a good start... casting & powder coating bench

[magnumwheelman]

thinking I'm off to a good start... I have 2 reloading benches in my walk in gun safe room, but wanted to melt lead in the garage... so here is my re purposed desk I have in the garage ( I used to put together oil cooler kits for ATV's here... this had been sitting with "stuff" on it for 7-8 years now, before I cleared the top a couple weeks ago )

pictured is my new powder coat oven, inside are a pair of stainless pans & silicone baking sheets sized for this oven, a new Berry's vibratory tumbler ( they have easy to change bowls ) an extra bowl, my new Lyman digital melt pot, & my FIL's old Lyman melt pot behind the new one... this old desk was the kind, that had a typewriter tray inside a door on the left side... that works well for putting my casting tools in, basic tools, like my digital lead thermometer, & laser thermometer ( for checking powder coat temps ) go in the drawers on the right side...

still have lots to learn about alloying ( I need to make the literal "ton" of lead ingots I inherited from FIL consistent enough for casting ) also looking into lead alloy heat treatment properties, as I'm already heating them to powder coat, will be looking at getting the best possible bullet hardness & toughness for each bullets velocity range... looking at internet info like this...

www.lasc.us/heattreat.htm

I have a Saeco lead hardness tester, & have come up with a plan for consistently testing toughness, by building a ( to put it easy to describe ) an 18" - 24" vertical tube that holds a 5-10 pound hammer head, that I can place a bullet at the bottom of the tube, & drop the hammer head from a consistent distance & force to measure brittleness & toughness of the alloyed & heat treated, powder coated bullet...

opened a big door here... from just buying bullets, to making my own... anyway... I'm thinking I've got a good start here...

[lws]

There are several charts out that give Alloy mixes & hardness. no need to over think everything.

[magnumwheelman]

I'm just a "little" OCD when it comes to reloading... I'm going to have to learn as much as possible, experiment, & test, until I have something better than I could buy... it's just the way I am

I think the Berry's tumbler is new, but the changeable bowl is an interesting feature, as I could put cob media in one, & have a dedicated bowl for each color... thinking they are pretty light duty in the machine though, so I'll be starting with batches of 25 bullets on my 475 WTH, & maybe 50 on smaller bullets... will let everyone know if it holds up... the concept of changeable bowls is no good, if the base only lasts 3 months...

[coldtriggerfinger]

I think your off to a great start !! Nice looking setup !
Why would anyone need an oil cooler on a atv? I put a 100 watt pad heater on mine to warm it up so it will turn over And start during the winter.

[magnumwheelman]

Mud Bogging

[Snyd]

Ya, coldfinger, you haven't seen the atv's he's talking about. Think......"Monster Trucks" but atv's. Highly modified machines.

[sixshot]

Looks like you have a great set up. Make sure you have good ventilation, don't want to be breathing those lead fumes! Also you probably have a buddy who is a caster & that always helps a lot when somebody has already been casting to help you along with the little things. As mentioned, don't get too carried away with alloy mix for handguns, but do try to stay as consistent as possible & then if you have a place to shoot where you can recover your spent bullets you can melt it down & shoot it again.

Cast bullets in the 7-8 BHN range usually work great for plinking loads, jump up to 9-10 for most of your hunting if the accuracy is still there & if not raise it one point or so but you shouldn't have to go beyond 12-13 BHN with a powder coated bullet unless you are really leaning on it. A gas check can also help you with the real screamers.

Dick

[magnumwheelman]

as mentioned... I'm not quite normal the funky looking box on the front of the ATV in this 1st picture is actually an air / water separator, of my design, so I didn't need snorkels... & it worked quite well



or for 2006... 47" Rice & Cane tires mounted on custom 22" wheels, mounted onto custom easy on / off aluminum 2 to 1 gear reduction hubs, all of my design, & built locally ( my buddy & I, in his machine shop ) added 9" of lift to the ATV



but being from MN... I understand trying to keep the engine warm... in this case a very high compression 750cc V Twin ( this before they came out with engines that big... custom Four Stroke Tech kit & cam, on the stock 650 crank ) with studded tires on a figure 8 race track, in below zero weather...

[Snyd]

COOL! Outlaws and MudZillas in the first pic. I've got MudMachine BiTri Claws on my 02 Griz 660.

[magnumwheelman]

to turn this thread back on to track... the only issue I think I see right now, with doing everything with the bullets in the garage, is the heat issue during the summer, & extreme cold issue in the winter... guessing that casting gets more challenging if the room temp is 32* or less maybe multiple cavity or a single cavity at a brisk pace will keep the mold hot enough to cast in the cold???

also without the added benefit of lowered humidity, that you get with air conditioning... I'm betting that static can suffer with high humidity, & powder coating will work much better when the air is drier / colder... so I'm likely to get most of my casting done in spring summer & fall, & most of my powder coating done during the fall & winter...

BTW... I also added a 2nd color of powder... I started out with a half pound of satin black polyester, & added a half pound of barn red polyester ( the reason I started with 2 tumbler bowls )... ooops... it was wagon red, not barn red ... just came today...