Re: What Bullet Casting Did You Do Today?
Posted: 11 Feb 2018 07:44
Cast my TLC313-150-RF design, an NOE mould, for the 7.62x39 and 303 British. Setup Friday morning and kept getting interruptions which eventually led to me shutting down until later in the day. I've posted pictures of my reloading room and benches but to show you I'm not a fancy guy, here is my casting bench!
I had a bench a dozen years ago, in my barn, and in that this is not a frequent endeavor and it always ended up collection odds and ends because of the lack of use, so I removed it. I have five different "carports" on my ranch, with electricity, and just select one that fits my needs. 95% of the time, any season, it is the entrance to my barn where I keep my truck parked. I can cut three panels out of my bench top, cut, so they are easy to store, and that is about all I need to get set up. I've also found the tailgate the right height for me and place the pot on a cinder block to get it higher.
I always have a nice view that makes the time more enjoyable and plenty of fresh air and a breeze to reduce the fume hazard. My dog's like it, they can keep track of me!
This session was the second run of the Hot Pot 2. I had a bunch of 303 British bullets from two different molds that were not going to work out. The bullets had been lubed with Ben's LL, so I did not want them in my casting pot. I started the Pro 4-20 with fresh 60/40 (linotype/wheel weights) alloy, but it did not take the Hot Pot very long to reduce 5 pounds unusable bullets to a fresh alloy. I believe it took four melts, poured it right into the 4-20. I see the Hot Pot 2 doing a lot of odd jobs for me and there is no setup, just plug and melt anywhere it is safe to do so.
That was Friday, so yesterday afternoon I installed the gas checks and ran them through a .314 Lee sizer. While I did that, I had my Lyman 4500 heating up White Label Lube's 2500+. These are tumble lube bullets (TLC313-150-RF), but people miss that they can be lubed on a traditional lubesizer. With a .314" die in the Lyman, I lubed them very quickly.
With my 60/40 linotype alloy the bullet drop a bit lighter than the design probability of152-grains, the sample lot had a very tight average of 146-grains. I have 250 completed bullets. This is about the largest size lot that I will work with now. I need twice that but will cast again in a couple of days. The linotype requires that gas checks be seated and sizing be done pronto. These bullets get hard quick.
I had a bench a dozen years ago, in my barn, and in that this is not a frequent endeavor and it always ended up collection odds and ends because of the lack of use, so I removed it. I have five different "carports" on my ranch, with electricity, and just select one that fits my needs. 95% of the time, any season, it is the entrance to my barn where I keep my truck parked. I can cut three panels out of my bench top, cut, so they are easy to store, and that is about all I need to get set up. I've also found the tailgate the right height for me and place the pot on a cinder block to get it higher.
I always have a nice view that makes the time more enjoyable and plenty of fresh air and a breeze to reduce the fume hazard. My dog's like it, they can keep track of me!
This session was the second run of the Hot Pot 2. I had a bunch of 303 British bullets from two different molds that were not going to work out. The bullets had been lubed with Ben's LL, so I did not want them in my casting pot. I started the Pro 4-20 with fresh 60/40 (linotype/wheel weights) alloy, but it did not take the Hot Pot very long to reduce 5 pounds unusable bullets to a fresh alloy. I believe it took four melts, poured it right into the 4-20. I see the Hot Pot 2 doing a lot of odd jobs for me and there is no setup, just plug and melt anywhere it is safe to do so.
That was Friday, so yesterday afternoon I installed the gas checks and ran them through a .314 Lee sizer. While I did that, I had my Lyman 4500 heating up White Label Lube's 2500+. These are tumble lube bullets (TLC313-150-RF), but people miss that they can be lubed on a traditional lubesizer. With a .314" die in the Lyman, I lubed them very quickly.
With my 60/40 linotype alloy the bullet drop a bit lighter than the design probability of152-grains, the sample lot had a very tight average of 146-grains. I have 250 completed bullets. This is about the largest size lot that I will work with now. I need twice that but will cast again in a couple of days. The linotype requires that gas checks be seated and sizing be done pronto. These bullets get hard quick.