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I can remember when I was about 10 years old, melting lead in a cast iron ladle over an electric stove making fishing sinkers with my Dad. However, this is my first attempt at casting bullets! I purchased two Lee casting molds on the Internet for less than $20 each (with handles) and a Lee electric 10 pound melter for under $40. I had a ladle that I had purchased earlier but had never used very much. Here's a photo of my bullet casting setup on my welding table. I have a towel to drop hot bullets on, a ladel, melter, two bullet molds, one for round balls and one for hunting bullets, some bullet lube, a mold for lead ingots and some lead cleaned up and ready to be cast. I also have my phone on the left where I can watch a movie or play music when casting.
The first thing I did was to to spray the bullet molds with brake cleaner to get all the oil off. 
Then I deposited some carbon in the cavities of the mold. The perfect source of black soot is an acetylene torch using just the acetylene and no oxygen. I use this for all my casting to keep a non-stick surface when pouring hot metal. 
Here's my setup in my garage next to the garage door. It was cold out when I was casting this so I had my halogen lamp on for light and warmth. If anything starts smoking I can just raise the garage door for fresh air. 
Since I used to be a beekeeper, I had this old box of beeswax laying around. Beeswax is used for flux for the lead to separate impurities and to clean the lead. It is also used as a lubricant for the hinges on the bullet mold. 
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Page Posted in April, 2006
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