My new furnace – part 2.

After whetting your appetite in my earlier post I have run a couple of thousand bullets from the pot and now feel able to comment with a bit more authority on its functioning.

For nearly 20 years I have been running two RCBS promelts which have given me sterling results and bother free casting, however I have always had a hankering for a 40lb pot, not because I want to cast 40lbs/sessions but with the Promelt I only get around 8-10lbs before I run out of spout adjustment and the pour pressure starts falling off with the consequential effect on bullet consistency. With a 40lber I thought that I would get more pours before running out of adjustment and so get more keepers per session.

I had always had a hankering after a Magma but the price always put me off as when shipping and their PID unit is added combined with the exchange rate, customs duty and tax it would cost me neck end of £1000 in today’s money so that combined with my love of the Promelts I never bought one.

Four months ago I came across this pot made by Stephan Sandmann in germany, he evidently makes automated casting machines.

I sent him a PM and it was promptly replied to in English that is far better than my German.

Cost was a touch over 500 euros and he quoted a six week lead time, I offered to pay a deposit but he said no he will contact me when the pot was ready for sending and we would do the transaction then.

in about five weeks I got an email saying the pot was ready, I was away at the time so asked him if he would delay sending ’till I was at home to receive it so two weeks later the pot arrived spic and new as in my other post, with the exchange rate of the day the cost including carriage was a shade over £450 in proper money.

I decided that this pot should be securely mounted as I didn’t want any chance of 40lb of molten lead sloshing around at will, the pot also needed raising to a better height so that I could see the spout in relation to the mould when pouring in my usual have standing position on the stool.

A suitable baulk of wood was cut to size, bracketed to the bench and the pot carriage bolted to the block.

To element of this pot seems to be the actual bottom half of the pot, rather than the usual pot with the element wrapped around it and the resulting air space, if you are starting from an empty pot with lumps of alloy and or reject bullets then you set the dial to 1 1/2 or 2 1/2, at these settings the heat cycles on and of with a longer cycle at the 2 1/2 setting, this stops the inside of the pot getting over heated ’till the alloy melts. Once the alloy is melting then you set the dial to 3 and the PID kicks in.

It gets the 40lbs of alloy up to temperature in around the same time as the RCBS gets its 20lb.

When I got to this stage a troubling thought came into my head, the control instructions only related to C, as I am a none metric person by education, preference and choice I thought I have better check what the pot operated in and if centigrade could that be changed on the PID. An email to Shephan confirmed my worst fears the damn thing was metrificated. This was no ones fault, for some reason Stephan thought the world was metrified and I’d thought that it would have the option of F or C.

Stephan asked me what I would do, the only options I could see were a conversion chart by the pot and go back to having a thermometer in the pot that read meaningful temperature, this was not ideal, somewhat negating the ease of the PID and leaving room for error on my part.

Stephan came back with the proposal that If he supplied a Fahrenheit PID and wiring diagram would I be happy with that, well I am no electrician but I did make a PID unit from a kit a few years ago so thought it was worth giving it a go, anything would be better than that bloody metrification that just does my head in.

The replacement PID came on Saturday, I got it fitted and lit up yesterday, it wasn’t too bad to fit just a bit fiddly for my old insensitive fingers. So today I fired the fahrenheit pot up and set too to cast.

I have nothing but praise for my dealing with Stephan, he did all that he said he would with good communication and to his stated deadlines, he went over and above in my mind in providing the proper PID as at the end of the day I should have checked when ordering and then he would have fitted the correct PID from the get go. I am sure if I have issues in the future then Staphan will be there to help a pleasure dealing with him.

Anyway here are some photos of the pot in situ from this mornings session.

The control panel with the PID running up to the set temperature, 770 degrees fahrenheit.

I had already cast with the pot with the old PID on it so had a bit of a feel for it, the first thing I noticed in use was the positive check the spring on the pouring handle mechanism gives.

To start with it feels stiff but I soon got used to it and it makes the flow control very easy, with the Pro Melt I would just set the stop screw and lift the handle up to it gradually raising the stop screw to keep the flow. With Stephan’s pot the handle is depressed against the spring giving very fine control as well ensuring a good seal at the spout when not pouring.

This gives very consistent bullets if the results from my first session with it is anything to go by. The flow adjuster is chunky and knurled and grips well but be aware that this pot does get HOT, so if you are like me and prefer to cast without gloves then you will need one handy if you want to adjust the flow nut when in use.

The mould guide is fully adjustable for height and width and has plenty of room for the bigger moulds, the flat base of the guide also means it is RG mould friendly. There is also a moveable back stop but it was removed as I didn’t need it and the depth wasn’t enough for the five cavity mould I was using today.

I rattled through a few lbs of alloy this morning using the NOE 5 cavity 432-200-RF 44/40 mould.

This gave me a pile of fine bullets which when weighed, if my last session was anything to go by, should have very few rejects by inspection or weight.

All in all I am very happy with my purchase, so far it is exceeding my expectations, A quality furnace at a more than reasonable price from a gentleman that is a pleasure to deal with.

What can one say but Phwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!