Lead Casting Pot PID!!!

[rbertalotto]

If you are into casting your own bullets, and you want them to come out all nice and shiny.....you need to control the heat of your melted alloy....With small casting pots, dropping lots of lead, this is difficult to do manually. A "PID" will cycle your casting pot on and off while reading the melted lead temperature, keeping it at a constant state........you input the parameters, it does the rest!

You can build a PID for about $100 that will "computerize" your temperature control

Huge thread about it here:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=115724

Anywho.........A couple of points.

I used an extension cord that had an LED in the female plug to show you that it was "live". Works great to prove that current is flowing

I mounted the SSR (Relay) on the back of the case. The case gets just a tiny bit warm. Nothing to worry about.

I hard wired my probe.

This is a great project and VERY easy to build. Took me all of an hour to go from start to working.........Once you have a PID you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!

More pictures in my photo album
www.rvbprecision.com

 

[nfhjr62]

What would you be willing to sell one for ???

 

[rbertalotto]

I've had dozens of requests, but right now I'm just a bit too busy to build them. This fall (after hunting season) I'm going to start producing and selling them.

I would have to charge $200 including shipping to make it worthwhile. Do you think there is a market at this price?

Stay tuned!

 

[Forester]

Very cool, I don't cast as much as I once did, but that is one slick setup. I hated casting rifle boolits partly because temp swings in the pot when casting big boolits made it a hassle to get the quality I wanted. This would go a long ways to solving that.

 

[rbertalotto]

These small pots are a real challenge to keep the temperature constant. As the molten lead is used up, the quantity in the pot is reduced and the temperature soars.
This PID solves that problem!