After spending a day making ammo I would like to share my experiences with the Lee production pot IV and the proshotcatapults ammo molds.
Firstly the Lee production pot IV. To say this thing is good is a understatement. After making fishing sinkers many times with a wood fire and ladle pourer, I express my relief after using this wonder for many hours today. It is so much safer than the old method my father taught me on dealing with moltern lead.
As probably most of who read this know and common sense should dictate, Moltern lead is extremly dangerous. It can send you to the emergency department with major burns and a splash could blind you.
The Lee production pot IV is still very dangerous, however the way this wonder delivers lead in a consistent stream with a cool handle with little need of a glove is just in a league of it's own compared to the old method.
Not having to hold a couple of pounds of lead in a hot ladle and pouring quickly is fantastic.
I used lead flashing sheets I got from a scrap metal merchant($3/kg). Using a pair of tin snips to cut into 1.5 inch pieces. The Lee made short work of this, melting a good 400mm x 40mm lead sheeting in five minutes from a cold start.
When it was melted I used a 1 inch broad knife to scape the impurities to one side, then a bent table spoon to scrape them out. Once the lead was ready you place the mold under the nipple and lift the handle. A nice, easily controllable stream comes out into the mold, leaving a little dag on top which is cut by the pro shot mold when opening.
Within five seconds the mold is cold enough to open over a bucket of water. I used the rubber handle of a pair of pliers to hammer the mold open and fimrly tapping the mold to extract the ammo, then using the pliers to drop the excess into the water also.
The way these molds work is equally a great improvement on old methods. A long handle, a locking mechanism that cuts the excess lead off removes the need for clamps and gloves that where employed in methods of old.
So now the drawbacks. The Lee's pouring nipple gets blocked. Even when turning the temperature up the blockage will not clear. This is when one needs to wear a study glove. Placing a thin sturdy wire up the nipple and rotate and going in and out, this clears the Lee and a good steady stream will resume.
Another thing to be careful of is taking the excess lead cut offs out of the bucket of water. Do not place any moisture near the moltern lead as you will get a mini explosion which happens in a steel foundry also when moisture touches those massive cauldrons, I dried mine but a tiny bit of moisture still taught me a lesson, make sure they are totaly dry.
Make sure you get a steady stream going (about 6.5 on the dial), not dripping. Fill the mold cavity quickly and you will have few dud pours.
I had a great day. I made 100 rounds of 8mm, 120 rounds of 10mm and 40 rounds of 12mm. I used about 2kg (4.5lb's) of lead. Now I need to put them thru my home made ammo tumbler to make the rounds perfect.
I hope this post was informative to any who read. Kindest regards PK.
Nice set up. When I pour mine I don’t use a bucket of water. I just use a old baking pan and open my mold over it. And drop the cut spru and lead balls into the baking sheet and allow to cool. It works nice and it’s one less thing to deal with. It doesn’t take long for the spru to cool and be ready to drop back in the pot, I just wait for a few to build up then drop them back in.
Nice work! I have had several of the Lee Production Pot IV. Good casting pot for the price. Back in the mid 90s I was using 2 pots at a time with three 4-cavity molds. My usual production was 850 rounds an hour (handgun bullets). My goal was to hit a thousand but never quite got there. These days I have one of the LEE Prod IV pots and a few double cavity LEE roundball molds. I can still chuck out 500 rounds in part of an afternoon.
You might be better off dropping the cut-off sprues into a metal can or old metal cake pan. Then you can just dump them directly into the pot when needed. Dropping the balls into the water will harden up the lead surface a bit and might be a good idea for slingshot ammo. Just be careful not to get molten lead into the water.
Here's an old pic of mine from the gallery. I use a piece of an old broom handle for the cut-off wacker, an old coffee can for sprue collection, drop balls on soft towel, flux with paraffin, skim fluxed lead with spoon with wood handle, dump skimmings on back of table. In the pic I was using a double cavity LEE mold and did 600 rounds.
Go to cast boolits forum. Will find every answer to your casting problems. I haven't ordered a buckshot or roundball mold yet. I was thinking the Lee 6 cavity 000 buckshot might be nice. 0.360 inch if I remember correctly. The 0.375 mold only comes in a 2 cavity but it might work f or only a few 100. I am waiting to get together an it for shooting supplies since the shipping will kill you for one or 2 items. I was also more interested in the 0.375 round all because the weight is very similar to most of the marbles I use 73 grains. So the band setups would be similar.
I also Flux with shavings from my planer. A little smokies than the paraffin and I leave a layer of ash on the top and don't skim it off. I find it keeps the melt from oxidizing as fast. I also tend to cast a little hotter thN some. I don't mind a little frosting if I get a well filled out cast with no wrinkles.
It is a fascinating subject. I was reading a bullet making forum which discussed fluxing. I read the purpose of fluxing was to return the tin back into the lead alloy. Also to clean the inpurities. Definatley something I would like to get much more invovled with in the future. Making my own bullets. I used parafine but it was so smokie and toxic, I prefer saw dust too.
Salutations PK
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