Both well well and both gas check.
Remember no mater what you'll have good days and bad but the bad days will become less frequent as the never ending learning curve is past the top of the bell. Ware long pants and sleeved shirts, gloves and boots. Watch out for water be it rain, sweat from your forehead or a wet WW.
This is my first post here and hope I didn't ramble on to much.
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| Posted: Sat Oct 10th, 2009 01:23 PM |
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woodsman777
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Welcome aboard Daboone
and thanks for the good input ,
there's a lot of good folks here ,put your feet up and stay a while
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 03:48 PM |
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12th Post |
Don Fischer
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miestro_jerry wrote: If you are using WWs, you don't need to add any tin or antimony to the mix. Flux, you can us dry saw dust or 20 Mule team Borax that is sold at the grocery store.
Fot luber sizer, I highly recommend that you start out with a Star, it is expensive, but well worth the money in the long run.
Jerry
I knew I'd seen that thing about 20 Mule Team Borax somewhere so I bought a box yesterday. Then it dawned on me I had no idea how much of the stuff to use? I was thinking about a teaspoon full when I need to flux? Must have wanted to spend money as I have a wood shop full of sawdust! I also recall watching a show somewhere where they were smeltering steel and to flux, they'd just throw in a log. Sounds awfully technical to me!
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 03:52 PM |
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13th Post |
Don Fischer
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I keep seeing the warning here to wash your hands after casting. Off the subject but funny sign I saw once. I was picking up a load of chemicals on the shore of Lk. Mich years ago and went to the john. In there was a sign that said, "wash your hands befor using the john". Struch me kinda funny!
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 04:13 PM |
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miestro_jerry
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With Borax, a pinch to a half Tea Spoon should work for you.
Jerry
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 08:05 PM |
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daboone
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Don Fischer wrote Must have wanted to spend money as I have a wood shop full of sawdust!
Try this URL out. It's the very best on fluxing.
http://www.lasc.us/FryxellFluxing.htm
Also ya might wanta try Cast Boolits:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/
Both site have a LOT of great stuff on cast your own.
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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 09:14 PM |
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miestro_jerry
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I go down to my local pallet factory and get a couple pounds of hardwood saw dust. It works, but Borax and Marvelox (sp?) works better. The borax based ones have no ash and doesn't smoke like saw dust can.
Jerry
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 10:02 PM |
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fryboy
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marvelux ... i have a can ...prefer the pine dust smells like a campfire lolz ,use old candle bits in the smelter ( and welding gloves lolz )i keep trying to get brave enough to try the potatoe chunk , everything i read on it says it leaves their pot the cleanest but i've seen first hand what moisture can do but they swear it works and wonderfully ( think thaz one i want to see before i try it -in person- kinda look at nag's teeth so to speak )
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 11:21 PM |
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daboone
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Marvelux sucks up the humidity. It would probably work well here in Phoenix but was a real no go in Hawaii. Kind of like the potato idea! I think I'll wait for you to try the potato thing first .... Just a drop of sweat from my forehead freaked me out with any kind of moisture and hot lead!
Sawdust is cheap and it really works both to clean up the crud in WWs in the smelting phase and the puttin the oxides back in the melt during casting.
Has anyone noticed besides me that the ash from the sawdust seem to reduce that oxidation. I started using paint stirring sticks from home depot/lowes till I realized I had to do stir more frequently than when using sawdust and leaving the ash floating. I only skim it off when I'm finished casting.
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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14th, 2009 11:47 PM |
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fryboy
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both the dust and the boric aid help prevent oxidization,there's a few other things as well but ... they cover the melt and stop the air from getting there IMO it works best with a bottom pour ,try readin this thread
http://reloaders.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-132.html
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