Looking to start bullet casting-What do I need?

[Jason_W]

I know I need something in which to melt lead as well as molds and swaging dies. What else?

Would a propane camping stove generate enough heat to melt lead, or will I really need to burn electricity with an electric furnace? I can't imagine those things are easy on the power bill. What about using wood as a heat source?

Safety gear? Obviously gloves, but what about a respirator?

[pete-driver]

This place has lots of good info.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

[Charles]

The first thing you need is a copy of Lyman's Cast Bullet Hanbook. But it and read it! It will answer 99.5% of your questions and be more reliable than getting information off the internet.

[Old Ironsights]

I know I need something in which to melt lead as well as molds and swaging dies. What else?

Would a propane camping stove generate enough heat to melt lead, or will I really need to burn electricity with an electric furnace? I can't imagine those things are easy on the power bill. What about using wood as a heat source?

Safety gear? Obviously gloves, but what about a respirator?

It really depends on a lot of depends on.

A good cheap start - especially if you don't have a well ventilated garage where you can run propane - is a 1000w hot plate, a $2 4qt STEEL saucepan from Goodwill and a lyman dipper.

With that you can smelt WWs AND cast.

From there getting a bigger gas burner for smelting and a smaller, higher wattage electric casting pot would be good.

Here's what I used in my basement over this rainy weekend (I have a vent hood for lead fumes... and I was only melting clean ingots)



I use the small cast-iron RCBS Lead Pot (floating on the melt, warming up) to dip & pour ingots. 2 pairs of pliers give you all the control you need.

Standard Welding Gloves are handy for some things (holding ladles/stirring spoons) but are most of the time too bulky to be safe except for bis outdoor smelts & handling hot ingots.(IMO)

Smelting over a campfire is pretty painless... if you have a campfire or an old-style hearth. You need a good Cast-iron dutch oven for that... though you CAN use a coffee can in a pinch.

Here is another small setup I did using a one-burner propane cam stove:



All of my smelting stuff except the turkey fryer fits in a plastic tote:



If you are handy with a welder and have access to some angle iron, here is a 5 cavity 2# ingot mold.. I can get you the dims later:

[RobertS]

Here's a good resource:

http://www.zjstech.net/gunstuff/casting.html

[Tycer]

A pot for your stove. Cast iron is best. Aluminum bad. 20# of 700º liquid spilled from a cracked pot is bad.
A ladle. If you buy a Lyman, plan on drilling the hole bigger.
A mold. Two cavity molds work best for me. All brands work well. Some take a little work, but nothing hard.
Welder's gloves are nice.
You do not need to size if you buy a mold that fits your gun, but the Lee sizer dies and Liquid Alox are a great start.
A bucket for water quenching if you want harder bullets.
A coffee can for sprues and culls.
A heavy wooden stick to tap the hinge if the bullets need help falling out.
An old candle for fluxing.
A heavy wide spoon for skimming.

[timkelley]

Go to http://castboolits.gunloads.com/ as suggested by pete-driver, read read read and read somemore.

[O.S.O.K.]

I posted a thread about this a while back - might find it helpful: http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =1&t=15006

[Catshooter]

The first thing you need is a copy of Lyman's Cast Bullet Hanbook. But it and read it! It will answer 99.5% of your questions and be more reliable than getting information off the internet.

Charles,

I must respectfully disagree in this instance. The CastBoolits forum is a far superior resource than Lyman's book. Or any other book for that matter.


Cat

[AJMD429]

Can a person who isn't interested in 'match' quality bullets possibly take a dremel tool and polish/ream a normal-size mould to an 'overbore Marlin/Puma' size...? It 'seems' like it would be fairly easy to do if you didn't demand exact dimensions and symmetry.

[Chuck 100 yd]

AJMD429, You can hone a mold out a couple thou. fairly easily. Take a cast bullet cast in the mold in question and drill a tiny hole in its base,screw a small wood screw into the hole for a shank to fit a drill motor,dope it up with fine valve grinding or lapping compound and put it back in the mold and slowly turn it with an electric screwdriver or variable speed drill. Check progress often by casting a sample bullet. You may need to replace the bullet you are using for a lap a couple times.

Catshooter
I have to agree with Charles on the Lyman manual.
The guys at Cast Boolets are great but with the Lyman manual you don`t get any guess work that some like to spread around the internet.

[bsaride]

I cast from an old liquid fueled camp stove. Cast iron pot and dipper,
long teaspoon with bent handle for stirrin and removing dross, empty
soup can for the dregs, regular leather gloves, hammer handle with leather
wrapped head to smack the mould. Open the garage and spend some time
makin bullets, then I have a sizer/lubricator if I need to size.