One home smelting production setup

[Buckshot]

This is Kenjudo's setup, and build info, PART 1:

http://www.fototime.com/D75199F69236ABA/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/CFBCD66D5603F42/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/632B7C0BBCD165D/standard.jpg]

http://www.fototime.com/DF8A60C5205E5AB/standard.jpg

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/1C745CB0BD078C7/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/17491F14BA57CDA/standard.jpg

This one below, belongs to another poster, and I'm sorry but don't remember who it belonged to. If it's yours, PM me and I will credit you. Its a honker melter8)

http://www.fototime.com/35FE798D7E47E30/standard.jpg

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I've always preferred to ladle from the pot, but use a similar setup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Pot_2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Pot_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/BPCartridges.jpg
Main cartridges I cast for

[fiberoptik]

I got a backache just looking at those pix!!
[smilie=l:

[Slamfire]

I'd think the Air Quality Management folks would frown on that first one.

[charlie / sw mo]

i got a lot of flack from my family about lead poisining a while back so iv went to this system. i melt down all the material in a 40 lb electric plumbers pot and then i pour it into a 24 hole bakery cupcake pan or a lyman ingot mould. i then use a cabintree lead hardness tester and number each bar or cupcake with its hardness # with a marking pen. looking at the attached pic --iv mounted a range hood over the melting pots . you can see a piece of wood mounted under the hood and on the bottom of it a shiney piano hinge. theres a piece of 1/4 in thick plastic mounted on the hinge--its hard to see the plastic but right over the left pot you can see what looks like a line--thats the bottom of the plastic. all that keeps any fumes inside to be drawn off by the range hood.
charlie in sw mo

sorry cant send the picture--pic limited to 100 and the pic is 219

[Ken O]

I see some post that they are thinking of using thiner pots for Kenjudo's set up. I've posted this elseware, but this should help if you are thinking of doing so:
I used a stainless steel stock pot I got from the dollar store, I got a real good seal in the bottom valve, it would hold water without leaking. The problem I had was when the stainless heats up, the bottom would warp and move around quite a bit leaking a lot. What I did was cut two small pieces of conduit and weld them to the lift arm and the valve rod top. This made sort of like a universal joint for the valve. Now the bottom moves around and the rod always finds and makes the seal. Here is a pic:
http://my.core.com/~kenelz/smeltpot.JPG

[felix]

Folks, Sundog and I, plus children, have enough clean lead to last all of us for the rest of our lives. It is time to think about selling this gadget that will smelt 2000 pound easy. When a source of WW or other junk lead arrives in your neighborhood, even for a reasonable cash sale, this large mother will do justice in cleaning it up pronto. Here, pronto means one 8 hour day for 2000 pounds, provided there is enough BTU's around to melt the stuff in 4 hours or so. This thing is not for the faint of heart. ... felix (and Corky)

http://www.castpics.net/RandD/moas/moas.htm

[largecaliberman]

Nice setup!

[Jack Stanley]

Wow ! Those are all interesting ways of getting the job done . It looks like most of them are simpler than what I made up .
In addition to the normal sizes and shapes of lead that all of us come across . I came upon a couple of "ingots" of a rather interesting size . The mold that was used to make them was a steel five gallon bucket :roll: you know the fun that came after finding that .
Since I nedded a larger pot that the plumbers furnace I'd been renting from time to time . I went to the scrap yard and found a piece of steel pipe that would accept the dimensions of a five gallon pail . A friend at work welded a bottom and a couple of trunions onto it and made a cradle to hold it . We cut up a large water heater tank to use as a shield to keep the pot hot and my legs not . The burner came from the same water heater and was fed from a single stage regulator on a hundred pound propane cylinder .
After melting the "ingots" the rest of the stuff was rather easy . One time I filled the pot to within an inch or so of the lip and drew of the lead into ingot ( of a more managable size ) that was on a scale . If I remembar right , total weight that came out of that loading was about six hundred pounds ...... I still got ingots stacked everywhere .[smilie=1:

Jack

[redneckdan]

I need to come up with a bigger smelter, I got 1600lbs to do and I can only do like 15lbs at a time with my little pot.

[Lloyd Smale]

Id gladly do you the favor relieving you of the responsiblity of melting all those evil dirty wws. YOu know you can get lead poisoning doing that
I need to come up with a bigger smelter, I got 1600lbs to do and I can only do like 15lbs at a time with my little pot :).

[redneckdan]

Not wheel weights, soft scrap from .22 rimfire range, BHN of 5.715

[georgeld]

By golly I've been "Out Dun!!"

Some great looking set up's here.

Problem with mine was the flow was too much to fill the molds. Have to catch it in a ladle and pour them from there. But, the yeild is 1# ingots. For me these are much easier to feed the Lee ProPot IV with.
Only one melting before use needed.

I've acquired a couple large plastic milk baskets to stack them neatly in. Each one holds 728 1# ingots. Mighty handy under the bench.

I'd suggest from what was learned with mine. Anyone else making one with an outflow spout. Use a much smaller outlet than the half inch my pot has IF you intend to pour into the one pound molds. IF you're going to make big ingots like some of these guys, go for the flow. Just be mighty careful because all the weight is pushing it out very fast. It just sprays against the molds like high pressure water from mine, not a bit stays in it. But, again, my outlet tube is at an angle too.

I also lost a $12 drill bushing used for the bottom seat somehow. So far, that's the only problem or additional expense.

These are great to see for comparison.

George

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

Thanks for the pics, which makes my brain work. The working produces ideas, which in turn, I turn into reality with the supplies on hand.

Just didn't have the initial "kick in the head" to start it off. Using the Lee pots to clean up WW's is never going to be the same again, until something is built.

[Quality NUt]

After a year of "aging", those wheel weights behind the "shop" have finally been redeemed.... It also took me about that long to accumulate the materials to put the "smelter" together. (After seeing Felix and Sundog at work... Whew!) I did manage to get all melted, cleaned cooled and put away in 40 minutes. That was a drastic improvement to previous jobs. Best part is there is alot more room for further improvement.:mrgreen: Like a real "sieve ladle" for those clips, etc.
In the picture below are a home made "torch", (thing sounds like a hoovering jet when wide open) "ladle", 5 lb ingot mold (they slip into my Lyman melter just fine) and the "housing". The Pot is a rejected SS missile nose cone. It only holds ~ 10 gal WW (the 14 lb dipper is also SS missile nose cone) All in all, the only cash invested was for electricity to run the welder. (My financial manager frowns heavily when me spend MONEY):-D2039

[Goatlips]

I still use the basic Dutch Oven / Turkey Fryer burner, but add heat from the top with a propane weed burner. Here's my "Beginner's" site cleverly designed to rope more suckers into this casting madness:

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/smelting.html

No welding capabilities necessary, just a lot of garage sale muffin ingot molds (which fit my casting pots nicely).

Goatlips

[mattc]

Goatlips
I like your site it is informative
if you dont mind the sugestion you might stress the adding DRY wheel weights when smelting or mentioning what happens if you get water in the lead, I would hate to see someone drop some wet weights in and end up with 20 lbs of hot lead in their lap

[Taylor]

I really like this rig (Kenjudo's),can anyone tell me what the thing is to the left of the T is?And how it is used? Thanks. Also how do you sharpen/taper the end of the "plug",caution,am not a machinist.

[TAWILDCATT]

Folks, Sundog and I, plus children, have enough clean lead to last all of us for the rest of our lives. It is time to think about selling this gadget that will smelt 2000 pound easy. When a source of WW or other junk lead arrives in your neighborhood, even for a reasonable cash sale, this large mother will do justice in cleaning it up pronto. Here, pronto means one 8 hour day for 2000 pounds, provided there is enough BTU's around to melt the stuff in 4 hours or so. This thing is not for the faint of heart. ... felix (and Corky)

http://www.castpics.net/RandD/moas/moas.htm

my god that is an awsome pot.maybe you should go in business and go around the country collecting ww and melting and delivering to casters.
:castmine: ..........:coffee: ...........:drinks:

[Marine Sgt 2111]

gotta love this mass production processing

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome to the board, Marine Sergeant. Some of these smelting set-ups are monsters, and I'm in awe of the skill and ingenuity displayed by their makers and users.

[DJWright]

Man, and I thought mine could hold some lead. . . .

[remy3424]

I just purchased a smaller dutch oven last night from a "trailer sale" tool guy going though town to make my smelter out of. Someone else ask about making the "point" on the valve...Is that best left to a machinist??? I can't envision anything close to that coming off my bench grinder after several hours of work...I think that will get hired out. Looking for a few more ww, a makeshift ladle and then let the smelting being!!! This must be a twisted bunch, I don't know of anyone else with this sickness around here!! It sounds like a lot of hot and dirty work, but I can't wait to get started!!! Maybe it's the thought of transforming the useless ww into a valuable commodity, I am into recycling!!! Oh ya, cheap bullets does have an appeal to me.