Melting Pot: Looking for some insight

CarbineGirl

CarbineGirl

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Hello all. I am looking at getting into casting my own bullets. Looking at melting pots, many out there and wondering what would be a good one. This is one I have looked at, thoughts?

http://waage.thomasnet.com/item/solder-pots-and-tanks/round-solder-pot/mp80a-6-1-1393

Thanks
 
Just started casting a few months ago. What has worked for me is the Lee 20lb capacity bottom pour melting pot for actual casting (I cast Lyman Sabot slugs). If you are melting large quantities and a mix of lead types, cast iron is the way to go. I have seen all kinds of heat sources from Coleman stoves to turkey fryer bases. Check out YouTube, a guy called Fortunecookie45lc, he has many good tips.
 
Chas59 said:
Just started casting a few months ago. What has worked for me is the Lee 20lb capacity bottom pour melting pot for actual casting (I cast Lyman Sabot slugs). If you are melting large quantities and a mix of lead types, cast iron is the way to go. I have seen all kinds of heat sources from Coleman stoves to turkey fryer bases. Check out YouTube, a guy called Fortunecookie45lc, he has many good tips.
Click to expand...

Good advice.

The Lee pots are good value. They work well, are made well, and the price is right.

You need to use bottom pour pots with clean metal ingots, though. If you use them to melt down and skim off impurities from scrap lead, the bottom orifice can become plugged and it can be difficult to clear. Pouring molten lead out of an electric melting pot can be difficult and hazardous.

Better to use a cast iron pot to melt down scrap lead and skim off the impurities, then add alloying metal, and then ladle it into ingot molds from Lee.
A Coleman stove does work well for small pots.
 
1873shootist said:
Good advice.

The Lee pots are good value. They work well, are made well, and the price is right.

You need to use bottom pour pots with clean metal ingots, though. If you use them to melt down and skim off impurities from scrap lead, the bottom orifice can become plugged and it can be difficult to clear. Pouring molten lead out of an electric melting pot can be difficult and hazardous.

Better to use a cast iron pot to melt down scrap lead and skim off the impurities, then add alloying metal, and then ladle it into ingot molds from Lee.
A Coleman stove does work well for small pots.
Click to expand...

Here's what you want to melt the scrap lead. Not expensive and works well. The top support arms are a little flimsy for a heavy pot filled with lead so I bought a barbeque grill top at Princess auto for $6 and that solved that minor problem.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/master-chef-stand-fryer-0853259p.html#srp

Gets really hot & melts the scrap fast. Skim off the impurities and then use a metal ladle to fill up mini muffin trays for your casting ingots. The mini muffin ingots melt quickly and don't affect your casting pot temperature as much as the full size muffin ingots.

I second the Lee 20 pound casting pot suggestion. I've been using one for a few years now and it works well. Occasionally you will get minor leaks but they are stopped easily. The 10 pound Lee pot leaks a lot more and I don't suggest it but you can't beat the 20 pounder for the price.
 
Value Village is your friend. I get all of my lead processing spoons and ladles there. I even got my strainer there for picking out the big bits and letting the good lead drain through the holes back into the pot.

Stay away from aluminum spoons: I had one melt/ erode and all I have left of it now is a handle...
 
CarbineGirl said:
Hello all. I am looking at getting into casting my own bullets. Looking at melting pots, many out there and wondering what would be a good one. This is one I have looked at, thoughts?

http://waage.thomasnet.com/item/solder-pots-and-tanks/round-solder-pot/mp80a-6-1-1393

Thanks
Click to expand...

Waage makes a good pot, but don't get that one. They make a 20 lb pot for bullet casting that is way cheaper. It's not on their site though, you would have to contact them for a price.
 
I have never had any luck using an electric pot with a bottom pour.
I went to always using a proper little cast iron pouring ladle designed to pour directly into the bullet mold.
 
For rendering lead into 1lb bars I use a propane burner and a cast iron pot I got from princess auto.

For bullet making I have a 10lb Lee pot. The capacity is slightly small but it heats up fast and I add 1 bar at a time as needs be. I've cast tens of thousands of bullets with my Lee and it's never given me a bit of trouble.
 
H4831 said:
I have never had any luck using an electric pot with a bottom pour.
I went to always using a proper little cast iron pouring ladle designed to pour directly into the bullet mold.
Click to expand...

That's what I used for a number of years with a Lyman cast iron pot and my Coleman Naphtha stove. I've got two of the Lyman "egg" ladles with the little nipple pouring orifice.

I still use that system with a large Lee electric melter and a Lee bottom pour pot which seems to be fatally plugged. I removed the lever and valve rod and just dip and pour. Dip and pour is a fine alternative as long as you use the proper ladle.
 
Decide if you are doing bottom pour or ladling out the top. Get a 20 pound capacity at least, nothing smaller.

For Ladling, the Lee Magnum Melter is a good pot.

I wouldn't recommend bottom pour unless you're going for a good one - Lyman, etc. Bottom pour takes a more maintenance and tends to be more problematic. Cheap bottom pour pots are more trouble than a lot of people will want.
 
Get a lee bottom pour for casting, I have the 20lb. Go to a thrift store and buy a big stainless steel pot and put it on a turkey fryer. Make a windscreen out of something cheap, I use the skin off a hot water tank. You can also cut the top off a propane tank to make a dandy melting pot, old tanks are free. Muffin tins and a stainless steel ladle and a big stainless spoon and Roberts your mother's brother.
 
I am a bit anal. I do my ingot casting with a cast iron Dutch oven on a turkey burner when I process and flux wheel weights or pure lead. For casting I have a Lyman big dipper with a PID to pre melt the ingots to feed one of my PID controlled Lee bottom pour pots that I cast with. I flux in the big dipper with marvelux and any dross gets skimmed off. I then float sawdust on top of my bottom pour to keep it from oxidizing and keep it topped up with already molten lead from the Lyman.
 
mr.e moose said:
I am a bit anal. I do my ingot casting with a cast iron Dutch oven on a turkey burner when I process and flux wheel weights or pure lead. For casting I have a Lyman big dipper with a PID to pre melt the ingots to feed one of my PID controlled Lee bottom pour pots that I cast with. I flux in the big dipper with marvelux and any dross gets skimmed off. I then float sawdust on top of my bottom pour to keep it from oxidizing and keep it topped up with already molten lead from the Lyman.
Click to expand...
Do you find that Marvelux leeches all the antimony?

I don't use Marvelux. It steals antimony when I want harder bullets, and when I don't want hard bullets I still want to recycle the antimony, not toss it.
 
Chas59 said:
Just started casting a few months ago. What has worked for me is the Lee 20lb capacity bottom pour melting pot for actual casting (I cast Lyman Sabot slugs). If you are melting large quantities and a mix of lead types, cast iron is the way to go. I have seen all kinds of heat sources from Coleman stoves to turkey fryer bases. Check out YouTube, a guy called Fortunecookie45lc, he has many good tips.
Click to expand...

+1 for Fortunecookie45lc. Very good source of info.
 
1873shootist said:
That's what I used for a number of years with a Lyman cast iron pot and my Coleman Naphtha stove. I've got two of the Lyman "egg" ladles with the little nipple pouring orifice.

I still use that system with a large Lee electric melter and a Lee bottom pour pot which seems to be fatally plugged. I removed the lever and valve rod and just dip and pour. Dip and pour is a fine alternative as long as you use the proper ladle.
Click to expand...

I have poured a lot of bullets with that little dipper, dipping out of Lee electric pot, for several calibers. I like the Lee pot, because I can adjust the heat. To melt the lead and until I start pouring, I turn it full hot, to 10.
When I start to pour I drop it o 7 and as the lead gets lower, I end up at about three.
I flux it and skim off the waste. Beef suet makes a good home made flux, a piece about the size of a pea will work good. A little puff of smoke, but not much.
Then I broke down and bought some factory made black powder type of flux that works way better.
With a good Lyman double die in 44 magnum I can pour 100 bullets an hour.
As far as I am concerned, a Lee aluminum single die is junk. I wore mine out in about an hour.
 
I really like the large Lee electric pot, too. But I much prefer the Lyman dipper over the Lee dipper. No comparison really.
 
A word of warning, be careful with wheel weights or any scrap metal that can hold any water in the nooks and crannies.

I was melting wheel weights in 1982 and one of the weights had water under the clip. The pot was on the floor next to my garage door and exploded as I sat on a stool over it.

I was not hurt or burned and was lucky I wore glasses, but I had melted lead on my face and in my hair.

When the pot exploded my brain told my legs "frog jump" and I ended up at the other end of the garage faster than the speed of light on my back.

Bottom line, stand back when melting scrap metals when making ingots until the last piece is submerged.
 
I build all my own crap including bottom pour pot. I would not go smaller than 20lb pot. Main advantage is that it maintains a steady temperature with the larger column especially when adding lead bigots.

Edit....damn auto correct
 
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