First Smelting Session

[TXGunNut]

Finally gathered up all I need to smelt the approximately 200 #'s of WW's I have stashed around here. Bought a propane burner and a cheap 10 qt steel stock pot last night, already had a stainless ladle and slotted spoon. Only have a couple of ingot moulds but will see how it goes. Re-read the smelting sticky last night and was again impressed by the awesome setups but a low-volume caster like me could probably get by continuing to use my standard 20# Lee pot for smelting as I have in the past. My new setup, tho small, is probably overkill but my stash of WW's is taking up too much room and I'd rather use the Lee pot's limited lifetime for casting, not smelting. I suspect the propane may be more efficient energy-wise as well.
Wind and sun are conspiring to dry out my little spot on the prairie so will have to mow soon. Too windy to work on building my casting shack so guess I better get to melting WW's!

[cbrick]

"Some wind" is a good thing when doing the wheel weights.

Rick

[dragon813gt]

"Some wind" is a good thing when doing the wheel weights.

Rick

I prefer more than some. A nice slow constant wind that doesn't change direction is great. If it keeps changing direction it's hard to stay upwind :(

[runfiverun]

I built a nice wind blocker for my smelting set-up It helps retain heat better too.
I prefer to do a bunch of small runs for alloy then mix them together later about 3 buckets at a time is all I wanna do anymore.
I then segregate each batch.
then run the spearated batches together and reclean everything again,i move it from one pot into the other to make sure it all gets mixed together.
then the ingots go into the casting pile.

[TXGunNut]

That didn't take long! Had more WW's than I realized, netted 240 #'s of COWW ingots and 52 #'s of PB from stick-ons. Wind was my friend when smelting the stick-ons! Only found a handful of Zn WW's, a few slipped by but came out with the clips. Got my first visit from the Tinsel Fairy, poured a few #'s of leftover lead into a cast iron sauce pan that lives outside to make a starter ingot, sounded like a .22 round and you all know the rest. Was running with only one glove but my heavy shirt, beard and glasses caught most of it. Kinda hard to get tinsel out of a grey beard but I'm glad it was there to catch it. A few minor 2nd degree burns on my left hand is the worst of it, I got off easy. Lesson learned....I hope!
Things should be cooled off by now, guess I better get busy with my Sharpie and get my treasure stowed away.

[TXGunNut]

Ya'll help me remember to buy a few more ingot moulds before I try this again. Spent waaaaay to much time waiting for moulds to cool. Also, that idea of storing all my ingots in a safe at the other end of the house was a bad idea for this middle aged, worn-out, fat guy. Will be glad when I get that casting shed finished. Also need to do a better job of protecting the "floor" of my outdoor kitchen. Splatters everwhere!

[jeepyj]

Ya'll help me remember to buy a few more ingot moulds before I try this again. Spent waaaaay to much time waiting for moulds to cool. Also, that idea of storing all my ingots in a safe at the other end of the house was a bad idea for this middle aged, worn-out, fat guy. Will be glad when I get that casting shed finished. Also need to do a better job of protecting the "floor" of my outdoor kitchen. Splatters everwhere!
WOW splatters on the kitchen floor! Can't even begin to imagine how that would go over with my wife. Ether your not married on your wife is a saint!
Jeepyj

[TXGunNut]

It's an outdoor kitchen, "floor" is concrete pavers. It's just a large stainless commercial kitchen table, a smoker and a grille. And no, I'm not married and last girlfriend is certainly no saint.

[jonp]

WOW splatters on the kitchen floor! Can't even begin to imagine how that would go over with my wife. Ether your not married on your wife is a saint!
Jeepyj
Removed

[jonp]

WOW splatters on the kitchen floor! Can't even begin to imagine how that would go over with my wife. Ether your not married on your wife is a saint!
Jeepyj
Kinda like when my sweetie of the time came home during hunting season and I had a deer hanging in the kitchen and was carving off steaks. She had a stunned look on her face and I said "What"? Didn't last much after that. Women are odd sometimes

[jonp]

WOW splatters on the kitchen floor! Can't even begin to imagine how that would go over with my wife. Ether your not married on your wife is a saint!
Jeepyj
Duplicate

[Blacksmith]

A small visit from the Tinsel Fairy will be the reminder you need because you NEVER want a BIG visit from Tinsel Town.

[gbrown]

Ya'll help me remember to buy a few more ingot moulds before I try this again. Also need to do a better job of protecting the "floor" of my outdoor kitchen. Splatters everwhere!

I smelt using old "corn cob" cast iron which was too rusty to salvage. On Amazon I found some cast iron muffin pans that were not too high priced. Pointed there by a post on Castboolits.
I smelt using one of 2 pots. One is a freon reclamation can and the other an older propane bottle. Both I cut the top off and either one will hold a hundred pounds. I smelt outside with plenty of wind, I don't want breath any of that stuff. Put the pot on the burner, load with Pb, and turn the burner on. Stand back and watch it go. When everything quits smoking, go stir and flux, skim and get to pouring. Had to edit, as I forgot to say that I protect the slab by laying down pieces of scrap plywood.