Newby on the block... well, to casting anyways.

[avator]

I'm pretty sure if I had a mini 110v fan laying around here I would use it. But I don't and if I keep ordering stuff for this project the total cost will exceed what I just could have bought one for.
I've watched several vids on putting these together to be used for lead melting pot and I can't say I ever saw anyone using a fan... heck, many don't even vent the box. If I'm not mistaken, that blue box is some type of plastic...  no fan.

[avator]

Meanwhile...
Since I have a 3.5 cup Tupperware container of quality .25 pellets cast, I decided to switch over to .22. I ran a 50 pellet test to tumble and weigh as a sample. It's the 217 20 RF brass 2 cav Hunter with the longest pins in it.
And I got tracking this morning on the 24gr Magnum mold.

[avator]

The test ladle pour of the .22 went great. I ended up with about 100  nice pellets ranging from 20.20 to 20.80. Only about 25 didn't make the cut. They were under 20.00 and over 21.00. Very few bad pour which were probably my fault.
Tomorrow I plan a long run. The Magnum mold is due Saturday. I should have the PID in operation by then.

[avator]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

[avator]

Musta got too close to the metal handles yesterday. I noticed a nice blister right in the inside joint of my left index finger. I think I'll let it sting awhile just as a reminder before I pop it. 

[Spacebus]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

[avator]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

That's the main reason I'm building the PID. Even without it I'm getting much better results with the ladle then I did bottom pouring. So much easier to control as well.

[avator]

The 217 24 RF Magnum NOE mold arrived today. I was surprised because I thought it was to be a 2 cav brass but it's a 2 cav aluminum. (Thanks Ron).
FYI.. it's my experience that an aluminum mold is so much less finicky than a brass mold.
It really pours nice pellets. I dropped a 20 pellet test and they weighed within .20 of each other. So I ran another 100 or so and put them in the tumbler.
Looks like I'll be casting these for awhile to fill my inventory.

[Spacebus]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

That's the main reason I'm building the PID. Even without it I'm getting much better results with the ladle then I did bottom pouring. So much easier to control as well.

Yeah, bottom pour on a pellet mold sounds tough

[avator]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

That's the main reason I'm building the PID. Even without it I'm getting much better results with the ladle then I did bottom pouring. So much easier to control as well.

Yeah, bottom pour on a pellet mold sounds tough

It can also get quite messy. The sprues are bigger which equates to having to replenish the pot more often. That's an issue with a small pot and a 4 cav mold. Adding the sprues back to the pot as you go makes keeping the temps consistent difficult.
Bottom pour is probably much better with a larger pot and bigger bullets.

[RonsPlc]

I'm glad that you like the mold, and am happy that it found a good home.

[brewbear]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

That's the main reason I'm building the PID. Even without it I'm getting much better results with the ladle then I did bottom pouring. So much easier to control as well.

Yeah, bottom pour on a pellet mold sounds tough

Not really, it just takes a bit of getting used to. You need to have the melting pot set up high enough to be able to see the spout. It also helps if you have the support contraption from NOE, you can set the distance between the spout and the mould.

[avator]

Dropped another 150 or so this morning. They are in the tumbler now while the sprues melt and come up to temp.
It looked like another good run, we'll see. Like I said before, had I had the experience that I have now I would have bought a 20# pot with no bottom pour and a ladle right out of the gate.

Same here, but I have the 4lb ladle pot. It's hard to maintain a good temperature with such a small furnace.

That's the main reason I'm building the PID. Even without it I'm getting much better results with the ladle then I did bottom pouring. So much easier to control as well.

Yeah, bottom pour on a pellet mold sounds tough

Not really, it just takes a bit of getting used to. You need to have the melting pot set up high enough to be able to see the spout. It also helps if you have the support contraption from NOE, you can set the distance between the spout and the mould.

They don't make it for the 10# pot. The thing mounts to one of the support legs on the 20# pot. The 10# pot don't have those support legs. I rigged a deal up that worked exactly the same and made things better but still didn't get as good of results as with ladle pouring. Maybe it's just me but me is all I got.   

[avator]

I dropped another 100 or so of those 217 24 RF magnums this morning. This mold drops some of the most consistent pellets I've cast. The Fortitude absolutely loves them. I'm sure many other guns will as well. The samples that were sent to me from the same mold shot good in every gun I tried them in.
It pretty much looks like I have my .22 and .25 pellet needs covered. That's going to save me a lot of money plus add another dimension to my airgun experience.

[RonsPlc]

Just be careful, I found out that I enjoy casting too much!
I now find myself spending more time casting than I do shooting!
 

I am sure that this too shall change down the road.
 

[avator]

Just be careful, I found out that I enjoy casting too much!
I now find myself spending more time casting than I do shooting!
 

I am sure that this too shall change down the road.
 

Ha Ha... too late. But like I've said before, I go through phases. In this case it's a good thing because I'm building inventory.

[avator]

The 3 prong power adapter showed up from Amazon so, with just a bit of grinding to square up the corners on the existing round hole, I got it mounted and wired into the PID box. Now the pot plugs right into the from of the PID box. When the 700c probe shows up this coming Wed. the PID will be ready to go.
I made a little chart that lists C to F conversions at 640* to 750* at 25* increments. The Rex C-100 PID does not have the option to switch C to F on the display.

[avator]

The PID is finished all but the 700c probe that is due to arrive Wed.
The wiring held me up a bit because the instructions (translated from Chinese to English) did not include good diagrams and I couldn't quite get a grasp of what was written. I watched several videos and it seemed like each one varied in how they wired it. Notably there are options and the wiring, being low voltage for the most part, is somewhat forgiving when it comes to polarity in certain connections.
One video, although it was dragged out, finally made sense to me and I dove in. I will be happy to answer questions for those who may build one and have the same problems I did. Looking back, it's all quite simple.
Anyways.. I've included some pictures below and I will add more once the probe arrives, gets installed and the pot is connected, up and running.
The 3rd pic is the hole and grommet where the probe cable will enter the side of the box.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Dis fur der Germans....

[Madd Hatter]

Dang if couldn't read the dad blame thing.😜