13K views & only 16 comments & 142 subscribers. Well I’ll be the 17th comment & the #143 subscriber. I see the beauty in that machine. That’s Genius. I smiled the whole time watching this video. Great job with great craftsmanship Brother. Glad I found your channel.
Thanks for the kind words and subscribing. It was a fun project and helped further my skills vs. buying something already done. Sometimes the journey is as important as the finished product.
Nice build, great job! Thanks for making the close up video, very helpful.A master caster copy build is pretty high on my "things to build" list :)I already build a 60lb bottom pour pot with PID temp control although I'm having some issues with keeping it drip free.
Thanks! Yes, Mine is not always drip free. Keeping the lead temp lower helps and trying to keep dirt out of the pot is also key. I was not able to machine a precise valve, but instead used a 60 degree counter sink for the bottom of the pot and put the same angle on the rod with a lathe, then used aluminum oxide and grease (similar to valve lapping compound) to wear them together. It still beats the 10 pound lee and sometimes the 20 pound lee can be quite drippy as well. Good luck on your build.
What you may want to do is accept the drip and just spray your worksurface well with a dry lube or oil. This way the lead won't stick. You just collect the lead whenever you feel like it and melt it back down. I have been trying to deal with drip and I have come to the conclusion that it is pretty much impossible unless you totally empty and scrub out your nozzle surfaces every 100lb or so. No matter how well you flux lead, some crap is still going to collect.
No, but it is a rough copy of a mastercaster brand machine. I just looked at pictures and video of that one and others built by individuals and came up with my own. The lead pot was the first step, so i could hand cast from the big pot. When that worked, I adapted it to my favorite NOE mold and after that bought the electronic control from another caster and purchased and installed the pneumatics. It took a year to go through the steps in my free time. You can buy a master caster and get all the other info from the cast boolits forum to automate it if you want a commercially proven machine.
I built it from my mind by following a couple pictures and videos of a "Master Caster." This one is built to use NOE Night Owl Enterprises molds, from Utah, USA. Thanks for the compliments and since it is just my take on improving a commercially available machine I have no issues with you building your own version.
Wow! Not only you copied the design but looks like also improved it! What kind of heating system did you use for the pot? Was it like Lee wrapped around the pot or something else? Also did you build your own heating element or used commercial one?
Thanks. It is a 240 volt 2550 watt element for an electric oven, from Amazon for a price of $17. Before the element had ever been powered on, I wrapped it around a 1/4" thick steel tube/pipe which is welded to a 3/8" steel base plate. There is a heat shield wrapped around the element (sheet steel) and then ceramic insulation is wrapped around the shield. The outer box was a stainless door kick that I cut and welded. Yes, I think the master caster holds 40 pounds of lead and this calculates out to 100 pounds, but I run it half full and have only used it a handful of times so far. It was a fun challenge and learning experience. This link should take you to the pictures on my google drive drive.google.com/open?id=1AtpKFbCSzGdm6fmxsr7IouIXKLil1_v1
Thank you very much. I've been thinking of building just plain lead pot with higher capacity and better mold support for starters and also for casting zinc bullets. I read I need stainless steel pot for that. My friend experimented with it and he was getting almost 1800fps with 75gr bullet from his 9mm! He was using original Lee 124gr TL mold! The timing is actually interesting because just couple days ago I was browsing local thrift store and there was oven heating element that looked new for $4! It was also 240v and 2800 watt. I contemplated buying it but I didn't know how I would use it but now I know! I though it would conduct electricity so I didn't know you can just wrap it around like that but looking at your picture I can see ceramic layer inside the heating element isolating actual heating wire which carries electricity. Did you rig 2x 110v for your power? Why did you cut your "pipe" at bevel/angle, was it so you can weld it better to the plate?
I have heard of people on the castboolits forum trying zinc, but they said the molds get damaged easily and of course zinc ruins lead for casting normal bullets. Steel should be fine for zinc, but stainless would not rust. Aluminum is no good as it would get soft at the heat needed for zinc or even with lead. Zinc would be neat if it is easier to get than lead. I was told that if an element has been heated, it is set and will break if bent afterward. Mine was new and could be formed and I have not bent it after initially running it. Yes it is insulated on the outside. It had a thin bracket to screw into an oven and I just cut it off. The bevel on the pipe was to allow more penetration when welding. I ran 2 passes with TIG, probably somewhere around 300-350 amps. The machine I use will run up to 460 amps, so I just ran it with the pedal. The base did warp a bit. MIG welding would have been fine as well but I would recommend at least a 180 amp machine on 240v power. I have 50 amp 250v feed to my garage for my welders, plasma, compressor, mill, etc. and yet it is just the two legs of 120v. The pot only takes around 10 amps at 240v. The plug is 50a to match my machines. The control unit for the automation part is 120v, so it just uses one of the legs from the power going into it...........now it does, I have wired it a bit different and added a fan to blow on the mold, in hopes to make the machine faster. I also wanted a bigger pot than the lee 20 pound and figured this project would give me that. When the pot worked, I quickly decided to make a manual casting machine, and when that worked, I bought the control unit to automate it. Good luck on your build.
I live in WA where they banned lead WW so ended up with 10 - 25% of WW as lead after a haul almost to the point where the time spent sorting might as well buy at eBay. I can still buy lead in the scrap yard but it's unknown and soft usually, sometimes I find WW and lead shot, actually bought like 70lb of lead shot that has antimony. I accumulated something like 70 pounds of Zinc that I melted in to ingots. What I like about Zinc is that the bullet is really tough like FMJ and doesn't need lubrication and Kenny was able to get MOA with it. I've read that it attacks the steel so I am wondering if it will ruin the steel mold. I don't have any serious welding machines, I'll have to ask my uncle for that he also has plasma cutter. I definitely want to build something like 30-40lb casting pot. With your skills you can work as engineer for serious company, all you have to do is point them to youtube video of your projects :) Boeing comes to mind since it's my backyard, plenty of people with no skills work there.
I started the project a year ago and just worked on it once in a while. My first goal was to have a pot that was more capable than the lee 20 pound. After the pot worked out, the next goal was to copy a master caster and run it by hand and if that worked, then automate it. It was definitely worth it, but it was also tempting to just buy a master caster for $1100. I wanted to save some money and practice my fabrication and welding skills. I'm most of the way through building an automated bullet sizing machine to size after these bullets are powder coated. This project was started just a few weeks ago and my goal was to not drag it out. The number of hours it takes to build these is crazy, but I'm no engineer and I'm working with a clapped out mill/drill. The CNC plasma does make part of the job much easier, as well as the band saw, good welders, quality drill bits, and die grinders for surface prep or grinding. If you have the skills and time, it is worth it, but there are many little problems to solve along the way. There is also something to be said for products that work right out of the box, where the designers or builders have already done the testing. Some people want to do everything themselves but don't think about all the trial and error that goes into that, even when modeling an item after something commercially produced.
Thank you! I considered that, but the two cavity was easier to build and is plenty to keep up with my needs. If I remember right, I used a 6 cavity by hand and then bought the same profile in a 2 cavity brass for the machine. The point of the machine for me, was to reduce the repetitive motions and strain on my body from hand casting. 6 cavity molds are pretty fast by hand if only doing 500 to 1000 bullets at a time but it was no fun for my body.
There is a smaller commercial version that works the same as this one. I think the brand name is master caster and they run $1100 for a manually worked machine with a 40 pound lead pot. The molds have to be modified or built specifically for the master caster, where I built mine to take hand molds without modification. I built this one as a one off for myself. You can find info on the castboolits forum for automating the commercial version (I applied the same info and parts to my machine).
LOL, Look up master caster, as my machine is a rough copy of their machine. From videos and pictures I came up with this machine. I have never seen a master caster or other casting machine in person.
