you have zero equipment and need to replace it

what do you buy?

also, whatever you were casting for initially now you're casting for .38, 9mm and .45

i've got about 900lbs of lead and it's not ever gonna fit down a barrel in it's current form!

Smelting I use a cast iron pot like a dutch oven pot over a propane turkey fryer. Lots of flux of the wax and saw dust variety.  Clean it up as best as possible with a slotted spoon.  Pour into RCBS ingot mold with a steel ladle.  Some people use muffin pans.

Casting I use a cheapo Lee 10# bottom pour furnace. Bottom pour is mandatory IMO for molds that are more than two bullets per mold.

Molds of various manufactures and sizes.    I have many.

I normally use Alox/Johnsons paste wax/ mineral spirits tumble lube on all bullet styles, but have currently switched over to Powder Coating as the tumble lube mix gives me a sore throat when I breathe too much of the smoke when firing.    

Sizing is done with Lee push through sizers.    

It's really pretty simple.    

Hopefully you recover from your loss of equipment.

If you really did lose all your equipment and said equipment was not Lee brand you may have developed a appreciation for your particular brand.

If you are starting out new and like many of us are on a budget I can recommend Lee casting tools.

Their bottom pour pots and either 2 or 6 bullet molds work just fine.

Then throw powder coating into the process (like dryflash3 posted) and you are in business.

Motor

if I lost mine I'd be crying as I use a Magma Bullet Master and Lube Master for most casting

Estate sales have been very good to me in terms of finding old serviceable casting equipment.  The stuff never wears out and usually sells for attractive prices because the family just wants to get rid of that heavy ugly stuff.



If you are a member of a gun club sometimes older members have stuff squirreled away and are willing to part with it.  Get to know the guys in your club.

Forgot to mention I use a Kenmore solid surface single burner electric element to use to preheat my molds.  I also leave it on at about a medium temp for when I want to take a break for a minute or two.    

Really helps for my consistency which I need all the help I can get.  

I smelt with a hotplate and a heavy pot, not running massive quantities, but that helps me catch Zinc before is does any evil.

Lee bottom pour furnace, used a ladle briefly, it's not awful if you only cast a hundred or so a session.

For molds Lee used to be known for dropping 2-3 thousandths oversize which was good, when I bought my own molds I bought Lee 2 cavs, this within the last year, both drop exactly what they say, fine for 45ACP, no good for 9mm. Been looking at Arsenal or NOE to replace my 9mm mold as modding it to drop .356 took some of the symmetry out of if. Big fan of Truncated Cones and SWCs. Some of the Lee 38/357 molds are suitable for 9mm and should drop a large enough diameter in addition to doing double duty 9mm/38Spl.

I can't get into the extra steps of PC, tumble lube is messy, and pan lubing was an obscene mess and amount of work IMO, a Lubrisizer is mandatory for me.

Dryflash...

the hot plates work good. I have a two burner one that is about 30 years now.  It takes a little bit longer to heat the lead up but after its up to temp it works great.

good stuff, thanks

I hope that pot on the left isn't aluminum. Or at least you are not melting lead in it, if it is. Aluminum fails after being heated to lead melting temps a few times.


As for sizers: I am liking the NOE push through sizers. I only have one Lee push through, the rest are going to NOE's.

http://noebulletmolds.com/smf/index.php/topic,1245.0.html

And You will like it. I tried it and it works great, if You need to run and take a whiz or something, it doesn't kill Your heat cycle/rhythm.

I'd get the biggest Lee pot going (20#?) and a Lee 2 cavity mold.  Once you figure things out, you can get a six-gang.  There's a little bit of a learning curve, and the 6-gang is going to be tough for starters.



You'll need tin in addition to the lead to get the molds to fill out.  It reduces the surface tension of the lead.  I use pewter and solder for tin.



 






ETA:  I don't size unless I have to.  Which isn't often.  See next poster below for my lube method.


 

casting:
Lee 20# pot, bottom pour ladle (lyman I think it is, not sure).
Lee 2 cav molds.   Lee pushthru sizers in various dias

I just use Lee liquid alox thinned with mineral spirits.

smelting:
I have a small steel 10# pot, rcbs I think, Lee ingot mold, and a coleman propane camp stove.

All good advice above, especially Castboolits. After casting for several years and upgrading equipment I have the following for casting;

Lyman 25 melting pot
LEE 6 cavity for pistol
NOE 4-5 cavity for rifle
HI-Tek bullet coating for lube
LEE sizers
Also a Star I use for sizing

Good luck