Lee Loader

It is finally happening. The Lee 4-20 pot was ordered a few days ago and is now on the way to me. I was having a hard time committing to it as my first pot, since I am new to casting, but decided to just go for it. I have a long list of things I would LIKE to have but for now I will be casting TL358- 158SWC bullets and tumble lubing them. I believe the 45-45-10 method will work. Will buy a .452 230 RN mold soon too.

I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here. I have other .358 bullets I want to cast in the future anyway. I will be starting with range scrap ingots so I hope they work well enough. Thank you to everyone here for your advice and guidance. You guys have the best attitudes and best advice around.

Johnny

JohnnyEnfield wrote: I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here.

I run all my tumble lube designs through a Lee sizer. If you don't, you will foul your bullet seating die pretty darn quick with the lube that is shaved off by the case mouth.

Thank you for the reply, I am glad I ordered the Lee sizer. I am already thinking of all the different molds I want to try. Some nice weather coming my way next week, so should be able to get casting outside.

Ranch Dog wrote:

JohnnyEnfield wrote: I ordered a .358 sizer too but then read somewhere that the TL bullets don't get put through the sizer? I will figure it all out when it gets here.

I run all my tumble lube designs through a Lee sizer. If you don't, you will foul your bullet seating die pretty darn quick with the lube that is shaved off by the case mouth.

Now I know why I hate the push-through sizers. Well actually I know several reasons but that one I can now correct making me hate them that much less. Less mess less hate.

That doesn't help how messy the push-through is though.

Maybe I will powder coat them, then size them. I saw a little toaster oven at Wal Mart for $19 that I am going to buy for powder coating. Was going to wait and do the 45-45-10 and a couple different ways of tumble lubing just to try them out before buying the oven. Maybe I will just buy the oven now and add powder coating to my process right away. I bought Lee liquid Alox and already have paste wax, mineral spirits, etc. I just want to start casting bullets and the tracking shows my package stuck in Illinois right now. I have a nice amount of ingots waiting to be melted.

I got my 4-20 pot set up and casting. I used an old gas grill as my platform. Cut a piece of 3/4 inch plywood to fit over the cooking area and made it into a table. Put a large ceramic tile over each of the sides of the grill and placed old towels over them. If I could figure out how to get my pictures to post I would post them. It works excellent as a casting station.

My range scrap ingots were very clean, I was surprised how little junk was in them, a nice surprise. Once I got rolling it was a real learning experience and one of the coolest things I have ever done. Most of the bullets came out great. I started getting a feel for the flow, temperature, speed and pressure, all interacting with the mold. I realized a few spots were starting to get frosty on the bullets and slowed down - even cooling the mold for a few minutes a couple times. It was really great. I weighed several samples today and they all settled on 157 grains on the cheap digital scale.

I am not sure how many I made or how many pounds of alloy I used. Did not count yet, hundreds of 158 grain SWC tumble lube bullets made from a single 2 cavity mold. I decided to try powder coating them and that worked well too until I checked at the end of the time and some of the bullets were badly deformed and ruined. I think the whole batch will be culled. Too bad too because the coating is beautiful. I used harbor freight red and a new oven. I am not sure why they got melted, I did them for 400 degree at 20 minutes. I will try another SMALL batch tomorrow with less heat and time. Stinks they got ruined. I did not use a second timer just the one on the oven I also have NO IDEA what the REAL temperature in the oven was. It ruined about 80 bullets though.

All in all it was great and I can' t wait to get casting again. Time to figure out which mold to buy next. Honestly, the 2 cavity cast so well - I think my next one will be 2 cavity as well - at least until I get better at it. The 4-20 pot is really great. I am very very happy with it. I am so glad I asked you guys months ago if I should get one. The temperature control, the melt time, the capacity, the operation, it is all really good and I couldn't be happier with the pot or the mold. If I can get my pictures to post I will add them in a different post.

Casting station




First Batch

Johnny, your links to the photos are bad. Tried to figure it out but the page references are not valid.