Its hard to learn how to keep the mold blocks, and the lead, hot enough to pour good balls or bullets. Each mold is a bit different in what it likes by way of technique. But, you can't get a mold too hot for RBs. They will come out frosted, but they shoot just fine!
I used an old plumber's lead pot for years to melt lead, and just learned to rest the closed mold on the top edge of the pot, to keep it hot. I used a dipper, and kept the blocks as close to the top of the molten lead as physically possible, and the dipper floating on the top of the molten lead. That is how I was able to cast the longest string of balls or bullets that passed inspection. Use a damp towel to drop the balls on.
Periodically( as when you have to add more lead to the pot) roll the new balls off the towel into a cardboard box. Do a visual inspection as they roll off the towel, and pick up any bad ones to dump back into the pot. That is the time to also pick up sprues and pour them back into the pot. We had a wide metal plate under the pot and stove, to protect the bench top from being burned, and catch the sprues from the mold. A large spoon, or a piece of cardboard and a wisk broom was all that was needed to clean up the metal plate, and put the sprues into the pot.
When we bought a bottom pour mold, the steel plate stayed, but now it caught any drips from the spout, too. I learned to hold the cut-off plate of my Lyman molds right up against the spout, before opening the spout to pour lead into the mold. The heat of the pot immediately heats the cut off plate, which transfers that heat down into the mold, too, by convection.
The nice part about using electric melting furnaces with bottom pours is that they have a wide ledge at the top of the pot, where a mold can be rested and heated while your hands are doing something else.
A hundred bullets or balls an hour is a pretty good rate for casting, if you are using a single cavity mold. Don't rush it. This is one time when Haste REALLY DOES make Waste! If you need to cast more balls than that per hour, consider buying "gang" molds(ie. 2,4,6, and even 8 cavity molds.)
You will shortly develop your own rhythm to use with each given mold, and that will maximize the number of good balls or bullets you cast.
Best wishes, and welcome to the world of casting. :hatsoff:
