Safety reminder: Don't use aluminum anything to melt your lead.

[Ole]

I was trying to make homemade charcoal today out of some free mesquite wood that I had come into a couple weeks ago.

I did this to an old aluminum stock pot with a Weber smokey joe gold (18") stoked with nothing but wood and coals:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh280/Ole1830/IMG_6032_zpse23d8695.jpg (http://s258.photobucket.com/user/Ole1830/media/IMG_6032_zpse23d8695.jpg.html)

I was able to save most of the charcoal inside and it came out pretty well. :mrgreen: If you can melt a piece of aluminum with a wood fire, I don't want to have anything to do with using it to melt lead.

Take care. :drinks:

[62chevy]

At least you didn't have any lead in there and you saved most of the charcoal, nice !!!

[Beagle333]

Great example. People can just imagine what woulda happened if that had been full of melted lead. :shock:

[btroj]

Yet every year someone comes along and wants to know if it is safe........

[MOcaster]

I've done that annealing brass for swaging. Twice. :oops: You would think I would have learned from the first time to check that the post was steel.

[dbosman]

That picture should be a sticky.

[Springfield]

Not really the same thing. The wood/charcoal doesn't absorb any of the heat, thus the pot melts. Not saying it is safe, I use steel pots now. But I used an aluminum pot for a few years smelting and it worked fine. Supposedly you can boil water in a paper bag, doesn't mean it is the best way to go. I'd be more impressed with a pic of an aluminum pot that gave way full of lead, at least we would be comparing apples with apples.

[wrench man]

We melted an aluminum griddle over a camp fire once!, ruined the pancakes!!
I've personally boiled water in a Styrofoam coffee cup in the campfire, wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it!?

[seaboltm]

Supposedly you can boil water in a paper bag, doesn't mean it is the best way to go.

Paper burns at 450F, water boils at 212F, so it can be done assuming the water doesnt flow out of the paper bag. I have never done it with paper, but I have boiled water in plastic bottles. Same principle: the melting point of the plastic is much higher than 212F.

[bangerjim]

You reached extremely high temps in there due to it being totally dry....nothing to distribute the heat load......like water or lead. With lead in there, the temps would have not gone as high.

But.....NEVER melt lead in Al cookware or anything Al like that. Al will not support it own weight when very hot, let alone full of lead!!!!!!!

Those pots are OK to make soup in or boil your socks(!), but NEVER where temps can reach 900 degrees or more. You probably topped out at well over 1,000. Al is liquid at 1,220, but looses most of it's strength well below that.

Heat distribution is one of the secret of microwave plastic bags and trays. And anything with water in/around it will never get but maybe a degree or two above 212F.......unless it is under presssure. Then you get into the superheat realms of the water/steam tables.

bangerjim

[243winxb]

Now I got to get rid of my al pot I been using for 40+years?

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Yet every year someone comes along and wants to know if it is safe........
Sounds like your criticizing them for being smart enough to ask. :shock:

[bangerjim]

Sounds like your criticizing them for being smart enough to ask. :shock:

I would call it criticizing for not searching and READING up on the subject on here and the net.

The new search engine on here work many times better than the old one.

banger

[Ironduke]

Aluminum burns. this is the chief reason you cannot reload the blazer aluminum cases. Without some water in the pan to absorb some heat, the aluminum will burn.

[nagantguy]

Thanks fer Sharing this not only is it a good reminder for safeties sake but its good that you shared your mistake and I like to hear that I'm not the only one who makes charcoal in his spare time

[seaboltm]

Aluminum burns. this is the chief reason you cannot reload the blazer aluminum cases. Without some water in the pan to absorb some heat, the aluminum will burn.

Steel burns. Everything burns if you get it hot enough. I would bet someone has reloaded aluminum cases, if for no reason just to prove it can be done.

[jonk]

For a few years when I felt the need to add 50/50 solder to the mix (I don't bother anymore, just shoot straight WW), I would buy a spool of it (well, make that a few spools) and peel it off and melt it... in an aluminum pot. I got lucky. Didn't know at the time it could be an issue. Never was for me.

Said pot has since been retired from lead melting. My pop, who does a lot of powder horns, uses it to boil horns in to soften them. Sometimes if I'm hard up for a container I use it to sort brass (junk goes in the aluminum one, then poured into the scrap bucket). But no more lead.

However, not all aluminum is created equal. Aluminum bullet molds hold up just fine. I suspect that it's the grade and the amount of refining. While a bullet mold or ingot mold is made from a solid piece of high grade aluminum, a pot is usually just a stamping or possibly injection molded. Of whatever scrap aluminum they had on hand. Melted and formed. I suspect that if you had a pot made of the same aircraft grade aluminum used for molds, of a good 1/2" thickness or more, it would be just fine.

[dtknowles]

Aluminum burns. this is the chief reason you cannot reload the blazer aluminum cases. Without some water in the pan to absorb some heat, the aluminum will burn.

I don't think we have to worry about aluminum catching fire in a propane or wood fire. You can reload Blazer aluminum cases and they won't catch fire either but they will split on second reload.

Tim

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I would call it criticizing for not searching and READING up on the subject on here and the net.

banger

Well that would apply to about 80% of all threads wouldn't it? It'd be pretty slow around here if we only allowed original material.