Pull the piston, turn upside down and point a blow drier or heat gun at it. Catch what comes out in a pie pan or such. If it takes more than 15 minutes I'll be surprised.I may well do just that.... I think I might try a few wadcutters, pan lubed with it first. Lots of possibilities. .... plus I'm not sure how long it would take me to clean the alox out of my lube sizer....
And if you are a ladle type caster using a hot plate or such for heat source, look for a heavy stainless pot. Cut my dross exponentially when I switched from a cast pot.Looks better than my first double batch, I scorched it getting it too hot. Good news is it works fine on slugs and buckshot.
when your looking for a pot to melt your lube, look for a stainless syrup/tea pitcher with a hinged lid. They are all over at garage sales and usually a dollar or less.
+++++++ Agreed++++++++Pre-heating the bullets helps with lube flow
Yes... I agree. I had put all the bullets in the little pan, and then heated it up. I dropped bits of lube down in the pan to melt them down around the bullets. The bullets were pretty warm before I added lube.Pre-heating the bullets helps with lube flow
Exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a hotplate to keep the mould hot. You do that by casting fast enough to keep the mould HOT. I started out ladle casting, it's natural and easy for me. Bottom Pours are a tool of Satan OTOH, although I keep trying them from time to time. I cast everything from single cavity Yankee's to 10 cavity H+G mould's out of a stainless pot that holds around 40 lbs of alloy. A ladle allows you to give the mould what it wants- air gap, spout to sprue contact pressure casting, off center, whatever it wants. And you can SEE the sprue hole! No guessing or hunching over.@Bret4207 ... are you saying you use a stainless pot on a hotplate to cast bullets? I've only tried ladle casting once, and wasn't terribly successful at it. Repeatability was sort of hit or miss.... at that time I was not using a hot plate to keep the mold hot, though....
The bigger pot would make dipping a lot easier.Exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a hotplate to keep the mould hot. You do that by casting fast enough to keep the mould HOT. I started out ladle casting, it's natural and easy for me. Bottom Pours are a tool of Satan OTOH, although I keep trying them from time to time. I cast everything from single cavity Yankee's to 10 cavity H+G mould's out of a stainless pot that holds around 40 lbs of alloy. A ladle allows you to give the mould what it wants- air gap, spout to sprue contact pressure casting, off center, whatever it wants. And you can SEE the sprue hole! No guessing or hunching over.
Do what works for you, but I'm not giving up my ladle any time soon!
I use an open coil type I got at Wally World for around $10 IIRC. The enclosed burner types I tried never got hot enough. I just have to make sure I get a sturdy one, that's a lot of burn juice if it spills! I've thought about finding a burner from a 220V range and making one up but never got to it. For that matter, I'm still trying to update my 2 Lyman 10lbs BP's to piggy back with new thermostats and then securing the whole mess to the benchtop, But, time is limited!The bigger pot would make dipping a lot easier.
I only use the hot plate to pre-heat the mold so that I don't throw away the first 15-20 trying to get it up to temp. When I add lead to the pot, I put the mold on the hot plate to keep it hot. Seems to help.
I might try dipping again... had never thought about the stainless pot on a hot plate to melt the lead. Do you use just a regular hot plate?
Yep! I agree. I used a Lyman for about 40 years, then got a Lee 20#. I've put a pid controller on the Lee, and that helps a lot, but it is still a little crowded at the top, with the thermocouple and all....If you need a hot plate to keep the mould hot because you are adding alloy that often, you NEED a bigger pot!