Casters, Time to Have Your Brains Picked on the Basics...

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Shane Tuttle

Staff
I went to two different Goodwill stores and a Salvation Army. Couldn't find any ladles or muffin tins. I think I'm going to just buy some outright. Garage sales don't pop up around here until May or so. Don't want to wait that long.

I did buy the 12" dutch oven at Harbor Freight and the Bayou Classic burner today. One step at a time, I guess.
 
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flashhole

New member
My wife has no appreciation for me trying to upgrade her kitchen utensils. I wish they would just learn to deal with it.
 
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kyle663

New member
mine didnt mind me taking it ill thanksgiving and i hadnt replaced it yet. guess who was running around thanksgiving day looking for a laddle.
 
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RGS

New member
Another thing

I am an apartment dweller, and do my casting on the back porch area. I don't have a permanent work bench, so I put an aluminum drip pan (from the auto parts store) on the patio table and the Lee 20# bottom pour goes on top. I've discovered the drip pan with it's itty bitty rolled up sides, will hold a full pot of melt. Nice to know... The clean up was very fast and it all got remelted and cast in to something useful.

Rick
 
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762 shooter

New member
I like to use two or three casting blocks which used in rotation during a casting session allows the sprues to harden well.

Right now I cast 230 grain round nose 45's two cavity and a 340 Lee 45-70 during the same session and it works great.
 
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flashhole

New member
Yesterday I stopped by the salvage yard and picked up 15 pounds of wheel weights. Today I melted them down in a six quart dutch oven and pulled all the yuck out of the pot. What a mess. I thought I did a pretty good job of looking over the stuff that went into the pot but I still pulled out some valve stems, a razor blade, and a bolt along with all the clips.

I double fluxed the batch and kept skimming the slag (is that what it's called) off the top. My ingot mold and ladle are not here yet so I let it cool in the pot. It came out in a large chunk. I noticed there's a lot of powdery dirt in the bottom of the pot. I will clean it before I melt it down a second time when my ingot molds arrive.

I wanted to melt a small quantity just to see what it was all about but it's still enough to make about 500 bullets. It was about 26 degrees outside when I was doing this so it took a little longer to melt the lead than I thought it should. The only surprise I got was after I pulled all the waste out I put another pea sized piece of beeswax in the pot and then put the lid on. It flashed after about a minute and lifted the lid. Guess I won't be putting the lid on the pot when I do that.

Can't wait till my stuff arrives so I can start casting.
 
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flashhole

New member
My ingot mold arrived today. I will be doing a second melt and flux on my batch of wheel weights this weekend to pour it into ingots in preparation for casting bullets.

I don't mean to sound trivial in my post, an ingot mold being deliverd by the postman is not a big deal, but I'm trying to keep the thread alive so when my bullet mold finally arrives I will have it for quick reference. Every new post brings the thread back up to the top of the list.
 
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flashhole

New member
I just read the instruction sheet that came with my Lyman ingot mold. There was no mention of any kind about preping the mold for use. Is there anything I should do for good results or just start using it?
 
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kyle663

New member
no prep to it. your just making ingots. just make sure the lead is cooled enough before dumping the ingots. i put them on a steel plate to cool. tried wood and it started smoking. also if wife or girlfriend or kids are around make sure they know not to touch them. my wife grabbed one before i could stop her. grabbed it for a split second.
 
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Shane Tuttle

Staff
my wife grabbed one before i could stop her. grabbed it for a split second.
Click to expand...

First you take her ladles and then you let her burn her hand? You goober!:D

Let us know how the lyman mold works out. I'm still sitting on the fence whether to get a Lee and massage it over or just get another brand...
 
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flashhole

New member
Will do on the Lyman.

kyles story remided me of one I remembe about my wife.

We are horse owners. Fencing is always a challenge, especially with young horses. We lived in the inland valleys of the people's republic of kalifornio where it is hot and dry most of the year. We had electric fencing that the horses were always breaking through because the ground was not wet enough to provide proper electrical functionality. My wife was always on my case that the fence was not working and I should "fix" it. She came out one day when I was doing chores and she was wearing sneakers (good insulators). She grabbed the hot wire and said in a very scolding tone - look, this fence is not working. I was hot and sweaty and tired from working in the hot sun for a few hours. My mood was not the best. I looked at her and said "Honey, lick your fingers on your right hand and stick them on top of the T-post and grab the wire with your left hand". The look on her face was priceless. She instantly understood everything I had been telling her about it being too dry for the fence to work properly. I NEVER heard another word about the fence not working. I wish I'd had a camera.
 
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Smokey Joe

New member
Good one, Flashhole!

Quote by, I think, Will Rogers:

"Some people learn by observing. Some people learn by reading about it. But most people have to pee on the electric fence."
 
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kyle663

New member
my wife is a very inteligent person, just had a blonde moment i guess. she didnt see the heat waves coming off the ingots. it never occured to me that she wouldnt figure since i was sitting there smelting that the ingots just MIGHT be hot.:eek:
 
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flashhole

New member
The link was a good link. I'd have never expected to read that about Lyman molds since they are in such wide use. I've read pretty good reviews about the Lee 6-cavity molds. I'll be commenting on mine once I put them to use.
 
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Smokey Joe

New member
Lyman molds...

OK, so ONE person says thumbs down on Lyman's customer service. IMX, you could get ONE disgruntled customer for any maker or seller you would care to name, no matter how good they are generally. You could give away gold ingots, and some idiot would be dissatisfied. I imagine that there are still small-town libraries that are mad at the Carnegie Foundation.

And AFAIK, Lyman makes good products. In today's competitive market, general bad customer service will drive you out of business pronto. And Lyman has been holding their own for how many years now?

I'd take this ONE report with a grain of salt. (There are such things as bad customers, y'know.) If there are many other complainers re. Lyman's customer service the issue might deserve more attention. But for the nonce, I'd not hesitate to buy Lyman.
 
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