1st Attempt - Ben's Red Lube

fiver

Well-Known Member
i got so much 'mixed' lube i have to re-mix it to get the mess right half the time.
as long as the viscosity isn't too squishy/hard at 60-65F room temp and it feathers out well with a little heat/pressure applied,, it does the job just fine.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Looks better than my first double batch, I scorched it getting it too hot. Good news is it works fine on slugs and buckshot.
when your looking for a pot to melt your lube, look for a stainless syrup/tea pitcher with a hinged lid. They are all over at garage sales and usually a dollar or less.
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I may well do just that.... I think I might try a few wadcutters, pan lubed with it first. Lots of possibilities. .... plus I'm not sure how long it would take me to clean the alox out of my lube sizer.... o_O
Pull the piston, turn upside down and point a blow drier or heat gun at it. Catch what comes out in a pie pan or such. If it takes more than 15 minutes I'll be surprised.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Looks better than my first double batch, I scorched it getting it too hot. Good news is it works fine on slugs and buckshot.
when your looking for a pot to melt your lube, look for a stainless syrup/tea pitcher with a hinged lid. They are all over at garage sales and usually a dollar or less.
And if you are a ladle type caster using a hot plate or such for heat source, look for a heavy stainless pot. Cut my dross exponentially when I switched from a cast pot.
 

hornetguy

Active Member
@Bret4207 ... are you saying you use a stainless pot on a hotplate to cast bullets? I've only tried ladle casting once, and wasn't terribly successful at it. Repeatability was sort of hit or miss.... at that time I was not using a hot plate to keep the mold hot, though....
 

hornetguy

Active Member
As a sort of update.... my first attempt at pan lubing with Ben's red was sort of ok.... not great. I am used to the Alox, and how it "flows" when brought to melting point on the glass top stove. It self levels almost like water....
The red did not do that. It melted, even to the point of beginning to smoke, but it was gummier, or something... it didn't level out in the little pan between the bullets the way Alox does. I had to sort of move it around with my little spatula to get it to flow around the bases of the bullets.
Not a huge deal, as I can always just melt it into the lubrisizer... but sometimes pan lubing has advantages.
 

hornetguy

Active Member
Pre-heating the bullets helps with lube flow
Yes... I agree. I had put all the bullets in the little pan, and then heated it up. I dropped bits of lube down in the pan to melt them down around the bullets. The bullets were pretty warm before I added lube.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
@Bret4207 ... are you saying you use a stainless pot on a hotplate to cast bullets? I've only tried ladle casting once, and wasn't terribly successful at it. Repeatability was sort of hit or miss.... at that time I was not using a hot plate to keep the mold hot, though....
Exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a hotplate to keep the mould hot. You do that by casting fast enough to keep the mould HOT. I started out ladle casting, it's natural and easy for me. Bottom Pours are a tool of Satan OTOH, although I keep trying them from time to time. I cast everything from single cavity Yankee's to 10 cavity H+G mould's out of a stainless pot that holds around 40 lbs of alloy. A ladle allows you to give the mould what it wants- air gap, spout to sprue contact pressure casting, off center, whatever it wants. And you can SEE the sprue hole! No guessing or hunching over.

Do what works for you, but I'm not giving up my ladle any time soon!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
if you can't see your sprue hole when bottom pouring your table is too low.
i have to stand on a little plastic coke bottle carrier thingy [or a milk crate when i can find one] to even look in my pots.

all except the one still setup as a master caster, it's bench is designed to be operated while sitting down, but even then the top of the mold is directly at eye level.
it has to be, i have too many molds that need a certain pour speed to make good castings.
 

hornetguy

Active Member
Exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a hotplate to keep the mould hot. You do that by casting fast enough to keep the mould HOT. I started out ladle casting, it's natural and easy for me. Bottom Pours are a tool of Satan OTOH, although I keep trying them from time to time. I cast everything from single cavity Yankee's to 10 cavity H+G mould's out of a stainless pot that holds around 40 lbs of alloy. A ladle allows you to give the mould what it wants- air gap, spout to sprue contact pressure casting, off center, whatever it wants. And you can SEE the sprue hole! No guessing or hunching over.

Do what works for you, but I'm not giving up my ladle any time soon!
The bigger pot would make dipping a lot easier.
I only use the hot plate to pre-heat the mold so that I don't throw away the first 15-20 trying to get it up to temp. When I add lead to the pot, I put the mold on the hot plate to keep it hot. Seems to help.

I might try dipping again... had never thought about the stainless pot on a hot plate to melt the lead. Do you use just a regular hot plate?
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
The bigger pot would make dipping a lot easier.
I only use the hot plate to pre-heat the mold so that I don't throw away the first 15-20 trying to get it up to temp. When I add lead to the pot, I put the mold on the hot plate to keep it hot. Seems to help.

I might try dipping again... had never thought about the stainless pot on a hot plate to melt the lead. Do you use just a regular hot plate?
I use an open coil type I got at Wally World for around $10 IIRC. The enclosed burner types I tried never got hot enough. I just have to make sure I get a sturdy one, that's a lot of burn juice if it spills! I've thought about finding a burner from a 220V range and making one up but never got to it. For that matter, I'm still trying to update my 2 Lyman 10lbs BP's to piggy back with new thermostats and then securing the whole mess to the benchtop, But, time is limited!

If you need a hot plate to keep the mould hot because you are adding alloy that often, you NEED a bigger pot!
 
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hornetguy

Active Member
If you need a hot plate to keep the mould hot because you are adding alloy that often, you NEED a bigger pot!
Yep! I agree. I used a Lyman for about 40 years, then got a Lee 20#. I've put a pid controller on the Lee, and that helps a lot, but it is still a little crowded at the top, with the thermocouple and all....

Do you put any kind of floating barrier on the surface of your melt when dipping? That helps quite a bit with the bottom pour, but it seems like it might make dipping a little iffy... I gotta think about that some....
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
No, I tried floating a lot of charred stuff on top but it was just a pain. I don't have a problem keeping it hot enough, I don't get much dross once it's clean and I don't get a whole lot of problems from the alloy at all. What problems I do have tend to be fill out related, mostly getting side tracked looking at bullets and letting the mould get less than "toasty". I do have a few moulds that are cranky and always seem to fight me. but thats not due to the ladle.

To me, being an old ladle guy, a BP seems terribly slow. Maybe it's just that I stink with a BP? I dunno, just seems to take forever to get things lined up.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
it does take some practice.
my main pot has 2 spouts, that makes a 3 or 5 cavity mold a little more difficult to fill.
but you figure it out pretty quickly.
2 cavity's,,, super simple,,, a 4 is a lift and slightly hesitate affair.
you don't have to be perfect you just have to fill the mold how it likes.
i really like 4 cavity mehanite molds cause they basically just want some alloy in the cavity every 15-16 seconds and life is good.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Could also be I'm cheap and a quality BP is a pretty significant amount of moola I haven't been willing to part with when a ladle has been working fine for 40 some years!
 

hornetguy

Active Member
I used a bottom pour for right at 50 years before trying a ladle... I see value in both methods, I'm simply not as experienced with a ladle.
Having a larger opening/larger pot would make dipping much better, I think.

I tried the "hold the mold sideways, place the ladle against the sprue plate and rotate it to allow the metal to enter the mold" technique. I also tried just holding the mold and pouring.... I agree with you that molds are different, and will likely require different techniques. I am in the process of looking for a pot and an open hot plate. I want to give dipping another shot... I'm not giving up the bottom pour just yet, though... :)
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
I feel like such an extravagant caster. I jump on deals whenever I find them so I have three RCBS BP pots, and a Magma Caster. I also ladle pour when I am seeking near perfection for schuetzen or BPCR.