Smelting in a Wood Furnace

[43spanish]

When I was a very young lad I cast bullets for my black powder firearms. I used a cast iron pot set inside the firebox of a wood-fired furnace in the basement. The coals easily melted the lead and I cast many a ball and bullet. I gave no thought to lead contamination by handling or by fumes, which might explain some of the mental issues I'm accused of having. Anyway, I'm thinking that the chimney draft took the lead fumes up with the smoke. I had no idea that lead temperature was a factor, but after at first casting a few wrinkled projectiles the rest were of good quality after the mold warmed up. It seems the fire supplied adequate heat.

Does anyone use a woodburning stove to cast bullets? Any thoughts on this?

[Shiloh]

I saw it done on a Vogelsang boxwood stove. You know the kind to heat an outbuilding shop or garage. The kind they have at Fleet Farm or ranch stores. He took one of the burner covers off and the bottom of his homemade pot fit right in the cutout.

Shiloh

[43spanish]

I saw it done on a Vogelsang boxwood stove. You know the kind to heat an outbuilding shop or garage. The kind they have at Fleet Farm or ranch stores. He took one of the burner covers off and the bottom of his homemade pot fit right in the cutout.

Shiloh

That would sure work. I burn wood in a fireplace all winter....thinking of smelting on the coals again.

[Johnch]

I smelted several tons , Yes tons of range lead years back
All using wood

To speed the first part of the smelt
I blew air into the pit the wood was in with a exaust fan blower ducted into the bottom of the pit

Sure got the pot hot fast

And to think
I sold most of that lead in the form of sinkers years back

John

[Sonnypie]

I don't use wood, electric is too easy for a lazy old fart like me.

Can you imagine these guys trying to figure out how to put a PID controller on a wood fired pot? :lol:

But using a wood stove as your heat source is easy to wood heat folks. You stoke your stove, and move the pot if it seems too hot.
I heated with wood for 30 years. But now I just poke the thermostat.... See line one.

[Ugluk]

I use firewood for smelting in a stove made from a 55gallon drum. I recently did 550# of clip on ww ingots in 7hrs. Using propane would have been really expensive for me.

I prefer electric bottom pour for casting though.

[JIMinPHX]

I've melted lead in a burning barrel (55-galon drum with air holes) before. I hung a cast iron pot off a 2" pipe that I put across the top of the barrel. I had no problems. I was surprised to see that an IR thermomiter indicated about 1700F inside the barrel. I guess that wood fires can get pretty hot when they are properly ventilated.

[nanuk]

Jim, I've used a washer tub with extra holes cut in it, for a firepot heater for camping.

we have gotten it so hot, using only pine, to get a 1/2" steel rod yellow hot, hot enough that I could cut into it with a hatchet. Also, the sides of the pot, in places got very yellow hot

I have now doubt it gets very hot

[smokemjoe]

A friend of mine had a small wood burning laundry stove, The day I seen him he had a big pot in one hole and had coke for fuel with a blower on it out in his drive way, Went buy a few days later and the stove, coke and lead pot was laying in one big pile, Got it so hot that the cast iron stove gave way, 300 lbs. of lead all mixed in.

[Echo]

Coke will do that - basically coal turned to coal charcoal. Burns hotter than he[[...

[Aloxite]

This thread has got me thinking. I've small wood stove that has the cooking eyes sitting in the garage, not installed. I may just rig up the propane burner inside of it since it would contain the heat and provide a nice solid platform to work on.

[para45lda]

I actually looked at a two burner wood stove at Tractor Supply the other day.

Never know when you may run out of Propane.

Wes

[Freightman]

The out side of my heating stove (top) will get to 800 if I set the thermostat to high, have no idea how hot the inside of the fire box gets but it will consume aluminum coke cans. There is no trace of the cans I put in to keep the creasoat from building in the stack when I clean out the ash. Most of my heat comes from the one stove and I have a 2000 sq ft house.

[Revolver]

I'm new here, and to casting although I have been lurking around here for awhile soaking up information. I had to jump in on this thread.

I recently picked up a bunch of WW and this weekend I plan on constructing a wood burning smelter. It's based on parts I picked up at the dump. I want to use wood because I have a lot of it and don't want to buy propane or risk running out mid-project.

Because I don't have a thermometer yet I will be carefully pre-sorting my WW.

I hope it works, will report back soon!