Built a pot and stand w/ burner, questions

[Gswain]

My pot is 1/4 inch steel walls with 3/8ths thick bottom plate, holds roughly 3 gallons. Got it set up on my burner stand I made out of 1/4 inch angle iron for a frame and 1/4" x 2" grate material to support the pot. Fired it up last night with my new jet burner, and it worked great for my test boiling water. Brought roughly 2 gallons from 60 degrees F to a rolling boil in under 8 minutes at 1000 feet ASL. Now the question is this : I noticed while running my burner flat out, that the grating material gets RED hot. I don't mean kinda glowing, I mean you kill the flames after 8 minutes and itll GLOW. I am wondering if I should not run the burner wide open, im not sure if im just dumping too much heat into the steel. I know this is silly to ask without having a ton of pics, but ill get some this weekend for it.:smile:

[Ben]

You may find that once you get the mix molten and the pot is hot, you can greatly reduce the flame, saving on your steel and fuel source.

[Wayne Smith]

I used an old Coleman propane two burner until the connection failed. The 1/4" rods holding the pot routinely got red hot and did not sag. I kno, it suprised me too the first time I saw it. I guess I used it so long I no longer noticed it.

[41mag]

My thoughts would be what would the weight of 2 gallons of lead be?

If the grating is getting that hot the weight of the lead in the pot might be a bit much for it to hold. Sure would suck to have it start go while you had it full.

You could probably simply reinforce it with one piece of 1" angle to support the middle and be much better off.

Just a thought.

[Mk42gunner]

Lead weighs something like 23 pounds per quart, so two gallons would be right at 184 pounds, call it 200 with the weight of the pot. I would weld in some supports of 1"x1/8" flat stock on edge, I really would not want to see anywhere close to 200 pounds of molten lead spill while I was anywhere close to it.

I'm going to have to make a new frame for my turkey fryer, it lost an argument with my truck tire while the daughter was driving.

Robert

[Gswain]

Well there is nothing like trial by fire. It holds and then some!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/four27_cobra/P7020092.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/four27_cobra/P7020091.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/four27_cobra/P7020090.jpg

[wtfooptimax200]

That's an awesome looking pot, how did you get the steel into a curved shape?

[Three44s]

Kudos on your project!

A suggestion on the red grate ........ if it causes problems down the road you could re-engineer so that the bottom of your lead pot is suspended in mid air and the frame it rests on could be extended to hold the sides of your pot and not the bottom.

Ie. a craddle effect


Three 44s

[Gswain]

That's an awesome looking pot, how did you get the steel into a curved shape?

a 20 ton hydraulic press, a few educated guesses, and a good bit of swearing. Just kinda eyeballed it. Was a pain in the ass tho, but worth it!

[cajun shooter]

timax200, The same way that blacksmiths have been making horse shoes for all these years. Very hot fire, hammer, anvil, steel and lots of work. Not being a smart ... by no means. If you think about how long man has shod horses, the knowledge has been there.