New Homegrown Ingot Mold

[Alan in Vermont]

I wanted a BIG ingot mold, one that could hold the molten lead from a 12" dutch oven pot on a plumbers furnace. Here's one I cobbled together from material I had on hand. The ingots come out at around 20 lbs., 19½" long. I don't know that I can melt quite much at one time but it's nice to have the capacity. It looks a little funky with the uneven legs on the angle I used (2x3) but I didn't have any 3x3, which is what I wanted. Like the lead being poured into it the material was mostly all recycled "scrap".

Next are some smaller molds that will cast a light five and about a two pound ingot with eight to ten "cavities" in each one.

[blikseme300]

Alan,

Nice work. All you now need is a pot that can handle these ingots. [smilie=w:

Once I switched to a pot that has a 75lb capacity the 1lb ingots became troublesome.:bigsmyl2:

[Three44s]

I bet you have to have your Wheaties to flip it over!!!

Nice work!!!!


Three 44s

[D Crockett]

I wanted a BIG ingot mold, one that could hold the molten lead from a 12" dutch oven pot on a plumbers furnace. Here's one I cobbled together from material I had on hand. The ingots come out at around 20 lbs., 19½" long. I don't know that I can melt quite much at one time but it's nice to have the capacity. It looks a little funky with the uneven legs on the angle I used (2x3) but I didn't have any 3x3, which is what I wanted. Like the lead being poured into it the material was mostly all recycled "scrap".

Next are some smaller molds that will cast a light five and about a two pound ingot with eight to ten "cavities" in each one. I make my own to. and when Ifirst started I thought the more the better. then I did a 1200 lb batch. the one thing I learned from that was biger is not better. it will whip you like a red headed step child. from them on I use single cavity moulds they are not as hard on you. but you do some great work there looks nice. D Crockett

[Andrew Mason]

20 lbs is a big ingot.

i use soda cans that i cut the top off,
they come in at about 8 lbs

[runfiverun]

i didn't see the draft angle on the sides, you want at least 4* minimum, more is better.

[WILCO]

I bet you have to have your Wheaties to flip it over!!!

Nice work!!!!


Three 44s

Ditto for me! :mrgreen:

[Alan in Vermont]

i didn't see the draft angle on the sides, you want at least 4* minimum, more is better.

I'm not sure how many ° it is but it's a strong half inch taper on the ends. I swung the vise on the bandsaw until it looked sufficient, locked it down and started cutting. It strips out as easy as can be, the last pour I didn't even turn it over, just stood it up, on edge and the ingots fell out.

A lot of the lead from this effort will be stored for years. I needed some way to get a lot of material into a stackable shape as fast as possible. Soda cans would work but, being round, they have to sit upright and round objects don't nest for beans.

If I find I have to alloy these with some type metal I can either cut them in half or lay one end down into my big pot until they melt off to 12" which will fit. Cut in thirds they will fit in my Pro-melt if I want to use them as is. Cutting them with a skilsaw and a thin blade there's not much material loss and very little time involved.

[runfiverun]

the triangle ones definatly stack much better than other designs/shapes.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Nice job Alan!!!! :wink:

From a different side here though, I like my ingots of a much smaller size, mostly in the 3 - 5lb size.

I cast with a 40+ pound pot over a Coleman stove, and unless casting for my 45/70 like to team cast (two people) with 4 - 5 molds, all of 4 cavity or larger.

With the big pot and good heat source, I am able to add back my sprews and add ingots while still casting and still maintain casting temp.

Couldn't do this with a small pot or small heat source.

One of my boys made a mold from angle iron years back, but yours is much smoother and likely easier to get the ingots to drop out.

I need to follow your design but just cut it down in length to make the smaller ingots.

And yes, the angled ingots really stack nice!!!!!!!!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Beau Cassidy]

20 lbs is a big ingot.

About the size of a linotype pig which is ugainly to handle.

[Alan in Vermont]

The big ingots will be re-melted later when I try different alloys. While they will be a bit harder to handle there will not be very many of them compared to smaller ingots.

I took time off from smelting today to complete some smaller molds. No pics yet but I now have a 5 and a 6 cavity made from 2x2x1/8" angle, 7" long at the longest point. Those make an ingot of about 4½ lbs. I wanted to 6 holers but ran out of material, hence the 5 cavity one.

I did have enough 1½x1½x1/8" angle to make two six cavity molds as well. These should drop about a 2½ lb ingot, also 7" long.

I won't quite be able to fill all four molds with one load out of the dutch oven unless I really crowd it full. It is going to be a luxury to be able to pour off a full pot without waiting for molds to cool so I can fill them at least twice.

I have been putting off making these all summer, wasn't sure my little bandsaw would cut the angles accurately enough so the cavities would all mate up to the end plates. That turned out to be a non-issue, as was my concern about ingots hanging on the welds where the cavities were joined to the end plates. If you tip these up on edgeas soon as you get past vertical the ingots drop free. No more fighting to get wedge ingots out of a corn bread pan for this old fart!

[Alan in Vermont]

Here's pics(gotta prove they really exist) of the new ingot molds.

The 2x2 molds have been used, cast a nice ingot of around five pounds.

The 1½x1½ are still cherry. When I got them out for the pics I realized I hadn't fully welded the cavities to the sides yet. Something to do for tomorrow.

[Ben]

I don't mean this wrong....But....why would you want to pour ingots that you would have to cut with a skill saw ?

I pour ingots all the time, but I pour them into a size that fits my pot without me having to use a skill saw.