Casting time

[Falcore]

How long does it take to cast 100 bullets, from start to finished product?

 

[OKFC05]

Since I use molds with sprue cutters, the bullets are finished and ready for lube as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

If the pot and mold are up to temperature, 6 bullets a minute is no great problem.

Now if your pot and mold are cold and packed away, then who knows how long you are going to take to get ready to cast?

 

[S.B.]

Half hour to melt alloy and preheat the mold, another 30 minutes to cast bullets, 10 minutes to cull through your casts, if your sizer is set up for the bullets your going to size another 15 to size and lube. So, I'd venture a guess at hour and a half?
Steve

 

[Tell Sackett]

If you are going to cast on a certain day, you can have other things to do while you are waiting for your pot to melt or mold to heat up.

I use multi-cavity moulds, nothing less than 4 for me. I have several 6 cavity Lee moulds too. If you are casting with two of those you can do 100 bullet in no time, less than 10 minutes after everything is up to temp. Again, while things are heating up you could be sizing or lubing or reloading other bullets that you cast before. About 20 minute heat up time.

The way I do it when I start casting is to just keep going until I have about 500 bullets or so. I have gotten 500 in an hour and a half on more than one occasion. YMMV!

100 is just too small of a batch.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

When casting I usually use two or three molds at a time, casting different calibers. I usually work for about 4 hours making about 600 to 800 bullets. Some time is necessary for refilling the lead pot, fluxing, getting back to temperature, keeping the molds at the right temperature, etc. This is followed by inspection (removing culls), sizing, and lubricating. So probably about 8 hours start to finish for 500 to 700 finished bullets.

That is why I have been buying cast bullets in recent years. At $70 to $90 per thousand, delivered to my door, I'm a happy camper!

About the only things I cast now are for rifle calibers. I love shooting my old 19th Century rifles and they all need bullets that are not readily available.

 

[calmex]

I bulk cast, using two pots and two 6-cavity moulds (which may or may not be of the same bullet design). On my really GOOD days, my faithful assistant Quasimoto will be hanging around the gas burner melting up wheelweights in a cast-iron frying pan to pour -- properly fluxed and crap removed -- into the pots as I'm getting low.

I've found the BIG waiting time is for pots to heat up the melt to a castable tempurature. We've produced over 4,000 bullets in an 8 hour day. Maybe it's like 6 hours of straight casting, but we count set-up time and clean-up time, and it ends up eating up 8 hours of your day off.

Then you don't have to cast for a few months.

2 pots. 2 6-cavs. Good ventilation. Go for it.

We can't buy components here, we have to smuggle them or make them. So bulk production is always preferable. Forgive the crappy cel-phone pics, they are all I have.

 

[epj]

This is about 2 hours worth of casting. I estimate there are 800-1000 boolits here:

 

[fredj338]

Depends on method & molds. Assume the pot is upto temp (you don't have to sit around & watch it melt the lead) you can do 300-350/hr w/ a dbl cav mold, upto 700-800 w/ a 6cav mold or about 600/hr for a Magma casting machine & dbl cav mold. THen after cooling (I usually wait a day), they need to be lubed & sized. With a Star/Magma, that is 1200/hr+. For a Lyman/RCBS, maybe 600-700/hr. You can use Alox liquid lube & swish them around, then shoot unsized, takes a few minutes, but you need to let them dry for a day.

 

[Falcore]

Thank all of you--great info.

 

[Cloudpeak]

I use a Lee 4-20 bottom pour and a hotplate. The hotplate preheats the mold so I can drop good bullets right from the start (and can easily open the sprue cutter) and I also use it to melt the lead for the Lee bottom pour which really speeds things along. No "spout freeze".

Recently, I produced around 600 bullets (Lee 125gr RN) per hour using one Lee 6 cavity 9mm/38 mold. I cast 60 lbs of alloy in 5.5 hours for 3,360 bullets.

With the Lee push through sizer, I can size around 1,300 bullets per hour. I size everything as I noticed some "fat bullets" on occasion with the Lee molds. I like as much uniformity in my handloads as possible.

I tumble lube with LLA/XLOX that's thinned with low odor mineral spirits.

 

[DonD]

Do any of you take safety precautions regarding lead fumes such as special ventilation etc? Don

 

[Tell Sackett]

No special precautions. Garage with semi open door in winter.

Do you mean like wearing a "bike helmet" to go on a bike ride? NO.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I started casting in 1972 for a 9mm HI-Power. Since then I've added about 25 molds for various calibers and weights. I DON"T USE electric pots because they are way too slow on the melt and remelt. I use a gas burner with a 15 lb. capacity iron cooking pot on top. I DON'T cast ingots. To me a waste of time. What I do is fill the pot with WW and set 4 molds and my dipper around it and fire it off. I have a 16"x16" box, 4" high with dividers for 4 spaces next to my pot. When I get a melt I move a mold to each space in the box. I then skim all the trash of with big slotted spoon and put it in a coffee can behind my pot. I then flux with wax. Stir and skim again. I start casting with the first mold and when it gets too hot I go to the second one then right on down the line. By the time I've hotted up the fourth one the first has cooled and ready to be used again. My sprues go into another can to the right of the bullet box. I can make a lot of bullets in short time. Four different calibers if need be. I try to keep about 1/2 ton of WW's on hand. Don't want to get caught short! This method is very fast and efficient for me. I shoot 1000's of cast bullets in muti-calibers ever year so "fast & efficient" is for me.

 

[hamourkiller]

Lead fumes are not a risk unless you get your snout within an inch or less of the molten lead. Fumes from melting battery plates is a real problem but regular lead is a non issue.

Gloves and hand washing is best.

 

[Cary]

Do any of you take safety precautions regarding lead fumes such as special ventilation etc? Don

Wash your hands before handling food if you have been working with your bare hands around lead if your casting or reloading. As already stated when smelting WWs use good ventalation or do it outside. WWs can have grease or oil on them which can give off a nasty smoke when smelting. I cast using a bottom pour pot and I only put clean alloy in it when casting bullets. I always smelt my WWs down outside, clean the alloy, and then cast them into ingots for latter use. When doing my actual bullet casting I cast in my shop by the window where I install an exhaust fan to pull off any smoke from the furnace. Lead is very dense and not prone to rise in a gas or vapor and that is a good thing.
Cary