Ok, I got out to some tire stores today and got 150# of w/w. I have a propane "turkey cooker" stand and a dipper. I would like to start casting some ingots then some Lee unsized, tumble lubed bullets to shoot in my .303 Enfield. What exactly should I order? (Besides the Lyman book which probably will answer all my questions)

Freight is the killer on mail order alloy. It can easily run more than the purchase price of your alloy. Free wheelweights are a bit much to hope for, but I've never had much trouble finding them at roughly 10 cents a pound. We've had endless threads on how to look for alloy and what to pay.

Your turkey fryer is about ideal as a heat source. You need a big cast iron or steel pot for cleanup and alloying. I use a 12" dutch oven and they run about $14 from Harbor Freight. Some others use cutoff propane cylinders for the same purpose, but cutting one off can be very dangerous. You need to pull the valve and fill the cylinder with water before you even think about cutting. You will also need some ingot moulds. Cast iron cornstick moulds are as good as any.

If you are going to cast off the turkey fryer, you will need a smaller iron or steel pot, 1-2 quarts. Aluminum is not suitable and can be very dangerous. You'll also need a bottom pour ladle. When I was ladle casting, I used the Lyman, but that's too small for big bullets or gang moulds. www.theantimonyman.com sells larger ones. The one pound size should be fine.

You might want to look at the cast iron Dutch oven Harbor Freight sells for 10 bucks... apparently it's quite popular among the cast bullet guys at http://cast_boolits.aimoo.com/. at that price, get two of them! The turkey cooker is the way to go. I'm waiting for them to go on sale at Walmart/Target/Kmart so I can do a little surgery on it to seriously up the BTU's. I like ingoting in large quantities so there's large batchs of the same alloy....

Toolmaker

"On the same subject I have a propane fired turkey cooking rig that I've read I can use for a heat source for melting the metal. What kind and size of pot do I need to melt the metal in?"



I use a propane burner for my heat source, also. My choice for a casting pot is a large s/s dogfood bowl. The one I use will hold about 15 lbs. of alloy. When it's time to smelt WWs, I switch over to a cast iron dutch oven pot. After I get all the trash out of the alloy, I ladle it into small s/s catfood bowls to pig it. The pigs come out to about 7 or 8 lbs. each. These go in the large bowl and I use a plumber's soldering torch in conjunction with the burner to get the pigs melted.

As I continue to ponder whether I want to take the plunge into a new hobby I'm wondering what the cost of the various casting materials would be. I'm assuming that I can't find a source of free wheel weights. I noticed that there are sources of linotype, wheel weight alloy and 98% pure lead on the auction sites. Are they good sources?

On the same subject I have a propane fired turkey cooking rig that I've read I can use for a heat source for melting the metal. What kind and size of pot do I need to melt the metal in?

Thanks for everyone taking the time to explain this hobby on this board. I've already learned a lot and will probably place an order next week for the necessary items to get started.

...first off, don't give up on the wheelweights... go to the tire stores, and see if you can con/bribe/beg someone there to either give, or sell you their used ones... check places like Sears, Goodyear, etc.... another pretty good source is wrecking yards... most of them have racks of tires just sitting there... not to mention all the cars out in their lot... many of them will let you go scavenge them, and pay them some amount... suggest 25 cents a pound.. I wouldn't pay over 50-75 cents a pound for them...
if all else fails, places like Midway sell lead alloys already mixed and ready to cast... shipping costs might be a little steep.
Oh, and call the metal salvage places.... I bought a 5 gallon bucket of linotype at one.. paid about 70 cents a pound for it...

Seems like ww's have become harder to get. One tire store I used to get them from sold them for $20 a 5 gallon bucket, which was a good deal, as that would yield about 100#'s. Then they stopped selling. A shooting buddy had another buddy that I was able to trade bullets for ww's, but he doesn't work at that tire store anymore.

I did send the wife to a local tire store (to get lead for toy soldiers for the boys), and they gave here a bucket and a 1/2 free! So if you have a wife or girlfriend, they are the best bet for free lead.

Check your local salvage/scrap yard for lead. I searched for lead around here for months. One day I decided to see if the local aluminum can buyer happened to have some lead in his big and junky yard. I left with 400 lbs of pure lead for 33 cents per lb. Today, it'd probably cost 65 cents per lb.

clerkofkirk

At an old service station and I chatted with the owner and he allowed me to pick the WW up that were scattered around the place. I came home with 50 - 60 pounds.
I mention my desire for lead, lead alloys, WW, sheet lead, X-ray lead, plumbing lead to most anybody who will listen. I've got several tons in my back yard, as WW, ingots and linotype bars. I've got 200 pounds on the floor at my store, that came from a conversation with a customer. I tell my other customers that the lead is a sculpture.
Talk to demo companies, salvage yards, plumbers, printers.
I mentioned to a printer buddy that linotype was great for casting bullets. He had a couple linotype bars he used as door stops. There's lead every where.
There's natural deposits of it in the Shenandoah Valley, Galena Road.
Jim