marking ingots

[corey012778]

I picked up an old postal pound scale at a theft shop like $3.50. I was wondering about making the ingots. I was going to use a sharpie but worried about it massing up the alloy.

should it be alright to make it with the sharpie?

[454PB]

Yup, I do it all the time.

[Ken]

I scratch a W in my wheelweight ingots

[pumpguy]

Buy a stamp set from Harbor Freight. Less than ten bucks. WW for wheel weights PL for pure lead. Sharpies fade.

[Scrounger]

The ink burns off when you melt the lead.

[jleneave]

I started out using a sharpie and it works just fine, but then again they have been marked for only about 2 months. I have noticed that the sharpie has faded just a little so I got a letter and number set of steel stamps and have been using them to mark the weight on my ingots. The stamps work really well but does take a little longer than just writing it on with a sharpie.

[AR15-SBR]

Stamp set here. WW for wheelweights, PURE for....well you get it. If I alloy Tin into the ingots WWT.

AR15-SBR

[Gussy]

Stamp set. At some point you will mix up ingots and the sharpy will not be readable.

[Blammer]

sharpie for me

[Cherokee]

Been using sharpie for 20+ years. Have tin & lino marked ingots from back then that are still clearly readable. Stamps work too, just takes longer to mark & harder to read from a distance. Make sure you remember your stamped codes - Bro gave me a bunch of ingots with "N" stamp but he can't remember what than means.

[EMC45]

i sharpied a coupleingots and they faded almost instantly! I would go with a Stamp.

[376Steyr]

I stamp mine, but then I also store them outside. I use use a letter plus a number code (W1,L2, X5,ect.) write down the information on 3x5 cards (in pencil) and thumbtack the cards up in my casting area. I figure I'm good for twenty years or the next move, whichever comes first.
X lots are for the odd scraps that I don't recognize.

[cbrick]

Often thought about using stamps but I have always used a Marks-A-Lot permanent marker. Some several years old and they may be a bit lighter but still easily read. CWW for clip-on weights and SWW for stick-on weights.

Perhaps if fading is a problem they were in direct sun light, the sun would/could fade the ink.

[Kraschenbirn]

Sharpie here. I use an old SAECO 4-holer and write the alloy on one end of the ingot and its weight on the other.

Bill

[tomf52]

Electric engraving pen. W-wheelweights, R-range scrap, L-pure lead etc. Writes as quickly as Sharpie.

[looseprojectile]

Never had any use for one. Have had one for years. Always wondered what it was good for. Have seen dozens of guns and lots of other stuff ruined by them.
Engraving pens cause crime?
Now I have a use for it. Alwas have used a felt tip marker.
Thanks.
Life is good

[FISH4BUGS]

Just a WW for wheel weights, L for linotype and U for unknown. I cast with 5lbs ww to 1 lb linotype for everything. Has worked for years with no fading. I also store all my ingots in 5 gal buckets with snap on lids. I buy them new for $1 each from Moe's Subs. They have their pickles shipped in them.
They still smell like pickles three years later!

[joatmon]

Cherokee, thats not N it's Z for Zink! I'll be happy to despose of that crap for ya!
Just PM me with where to pick it up.:mrgreen:

[corey012778]

well, what a mix of whys of making. right now I got ww ingots in one bucket and my range scrap ingots in another bucket.

[jschance]

I've used different ingot shapes, sharpies, different storage locations, all to various degrees of success. I like the stamp idea, and since I've got a set, I'll have to start using them.

[montana_charlie]

I you are going to use a 'code' for marking ingots, the you have to remember the code...or write it down.

For actually marking the ingot, you don't really need letter and number stamps unless your system is so complicated that you need lots of different markings.
Let's say that you only have five different kinds of ingot to keep track of...and you use a Lyman ingot mould.

A quarter-inch steel rod can be used as a punch to flatten the 'L' in Lyman...indicating one kind of ingot. A flattened 'Y' indicates another type. There are three more letters to flatten.
If you need a few more 'marks', you could deface the 'L' and the 'Y' on a certain kind of ingot.

If your ingots are smooth. the round punch can be used in different 'patterns' to identify different alloys...like single 'dot', two dots touching, cloverleaf, four leaf clover, three dots in a straight line...get the picture?
CM

[Typecaster]

I used to use the stamps—W, PB, L—and taped the P&B together to make it easier. One tap, 2 letters.

Now I am storing materials in ammo cans, marked with a laminated luggage tag that's attached to the end handle with a cable tie. At least one ingot in each can is marked with the alloy description and smelting date, and I don't mix batches in a can. So I have cans clearly marked Pb (foundry pure), SOFT LEAD, LINO, WW, WW+2% Sb, STICK-ONS, and a couple that are an amalgamation of odds and ends that I tossed in the big pot together. If a batch doesn't cast well, I know exactly which ingots were smelted at the same time.

I separate "foundry lead" from misc. soft lead—foundry lead being 5-lb pigs that are cast at the foundry, not pipe or sheet. I use those ingots as a standard for comparative hardness testing with a 1-in. ball bearing in a vise.

The main reason I switched to ammo cans is that when I need ballast in the truck—like to pull out a stump—I can load it up with as much weight as I want, and unload it a lot easier than getting a load of gravel like I used to. Not to mention that a scoop of gravel is getting to be pretty close to $20 in Southern Kalifornia...

[mazo kid]

Sometimes stamp 'em, but lately just scratch the info on the ingots. You can take a short dowel, drill a hole in the end (parallel to dowel length) and pound a nail in the hole. Cut off the head, sharpen the end and use as a pencil. That way I keep track of WW, PB, 1:20, 1:30, etc. You could also just use a scribe. Emery

[fishhawk]

what? you don't like the way i marked your ingots WW and the weight of each one Em? boy see if i do that for you again........

[jleneave]

I picked up an old postal pound scale at a theft shop like $3.50. I was wondering about making the ingots. I was going to use a sharpie but worried about it massing up the alloy.

should it be alright to make it with the sharpie?


You better watch buying stuff from those "theft shops" or the police will be knocking at your door.

Sorry, I tried to resist this for as long as I could and it finally got the best of me. Sorry!!

[corey012778]

You better watch buying stuff from those "theft shops" or the police will be knocking at your door.

Sorry, I tried to resist this for as long as I could and it finally got the best of me. Sorry!!
it's ok, I did not realize that until you said something. bad speller, late at nite, not a good combo [smilie=1:

[jleneave]

it's ok, I did not realize that until you said something. bad speller, late at nite, not a good combo [smilie=1:

I just thought it was kind of funny. I wasn't making fun of your spelling. I live in a glass house too so, I wasn't throwing stones. My spelling is not the best. Take care.

[azcoyhunter]

I just use some Muffin Pans stole from wife.

I mix all my alloy the same, whatever I can find I try to mix it up evenely.

WW, Mystery lead, Range Scrap, whatever.

It all comes out to be "Clint's Alloy # 17"

Since I do not shoot Black Powder, I mix all my alloy to be about the same.

Just my 2 Cents worth.

Clint

[joatmon]

I have letter stamps now but at first I used a small cheisel and the roman numerals,
then batch numbered them. Batch # IV might be logged in the book as 1 part pure lead
and 2 parts WW and so on.

[Three44s]

Confirmed stamper here.

Three 44s

[corey012778]

I just thought it was kind of funny. I wasn't making fun of your spelling. I live in a glass house too so, I wasn't throwing stones. My spelling is not the best. Take care.

I poke fun of my own spelling at times. I was not trying to sound rude. I have this saying

spelling is like life "chit happens"

it is all good.

btw, I wighted and marked all my ingots. 116.9 lbs of ww lead. I need more [smilie=1: