Newb Bullet Casting Question

I'm really bored and just looking for something productive to occupy a few hours per day with. Should have built a garage or nurtured some hobbies before retirement occurred!

Thought this would reduce the cost of reloading for my revolvers (38 and 44) some what. It should correct? 38 LSWC are like $50-$70 per 500.

Would be interested in casting 50cal maxi as well. Those things are silly expensive to the point of not wanting to sight in.

Any words of wisdom?

M
 
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500 .38 Semi-wadcutters is probably ten pounds of lead. I don't know how you intend to source lead but that could be anywhere from $3 to $20 worth. Maybe even free.

I figure I shoot my .38s for about 8 cents a round, the primer being the most expensive part.

I think your best shot is find a window you can slide open and cut a piece of plywood that can fit into it. Cut a hole in it and run some flexible ducting into it, the way folks with portable air conditioning do. Buy a cheap bathroom fan and install it in a box on your bench and cast under it. When you're done you pop the vent board out of the window and no one knows you were productive that day.

Portable-ac-window-vent.jpg
 
gnmontey said:
Ends up what I thought was an abandoned outside vent isn't abandoned at all. The combustion air intake pipes are still piped into the furnace room. One to the furnace return air duct and another into the furnace room that has been plugged with insulation. This is a good thing actually as it means there is a fresh air source very close to my proposed casting station.

So now I'm thinking I could rig a high volume bathroom ventilation fan above the casting station and vent that straight out the dryer vent.
Air In - Fumes Out. Both the fresh air source and dryer vent are actually within 10' of each other (I know, it's a tiny house)

Thoughts?

M
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I set up a casting work station in basement storage room - bought a 4" hole saw and cut 4 " hole through rim joist / siding. Installed a 4" dryer vent cover (with draft flap) from outside. Used 4" metal ducting and elbows that are normally used for heating ducts. Installed a 4" in-line duct fan in the ducting (cheaper/more robust than bathroom fan). Used a 6"x10" floor register boot as the "intake hood" about 10" over the melting pot. Installed a handi-box with light switch and cord on fan. Everything bought at Home Hardware / Canadian Tire.
 
Be safe!!!
I make ingots out side!!
I used to cast out side but you can't make the weather so days are limited. To keep up I got an electric melter and a fan now I can cast on the worst of day, like others mentioned be clean!!!!
The smoke will clear the smoke detector will stop. I have chunks of scented candles for fluxung and for when I am feeling trippy.
Yankee Candle chocolate chip cookie dough and 316299. Nothing is better.
 
Slowly getting everything together. Have accumulated the following.

10# bottom pour electric casting pot
45acp, 9mm, and 38spl molds with handles, and a ingot mold.
25# of ready to cast lead alloy and a line on much more.
A Magma Star Lube-sizer c/w heater, 45 and 9mm sizing dies (still need to source 38 dies)
6 or so sticks of Dragon Bullet Lube. Have no idea how many bullets a stick does.
A 4" dryer vent with vent cap and a in-line 4" fan. Still needs to be installed. Need a 4" hole saw.

I'm getting the itch to spark this all up.

M
 
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gnmontey said:
Slowly getting everything together. Have accumulated the following.

10# bottom pour electric casting pot
45acp, 9mm, and 38spl molds with handles, and a ingot mold.
25# of ready to cast lead alloy and a line on much more.
A Magma Star Lube-sizer c/w heater, 45 and 9mm sizing dies (still need to source 38 dies)
6 or so sticks of Dragon Bullet Lube. Have no idea how many bullets a stick does.
A 4" dryer vent with vent cap and a in-line 4" fan. Still needs to be installed. Need a 4" hole saw.

I'm getting the itch to spark this all up.

M
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I have found the steps in casting to be almost as enjoyable as shooting...

As suggested you could cast indoors, and will want some ventilation. I wouldn't consider turning wheel weights into ingots inddors though....some pretty nasty funk from that process.

I do flux in the basement under the vent. I use some wood chips (rodent/rabbit bedding), and candle wax. That smell is kind of pleasant, but I still run the fan anyway.
 
Honestly when it comes risk of lead exposure and residual that could affect yourself and others I'd just wait a couple of months and do it outside. Buy some brass for now. Lead toxicity is unpleasant......
 
Check out kijiji etc for used range hoods. Lots of them get tossed during kitchen renos. You can hang it from the ceiling and duct the exhaust out a window with the plywood insert Battlerife described. I paid $10 for one on Kijiji. I hang it over the pot when I flux and turn it off and move it when I'm done. Even in a garage fluxing makes a heck of stink and got to be unhealthy, and leaving the doors open to clear the air is really cold in winter months. the range hood solved that problem for me.
 
yomomma said:
Meh lead must reach around 1000 degrees before it starts giving off vapor.
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Are you sure about that? Because my understanding of chemistry tells me that if there is a liquid, there will be vapor. At equilibrium the amount of vapor leaving the liquid would equal the amount that's recondensing, but as temp goes up so will the amount of gas created.
 
jethunter said:
Check out kijiji etc for used range hoods. Lots of them get tossed during kitchen renos. You can hang it from the ceiling and duct the exhaust out a window with the plywood insert Battlerife described. I paid $10 for one on Kijiji. I hang it over the pot when I flux and turn it off and move it when I'm done. Even in a garage fluxing makes a heck of stink and got to be unhealthy, and leaving the doors open to clear the air is really cold in winter months. the range hood solved that problem for me.
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I get them from the dump, and duct to a window with dryer hose. Very handy as they have a light fixture too. Turf the filters because if you have a grease fire o'er the melting pot (or solder, or small painting, or any of the other myriad of cool things you CAN do once you have a hood n' vent) you're not doing it right.

I doubt it's much better on the bills than an open garage door,(warm indoor sent outside plus the bonus of paying a fan to do it) and they are loud, but it's not passive! Handy over any bench
 
camster said:
I get them from the dump, and duct to a window with dryer hose. Very handy as they have a light fixture too. Turf the filters because if you have a grease fire o'er the melting pot (or solder, or small painting, or any of the other myriad of cool things you CAN do once you have a hood n' vent) you're not doing it right.

I doubt it's much better on the bills than an open garage door,(warm indoor sent outside plus the bonus of paying a fan to do it) and they are loud, but it's not passive! Handy over any bench
Click to expand...

I only use the fan for fluxing, no need for it otherwise. The hood gets lowered over the pot and the smoke goes almost completely out the vent without staining and smelling up the whole garage. To be rid of the fluxing smoke by using a door I need to exchange ALL the warm air in my garage by opening the big door. The exhaust fan is 100 cfm, and it only runs for 3-4 minutes when I flux.

When I use the range hood fan I exhaust 400 cu ft of warm air. When I use the big door I exhaust 8000 cu ft of heated air.

400/8000= .050 = 5%

The cost to heat the air when I use fan is 5% of the cost of heating the air if I use the big doors to get rid of the smoke.
Another way of looking at it - opening the big door requires twenty times more energy to heat the fresh air brought in than the fan does.
 
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yomomma said:
We'll maybe I was a bit off. 932°F according to this guide from the Ministry of Labour

https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pubs/lead/gl_lead_4.php
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I'd love to see the science behind that claim. If lead melts at 327C, and doesn't boil until 1749C, clearly you are getting vapor well before the boiling point, which seems to coincide with my understanding of vapor pressure from a liquid... I wonder if thats the temperature where ENOUGH vapor is made to be harmful (although I thought lead was one of those things that any amount of exposure is considered toxic?) or perhaps its the temp that the atoms in the gas phase have enough energy to escape the immediate vicinity of the liquid, as opposed to re-condensing back into the liquid almost immediately after becoming gaseous?...
 
Potashminer said:
I set up a casting work station in basement storage room - bought a 4" hole saw and cut 4 " hole through rim joist / siding. Installed a 4" dryer vent cover (with draft flap) from outside. Used 4" metal ducting and elbows that are normally used for heating ducts. Installed a 4" in-line duct fan in the ducting .
Click to expand...

I have this in place now. It's not exhausting enough air to eject the fluxing fumes effectively. What CFM is your in-line duct fan and where did you get it?

M
 
From Home Hardware. I believe it is 80 or 85 CFM compared to 50 CFM for bathroom fans. From working with lab fume hoods - you want to direct airflow for best results. Your pot should be sitting inside three "walls" - sheet tin works great - dropping from back and both sides of your intake hood. The intake will draw air from where ever it can get it - does you no good having airflow going up behind or along the sides of the pot. With the back and sides blocked off from hood to bench top, the exhaust air flow must pass from you, over front of pot and up the ducting. Hood height over pot should be minimum that allows you to do what you need to do. You are really trying to get the more or less constant volume of the airflow to pass over / through the minimum opening - this increases the air velocity and does better job of drawing the fumes away from you. You might even want to try partial wall across front of pot near bench top to further direct air passage over front lip of pot and up the duct - Also, need to have adequate supply of fresh air to replace what is going up the duct, source of replenishment air preferably behind you. Hope that helps?
 
Potashminer said:
Hope that helps?
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It did, thanks. Tells me to ditch the range hood idea and concentrate on building some sort of 3 wall fume hood.

My fan is 80 cfm and my delegated man cave is approx. 800 cf, so I'm only exchanging the air once every 10 min. Probably not enough.

On my first attempt I simply installed the fan on the outside vent pipe. That proved to be ineffective.
On second attempt I ducted the fan over to approx. 16" above the pot. That worked much better, but was sadly disappointed when the flux smoke wasn't influenced in the least.

Containment is the answer. How is the dilemma now?

Thanks,

M

BTB - Got a pretty good yield of decent boolits from my second casting session. This is proving to be a very entertaining and productive hobby.
 
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yomomma said:
Don't over think it, it ain't rocket science
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Thanks... you nailed it. Over thinking AGAIN!!!

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The 500gn 45 is something I cast from wheel weights back in the 80s for an original Springfield trap door and 455 Martini Henry.
The others are from my last cast. I'm pleased!

M

BTB - Where is the drain spout on your pot?
 

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