Sheet metal for a melting pot..

[Salmon-boy]

Ok, I've been inspired by Blikseme300 and bought a couple of heater bands.. Now, I can sympathize with him on finding the correct size tubing!!

I was thinking of having some sheet metal rolled into cylinders.. The question is how thick should I go? I was thinking 10 ga, but would that be good enough for 70 to 80 lbs of lead?

[Mal Paso]

10 ga should be fine. I just had some 12ga rolled for a chimney cap and that was heavy metal.

[country gent]

10 gage should be around .110 thk so with solid welds and joints it should be plenty strong. A good overlapping joint weld inside and out a solidly fit base plate welded inside and out. A base could be domed with a ball and ring in a press. A ring of the hieght of the dome you want and a ball under the ram and push down will form a very nice dome for the base inset inside body and weld inside and out, leave the ring of the body to provide a solid surface to set it on.

[afish4570]

10 gage should be around .110 thk so with solid welds and joints it should be plenty strong. A good overlapping joint weld inside and out a solidly fit base plate welded inside and out. A base could be domed with a ball and ring in a press. A ring of the height of the dome you want and a ball under the ram and push down will form a very nice dome for the base inset inside body and weld inside and out, leave the ring of the body to provide a solid surface to set it on.

Using an expired and mt, mt, like EMPTY, 20#propane tank or empty refrigerant gas tank. Search the history and see how easy it is to cut one in half or a third depending what size you need. About 150# of lead fits in one when cut 3 or 4" above the mid seam weld mark. Takes 10 min. or so with a high speed 4" grinder, Makita, Harbor Freight ($10 with coupon) and uses less than half a cutting wheel. Follow the safety instructions in the previous articles and it is well worth the time and savings.......afish4570[smilie=6:[smilie=6:

[imashooter2]

10 gauge properly welded would be good for a pot capable of several hundred pounds.

[Salmon-boy]

Looking at the last propane tank I cut, I was thinking 10 ga would be a good thickness.

Thanks guys, I've got a couple of heat-bands which will need either custom tube or structural tubing (which I can't find). These will be used for casting boolits.

I will be building a wood/propane fired melter out of a propane tank to deal with the larger quantities..