I figure I will share my beginner casting experience to help any other newb's out there.
What I used:
1/2 bucket of wheel weights (fixed a gun for shop owner, got them free)
1 turkey fryer (free, uncle)
1 dutch oven - 6qt ($10 flea market)
1 stainless steel ladle ($6 walmart)
1 stainless steel slotted spoon ($6 walmart)
1 heavy duty 12 hole muffin pan ($8 walmart)
2 old rags soaked in water and WRUNG out (free)
1 jar of Franklin Arsenal fluxing powder($10, optional)
1 stool to sit on (free)
1 pair thick welding gloves (had these)
In case you aren’t sure how it works… here’s a VERY quick how-to… get weights, sort pb from fe/zn, put in pot, heat, skim clips, add more weights, skim clips again, repeat until satisfied, flux, scrape bottom/sides and skim crud off top, flux, skim again, repeat until clean, pour ingots, put mold on damp cloth, knock hardened ingots out of mold, repeat until empty
1. Clean your lead a few day before (w/ pressure washer) if you don't want a smelly cloud of smoke wafting into your neighbors open windows... I didn't clean them and you could see the stench cloud floating towards the neighbors.. I don't particularly care for them so I actually enjoyed this part
2. Sort your lead before you start, pull out any steel or zinc weights (not necessary, if you are careful you can just skim them out when the lead melts).. I didn't pre-sort, so I started heating the pot and went thru each weight one by one… that took to long. Next time I will put in enough weights to cover the bottom, wait for it to melt then skim, and repeat with just enough to form a layer 1 wheel weight thick… this way you can catch any zinc weights before they melt into the soup
3. Be sure your stool is comfortable… mine wasn't and I realize there is a lot of ass-down time
4. Flux flux flux and flux some more… if you don’t you may as well just go flux yourself. I only fluxed once on the first few “muffins” I made and I was very disappointed with all the crud that was still in them. After that I fluxed repeatedly until all the black crud was gone, then I did it again. The next round of muffins turned out much better, almost bullet quality
5. Make sure your rags are damp but not dripping wet. I set the muffin pans on top and poured the lead into the pan, however I overfilled one of the muffins and liquid lead hit the overly wet towel and the lead hissed and popped... no injuries and no problems, but I know better next time.
6. Welding gloves are heat resistant, not heat proof. Don’t handle your muffins as soon as they come out of the pan, gloves or not. Didn’t you hear if you handle your muffins to much you’ll go blind… well that may not be true but you will harm your hands and possibly your muffins.
Keep your molds and your melting pot as close as possible, as you will most likely spill or drip your lead. Keep something underneath your setup if you care about your driveway, sidewalk, or patio.. mine is gravel so it wasn’t an issue, but I did make a bit of a mess
I think that’s all the advice I can give after my first casting session. Overall, I think it turned out great. I turned about 80lbs of lead into 50-60lbs of ingots in 4 hours, this included trial and error and a lot of learning, next time I think it could be done a lot quicker
I got a bit impatient and decided to cast a few bullets in my new lee molds just to see how they worked, knowing very well that I probably needed to add tin to the lead to help fill it out, and only heating the mold on the dutch oven briefly.. I didn’t expect much, but I was surprised how well a few of them turned out. I can’t wait to get the casting pot out, mix in some tin and really see some good bullets take shape. These won’t be used obviously, but I may keep one of them for nostalgia. “my first bullet” or something dumb like that.
Here are a few pics from my misadventures
The crime scene
The goods
The bads
I do have a question for the veterans… on the “good” bullets that I cast today, there are what look like a lot of pores on the surface, once I start mixing tin, will those pores disappear? If not, what causes them and will they cause any issues?
I did not start out today with the intention to cast any bullets, it just kinda happened, so I wasn’t expecting quality results but honestly I’m surprised they turned out as good as they did. I can’t wait for next weekend when I start casting.
I haven't cast in many years and then mostly for a .54cal muzzle loader (pre-internet days when it was difficult to find suppliers). 
