best cooker for smelting

[bryonbush]

i need to get a better cooker for smeliting weights. i purchased one from northen tool a few months back but it dont put out too much head. im looking into some turkey/fish fryers. any recomendations? is there a certian BDU level i should be looking at?

[runfiverun]

at least 35k btu's

[arjacobson]

I actually modified mine when I bought it. I cut off the top rim and lowered it about 5-6 inches. Rewelded it and made some heat shields. Works fantastic.

[midnight]

I bought the Bass Pro Shops fish boiler when they had it on sale a while back for $30. It's got a 58,000BTU burner. I bolted it to a piece of ¾in plywood to stabilize it even more. I put a piece of 24in sheet metal flashing all around it except for an opening in the front to serve as a windscreen. It has more than enough heat to melt 125-150 lbs of renge lead at a time.

Bob

[afish4570]

By chance I went into a local Dollar store and asked if they had any muffin tins, not the alum. throw a ways......Clerk said I'll show you"...Bought 4 6cuppers that's 24 more ingots when I am smelting. Great buy and they are steel...I can lube with alittle candle wax shavings made with my jack knife to make releasing real easy.afish4570:popcorn::popcorn:

[Dale53]

I hesitate to use the word "BEST". However, I have the Bass Pro Turkey/Fish Fryer that I bought on sale and it has melted over 1000 lbs of lead (scrap lead and WW's) without a hiccup. I can recommend it without reservation. One of the most important things to watch for is that it is stable enough for a large pot of molten metal (mine will hold 125 lbs or so). Mine is:

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shopsreg;-Propane-Cooker-with-Aluminum-Pot/product/10205245/72596?cmCat=CROSSSELL_THUMBNAIL

For $20.00 more dollars you can get essentially the same burner with a cast iron dutch oven (it'll hold 125 lbs or better of molten alloy):

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Cast-Iron-Fish-Fryer/product/10215772/59933

I would go with the cast iron pot. DO NOT try to use an aluminum pot for smelting scrap lead. They have been known to fail with potentially horrible results. They didn't have this option when I bought mine, so I went to Harbor Freight and bought a six quart cast iron dutch oven. Do NOT beat on the cast iron pot and it should last forever. Cast iron will not take abuse, but there is no reason to abuse one. No banging on the pot, PERIOD!

Dale53

[midnight]

I guess I forgot that the Bass Pro fish boiler came with a sheet aluminum pot. Whatever you do, do not use that pot to melt lead. I did the same as Dale53 and went to Harbor Freight and got the cast iron dutch oven. I happened to have a circle of ¾in plywood about 26in in dia. that I bolted the cooker to. That gave me a base to screw some 24in flashing to, leaving about a 10in opening in the front. I even screwed a 4in. square piece of wood with a hole in it to the flashing for the gas hose to go through without scraping on the sheet metal. I have only melted 6-700lbs so far but I've only used 1 20lb tank of propane.

Bob

[bryonbush]

Just a heads up for everyone, went to bass pro today and they are selling a turkey dryer kit putting out 58000 btu for 40$ picked one up myself and dont ever plan on frying a turkey

[evan price]

A 4" burner with a 1.0mm gas orfice at 10 psi produces 56,000 btu. That would be sufficient for most home smelters. There are larger burners, higher pressure regulators, etc. available.

[DukeInFlorida]

Just answered this question here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=132934

As I pointed out in my post there, the 55,000 btu/hour burner ISN'T enough for larger smelting sizes. And, I explained why.

The 185,000 btu/hour burners are about the same price as the measly 55,000 btu/hour burners, and better suited.

[afish4570]

Been using a brush burner torch and a plumbers lead melting furnace.....Seems to use alot of propane and the tank on the torch can frost up due to high setting to get max heat output......afish4570:-?:-?

[hk33ka1]

I collapsed my Bass Pro burner stand with about a 200lb piece of lead in it. Once it got hot and the legs heated up they went rubbery.

The burner now sits on a metal stand I have for something else. I made a tin shield to go around the pot and I had to wrap a zip tie around the pilot button since it doenst like to stay running anymore (bad thermostat?)

I use a 20lb BBQ tank that I roughly cut in half with a torch as a pot.

[LabGuy]

hk33ka1, were you using the 3 or 4 leg Bass Pro burner?

[Tammany42]

I know my 3 legged Bass pro supports 240 pounds with a slight flex.

[hk33ka1]

Mine had three legs attached to a ring at the bottom. I was assembled per manual and sat on a piece of plywod on the lawn with my halved bbq tank and the lead on it. I had previously melted a few lighter loads of wheel weights.

This is the model I have.

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Stainless-Steel-Turkey-Fryer-with-Spigot/product/10211714/123840

It still runs great on my new stand. I removed all the legs and base ring. It now sits on an open top square metal stand I had. The burner assembly hangs in the middle of the open framework.

[Inkman]

Here's some pics of my little backyard set up. The burner was about $50.00 at Home Depot, the pot is a cast iron pot from Sportsmens Warehouse for about $20.00. Just for smelting range lead. The whole thing feels pretty sturdy but i don't do 100# batches. They only weigh about 50# full to start.

Al


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/Inkmanno1/casting%20boolits/gettingstarted.jpg


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/Inkmanno1/casting%20boolits/melting2.jpg


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/Inkmanno1/casting%20boolits/muffinsupclose.jpg

[Inkman]

This is just from a sat and sun smelting session. Maybe 8 pots of range lead and the final ingots add up quick. Do this every now and then and you will have more than enough lead ready to cast into boolits to last you a long time.

Al



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/Inkmanno1/casting%20boolits/sunhaul3.jpg

[mold maker]

The secret is to make use of all the heat your burner produces. Making a wind sheld to keep the heat against the pot will allow smaller burners to do the job. If your getting a blast of heat making it uncomfortable to get to the pot, your wasting fuel.
I cut a metal 5 gal bucket in half and split notches to fit the pot support grate from the top. The bottom half of the bucket was attached to the bottom of the burner and fit to the pot support grate from below. Air holes in the bottom, cut around the burner, supply air for complete combustion. That allowed me to turn the heat way down and still do the job.
Very few of the current frier's have the BTU rating listed. The high pressure ones are usually hot enough, especially if modified as above.
The ability to support way more than expected weight is of course paramount.

[LabGuy]

I looked at a Bass Pro 3 leg last year. Ended up witha 4 leg model that cost $10.00 more. It seemed more stable. I got ths one: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-30-Quart-Propane-Turkey-Fryer/product/11101205012016/283164?cmCat=CROSSSELL_THUMBNAIL

Have melted up to about 180 lbs.

[Digger]

Not cheap but does the job nicely ..... one of the King kooker line , picked this one up off of the Wally world site a couple years back for sixty bucks or so .... 54;000 btu ... best of all , it has four legs ! and holds close to a couple hundred pounds at least ...tested it a few times by now....37879
Original pot was a little to big so went to a piece of 8 inch pipe ...works good. (correction : I keep forgetting :killingpc ... it's a piece of ten inch steel pipe I am using for a pot ... sorry ! )
New , the legs are a little too long so I cut a foot off of each ... just right now.
Last I looked , Amazon has one ....
digger

[Inkman]

Not cheap but does the job nicely ..... one of the King kooker line , picked this one up off of the Wally world site a couple years back for sixty bucks or so .... 54;000 btu ... best of all , it has four legs ! and holds close to a couple hundred pounds at least ...tested it a few times by now....37879
Original pot was a little to big so went to a piece of 8 inch pipe ...works good.
New , the legs are a little too long so I cut a foot off of each ... just right now.
Last I looked , Amazon has one ....
digger

Now THAT looks STURDY!! Me likey!!

Al