I may have lucked out!

[BD]

My daughter's boyfriend has a business doing building clean outs. He knows I cast so when he came up with this he called and asked if I'd want "a big lump of lead in an old pot". Of course I said, "sure!", thinking it would likely be an old iron plumber's pot or something that I could heat in a fire to recover the lead, but as soon as I saw it I knew it was a casting pot. Once I'd scraped some of the frozen mud and rust off, I could
read "Magma" under the temp control I think it's an old 90 lb cast master. There are wire ends hanging out, but I can't see anything that indicates 110V or 220V? Anyone familiar with these? Any advice on recovering the lead without wrecking the pot? Is the pot worth saving? Any thoughts on unforeseen risks in wiring it up to try and get the lead melted out?

123811

[Yodogsandman]

You did luck out! Nice project for the winter.

[engineer401]

Call Magma Engineering and ask them about it. 480.987.9008

[zuke]

Maybe he ain't so bad after all?

[jsizemore]

I'd use a multimeter and check for continuity through the thermostat and heater. Check that it doesn't read continuity from either hot/neutral prong on the plug and the heater case or lead in the pot. Plug that rascal in and after it melts, ladle the lead out to a manageable level, unplug and dump the rest in a container. I'd pull the cover, check condition and access it's future.

[Catshooter]

If there is nothing that indicates voltage, start with 120. If it just barely warms up then you know to go to 240.

Of course I would do that after I made sure that there isn't any continuity between the elements and anything else.

I wish you lived close by BD, I'd be happy to help you with it. Nice score.


Cat

[1johnlb]

Looks like it had caught on fire. Hard to tell from the picture but is that 2 exposed wires. 2 wire is 120.

[Sasquatch-1]

A hand held propane torch and a lot of patience will get the lead out. Set the pot on an elevated platform so the lead can drain into a metal cake pan or the like. Apply heat directly to the lead. After the lead is out take the pot apart and have a look at the innards.

[BD]

The continuity check before hooking up the juice sounds like a good idea. There are 4 wires hanging out of the bottom of the front panel. All have identical high heat woven insulation. Up close it looks more like it sat outside for a long time, more than having been in a fire. It had a good bit of frozen compacted soil on the bottom with the kind of thick scaly rust steel gets from being buried. Like someone set it outside and over time it sank into the earth. I have it in the shop drying out for now. I'll let you all know how things progress.

[skeettx]

Check this out

240 Volt, 12.5 Amps, 3000 Watts

http://www.magmaengineering.com/PDF/cast_master_instructions.pdf

http://www.magmaengineering.com/images/drawings/cmpot.gif

http://www.magmaengineering.com/products/cast-master/

[Catshooter]

Looks like it had caught on fire. Hard to tell from the picture but is that 2 exposed wires. 2 wire is 120.

I'm sorry but that is not the case. You can utilize 120 or 240 with two wires just the same. You can also do 277 or 480 with two. Just no three phase.


Cat

[1johnlb]

I'm sorry but that is not the case. You can utilize 120 or 240 with two wires just the same. You can also do 277 or 480 with two. Just no three phase.

Yes, you can utilize 120/240 on 2 wires, but it's not industry standard to only use 2 wires on a 240v circuit/electrical appliance.

The 240v wire has a third wire, ground. No it doesn't need that ground to work but it has been incorperated on all modern equipment.
120v has 1 hot wire and 1 common wire may or may not have a third,case ground. Thus if there's only 2 wires it's highly probable, it's 120v.
240v has 2 hot wires alternating between each other, with a case ground. Case ground being the 3rd wire.
277/480 IS 3 phase. 277 is 1 leg of 3phase using a common/ground. 480 is the measured voltage across 2 of the legs of the 3phase leads. All volt meters have only 2 leads giving you only the ability to measure 2 legs, thus 480v 3phase.
And yes you can do all kinds of different voltages with 2 wires by just using regulators and amplifiers if you really want to get technical, but this is just a little backyard lead melter.

[Catshooter]

john,

You're absolutely right, I hadn't thought of the fact that 120 volt is quite common to be double insulated, thus no ground. But I've not seen that done in 240 and I don't know if the NEC permits that or not.


Cat

[BD]

125576125577125579125580
I may have really lucked out as it looks like I have 90 lb of lead and a repairable Magna 90 lb pot :)
I set the wreck next to the wood stove in my shop for a couple of weekends of warmth. After Christmas I had a little time so I scraped and dug and got the front panel off exposing the wiring. The control is just a blob of rust, but the wires to the elements looked good so I pulled them out and tested for continuity across the elements, (good), and continuity between the element leads and the housing, (milliamps, so I'm thinking OK considering the dampness). I temp wired it up @ 220V, threw the breaker, (which didn't pop, another good sign) and it heated! It was smoking and steaming a good bit so I through a hood over it and left it to melt. At the end of an hour I had 90 lb of kinda dirty lead in ingots, and a cruddy, but empty pot.

Now for the mystery: There was some real junk in this melt. A piece of flat steel, 1" x 4" by about 18 gauge, which floated, and some broken bits of what appears to be metal that is heavier than lead. The heavy stuff was on the bottom of the pot, and stirring did not raise it. I set a fragment back on the top of the melt and it sank like a rock. It looked like something that was once about 1' x 4" x 1/8" broken into bits about 3/4" at the largest. I believe it may have mirrored the flat steel if it were intact. What would be shaped like a small piece of flat stock, be metallic and brittle, and be heavier than lead?

[BD]

125582125583There were actually six leads, (two each for the three elements), and a ground wire. I didn't find any evidence of the 90 lb pot being made in 120V, so I wired it 220V. Seemed to work. The valve is frozen, but it seeped a bit during the melt. I'm thinking I'll pick it apart and soak it in kroil and go from there.

[mattw]

Sounds like a good project for a pid controller. No need to rebuild the factory thermostat!

[arclight]

I rebuilt a Master Caster, and the heating elements were two standard cartridge heaters from McMaster-Carr. With two, I think it was possible to wire them in parallel for 120V or series for 220V. Since yours has 3, I'm going to guess 220V was the way to go.

On the thermostat, I also concur - there are lots of choices for nice digital thermostats. Just clean up the pot and hit it with some Black BBQ paint. You could also try using electrolytic de-rusting on it. This did a fantastic job of cleaning up my Masuer 71/84.

Arclight

[arclight]

With regards to the heavy mystery metal, I'm going to guess Tungsten Carbide cutting tool. Otherwise, Gold or Depleted Uranium. :)

Does it scratch steel?

Arclight

[Catshooter]

Looks like you scored man.

I'd guess tungsten carbide also.


Cat

[4719dave]

well done ......