My little casting pot.

[justingrosche]

Here are so pics of my casting pot. It holds an estimated 700# of liquid lead. I'm in a joint venture with another member here, processing 12K of jacketed range scrap. Before this we were using my smaller 250# pot.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/womf3g3f2tc1jc6/20140323_132429.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ym30aehfi0j0sdl/20140323_111715.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbddsdh5oub0zjo/20140323_111657.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lyqfzv03qjdtv3q/20140320_101631.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0v61bvgm85n634/20140323_110239.jpg

[Vinne]

The photos didn't upload right. Please redo.

[justingrosche]

Sorry about having to use links, it's the only way I could make it work.

[zidave]

Little my ****. That's awesome

[dikman]

That's a serious bit of gear you've got there! I'd guess that the propane bottle should last about an hour?[smilie=l:

[500MAG]

Looks like you can melt a car in that thing and pull out the scrap.

[MrWolf]

Dang that would melt a lot of lead. Puts my cutoff propane tank to shame. Nice setup!

[fivegunner]

Looks nice, It look`s like it would hold 1,000LB`s??:bigsmyl2::Fire:

[6bg6ga]

I love those burners. Great build

[slide]

Well Done!!!

[blikseme300]

Wow! What size ingots do you cast? Hopefully more than 1/2# as that would take a long time to empty the pot.[smilie=l:

[Jtarm]

I thought there weren't any smelters left in the U.S.?

Looks like a bathtub.

[justingrosche]

The material we are reclaiming is 100% jacketed indoor range scrap that is mixed with a large amount of shredded tire backstop. If we run the pot too hot you get a smokey EPA nightmare. But there is a sweet spot where we can rake the jackets back and forth to discharge what ever is caught up in the jacket cup and not be hot enough for the tire material to catch fire. If we could figure out a way to separate the tire shreds from the loose lead and jackets it would be a piece of cake.
The dual burners are 10" with adjustable 0-40 psi regulators. The pot itself is double walled with a layer of ceramic Kao Wool between the tub and cover.

[Tom_in_AZ]

Doubles as a moonshine still in the off season? Lol

[justingrosche]

Hmmm.... that's a pretty good idea, Tom.
CAST BOOLIT HOOCH FOR SALE!

[scaevola]

I like it but I doubt I'll emulate it.

[EDG]

You might look at gold trommels on Youtube.
Separating the metal from the rubber should be real easy since the specific gravity is so different.


The material we are reclaiming is 100% jacketed indoor range scrap that is mixed with a large amount of shredded tire backstop. If we run the pot too hot you get a smokey EPA nightmare. But there is a sweet spot where we can rake the jackets back and forth to discharge what ever is caught up in the jacket cup and not be hot enough for the tire material to catch fire. If we could figure out a way to separate the tire shreds from the loose lead and jackets it would be a piece of cake.
The dual burners are 10" with adjustable 0-40 psi regulators. The pot itself is double walled with a layer of ceramic Kao Wool between the tub and cover.

[fastfire]

Will the rubber float in water?

[justingrosche]

No it won't based on some trials we did. We have used a shaker screen with limited success. The fine particles of rubber still end up in the melt but its much better than the large chunks burning off.

[HITEK REDNEK]

Simply awesome, that is some of the best hillbilly ingenuity(not saying your a hillbilly, but I am & I couldn't have made a pot like that)I've seen. Great job.

[Silverboolit]

I read somewhere that rubber floats on a salt brine solution.

[Sweetpea]

Have you tried spreading it out and using a leaf blower to remove most of the rubber?

[Bad Water Bill]

And I bet it works great for your ANNUAL bathtub usage.:kidding:

[mold maker]

It would take a couple years to save enough lead to fill that pot.
That is what you call serious production equipment.
Congrats on a job well done.

[Lead Bandit]

Do you sell the copper jackets when done? I have over 1000 lbs of cleaned copper jackets and all the scrap yards by me are lowballing the hell out of me. They offer me scrap lead price when its almost 95% pure copper. If you figure out how to clean that rubber besides hand sorting you will be a millionaire. lol

[DeputyDog25]

Wow, I am so impressed! I am new to this hobby and that is just one awesome setup right there. I bet it eats propane like a monster, but I bet it can put out some ingots. Great Job!

[justingrosche]

Jackets are a tough sell. They have low balled us as well, but admittedly we have not been too cautious about what goes in the copper bin. There has been a lot of encapsulated lead in our mix. Scrappers don't want to pay copper prices for lead anymore than we want to get lead price for our copper.
There is just far too much material to nip or smash every encapsulated TMJ.

[swheeler]

Awsome! Some other members here had MOAS-mother of all smelters years ago. Think Sundog may be the owner

[Bad Water Bill]

iirc His smelter was big enough to smelt the keel of a BB.

He also had a great assistant.

I hope someone here has the skill to retrieve those pictures and re post them for posterity.

[swheeler]

Felix is missed and will be remembered!

[Bad Water Bill]

I remember those photos as if they were yesterday.

Happier times then.

Both looked like kids turned loose in a candy FACTORY.

I feel those photos should be kept as another part of Felix's legacy on this site.

With family permission of course.

[Bad Water Bill]

How much salt went into the 5 gal bucket to make the solution?

As big as that tub looks you might need a ton of salt to reach saturation level.

But it is still a great way of saving a now "precious metal".:bigsmyl2:

[shootinfox2]

Use salt water instead of fresh water!!!!

[Bad Water Bill]

05-27-2007, 12:46 PM

That was the date that the salt bath was last discussed.

Not sure how many of those members are still around OR if they still have any paperwork or memory on that mix.

Yes that is a large smelter but would you want to load it with SALT WATER.

Instant rusting could result and a replacement could be very expensive.

[justingrosche]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will not be using any floating techniques to remove the rubber. There is simply too much material to process. One member suggested using a shop vacuum with an adjustable snout to pick up the rubber, leaving the heavier, more dense lead on the table. I'll likely try that.