I have been reloading for 20+ years, always said I was not going to cast. That was then, this is now. I have been interesting in casting for the past 2 years. Read too many casting articles in Handloader magazine. Maybe it is time to start...

I want to start pretty cheap because I don't have much money and I don't know if I will like it. I want to cast bulk bullet for my 45 ACP pistols. I am looking at the Lee tumble lube molds and a 20 pound Lee bottom pour furnace. Can I get started with only that?

Can I use the bullets as they come from the mold or do they really need to be sized?

How is accuracy with the tumble lube bullets? I am mostly doing close range rapid fire stuff. But some at 25 yds, maybe 50 occasionally.

So here is my shopping list so far...
Lee tumble lube die 6 cavity, 45 ACP 230gr TC
20 pound bottom pour furnace
Lee Liquid Alox lube
cheap stainless spoon for cleaning top of pot
old pan for dropping sprues into
old bucket for water
old towels

What else do I need?

Thanks,
HH

I see I need to get handles for the molds...

So here is my shopping list so far...
Lee tumble lube die 6 cavity, 45 ACP 230gr TC
Handles for mold
20 pound bottom pour furnace
Lee Liquid Alox lube
cheap stainless spoon for cleaning top of pot
old pan for dropping sprues into
old bucket for water
old towels

I use a big pierced stainless steel spoon I got at Salvation Army for $1 to skim the pot. It works great especially when melting wheel weights. It scoops up the trash while letting the lead drain through. For the fine powdery stuff just use the edge of the spoon.

here is a list of a few things that I see that you will need (1) cookie sheets to set your lubed bullets on I have done it other ways but the cookie sheets work the best (2) a smelting pot to melt your old lead in to clean it before you make bullets (3) Flux can be any of the following bees wax , candle wax , paint stir stick , spine tree sap , old moter oil , old bullet lube , saw dust , Marvelix which is a comm. flux would nor recomend using that till you get some experence on what to look for when you get moisture under you lead which couses steem explosions very bad thing to get marvelix atracts moisture to the spoon that you use to put it in your lead with (4) spoons I use 2 different spoons when I am melting wheel weights and casting one is a table spoon the other is a big spoon with a flat edge on the front of it to scrape slag out with (5) ingot moulds (6) a ladel (7) a magnet with a T handle weilded to it I use old speeker magnets for this job makes getting the steel weight and steel clips out of your smelting pot a lot easer (8) a pair of weilding gloves (9) a face sheild you need to protect your eyes (10) is only a sugestion when melting wheel weights in a pot always empty your pot of clean lead before adding more weights to it this prevents a visit from the tensil farry you do not want to meet her she is a real B_ _ _ H I hope this helps have fun and be safe at alltimes when melting lead Forest Punch

Lee says the tumble lube bullets don't need to be sized; lube & shoot as cast.
They can be pretty darn accurate.
..

Cheap way to get started is to find a caster that has a bullet mold that will make a projectile your pistol will shoot. Let him show you the ropes and get you started with his furnace or pot. Decide from there if you have a source of bullet metal and a desire to make your own.

Moderator Jack Montieth got me started just from reading on this board before I joined it. Posts by Ribbonstone hooked me and I now "prefer" to make my own.

I have had much succsess with Lee TL molds. Not sure I'd recomend a 20 lb. bottom pour pot to a new caster though? Possible to cast thousands of bullets that don't work well with that combination!

I recomend that you buy the mold that you like and find a friend that can melt lead. Try a few and lube them yourself. Choose from there.

Cheezywan

I started out with Lee stuff to cast for .45 ACP several years ago and have pretty much stuck with their stuff. In my experience, I would suggest a couple of things. First, I think Lee says you usually don't have to size tumble lubed bullets. My .45 tumble lubed bullets needed sizing to get down to .452 diameter. However, my .38 special bullets always came out just right at .358. the Lee sizer is pretty cheap and easy to use so it won't break the bank. Also, I ended up with molds for four different bullet styles for .45 ACP. All of them shot pretty well, but the easiest for me to both cast and shoot seemed to be the Lee tumble lube 230 grain truncated cone bullet. And one final thing, 6 cavity molds can be great, but they are a bit harder to handle and you have to buy the extra handles. I have found that 3 two cavity molds alternated are about the same price and do just as well. But I have a couple of 6 cavity molds and use them too. Casting is great fun to me, except in the summer time. Therefore, I cast buckets of bullets in the winter so I can shoot them all year round. Follow the instructions, have plenty of ventilation, don't eat and cast at the same time, wash up thoroughly, keep moisture away from the pot. You will have a great time.

I know people that shoot the TL bullets without sizing them, you will just have to check them to see what they drop at. If you are going to use wheel weights then you will need some way to melt them into ingots. If you try to run the WW's in your Lee pot you won't be happy. I drop the sprue back into the pot right after I cut it. The list looks pretty good. You will want some sprue plate lube for the sprue plate and pins. I use anti-sieze from the auto parts store. A little bit goes a long way.

Just a quick thought, have a forty cal S&W bought the two cavity mold instead of the six cavity to decide if that was the bullet for my gun. When you find the right weight and design bullet you can get the six cavity.

Rusty,
you said, "If you are going to use wheel weights then you will need some way to melt them into ingots. If you try to run the WW's in your Lee pot you won't be happy."

What do you mean? Is it difficult to melt WWs? Do they melt better in a different type of furnace? I am actually considering a Lyman dipper type furnace, I found a really good deal on one, might do that..

Thanks,
HH

My own experience in casting bullets. I have never used anything but wheelw eights, and I've shot them out of 30-30, 223, 45/70, 44mag, 357 mag. You get the picture. I have shot them out of bigger guns too, but not much as I just have no interest in firing casts in centerfirerifles, other then 45/70 velocity.
Also, I have never added any tin or anything else.

I started out with a Lyman casting set, so that gave me everything except molds and other hardware store stuff. For melting wheel weights I use any old pan my wife throws away. I've used a stainless frying pan, but its pretty awkward. Mostly I just use an old 3-4 quart pot, and I use vice grips for handles, of course wearing heavy gloves. I use my home made dipper to remove the metal clips, but the magnets sound cool too, except you still have to get them off the magnet. I pour my molten lead directly into the Lyman ingot molds, but you can use an old muffin sheet, which works the same.

Now far actual casting. I use the Lynman top load 20# pot. Bottom pours work well for small bullets, and, if you are a slow poke. But if you use a bottom pour for larger bullets, like a 230gr bullet you will be waiting for lead to heat up most of time. To keep my pot hot enough I also use a propane tourch on low aimed at the bottom (set up inbeteen stuff to hold it still)

I don't preflux my lead while melting it, instead I flux it while casting. I've only ever used parafine. I dip the parafine in the pot and I also touch briiefly the insides of the molds to flux them too, but only onjce in a while. Really helps make drop out nice. I use the Lyman laddle for dipping, but I have already made larger ladels by welding a handle to a heavy duty can, actually not a can, but a container shaped like a can. To knock the bullets out of the molds if I need to, I use the end of an old boat oar cut off so I can use the handle and leave the large part for knocking.

When the bullets have been cast I drop them in cold water, or water added to a bucket of snow. Really chills them quick. I do dry them on an old cookie sheet for at least 12 hours, or more, in the basement.

I have tried Lee molds several times and I just don't like them, The bullets alway come out irregular shaped and uneven weight. I even tried a 45acp mold, and my Kimber wouldn't even chamber them, and that is after running them trough the Lyman lubersizer die.

After drying off the bullets I sort them out while still on the cookie sheet. Get rid of odd ones and mostly sprues that drop off into my chilling bucket. Almost any type of large container will work for chilling as long as you add water first. And the water is much softer then dropping them onto an old towel or anything else, PLUS you get instantly hardened bullets by dropping in cold water. I always cast in my barn in the winter, so the water stays cold.

For sizing I use my Lyman lubersizer with my own home made creation of bullet lube. Which is really easy to make. When I first started I tried liquid alox along with Lee's sizing die. Wasn't happy with either. I'm not knocking Lee, I just have had nill sucess with them in anything. I have a couple buckets of old Lee stuff that I just haven't thrown away. Oh yeah, I do like the little see throgh red square boxes, but I have finally replace dthem with better things.

Now my safety tips. If you don't follow saftey then don't use my other info either.

Always wear safety glasses, and long clothes and a coat, with leather gloves, welders gloves are best but I use farmers gloves myself. Don't forget your feet, leather boots needed there, and I would also wear a ball hat to protect all thats up there. I have my casting or melting lead on one bench and a bucket of water setting on a stool 180 degress from the molten lead. The water is 4 feet below the molten lead. This is very important. Yes I have made mistakes, and feel educated to tell othesr how to do it safely.

Aside from safety in casting, don't forget safety in loading either. Like the trouble I had with the Lee mold for 45acp, it was plain junk and could have killed me had I been persistant in makeing it work. If the bullet doesn't look like a bullet, being round and concentric then throw them back in the can to recast again.

One more safety tip, I use pliars or channel locks to drop the ingots to be melted into my casting pot. Just use common sence and think before you do something.

Back to the why not melt the wheelweights in the casting pot question. Probably like everyone else who casts, I learn best from experience. And it was a learning experience when I first started and melted wheelweights in a bottom pour pot. You get all kinds of junk when you melt wheelweights: clips, paint, grease and oil, asphalt, glue, you name it. Straining all that stuff out of a casting pot is very tedious and the trash tends to get in the valve of a bottom pour. I have found it much easier to melt wheelweights in an old pot on a propane stove, skim with an old slotted spoon, and then pour ingots in a muffin pan. Then I put the ingots in my casting pot. It also facilitates mixing alloys if you have a bucket of say, wheelweights, another bucket of pure lead, and another of linotype, all in similar sized ingots. Then if you want to mix them together in certain proportions for different uses, its easy to do.

Sorry I should have explained it better. Wheel weights are very dirty. They will mees up a bottom pour pot pretty quick. You will end up with crud in the spuot on the bottom and it will leak. The best thing to do is get a smelting setup. I have seen where people will get two of the Lee Pro 4-20 bottom pour pots, one for smelting and one for casting. Check out this link, it has a lot of good info, Bullet Casting 101 - TheFiringLine Forums

I melt and clean my wheel weights in an old dutch over over a propane burner . It's easy to scoop all the trash off the top , then I ladle the molten lead into an old muffin pan . I then have good clean "muffins " that fit perfectly in my Lee bottom pour. It works great.

__________________
God made man , Samuel Colt made us equal

Yupp! Thats a good way to do it. Make bullet casting as "cost effective" as you can.

Cheezywan

Add Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook to your list and read it. I'd suggest a two cavity mold to start with; easier to learn with and fewer problems. No need to water drop until you have determined your bullets are too soft. Air cooled wheel weights are more than hard enough for 45 ACP. Alox is a fine lube, easy to use. Most folks using alox begin with using way too much, just a little dab will do ya. I thin alox about 25% to 50%, lube about 100 at a time and set them on end, on a piece of alum. foil to dry. Sometimes I'll aim a fan at the bullets to help drying. Use micrometers to check the O.D. of your bullets and you may not have to size them...

I do the same thing with muffin pans and some home made moulds. I used 3" C channel 6" long and welded ends on. They will make an eight pound ingot.

Thanks for the information and the great post! I've been looking into this myself, and the information here is very helpful.

I know a lot of people love em but I'm not a fan of lee molds. If you have problems/poor accuracy well then, it just isn't fun anymore. Spring for higher quality molds before the bottom pour pot. Another thing is, slug your barrel. That cast bullet is nothing but trouble if it doesn't fit right. Remember that cast lead, even pure lino is much softer than jacket material. Almost every weapon will produce better results and less leading with a bullet sized +.001 to +.002 over slug diameter.
I'm not trying to start an argument about lee molds and I do use many lee products. I'm just sharing an opinion. I've been casting for a tad over 25 years now and I've used a lot of different stuff and I still learn every time I do a set up for a new weapon. When you decide that you like casting start looking at Brass molds.( Mp-molds ) They are a little costly but they are a lifetime investment and produce some very consistent bullets. Mold temp along with alloy temp is critical to consistent casting.

I do use bottom pour pots but they are not a "must have" starter item. I often cast a .460 400g GC boolit with a SAECO bottom pour pot and have no trouble keeping alloy melted at the correct temps. It's all about the cadence.

As always decide on how far you want to go down this path and of course your mileage may vary. Last but not least, Free advice is worth just what you pay for it.