refilling your BP casting pot

[Kevin Stenberg]

My question as asked above. With what do you re-fill your casting pot? I use to use warmed ingots. But in the time my melt would get back to casting temp. my molds would be cooled and I would have to rewarm them. Even having put them on a hot plate.
Lately I have been having a second hot plate. Pre-melting ingots which by the time my pot needs filling. Are liquefied close to my melt temp. If I keep a layer of charred sawdust on top of my pre-melt lead will I add some contaminants from the charred wood to my pot. When I pour from the premelt container I hold all of the charred wood back away from the lead being poured out.
Or should I use a layer of candle wax on the premelt lead like I use in my casting pot?
I find it takes just minutes to get casting again rather than 15/20

 

[Mike W1]

I use 2@ 10# Lee's that are stacked. Both do have warming shelves I added but of late I just set ingots on the hot plate. After I refill the lower pot warmed ingots go into the top feeder pot and it's easily back up to temperature by the time I need another refill. Molds of course are on the hot plate and I have a couple ingots with handles that are kept on the hot plate that go on top of the mold to maintain full contact. No problem keeping them up to temp that way. 380° seems to keep things where I want them.

 

[Rick]

I don't think you'll get anything in the alloy from the sawdust as long as you do nothing to force it below the surface of the melt. I use sawdust to flux/reduce my casting pot and nothing in the alloy. I remove the ash before casting because I ladle, when bottom feeding I leave it on top to act as an oxygen barrier. If our getting anything in the alloy from wood it's because it was forced under the melt.
.

 

[Intheshop]

I'm nowhere in the league of casters on this forum.For way too long my casting setup was a Coleman stove,an RCBS pot and ladle.The sprues got chucked back in,very matter of fact'ly.

Then we got a used Lyman elect. Bttm pour pot.Still,just chuck sprues back in.Regulating heat,and casting pace,fluxing accordingly.

We have a variety of hot plates in the shop.We do right much tig welding cast iron,so between using them during welding(weldments stay on griddles during the process)....they also get used for heating epoxy finishes utilized in our finishing dept.(we build longbows,recurves,gunstocks).

Just sayin,we ain't short of hot plates.

Rightly or wrongly,they aren't used too much whilst casting.However,we started casting .22's for a hot rod 22-250.So the hot plates may be the answer there?

 

[300BLK]

I start with a full 20# Lyman or Lee. In the case of the Lyman, I can place small ingots around the periphery to heat, both as the the initial pot heats, and then to replenish the pot as I cast. My ingots are about 1/2#, so dropping a preheated ingot into 15+# of alloy doesn't change temperature much (according to my thermometer). I cast with a ladle, so am constantly introducing the ladle into the melt, and also need to flux on a regular basis. The Lee doesn't have as much room for preheating, so I do one small ingot at a time. Depletion of the melt is a function of the caliber, weight, number of cavities, and mould block material. My normal casting sessions are 2 hours or less, but I can cast as long as I care to with my normal operation.

 

[Cherokee]

Physical discomfort precludes casting sessions of much more than an hour. Since I typically don't cast anything more than 180 gr. (sometime 250 gr), the #20 RCBS pot usually lasts that long. I do put the sprues back into the pot as I cast but don't add any ingots. I tried warming ingots on the hot plate once, they melted...not good. If I was going to try a long session needing more than 20#'s, I would use my spare Lee pot to have melted alloy ready.

 

[JonB]

SNIP...
my molds would be cooled and I would have to rewarm them. Even having put them on a hot plate.

I generally cast without adding a pre-warmed ingot as I was casting, like I use to.
I will cast til the level is low enough to add several ingots, I take a break from casting while the alloy gets back up to temp. I put my mold on a 'covered' hotplate. Is your Hotplate covered? to create an oven? or can you turn up your hotplate? My setup has always kept the mold at operating temperature. Also, I keep my Hot plate oven "ON" during the whole casting session, or at least til I know I'm done adding ingots, near the end of a casting session.