Lee 4-20 Pot - on the way to me

[JohnnyEnfield]

It is finally happening. The Lee 4-20 pot was ordered a few days ago and is now on the way to me. I was having a hard time committing to it as my first pot, since I am new to casting, but decided to just go for it. I have a long list of things I would LIKE to have but for now I will be casting TL358- 158SWC bullets and tumble lubing them. I believe the 45-45-10 method will work. Will buy a .452 230 RN mold soon too.

I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here. I have other .358 bullets I want to cast in the future anyway. I will be starting with range scrap ingots so I hope they work well enough. Thank you to everyone here for your advice and guidance. You guys have the best attitudes and best advice around.

Johnny

[larryw]

[Ranch Dog]

I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here.

I run all my tumble lube designs through a Lee sizer. If you don't, you will foul your bullet seating die pretty darn quick with the lube that is shaved off by the case mouth.

[JohnnyEnfield]

Thank you for the reply, I am glad I ordered the Lee sizer. I am already thinking of all the different molds I want to try. Some nice weather coming my way next week, so should be able to get casting outside.

[GasGuzzler]

I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here.

I run all my tumble lube designs through a Lee sizer. If you don't, you will foul your bullet seating die pretty darn quick with the lube that is shaved off by the case mouth.

Now I know why I hate the push-through sizers. Well actually I know several reasons but that one I can now correct making me hate them that much less. Less mess less hate.

That doesn't help how messy the push-through is though.

[JohnnyEnfield]

Maybe I will powder coat them, then size them. I saw a little toaster oven at Wal Mart for $19 that I am going to buy for powder coating. Was going to wait and do the 45-45-10 and a couple different ways of tumble lubing just to try them out before buying the oven. Maybe I will just buy the oven now and add powder coating to my process right away. I bought Lee liquid Alox and already have paste wax, mineral spirits, etc. I just want to start casting bullets and the tracking shows my package stuck in Illinois right now. I have a nice amount of ingots waiting to be melted.

[JohnnyEnfield]

I got my 4-20 pot set up and casting. I used an old gas grill as my platform. Cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to fit over the cooking area and made it into a table. Put a large ceramic tile over each of the sides of the grill and placed old towels over them. If I could figure out how to get my pictures to post I would post them. It works excellent as a casting station.

My range scrap ingots were very clean, I was surprised how little junk was in them, a nice surprise. Once I got rolling it was a real learning experience and one of the coolest things I have ever done. Most of the bullets came out great. I started getting a feel for the flow, temperature, speed and pressure, all interacting with the mold. I realized a few spots were starting to get frosty on the bullets and slowed down - even cooling the mold for a few minutes a couple times. It was really great. I weighed several samples today and they all settled on 157 grains on the cheap digital scale.

I am not sure how many I made or how many pounds of alloy I used. Did not count yet, hundreds of 158 grain SWC tumble lube bullets made from a single 2 cavity mold. I decided to try powder coating them and that worked well too until I checked at the end of the time and some of the bullets were badly deformed and ruined. I think the whole batch will be culled. Too bad too because the coating is beautiful. I used harbor freight red and a new oven. I am not sure why they got melted, I did them for 400 degree at 20 minutes. I will try another SMALL batch tomorrow with less heat and time. Stinks they got ruined. I did not use a second timer just the one on the oven I also have NO IDEA what the REAL temperature in the oven was. It ruined about 80 bullets though.

All in all it was great and I can' t wait to get casting again. Time to figure out which mold to buy next. Honestly, the 2 cavity cast so well - I think my next one will be 2 cavity as well - at least until I get better at it. The 4-20 pot is really great. I am very very happy with it. I am so glad I asked you guys months ago if I should get one. The temperature control, the melt time, the capacity, the operation, it is all really good and I couldn't be happier with the pot or the mold. If I can get my pictures to post I will add them in a different post.

[JohnnyEnfield]

Casting station




First Batch

[Ranch Dog]

Johnny, your links to the photos are bad. Tried to figure it out but the page references are not valid.

[JohnnyEnfield]

Casting station.jpg