OT - Rebuild of Saeco Casting Furnace

I just bought one from ebay and no workee :( Will be tearing it down tonight to determine source of problem.

Thanks in advance!

I"d also like to extend and open invitation to Mark to return. We said things we shouldn"t have and as I told you in a PM I"d be more than willing to make a public apology if you"d let me in on your side of what happened and why. I"m sure you were just as mad at me as I was you Jump. Joe was the cause of it all anyway, he started it and left you hanging. He"s gone. I really like to see you come back. PM me at the Cast Boolits website if you want to discuss it, my regular email is down.

I appreciate the olive branch and I buried the hatchet long ago. We're friends.

However, I won't return to the cast boolit site.

The place changed forever when the deed was handed to Willy. The man reads private messages...which I consider unacceptable. In the public sector, opening and reading people's mail is a Federal crime, for Willy; he feels it to be personal privilege. As for moderators, again, we got along fine without them for years. I don't like being 'policed' for what I have to say, and once I found I was being told what I could and could not say, I had enough.

I come here and read mostly. Nobody pays much attention to me and I keep a low profile. Here, the person who runs the show has it fixed so words pertaining to certain body parts or horrible E-vil words cannot even be printed.....more control for the sake of the 'children' and delicate types in the audience.

It's all about control and you know me.....I resent control as I am a Free Man. Merry Christmas.

I got into BPCF a few years ago using a 45-120 Sharps casting 535gn. I was very disappointed in using the small casting pots, not because I went thru alot of lead fast but that I would get inconsistant heat ranges while casting.

I changed to a 6qt castiron pot over a LP burner and really obtained some very nice consisant bullet weights, plus/minus 2gn. Not too bad when throwing 535gns.

The 2nd best thing I changed was using bees wax for a flux. This precleans the lead 100% better than anything I found.

The electric pots are pretty simple, breaks hot. If the element is not working due too terminal corrosion, soldering the connections is about the only temporary solution as even then it's most likely they won't last very long after repairs.

T_Bone

There's six ways to skin a cat and ladle pouring has it's dedicated followers. Personally, I use an RCBS 20 pound bottom pour furnace and retired my old Lyman's and sold the Saeco furnaces. RCBS truly does has a no BS warranty as I know folks who have had their furnaces repaired/replaced free of charge. As for heat variations, the rule of thumb nowadays is run the furnace wide open.....yeah, the bullets will frost, but weight variations disappear and mold fill out is very uniform. Of course, there will always be the types who do it the hard way and depend on a thermometer and some preconceived perfect temperature.

Ya I was a real green horn on casting and was trying to follow the "net" gru's on casting the big lead and just wasn't cutting the mustard. So I went with my gutt and cranked up the heat and wow, what a difference.

I never did get into casting the small lead as I ran into a guy with a auto-bullet making machine that ran me 15k 240gn .431 wad cutters for $200 boxed. Very consistant weights and with a nice lube grove to boot. At that price I just didn't want to do my own.

I haven't shot for a few years so I need to get back into the sport.

T_Bone

Here is the place to go ask.....http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

I used to hang out there until the moderators became Fascists. There is a genuinely fine group of men there. Tell them Jumptrap sent you in search of information....you'll get plenty of response. That is also the finest cast bullet website in existence. I belong to the cast bullet association and their board doesn't begin to come close. For what it's worth, Redding owns Saeco...you might be able to source parts from them.

I rebuilt it once. Got the electrical wire for the elements out of an outfit in Baltimore. Check the thermostat, and controls with your ohm meter for continunity.

You might google. HTH John,PA