What do I need to get started in casting?

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

What do I need to get started in casting? Let's say for just smelting wheelweights and making ingots for now and then later start casting boolits? Certain types of wheelweights to avoid?

[freakshow10mm]

Smelting:
cast dutch oven
turkey fryer
propane
ingot molds
big spoon for skimming contanimants, clips, etc
big ladle

Casting:
melter
mold with handles
safety equipment (mask, glasses, gloves, proper clothing)
bin to catch bullets (old ironing board cover inside a box)
5 gal bucket for water quenching if need be
thermometer is nice
flux (pine bedding from pet section, bullet lube, candle wax, etc)
big spoon to get contaminants out
container for contaminants

Sizing:
sizer
sizing die and top punch for RCBS/Lyman
lube
lube heater is recommended
bin to catch bullets

Pretty much it. The zinc clip on WW suck. They float to the top of the melt when smelting.

[cohutt]

For smelting add cheap leather welding gloves too.

ingot molds can be official or crb-
i started with a couple of lee ingot molds then got impatient and started using mini-muffin molds too.
got way more lead so then i decided i wanted bigger molds/less ingots so i added regular sized muffin molds too
got way way more lead so i started using coke cans too (peel away when cool, makes one heavy assed cylinder of alloy)
JJB helped me out with a couple of homemade "bar" ingot molds that cast about 7 lbs each.
I know the local tech college pres, asked him if i could submit a project for his next welding class to make some, he said sure, they proabably already had the scrap to make them. Hopefully i'll have a bunch of JJB sized molds soon.
with 1 lb lyman ingot in it:
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/misc019.jpg

mmm........., lead.......

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/misc028.jpg

[Anvil]

My advice is to get into one thing at a time. First smelting. Once you have that down and can produce quality ingots and put some lead into storage then get your casting equipment.

Don't try to smelt in a casting pot. Get yourself a cast iron dutch oven and a steel frame propane burner and you'll be half way there. Get by the restaurant supply place and get a green bean slotted ladle and a frying ladle. Now get some muffin pans or make up some ingot moulds and get at least 2 propane tanks and a casting ladle (got to have that and they aren't cheap. I've got a Rowell #4. Now you're ready.


Casting is it's own thing with it's own problems and it's own equipment and expenses.

Lube/ sizing ... the same.

Truth is you can try to just smelt in the casting pot but you'll likely be the one giving the advice not to after your first casting session.


I'll post pictures of all my equipment when the sun come up.

[craig110]

I agree with starting out doing one thing at a time, but I suggest starting at the casting end. Why? Casting is very different from smelting since with casting, you'll be doing lots of repetitive steps for an hour or two at a time which some people might find tedious or even boring after a while. Smelting, on the other hand, is very different type of activity since you go from one big step to the next big step, to the next, and then you're done. Therefore, some people might like smelting but then find that casting isn't their thing. If you find you don't like casting for any reason, having all the equipment and good experience at smelting doesn't really do much for you any more. If you start with casting, then you can find out if you like the repetitive process and the bullets that get produced first before learning about, and investing in, smelting. And, if you don't like it, the eBay market to resell the casting pot and tools is pretty good. I don't know if smelting gear would sell as well since it has a much smaller audience.

Now, of course, where to get lead ingots? If you already have a supply of WWs, I'm sure someone here will be willing to trade you X number of pounds of clean ingots for a larger number of pounds of raw WWs. If you don't have any WWs yet, someone would probably be willing to send you 20 pounds or so to see how you like casting. Worst case, and this is how I got started, you can always get your first batch of ingots from eBay. While some might request that you burn your CRB card if you do this, I viewed it as cheap insurance against losing the cost of the smelting gear if I found that I didn't like casting. (I did this when I was new enough at the 'other' forum to not realize how generous everyone is, though, so I didn't put out a request for some ingots.)

[craig110]

Truth is you can try to just smelt in the casting pot but you'll likely be the one giving the advice not to after your first casting session.


Many people say this, but I smelt in my bottom-pour casting pot to skip the ingot stage now (bermined lead -> smelt -> pour into moulds) and I've had no problems. I look at it this way: If there is something in the melt that will mix in with the lead or is denser than lead and will thus flow down into my mould, that same stuff will be ladled out into the ingots and will later be present in the casting pot anyway. Now, of course, I can't post pretty pictures of a pile of ingots, but on the other hand I haven't spent the time needed to make them, move them into storage, and later reheat them back up beyond the melting point.