What inexpensive ingot molds are there?

[bigarm]

I called a local tire shop today and he said they probably have about two 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights that I can buy, hopefully reasonably. I want to melt and flux them and form ingots. What is something inexpensive that I can use to get started? I have heard muffin pans, but is there a special type? Other suggestions? I am on a limited budget, especially until retirement check comes at the end of the month.

[canyon-ghost]

Angle iron or channel iron molds are around some. A small cast iron skillet is another.

[edctexas]

Look for muffin pans in the "Dollar Tree" if you have those stores. They had some nice small size muffin making pans for $1. They ingots come out about 1 lb+.
I got some bigger pans and those throw about 2lb +. But I had to cut the pan in half because it was too large.

Ed C

[454PB]

Believe it or not, empty and DRY aluminum beverage cans work great.......but you have to cut the top off, and they are only good for one use because you have to peel them off the cooled ingots.

[Beagle333]

You can get any variety of shaped cast iron muffin pans. The cornbread "cob shaped" pans work great. Check yard sales, thrift stores, and even fleabay for cheap ones.
For smaller ingots, I use the stainless steel condiment cups from Wal Mart. 4/$1 there.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt214/shutupandjump/cast%20boolits/Mikes006_zps36d36ff3.jpg

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you want rectangle ingots that are easy to stack...can't beat the Lee.
http://www.amazon.com/Lee-LP90029-Precision-Ingot-Mold/dp/B000N8JVM2

[Le Loup Solitaire]

The cheapest commercially made ingot mold is made by LEE. Complete with handle. Made of aluminum. The two middle cavities are 1/2 pounders. Beverage cans can be used, but if the whole can without the top is used you get a finished ingot (cylinder) that weighs about 10 pounds and is a bit big to handle and melt.Cutting the empty can down remedies that. Cast iron bakeware/muffin pans/corncob pans or breadstick pans work well if you can find/latch on to one for a reasonable price. Dollar stores, yard/garage sales etc/ are the place to look. The sets of condiment cups sold by Walmart are stainless steel and a set of four costs around 90 cents or a buck. They work very well; all you need is a pair of pliers to turn them over when hardened. 2 or 3 sets will make you ingots day and night. If you weld or know a welder, you can make/have made an ingot mold out of several pieces of angle iron...not a big job, but it works well. LLS

[gwpercle]

The muffin pans you want are made by Wilton, they are stamped out of one piece of plain aluminum, no coatings. Aluminum doesn't stick or rust. Three basic sizes Jumbo, regular and mini.
I have been using a mini-muffin pan for years. They can be found on Amazon or in the cake baking section in stores. You will not find them with the regular baking pans in the regular baking section of the store...they live in the special cake baking section. They are cheap. My old pan had 12 mini muffin spots, they came out with a 24 count mini pan and I got one for a back up. I think I like the 12 count better, easier to pick up... the 24 is just too much of a good think.
The regular and jumbo pans cast bigger ones if you want size.
A company also makes a stainless steel muffin pan , saw it on Amazon , that might work also.
Gary

[richhodg66]

If you use an old muffin tin, make sure to get ones that are stamped out of one piece. Some are made with the cups stamped or soldered in and can't take the heat of molten lead without breaking loose.
I have a
stamped aluminum one I have been using for years now. Works fine.

[OptimusPanda]

Bought a muffin tin from a thrift shop once and wasn't paying attention (thought it was aluminum when I realized it wasn't I went ahead anyway). They must have been steel plated with something. When I went to get the solidified ingots out they wouldn't come out without a hammer and chisel. Later picked up some one piece stamped aluminum muffin pans and have never had the problem since.

[Artful]

If you use an old muffin tin, make sure to get ones that are stamped out of one piece. Some are made with the cups stamped or soldered in and can't take the heat of molten lead without breaking loose.
I have a stamped aluminum one I have been using for years now. Works fine.

+1 - you have to pay attention

[bangerjim]

If you want good professional-looking ingots either buy the 1# Lee or Lyman molds or make you own out of angle iron. They stack perfect. Round muffins, not so much! There are some rectangular CI muffin pans out there, but they cost as much as the others new. And finding them used it a "hunt & wait" situation.

But do what your wallet dictates. You will not be sorry with pro ingot molds. I have 6 of them and have melted all my kitchen muffin rounds back into ingots using those.

bangerjim

[zxcvbob]

These make really nice ingots; they stack tightly in a 5 gallon bucket and they are easy to add to a lead pot without burning your fingers: http://www.walmart.com/ip/King-Kooker-Seasoned-Cast-Iron-Cob-Shaped-Corn-Bread-Pan/23155724

Unfortunately the price has more than doubled in the past 2 weeks (they were about $9) You can still get Lodge brand for about $13.

[dragon813gt]

Wilton brand mini loaf pan. It's one piece so you don't have to worry about the cups falling out. They make a nice 3.5# ingot when filled to manageable level. Fill them less for smaller ingots. Each pan makes eight ingots at a time. All four sides are angled. So if you stack them one up, one down they lock into place perfectly. I don't have the time to deal w/ one pound ingots. Cast iron molds also get heat soaked easily. Aluminium pans cool rapidly so you can keep moving.

[JSnover]

I have both a Lyman and a Lee mold. They cost a few dollars more than the alternatives but that doesn't make them expensive. They work great, the ingots stack very well and the Half pound section of the Lee is good for my tin/Babbitt ingots.

[gwpercle]

Was in wally-world, special cake baking section, and saw those Wilton, 1-piece aluminum mini-loaf pans. Looks to be just the ticket for an ingot mould that's larger than a mini-muffin size. Rectangular size will be just right for stacking. Not expensive either.
Gary

[Petrol & Powder]

Believe it or not, empty and DRY aluminum beverage cans work great.......but you have to cut the top off, and they are only good for one use because you have to peel them off the cooled ingots.

Exactly what I do. If you consider the cost of the adult beverage to be an incidental, reoccurring cost......they're free!

[Dan Cash]

A stainless steel mud pan used by dry wall people is an excellent mould. It fits the home caster pots; govern the volume by how full you fill it. cost about $11. where I am at.

[dragon813gt]

This is what you end up w/ a Wilton mini loaf pan.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg.html)

This is what you get when you stack them all the same way. They are fairly sturdy but I would not try it outside of a container.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/16F61808-85F4-4324-B649-6A50ECBF3BE3-14876-00000BB065D98F5E.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/16F61808-85F4-4324-B649-6A50ECBF3BE3-14876-00000BB065D98F5E.jpg.html)

This is what you get when you stack one up, one down. They interlock and you could store them w/out a container w/ no worry of them falling over.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/81F9C314-73FD-45FD-8FAB-D3A58BD34ECE.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/81F9C314-73FD-45FD-8FAB-D3A58BD34ECE.jpg.html)

It's hard to tell from the pic but that is around 800#. I think it's six rows high and there is still a lot of room in that foot locker.

[mold maker]

Believe it or not, empty and DRY aluminum beverage cans work great.......but you have to cut the top off, and they are only good for one use because you have to peel them off the cooled ingots.
Yep, but you can sell the aluminum as scrap after your done. That's money back for using free ingot mould.

[Wayne Smith]

Condiment cups from Walmart. Stainless steel and cheap.

[mdi]

Jes' a thought fer when yer pourin' ingots; you don't have to fill them up. I use several different types of ingot "molds" including a couple 3x5 mini- bread/loaf pans and a 4x4x8 bread pan. For a pot full of a good alloy I'll put about 12-15 lbs in one of the larger pans (about 1/2 full), which will pretty much fill my casting pot and fits well...

[Jackpine]

Another vote for the lee molds. I started using muffin tins, but like the Lee much better for several reasons. The shape of the Lee make for very efficient use of space when storing them in small boxes. I cast keeping the pot nearly full and add the Lee ingots on a regular basis to keep it full. Very little time to bring pot back to desired operating temp. When pouring ingots, I have a small brownie pan and I put a folded towel in it, very saturated with water. I have two molds and put them on the towels. This makes for almost no wait time between pouring and dumping the molds.

Jackpine

[bigarm]

I cast ingots for 2 days and used 3 different things for molds, mini muffin pans, mini loaf pans and condiment cups from Amazon. For me, the condiment cups worked best. The ingots from them looked the best and came out of the mold the easiest. I am sure that a "real" ingot mold would probably be better and I will someday get one, but this worked for now. The mini muffin pans worked okay, but seemed to leave bubbles on the bottom. The mini loaf pans were okay, but were harder to get out and not as easy to mold with, I think because they were larger and harder for me to judge when to flip them and also it took more than 1 ladle full.

[GLL]

Find a talented welder !
I have twelve of these 5 pounder molds for my Pro-Melt and Magma 40 pound pots.

The light coating of rust is the perfect mold release ! :)

http://www.fototime.com/FAFCDABCB7A382A/orig.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/5A6777B8FA7EE62/orig.jpg

Jerry

[bigarm]

Wish I knew a welder!

[CGT80]

I love these molds. It was just some scrap channel aluminum and angle that I had laying around. I cut the parts out and TIG welded them together. The bars stack very nicely and weigh around 2.5 lbs each.

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Shooting%20Reloading%20and%20Boolit%20Casting/IMG_20140202_144728_011.jpg

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Shooting%20Reloading%20and%20Boolit%20Casting/IMG_20140202_144827_380.jpg

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Shooting%20Reloading%20and%20Boolit%20Casting/IMG_20140202_171212_283.jpg

Do you have any community colleges around that have a welding program? If you have any metal fabrication shops around, you might be able to get them to use up some scrap and make some for you. It all depends on what kind of deal a person would give you.

[Whiterabbit]

Angle iron with two caps welded on the end:

It is cheaper than C-channel, found in more scrap and cutoff bins, and can be stick welded, which more of us have than a TIG!

Plus, your ingots fit niely in a 10 lb LEE pot, and the whole shebang fits REALLY nicely in 3 gallon home depot buckets:

http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/fss/a9ecac4c299f05f6b1a1dd9d214b0f35