Starting with casting lead round balls for my Navy 1851 .36. I ordered ten pounds of pure lead ingots and a Lee Precision, two ball, mold. I guess the next thing I need is a furnace. Recommendations? I guess I will need a scoop spoon thingy too, to pour lead.

Back in the day, I used a Lee Production Pot.
Furnace that pours from the bottom, as impurities float on top.
It worked quite well.

This one? Link

No need for a ladle with that one?

You will enjoy it. I started casting about 10 years ago. I keep it pretty simple. I use a stainless pot on top of an old propane gas fueled Coleman stove. I would suggest a Lyman or RCBS ladle. You will need a lead thermometer. Most equipment can be obtained from Midsouth Shooters Supply or Titan Reloading.
Good Luck, and enjoy,
Rick

They sau itll make u stoopid, the fumes and such.

I don’t know, I can’t smell it when I done it

It obviously hasn't effected your intelligence.

Hey, the lead seller is asking me if I want all 1lb ingot, all 1/2lb ingots, or a mix. Any reason to prefer one to the other?

No.

Okay, thanks.

I have a Lee pot like in that link. It’s old and still works great

Not really but the little might fit into the pot more totally and get up to temp faster.



I need to make some time for casting. I have hundreds of lbs of soft lead from old roof top plumbing flashings. And sections of soft lead water services.


Biden said the infrastructure bill will help pull out all the rest of the lead water services in America. No more dumb kids. Yay!!!

As if the little bastids actually drink tap water anyway.

He said he'd send a mix of the two sizes.

I turned 100 lb of alloy into bullets with the Lee bottom pour 20# pot.

I still do not own a ladle or a thermometer. The pot is thermostat controlled. It does a great job of holding temp once you find where to set the thermostat.

You will know the pot is too hot when the top surface of the melt scales over quickly and changes color. (oxidation) Too cold and it will not flow well into the mold.

Use a bit of flux on the top of your melt to protect it from Oxygen, but don't burn the house down.

There is 300 lb of unknown Lead alloy in the shed waiting to become bullets. I will add Antimony and Tin to increase hardness and pourability. Pure lead does not fill the mold as well as with a bit of Tin added,

I need to score me a piece of crap CVA Wolf at walmart for $89 on brickseek so I can blasts some soft lead balls for fun.

I always enjoyed casting bullets when I had the time. Still have all my equipment and would like to get back into doing it. Can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Like most people I started with a cast iron pot, a burner and a ladle. Graduated to a Lee pot with bottom pour. Single cavity mold to multi-cavity molds.

Helpful free book:
From Ingot To Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sh...rget-A-Cast-Bullet-Guide-for-Handgunners

Not likely of interest for cap and ball but 37 pages of non traditional fun....

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?251956-Powder-coated-bullets-pics-only

The Lyman cast bullet handbook is a must have.

I've got an older version of the same Lee setup. I enjoy reloading. I don't enjoy casting, but that's just me. Per Slumlord's comments...Mike Venturino used to have his blood checked annually for lead, but he never found any buildup. I'm sure Venturino was careful.

If planning to cast pure lead you will need 800* in the melt. Aluminum moulds need to be HOT for proper function.

Good place for tin or lead is a fella named John Walters out in OK. Makes wads also.


https://www.localgymsandfitness.com/US/Moore/1811307545850807/Walters-Wads

Scroll down for the Zombie Blood bullets.... I'm guessing these are hand painted.... probably a late Winter project

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?251956-Powder-coated-bullets-pics-only/page36

Thanks.

That pot will do a lot of casting.

What's flux?

Bees wax, paraffin, sawdust, basically something carbon bearing.

Read this:
Fluxing the melt.

Then go to the home page and download the whole casting .pdf. Very informative and free.

Buy a thermometer:
Lead casting thermometers

I like sawdust best.

If you can get some oak or other hardwood it will smell like lunch.

Any wood will work.

Lotsa fun and keeps you shooting more!!

wax or sawdust added to bring out the impurities that can be skimmed off the top

Lead Fumes are released at 900°F.. Way hotter than you will need for casting.

One of the best sources for casting alloy is clip on Wheel Weights.

They are getting harder and harder to find as most manufactures have turned to zinc.

If you melt Zinc into the mix you pretty much ruined the lot. Don't do that.

Zinc melts at 788*, lead at 622*, keep your melt at about 700* when making ingots and the zinc along with the metal clips will just float and can be skimmed off with a slotted spoon.

Get one of these for temp control.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010268761?pid=357906


and one of these for making ingots.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/101020375?pid=361222

I would not bother with a bottom pour like the Lee because it’s going to be a piece of schit.

Start with this:

https://www.grafs.com/catalog/product/productId/20474

If you make good stuff and enjoy it you can upgrade down the line to a big bottom pour furnace. But for moderate volume a ladle and old style furnace is best to learn on in my opinion.

If you start casting bullets you’ll want to get a sizer and dies at some point.

My first pot was a Lee and like most everything made by Lee is was a waste of money. I have since bought two RCBS pots, I been using them for the past 20 some odd years. I'd advise getting welders gauntlets for casting, hot lead burns hot and deep. Candle stubs, blocks of canning paraffin make great flux, don't use the wife's unused candles. They get real testy about that. Go to Goodwill and buy a soup spoon, drill holes in it for slag and crude out of the molten lead, I bought a pair of cheap vise grips at a yard sale for gripping the spoon handle, the spoon will get real hot.
Have fun and be careful

Yeah! Hang in there and in about ten years you’ll cast some good ones!!

Thanks.

LOL.

got everything to do it, need to set all that stuff back up.

IMHO, you want to smooth the path step back from Lee casting equipment. They do have some good products, but bottom pour pots and aluminum moulds are way down at the bottom of the valley.

Good advise and spot on !

Agreed.

Lots of good advice here. If all you’re going to do is balls for your revolver it’s pretty straight forward and simple. I would agree with ‘flave, stay away from bottom pour initially, it overcomplicates the process while learning. If you’re going to go for high performance cast bullets for magnum revolvers and rifles be forewarned: you’re going down a rabbit hole. There are a lot of guys here who are great sources of knowledge about bullet casting. Have fun.

They're more into drinking hand sanitizer

You’ll have good ones dropping in no time.

There’s nothing to it.

I gave all my magazines away in the last move otherwise I’d send you some of Venturino’s best stuff. But anything he writes about casting is worth reading.

https://gunsmagazine.com/our-experts/casting-revolver-bullets/

I have a Lee Mag Melter Furnace with ladle, I have been using it regularly for many years.

I cast thousands of bullets a year, thousands and it has never failed me.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010213626?pid=709235

I also have well over a dozen bullets molds many of them Lee in both 2 cavity and 6. Never had a problem with them . They work just fine if you know how to use them.

And what would you know about bullet casting, novice?

I dunno Jack Chittsengruber about it, but read a lot on the innanet.

You might find this useful.

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

Yes, that's why I posted, i.e., because I knew I'd be benefiting from many years of experience on the subject.

I also have a small electric hot plate next to my furnace to temper the mold before casting.

I can also use the hotplate to melt the lead, in the Summer time. On cold days it will not keep the temp up...

Good thing is you don't need to worry about getting the melt too hot with the hotplate.....

I don’t use the hot plate for lead, just to temper the mold itself.

When I cast ingots I use a big old cast iron Dutch over over a gas burner, careful to not let the melt get to hot so as to melt zinc

http://www.waage.com

Tempering the mold.

Probably not as big a deal making round balls. When pouring bullets, the mold must be preheated. I lay my five cavity molds across the top of the lead furnace while preparing the work station. Then the first thirty to forty bullets are dumped straight back into the melt. It takes a few cycles for the mold to reach appropriate temperature.

Molds

Mine come from "Accurate Molds". My 41 cal mold throws 175 gr, 210 gr, and 250 gr bullets with each pour. It is made of Aluminum and works fine.

I also have an Accurate .312 cal mold for the 327s. It throws 90 gr and 120 gr bullets. This mold is made of Iron. It takes a lot more time to preheat and a lot more time to cool. It is also VERY heavy out there on the end of the handles. Several hours of casting is fatiguing of the dominant arm.

Any future purchases will be constructed of Aluminum. Further purchases will consist of molds for 9mm and 10mm.

Hand protection

I like heavy elk hide gloves and long sleeves. The elk, it seems, is more resistant to heat damage and hardening than cow hide.

Flux,

Is a source of Carbon which consumes the Oxygen from the lead air interface and reduces formation of Lead Oxides. Paraffin is commonly used.

Smelting

The reduction of common lead waste to bullet alloys. Waste may include wheel weights, roof flashing, plumber's lead, old pipe, anything made of pewter.. Fluxing is critical in this process, as air is continuously being introduced and mixed through the pot. I use cedar sawdust. Cedar planks are pushed through the table saw specifically to make the sawdust.

With the purchase of prepared lead alloy, you will have no need for smelting.

Eye protection

ABSOLUTELY

The silver fairy

Oh yes. Steam explosions inside your melting pot which sprinkle the entire room with molten lead confetti.

Never been there. Seen pics.

Not likely with purchased lead ingots. But it happens sometimes when smelting scrap which may contain some hidden reservoir with a bit of water or ice therein.


Homogenous lots of lead

Again, not a problem when using commercial ingots.

Definitely a problem when using varying lots of scrap. Each pot is different from the last. One can either get a pot and heat sauce big enough to melt and blend his entire alloy inventory at one time.

Or one can do it in a production pot 20 lbs at a time. I did the latter, and poured twenty one pound ingots from each pot. The ingots from each pot are kept segregated.

Then an equal number of ingots from each pile is melted back into the pot, and repoured as final alloy. When done, all ingots will be of similar content.


castboolits.gunloads.com is a great resource with lots of helpful people.