My Bullet Casting Setup - Upgrades Over the Years
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- With quarantine time on my hands, I decided to do another shelter in place video. Beautiful day out today, time for opening the garage door and letting in some natural sunlight. Vitamin K to combat C-19.
I started bullet casting just as I did with my reloading components...Lee Precision. Surprise, imagine that. One stop vendor shopping for much if not all of what I needed to get started.
Began with a Lee 4-20 drop pout pot. Worked fine for me and wasn't a leaker. A couple of years later, I found someone selling "upgrade kits" for the Lee that made the pot more functional and robust, especially with ensuring mold were consistently under the right spot regardless of 2-bullet or 6-bullet molds. A very adjustable stand/mount upgrade. Excellent aluminum work and turns my $75 pot/base/stand into Pro Melt and or Mag 25 league (especially once I added my PID).
A couple years after that, I decided I was kind of done with the temprature inconsistencies of power vs temp dial and found a guy who was making/selling PIDs. I like how compact and functional his choice of parts and finished product was. Not something I wanted to build myself. Has been probably the best addition to a lower end pot. I've heard mixed reviews of pots that have built in PIDs and their reliability/accuracy. I'm happy with the path I chose.
Latest addition, also a couple of years ago when they first came out, was a Lyman digital thermometer. I started with an RCBS that I created a janky mount for that allowed me to see the lead temp with or without the pot cap. Reliable, but I'm also a fan of digital for speed (as well as not having my nose directly over the hot pot). The Lyman was super cheap (under $20) and also accurate. Now I have three levels of temperature redundancy accuracy!
Really nice, sophisticated setup. Way more elaborate than mine. I have the same Lee melter, but it lacks all the amenities that yours has. An enviable set up.
Thanks.
I upgraded my pot by adding ceramic cloth. It helps insulate the pot reducing preheat time and potentially reducing power usage. Bummer that you can't actually finely control exactly where the cloth is shaped.
Suspiciously clean work area... I have a similar setup but nobody will accuse me of being so neat. I run the Lee thermostat on max and let the pid controller have full authority over the temperature - works very well. I like the idea of covering the pot to conserve heat, but might be a pain to reload ingots while casting.
LOL, it's only clean when I pull off my leather cover and top mats!
Wow, that is so nice. Thank you for sharing. Another project I hope I can learn some day.
Awesome set up 💯🇺🇸
Great video and great information…
Thanks. My approach was to assemble a bunch of relatively inexpensive individual components into a more robust configuration.
My machine shop specializes in commercial bullet casting. We also manufacture hand cranking machines that will produce 500 bullets an hour. We sell molds too! All made in Arizona. Look us up. Magma Engineering!
Master Caster looks like an interesting product (even more so after watching the video). Out of my price range for my level/degree of casting I do however. Need a poor man's version ;-)
Simply outstanding!👍👍👍
Thanks.
Cool setup! Thx for the ideas.
Отличное видео,спасибо.
Конечно модернизация тигля Lee выше всяких похвал-это просто фантастика,никогда не думал
что можно вот так вот из обычной вещи сделать нечто.С меня лайк и подписка,удачи.
Спасибо. Приятно видеть, что другие люди могут создать, чтобы сделать обычный продукт исключительным как по стоимости, так и по производительности, не тратя целое состояние.
Thank you. It's great to see what other people can create to make an ordinary product exceptional in both value and performance without spending a fortune.
Very nice. You’re a true engineer at heart as you improve everything that you use. I, too, have been steadily buying the items needed for casting boolits. I went with NOE moulds. also, I have given up on wheel weights - too many zinc and steel weights now. Not worth it to glean only a fraction in lead WW’s. Thanks for the video.
I found the upgrade and bought it!
Nice setup
Great setup. I just got my Lee 4/20 and will start casting . Where can I buy that PID from ? I looked up some videos how to make them, but lots of shady quality parts out there and I don't wanna waste my time. Thanks.
Thanks. The PID was made by a member on Castboolits. His ID is ButterNutZ. I haven't looked him up in years, so don't know if he's still active on the site or if he's still doing the PIDs. I got mine from him many years ago...years before I made this now old video.
Hi tech. That technical and clean would drive me nuts. Guess I’m too hillbilly
How did you assemble your "jenky contraption?" I love it
Lee is completely out of all melters.xyz
Right now in early 2021, every vendor is out of EVERYTHING reloading related (and have you seen prices on eBay for things you could hardly give away not too long ago?) and the manufacturers can't keep anything stocked. Crazy times for sure.
Great video. What temp "range" do you have your molten lead at? Do you vary that temp for smaller weight vs larger weight bullets? How do you know you have temp "just right"?
Thanks. I'm in the 700-725 range with my lead regardless of bullet weight. For me, I know I have the right temp when I tap out the bullets from the mold and I see what they look like. Shiny and smooth tells me I'm good. "Frosty" (hazy, not shiny) tells me my temp is off. Make sure you've pre-conditioned your molds as well as heated them up for the casting session. Frist few pours may/may not be on the money.
Nice video. Looking forward to receiving the new pot upgrade from OpenNRG. What did you use for the PID probe holder? custom made or commercial item
Thanks. His design/build are great values IMO. I did an update video in 2023 and picked up his lead float and an additional "holder". Here's what I did to modify the top/lid for both the PID probe and thermometer that is a bit more elegant than my janky home made solution --> ruclips.net/video/EAZ8lAck_V8/видео.html
That is more than nice and appreciate you sharing it with us. I found the upgrade kit
with a little searching and it seems really nice and well built. Also love the pricing he
has, very reasonable for what it is. Was not able to find the PID guy, you wouldn't by
chance no how to find him again would you ?? Am looking for one I don't have to
build or take out a small loan to buy :-))
The PID was made by a member on Castboolits. His ID is ButterNutZ. He is still active on the site, but not sure he's still doing the PIDs as he made mine in 2014. Can't hurt ask. His work is nice and, at the time (as I no longer have a reason to search), his was the smallest/nicest/cleanest PID in my opinion (and I had been searching for a while as I'm a picky old man). Glad you found OpenNRG. His work is awesome and beyond reasonably priced for what you get.
@@ReLoadersBench I'm a picky old man too, after six years it's probably not looking to good :-((
I'll try.
Where I can buy something like that?
If your goal is to match what is in my video, it's three main (minus the homemade thermometer thingy and accessories) purchases:
The Lee 20lb furnace (online purchase from just about anywhere...once in stock)
All the upgrades to the Lee furnace offered by OpenNRG
www.opennrg.com/product/lee-4-20-furnace-pot-upgrade-kit/
PID
(picked up mine many years ago, but found the guy on Castboolits)
castboolits.gunloads.com/ PID "stickies"
Fantastic video, thank you, it helps guys like me who are just starting to do this themselves. Do you by chance remember the guys name who made your lee upgrade kit? I would be interested in one of those myself, looks like a nice upgrade.
you can find him by searching on "OpenNRG" (just add dot com). Don't want to publish links as YT has "issues" with doing that.
@@ReLoadersBench Thank you found it and saved it to bookmarks, I am for sure ordering that next month
@@ReLoadersBench openNRG dot com gets me nothing...what am I missing...
@@gerrymatheson4020 - since I'm looking at his site/products right now, not sure why you can't... www.opennrg.com/product-category/my2ndright/
Where did you get the stand/ mount upgrade! That’s very nice and I would love to have one!
All the upgrades to the Lee furnace offered by OpenNRG:
www.opennrg.com/shop/p/lee-4-20-lead-pot-upgrade
@@ReLoadersBench thank you sir!!
Hi, if i cast soft pure lead. Can i still shoot it in 308?
Projectile/bullet lead is usually made up of 3 components: 90% Lead, 5% Tin, 5% Antimony. Pure lead won't have the Tin or Antimony, so it would be softer. Not sure I'd want softer lead in .30 caliber traveling @ ~2800fps down a 16+" rifle barrel. If you already have the pure lead on hand (as lead is now getting more expensive each year) you can always just buy the Tine and Antimony from shops like Rotometals and blend them into your smelt. That being said, not sure I'd cast for .308 as some won't shoot lead above 1,000fps and some harder lead pushed to ~1,600 fps. I cast for slower speed pistol calibers. YMMV. I'd do some more research to play it safe.
@ReLoadersBench Thank you so much for the quick response and good information. Ill see if i can test the hardness of the lead and then add on as needed. Blessings Johan
Hola amigo .donde puedo comprar esa maravilla. La olla para fundir el plomo
El bote es de Lee Precision llamado Pro 4 20lb. Puede recoger eso en cualquier lugar. El kit de actualización está fabricado por NRG y está disponible en www.opennrg.com/product/lee-4-20-furnace-pot-upgrade-kit/
The pot is by Lee Precision called Pro 4 20lb. Can pick that up anywhere. The upgrade kit is made by NRG and available at www.opennrg.com/product/lee-4-20-furnace-pot-upgrade-kit/
Clever bugger