In a post a few weeks ago, I am on record as saying I hated casing. After much thought though, I am going to start again. I have aquired a 44, a 500 S&W (rifle), and a 38/357 will be in the near future, and possibley a 45 ACP revolver. All will be shooting lead bullets.

I have a few questions though. First is a new furnace. I will not be using the Lee that I already have. It is a 10#, and I was unhappy with it. So I am looking for a new one. I have seen the Pro Melt by RCBS. Looks like a good unit, 20# pot. Also have seen the Lyman Mag 20. Botha re bottom pour which is what I want. Anyone lean to either one of them? Also a possibility is the Master Pot by Magma. Its pricey, but has 40# pot, which would come in handy when casting heavy .500 cal slugs. Any experience?

For a sizer, I am looking at the Magma Star Sizer. Any others I should consider?

I appreciate the help.

I cast for the 45 Colt and 45 ACP, 40 S&W, 41 magnum, 38/357, 8mm Rifle and 30 cal rifle and have been for the last 40 years or so. I'm also casting for the 50 and 54 caliber muzzle loader. For the past 20 years I've been using a Lee pot and Lee molds. Most of my cast steel molds are now long gone. Here's my setup on the loading bench.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Reloading/Leemeltpotandmolds.jpg

I use Lee's liquid alox and swirl lube, My sizer is Lees sizing system and I've no leading problems with the liquid alox and the little Lee push thru sizer puts on gas checks very well. Got rid of my old Lyman lubra-sizer years ago and never looked back. Used to have a Star sizer also, but like the liquid alox better.

I haven't used the equipment your talking about, but Magma makes top quality stuff and the RCBS Pro-melt pot is good, like you say it's pricy and I'm getting excellent results with what I use. I'm going to buy a new Lee 20 pound pot if my 20 year old Lee ever quits. If your going to throw that Lee melter away I'd be glad to pay the postage to ship it to me.

I see that Lee has a new bullet mold for the 500 Smith. I usually run two molds at a time when I'm casting and with a stack of ingots on one side I just keep the pot topped off as I cast.

. . . I have seen the Pro Melt by RCBS. Looks like a good unit, 20# pot. Also have seen the Lyman Mag 20. Botha re bottom pour which is what I want. Anyone lean to either one of them?. . . Any experience?
For a sizer, I am looking at the Magma Star Sizer. Any others I should consider?
I appreciate the help.
Sounds like a "mirror image" to what I'm using now. Both my Pro Melt and Mag 20 have been very good to me. Both very reliable and does the job. Neither one has the "drip" problem that is sometimes found on other furnaces. Bought both on eBay. The Pro Melt was new, the owner had two (I should be so lucky) so he sold one. The Mag 20 was slightly used and still looked new. Would not hesitate to recommend either one. My Star Sizer was purchased from an estate sale. It too was used but cleaned up nicely. Fastest lubrisizer on the market and built to last. New dies at $35 are a bit pricey but the most commonly used ones often come up for sale on eBay for less. The Star is the one to get if you want lots of bullets in the shortest period of time. Hope this helps.

Thanks guys.

Marshal- Do you run both pots at the same time? How does that work out for you?

AS far as your ingots go- how do you guys drop them? Do you melt in your pots, or do you melt down your lead another way and ladle into a form?

I don't know what I am going to use for alloy yet. WW's are an option, but I want something consistent. Using pre-mixed alloy is an option as well, but I would like to find 100#+ batches, or make my own with pure lead and alloys.

Thanks guys.
I normally run one pot at a time unless I intend to produce a large number of bullets in which case I run both pots. As far as ingots go, I melt ww's in a cast iron pot over a turkey fryer using propane. The alloy is then filtered of all ww clips and fluxed thoroughly. Next, the alloy is ladled into ingot molds. Not good practice to melt ww's in your pot since they come coated with all kinds of dirty foreign matter. Best to put clean ingots into your pot. WW's make good bullet alloy and are the least expensive. You can get a more consistent alloy but it's more expensive especially with the shipping cost. Believe Midway sells consistent alloys. Mixing your own alloy can be done too but perhaps you should master the basics of casting with ww's first before trying this. Just my dos centavos.

I use a 20 pound Lee pot and am very satisfied with it. I make my ingots with a small cast iron skillet over a burner. What I am looking for is some kind of strainer so I can melt wheelweights and just pick up some kind of wire basket to take out all the clips. Seems like a small deep fryer basket would work but I haven't found one yet. Anyone using something like that?

Sounds like an idea worth trying. I just use an old stainless strainer spoon to grab the ww clips which float on top of the melted alloy.

As some of you have already probably noticed, I post quite a bit about what my late father did with shooting, reloading and casting bullets. I did a fair amount of all three while growing up, but I never did anything outside of his direction. That being said, my Dad was a fairly astute guy and had reasons for doing the things that he did, which is why I recount the things he did here.

Dad had some interesting processes for how and what he did for casting bullets. He had a propane stove and cast iron cauldrons for melting lead, and his primary source for lead, as many others have noted, was wheel weights, but he was always looking for that perfect lead alloy that was neither too soft or too hard. He actually had a little tool for testing the hardness of the lead.

Dad used wax to purify the lead when he was casting bullets and especially when he was melting down WW in his big cauldron when he was making his ingots. He'd get everything melted good, then he would toss in a piece of parafin wax, which would almost immediately ignite. As it was burning, he'd stir the pot to get the lead swirling and bring all of the junk to one place in the middle. He said that the wax would bring the impurities to the surface and then he'd skim them off and dump them.

He used primarily Lyman molds - both ingot and bullet - but I'm not sure what he used for lubing. He had an old grease type lube machine for years, but a couple of years prior to his passing he bought a hot luber and he really liked that.

It always seemed to me like his setup was a pretty good one - then again, by the time I came around, he had been doing it for a couple of decades, so he probably continued to refine his setup and process as he went and had it pretty much like he wanted by the time I started working with him in the shop.

I've been using Lee bottom draw pots for 35 years....I still have and use the first one. About 10 years ago I bought a Pro-4-20, and it's a vastly better pot than the 10 pounders I used before that. I have heard nothing but good about the RCBS pot, but never used one. Considering that you can buy four Lee pots for the same price as the RCBS, I will probably continue to use what works for me. The "Lee Leak" can be solved or at least mitigated with the use of a dental pick to keep the nozzle clear and a screw driver to give the rod a twist every 100 bullets or so. I also own many Lee moulds and have had very good results using them. They are a little more delicate and temperamental than steel moulds, but some of mine have cast over 10,000 bullets and are still going strong. I should mention that I also own Lyman, RCBS, H&G, and NEI moulds.

Dad used wax to purify the lead when he was casting bullets and especially when he was melting down WW in his big cauldron when he was making his ingots. He'd get everything melted good, then he would toss in a piece of parafin wax, which would almost immediately ignite. As it was burning, he'd stir the pot to get the lead swirling and bring all of the junk to one place in the middle. He said that the wax would bring the impurities to the surface and then he'd skim them off and dump them.

He used primarily Lyman molds - both ingot and bullet - but I'm not sure what he used for lubing. He had an old grease type lube machine for years, but a couple of years prior to his passing he bought a hot luber and he really liked that.

I guess your Dad and I have/had a lot in common. 20 years ago two different men gave me brand new bottom draw pots and I never used them. My old Coleman stove (with the multiple replaced generator), a lead pot, an old Ideal dipper and my Lyman & Ideal bullet moulds. That constitutes my casting setup. I still use wax to bring the dross to the surface while mixing the tin/lead/antimony concoction I worked out years ago. I make my own lube (fairly common mix) and use the result for target and hunting.

I still use an old Ideal luber-sizer and a balance scale. Too old to change I guess. But the targets can't tell the difference and the dead game just ain't up to talkin'.

Oh yeah... the wax is 100% beeswax and is easy to use. It's mostly in long sticks left over from when I moved a whole lot of barrel blanks to where I live now. It still has the reverse rifling on them.