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Author Topic: casting RB`s  (Read 2980 times)

Offline Indiana

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« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2009, 02:20:07 PM »
Copper is preferred, as the lead will not stick to copper pots as it will to a steel pot.
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« Reply #16 on: February 23, 2009, 02:56:29 PM »
Quote from: "Indiana"
Copper is preferred, as the lead will not stick to copper pots as it will to a steel pot.

 Wont stick to a cast iron unseasoned pot either, when Im done casting for the day, i fill the pot again, let it cool overnight, go out and turn the pot over and I have a perfect pot size ingot to start with next time.
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Offline burch

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« Reply #17 on: February 23, 2009, 03:32:56 PM »
I think I can get a cast pot from Wally World
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Offline R.M.

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« Reply #18 on: February 23, 2009, 03:56:13 PM »
Something to consider. By the time you buy a pot, a dipper, and a stove with fuel, you can just get an electric pot and plug it in.
Mind you, you still need a pot to smelt your lead into usable ingots. Only clean lead should be put into a bottom pour pot.
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Offline burch

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« Reply #19 on: February 23, 2009, 04:38:48 PM »
I already have a coleman stove.
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« Reply #20 on: February 23, 2009, 04:49:41 PM »
another sayety tip here, if your going to add any weight like fishing weights to it, cut off ALL brass or any other metals before you add to the hot pot, else you'll wind up with mount vesuvius spitting and slpattering hot lead, not pretty!
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Offline Three Hawks

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« Reply #21 on: February 26, 2009, 06:34:17 PM »
My first pot was one a friend made at work.  It's a 4" length of 4" exhaust tubing welded to a 1/4" plate bottom.     When I started, I used an old stainless steel serving spoon with a pouring lip I bent into one side as a ladle.   The handle got hot in short order so I rivetted scales onto the handle like you would find on a butcher knife.  I heated it on a coleman stove.  

After you get comfortable casting,  you will almost certainly go for more and better tools.   The Lee 20 lb bottom pour is an excellent value and Lee's customer support is superb.  

If you do as I do and lurk in flea markets and ante-kew malls you will find things you can't live without.   Lots of old plumber's furnaces, crucibles and ladles, the odd bullet mold and once in a while a gun the seller has no clue about.  

By the way, excellent fluxes are parrafin and candle wax.   Crushed charcoal floated on your melt is good too, as is clean kitty litter.

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Offline Uncle Russ

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« Reply #22 on: February 26, 2009, 07:59:29 PM »
Quote
By the way, excellent fluxes are parrafin and candle wax. Crushed charcoal floated on your melt is good too, as is clean kitty litter.

I second that notion! :rt th

Kitty Litter is one of the very best fluxes on the market,  and it leaves your pot nice and shinny. This is very important to those who cast a lot.

FWIW: Marvelux, as sold by Brownells, is quite likely the most used flux on the market, and I suspect it does have some good characteristics. However, it is also one of the worst for turning the pot into a nightmare to get clean and that takes valuable time away from actual casting.

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Online Hank in WV

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« Reply #23 on: February 26, 2009, 09:21:19 PM »
Just so I have this straight, kitty litter is used as a flux instead of wax?
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Offline R.M.

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« Reply #24 on: February 26, 2009, 09:29:20 PM »
From what I understand, anything that contains a lot of carbon can be used. I've even heard of used motor oil working well. Stirring the melt with a very dry wooden dowel works well because of the carbon produced at that temp, and the fact that you get it all the way to the bottom of the pot.
I'd try to avoid used kitty litter though.   :Doh!
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Offline Fletcher

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« Reply #25 on: February 27, 2009, 03:03:19 PM »
Watch out for that Wally World cast iron.  It has some chemicals in it and I don't know how long or how bad it might smoke/stink.  I really think you would be better with a real Lyman pot, or go to a plumbing supply and get a plumbers cast iron pot.  I have one of those - it is much bigger than the Lyman and I use it for melting down bigger scrap.  I then pour the lead into bars using my Lyman ingot mould (4 @ 1lb bars)
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Offline Indiana

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« Reply #26 on: February 27, 2009, 03:08:51 PM »
Quote from: "BEAVERMAN"
Quote from: "Indiana"
Copper is preferred, as the lead will not stick to copper pots as it will to a steel pot.

 Wont stick to a cast iron unseasoned pot either, when Im done casting for the day, i fill the pot again, let it cool overnight, go out and turn the pot over and I have a perfect pot size ingot to start with next time.

Didn't know that!  +1

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Offline Uncle Russ

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« Reply #27 on: February 27, 2009, 03:51:30 PM »
Quote
I'd try to avoid used kitty litter though.

:rotf

If it has been used / recycled, then I would certainly avoid it too. However, since in it's out of the bag form, it is no more than clay and it works like a charm.

Bob, Ya gotta try it some time!
In fact, knowing you, I would bet a nickle against a hole in doughnut that you already use it.

FWIW: And I certainly don't want to get off the subject here.....
However, for the folks that still have a lot of doubt about the use of simple kitty litter, and if you're still interested in getting a good flux, and pouring a really good projectile, you might want to Google up Glenn Fritzell of IHMSA cast boolit fame, who can give a great  technical reason on how & why it works so well.
Unfortunately I don't have that link handy.  

Also it's important to know why you need a good flux. Is it for binding alloys, or separating / un-binding certain alloys?
Do you know if you are using pure lead.... which is extremely hard to find, or are you using "pure lead" from the junk yard (which is seldom pure) or perhaps a mixture of alloys such as found in common wheel weights?
Or, which is the case most of the time, or are you just fluxing because someone said that is what you're supposed to do???

You can easily get by without knowing any of this, but if you want to cast the best boolit possible then you may want to look a little deeper into this subject....it is a wonderful hobby, all in its own, and it does add a certain little something to the fact that you know, and made, what your shooting.

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Offline Three Hawks

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« Reply #28 on: February 27, 2009, 06:43:54 PM »
Once again, I'll say this.  As Russ says PURE lead is almost impossible to find.  If you can scratch it with your fingernail, call it lead.  I have skimmed the dross off of my melt sometimes and found the remainder to be soft enough for ML projectiles.  

The  dross is very toxic, however and must be handled as if it were cyanide.  I double bag my dross in heavy freezer bags and put it in the garbage.  I really don't like having it around the house.

Laugh as you will at kittly litter, it really cleans up your pot.  Dunno what's in it, don't care.  It's incredibly cheap and it works.

I love cheap.

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« Reply #29 on: February 27, 2009, 07:15:28 PM »
Quote from: "Three Hawks"

Laugh as you will at kittly litter, it really cleans up your pot.  Dunno what's in it, don't care.  It's incredibly cheap and it works.

I love cheap.

Three Hawks

 Yep ol 3Hawks resembles that remark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rotf
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