which is the best buy in electric casting pots? back when I shot pistol,I used gas and gang molds.
now will be useing single cav-45-70 & 30/06 molds. on retirerment income,so money is factor.
thank you for suggestions

I have happily used the Lee bottom spout pots as long as they have been on the market.

I used to have a little trouble with them when I melted wheelweights and the like in them. Grit could get into the valve and it was a bear to get all the lead out and clean the valve.

Some years back, I got a cajun cooker and a yard sale cast iron pot. {Gotta be cast iron, over time, aluminum, lead, and heat don't get along) Now I make up my alloy 100 pounds or more at a time, flux, stir, and skim; then cast into one pound ingots. Write what the alloy is on them in Magic Marker.

Now nothing goes into the Lees but ingots, sprues, and rejects, and I have no more problems. This has the big advantage that I am using a uniform alloy over a long run of casting.

P.S.-- Get the high rise version, if Lee still offers both. The shortie won't work if you pick up a Lyman HP mould and and is a real aggravation if drips build up under the spout.

The Lee pot. You may have to open up the hole with a drill, just a bit, to get it to cast corectly.

Email me if you want some Lyman stuff....you cant beat the price....janehal@yahoo.com

If it were me I would go with the RCBS. I have not used the Lyman but have used the old Saeco and Lee. I burned the Lee pot up in one day. The Saeco pots were old and had an old mechanical thermostat that was a constant pain but could be rebuilt with ease if a person had parts. I now have 6 of the RCBS and haven't had a problem unless I caused it. Wes

Why would you doubt it? I used the pot for less than one day casting 44 cal. bullets and the damned heating element burned up. This was my experience with the Lee pots. At one time I cast over 40,000 bullets per week by hand. I did not have a good experience with the Lee pot were you there? No!!!!!! I simple related what happened to me and no I would not buy another Lee Pot I don't have time to jack around having them replace the heating element every time it burns out. Now,I do use some of their other equipment(ie. dies, powder mesures and such)but no moulds and no lead pots. So I am not against Lee euipment just don't have anything good to say of their pots. Oh yes it was in 1984 when I burned up that pot so perhaps thing have changed. However screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me!!!!!!! Wes

Get a lee to start with then if you must have a higher priced pot or more capacity get a Magma fort pound pot for just a tad more than them high dollar rcbs pots.

Now to reply to hammerhead

40000 bullets in one week by hand? Damn you are good must have fore arms like Popeye. How many were good?
Second Lee's warranty on electrical components is better than most.
Third I agree with screw me once theroy. But did they screw you probaly not. What I see happening is some bozo that thinks he can cast all day. So he turns the post to max. Keeps feeding lead in to it and does not let the unit cycle as it should burns it up and then screams he got screwed.
Well then I guese the name hammerhead does fit you.

I like using two Lee's when I am casting a big batch. Cast from one while the other is getting to temp. 5000 .38 wadcutters would be a big batch for me. Never had any problems.

I would a LOT rather have two ten pound pots than one 20. Makes life a lot simpler if you regularly switch alloys. Also means that you don't cause temperature changes adding alloy or remelting sprues and rejects.

40,000 bullets in a week.

That's around 6700 per day using a 6 day week.

That's 555 an hour using a 12 hr day.

That's over 9 bullets a minute.

That's 13.3 seconds for each drop using a two cavity mold. Four cavity appears plausible for speed-- for sure with a Lee 6'r.

Using 141 gr average per slug that's 805 lbs of alloy.

Otta curiosity, how many people did you have casting, lubing etc?

Interastin'...

Cpt Parker......Go Lee if you're on a budget, RCBS is you want a quality product that will last for the duration. Lyman Mag 20s are somewhere in between. Old Lyman 61s and Saecos are fine if you have one in good condition but are hard to get repair parts for. The RCBS has a lifetime warranty. Now, if you encounter a little Potter Pot in useable condition, latch on to it. Collectors item but nice little pots nonetheless./beagle

Aladin, yes your math is correct. I was casting by myself using pairs of H & G moulds under piggybacked RCBS pots with old Lino bar feeders on them. I could and still can fill both moulds 2 times per min. I did have a person running a Magma lube-sizer. No I never lifted the moulds simply slid them under the pots and then back to open them over a catch box. Mostly all I ever used was 8 and 10 cavity moulds. I did use some 4 and six cavity moulds but production drops by a lot. Oh and to the individual who was saying that I turned the heat up all the way and burned the element out. I would think a pot should take that. But the danged thing burned up in the first 4 hours of use with an old 4 cavity Saeco mould. I never burned up an RCBS. Wes

If anyone has any questions about my casting set up I will answer questions. I also had a 1000 lb. gas furnace to melt lead in and cast it into old 25 lb. lino pig moulds for use in casting. I guess I fail to see why people find it remarkable that someone can do this. My first wife was 5'8" tall and weighed 125 and could cast almost as fast as I could but she didn't cast much. I also don't understand why some people are so enamored with Lee equipment. I guess it is alright for someone who casts a very few bullets per year but for me the quality just wasn't there. Wes

Aladin, yes it is a lot diffrent casting on that volume of bullets than a hobby caster and I can say that it isn't much fun but I still enjoy casting even though I haven't cast commecially for about 10 years. I got burned out and went thru a divorce so quit the business but I still do cast for myself and my boys. The 12 year old is trying to get me back into it as a business, we'll see. I do understand hobby casters using more economical equipment but I wasn't casting commercially when I burned out the Lee pot just as a hobby. I was relating my experiences only. Even though I only cast for our own use now it still drives me up a wall to use a 2 cavity mould even if I use 2 of them. Just to doggoned slow. Oh yes someone, I think it was the guy from BBT bullets wondered about rejects. If I did my part the reject rate was less than 3 percent and I know someone is going to take exception to that statement but it is a fact supported over several years of production. No we did not weigh all of the bullets that was visual inspection only and we did reject bullets with big dings in them from slamming against the opposite side of the mould blocks. Wes

Wes 3% sounds about right. Get everything hot, tuned and maintain a good rythum. Takes a top end gun to distinguish between a gr or so for most cast shooters anyways.

Aladin, At one time I would not even sort the bulk-pak bullets (ie. 500 ct boxes) just throw in 10 extras per box and never had a complaint about quality control. I sold bullets to several well known pistolsmiths and gave bullets to several gun writers and never had any problems. Oh yes the gun writers will tell you about a bad product. They may not write about it but they will tell you. I did have a problem with some bad lube one time and it messed up a run of 60,000 9mm bullets for me for a pd. Had to melt the entire lot down and recast them. But any way yes if everything is running right the reject rate can be very low. I found that with constant head pressure and fairly constant pot temp. that the reject rate went down drastically especially with the proper flux. Wes

3 percent is very good for that type casting. Now that I know you method it seems it would work very well. With my magma machine I run about 4-5% reject and with my botttom pour hand cast set up it runs 3-4%. Do I still consider my self as a hoobiest yes. I have too much fun tinkering with moulds and the machines. The magma machine is supposed to put out some thing like 4000 an hour but I am in to quality so I keep its speed down to half rate or less.

Billy I had a Magma machine and used it for a while but I just didn't like the fact that so many of the bullets were beaten up by the method of operation of the machine. But that is just me being picky I guess. I also thought the machine was very hard on the moulds. Yes I too enjoy tinkering with the equipment but dislike having to contend with inferior quality items. I haven't found any manufactures aluminum moulds that I really liked. Some I have used quite a lot but still didn't like very much. I have one old 6 cavity 45 cal. 310 swc mould from NEI that I use a lot but still don't care for the aluminum. I sent a sample of this bullet to H & G years ago and this was when Wayne Gibbs made the H & G #338. I never did get to purchase a mould for this bullet from them and I really wish I had an 8 cavity mould or better yet a custom matched pair of 8 cavity moulds for this bullet. Oh well there I go again rambling off on some other tangent. Wes