I'm ready to cast/a couple questions?

[Jerry Lester]

If you fellows are like me, I'm sure some of you will chuckle at this, but here it is anyways!:-D

Of course, being the impatient, never reading directions, got to try it out right now sort I am, I melted a pot full of wheel weights today. I poured some ingots(stole a mini-muffin pan from the kitchen), and now I've got a buch of clips, and crud in the bottom of my new pour pot. How do I clean it out without hurting my pot? It's the 10lb LEE bottom pour by the way.

Feel free to ragg me on it, I can take it![smilie=1: :-D

Also, once I get this thing usable again, what would be the best/easiest way to melt my lead for ingots without using my pour pot? I now see why everybody pours ingots first, THEN starts casting bullets from the ingots.

[carpetman]

Jerry Lester---Besides the reason you discovered---stopping up a bottom pour---you want to smelt with a separate rig. This is so you can do it outside--as you probably noticed lots of smoke. Some here use gigantic smelters and make big ones out of all sorts of things. For my purposes a small cast iron pot and a Coleman stove does the trick. If you don't have a Coleman stove,they do seem to be an item found in lots of garage sales. I think this is because a whole lot of people dont know how to use nor take care of them. They are really very simple. I think my lead pot only holds 10 pounds. I also splurged years ago and bought an ingot mold. My lead pot is small enough I can handle it with a pair of pliers. I can fill up all four compartments of my ingot mold and be ready to add another batch of wheelweights. The Lyman ingot mold also has a lip you can use pliers on to dump it. If you leave a little molten lead in the pot the new batch will melt quicker. I can turn out a fair number of ingots in pretty short order. I find the ingots stack easy enough and are of a good size for adding to my bottom pour. I once had some round muffin pan ingots that were too big and were clumsy to add to my pot.

[Nrut]

Good point by carpetman...make sure your ingots are small enough to fit in your Lee 10#'er.....I suppose you know that you don't want to add WW to your smelting pot (with melted lead already in it) that might have water in the clips....rapid steaming will cause explosions if water is carried in the submerged clips....:)

[454PB]

Assuming the spout is not so crudded up it won't seal again, fill it with another batch of wheelweights, then melt them, skim the junk off, flux, and skim again. That should get you back to point "A".

[Buckshot]

.............Heh, heh :-) Valuable lesson learned. Do not try to turn wild WW's into domesticated ingots in the casting pot. As mentioned, render them in a seperate venue. See a couple stickies in the 'Casting Equipment' forum, up at the top.

................Buckshot

[KYCaster]

Jerry: To clean up the pot, use Waksupi's method.....flux with wood. A paint paddle works great. Scrape the sides and bottom of the pot to loosen that clinging junk and it will float to the top so you can get rid of it. Then use a dental pick or something similar to clean the spout from the bottom. A little messy, but it gets the crud out of the spout.

I guess you learned your lesson about smelting in your pouring pot. Since you're already in the dog house for lifting the muffin pan, you may as well do your smelting on the kitchen range while the spouse is out shopping Saturday afternoon. Find a sauce pan of appropriate size with a sturdy handle. (That one she uses to brew tea should work just fine. For GOD's sake, don't use aluminum. I'd hate for you to have to replace the range before she gets home) Make sure the clips you skim off are cool before you put them in the trash, they'll melt right through the bag and stick to the bottom of the trash can. (a dead give-away) Oh, and open the doors and windows and turn the exhaust hood on max. If there's any lingering odor blame it on the cat.

That should get you enough lead to last through a good casting session. Like Red Green says, "I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together."

Jerry

[Leftoverdj]

Jerry. get down to the seasonal section of Walmart. They are closing out turkey fryers and you should be able to get one for $20 to $25. If they have the model with the cast iron pot, go a few extra bucks and get that. I prefer the short version.

[Topper]

I'll second Leftoverdj's advise.
I've been using a coleman stove for years, but it cannot handle a lot of weight.
Smelting is work that I prefer to get don as fast as possible.
I just bought a turkey frier a few week back and it's a big improvement over my old coleman.
I'll still use the coleman for small batches of pure lead.

[boogerred]

jerry i use a coleman one burner stove that screws to the top of one of those short bottles. i bought a hose and adapter to fit my bbq pit tank. i had my welder buddy make a stand for the burner. i use an 8qt pot on it i can put about 25# WWs in it. works great for me. i use the mini-muffins for ingots. they fit good in the lee.

[Beau Cassidy]

I keep the spout clean by taking a small drill bit and put it in a pair of vise grips. When the pot is hot, use it to clean the spout from the outside. You will get a little lead everywhere so wear gloves.

[Jerry Lester]

Thanks fellows!

I didn't stop up my pot's pour spout, so I should be good there I guess. I'm gonna take enough of my mini-muffin ingots to fill the pot back up, and see if I can skim off the crud with a spoon or something tomorrow.

As for melting any lead in the kitchen, I've already been assured that the fight that would come from it would definately not be worth it.:roll: My wife is a "former" Marine, so even though she's only 5' 3", she tends to get right testy when she throws a hissy fit. I don't have the heart to tell her that she'd never stand a chance in a one on one all out fight with me[smilie=1: :) .

I'm heading out to a local second hand store if I get a chance between jobs tomorrow, and see if I can piece together a smelting set up that'll work for me. I've got a brand new Colman stove that's still in the box, so I might try it first. The second hand store might just have one of them turkey cookers in there though.

How exactly do you use the turkey cooker to melt lead? I've never seen one work before, even on a turkey.

[Buckshot]

..............Jerry, check out: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=10102

Also do a search on that forum. Just type in Turkey :-)

.................Buckshot

[VTDW]

Jerry,

I made the mistake of smelting in my Lee...once. I find that using the paint stir stick for flux is great as mentioned above by KYCaster and I pay special attention to the area around the bottom pour spout while stirring and scraping. I also use a screwdriver and work the stopper really good occasionally as you close the spout. It is working well for me.

It is nice to proudly say I cast my own.

Enjoy this new adventure...I am!!

Dave

[DPD]

Use 454PB and Buckshot's advice to clean out your casting pot. When it cools
down, you may need a wire brush on a drill to knock the debris and dross off the
walls and bottom of the pot. Keep that casting pot clean and it will eliminate
inclusions in your future cast boolits.