Unknown Smelter

[jmaurer]

I've got this plumber's smelter that I picked up some time ago for a pittance. Unfortunately, I can't find any references for it, and I have no idea what sort of regulator or additional fitments I'd need to get it going. The base casting is marked "Weldit Inc." Does it appear to be set up for propane? Any ideas?

[uncle joe]

j
check the jet (small oriface in the gas line) should be up stream of some holes for air intake. If the hole in the jet is smaller than say a mechanical pencil lead .5mm then it should run on propane.
you could always hook it up to a fish cooker bottle and regulator to try it out, just be ready to turn off the gas. If it sounds like a jet plane you need a low pressure regulator. They will be easy to get at the local gas company.

[HeavyMetal]

This look to be a plumbers furnace and it is designed to melt a lot of lead in a hurry! I know I have one very similar to yours.

Mine operates on the on or off principle and is controlled through the valve on the bottle top (lp tank valve) and the valve at the base of the furnance. Yes this bad boy will sound like a jet engine but it will slag 90 pounds of lead in about 10 minutes! don't use any aluminum pots on this thing it will eat them alive and solder yourt feet together!

Get your self a good thermometer and us it for smelting / ingot making. You won't have the adjustment needed to ladle pour out of it the alloy will run way to hot!

That's the down side the upside is your ability to make custom alloys just got real good!

When you decide to mix Lino or foundry type with wheel weights and or pure lead you will need to get in the 875 to 900 degree range flux like all git out and then "throttle" down , while fluxing as much as possible , to about 750 degrees. getting this hot is required to make sure all elements in the alloy (specifically antimony) are completely alloyed with the lead and tin compounds.

This will also be good for converting buckets of wheel weights in more storable ingots for future blending! Just make sure you mark everything with a good grease pen or use a specific ingot mold design for WW, pure lead, and type metals.

This way you won't have to quote Kit Carson: I'm not lost just confused!

[Morgan Astorbilt]

I've got a large cast iron blow torch and a plumber's furnace which uses the same cast iron body and orfice. Both of them run straight off a propane tank without any regulator, and sound like jet engines. I can post photos tomorrow.
Morgan

[HTRN]

Check Tejas Smokers for cheap regs (http://www.tejassmokers.com/gasregulators.htm) - their 0-60PSI regulator with hose will run you $50


HTRN

[uncle joe]

htrn and heavy have the idea put together
the thing is probably made to run straight off an lp tank, but if you go to the gas company or local supply for such things you can get a high pressure regulator that you can control the heat with. Sounds like your off to cast mass qtys:mrgreen:

[jmaurer]

Thanks for the responses, folks. You've guessed right..I use a small Lee pot and an RCBS Promelt for casting for black powder firearms, and I'd really like to get this pot going for alloying. I haven't tried anything other than pure lead, and I've got roughly 200 pounds of wheel weights to smelt. Again, thanks!

[jmaurer]

Well, after finding the bits needed to get this beast going, I tentatively claim initial success, but I still have a couple of questions.

Here's the setup; a couple of pards at the office gave me the hose with valve and regulator (which mated up with the threads after I took off the the valve from the first set of photos) and an empty propane bottle, which I promptly exchanged.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01019web.jpg

After the weights were melted and skimmed (and I recovered from being mesmerized by watching the foul goo bubble, smoke, and burn on the top surface) I checked the temperature. The hottest I remember seeing was about 750 degrees F (more on that in a minute).
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01021web.jpghttp://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01023web.jpg

After just a few minutes, the ingots started to accumulate.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01022web.jpg

The ingot moulds used were an old Lee and a huge cast iron one that I found in a junk shop. From one of the posts here, I added a bit of motor oil as a flux and stirred vigorously to bring the crap to the top, and convert the oxides.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01024web.jpg

After roughly an hour, I had 60 pounds of rendered wheel weights. This also included the initial step of taking a sand blaster and cleaning up the pot and ladle. I was surprised at how quickly it went, and my concern and questions as mentioned above are:

Did I go too fast?

I seem to remember that the melting temperature of zinc is somewhere around 800 degrees F. I didn't really worry about contamination from zinc, because I thought I'd done a pretty thorough job of culling the trash from my weights. Then, when I examined the the pile of dross and clips, I found this:
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01025web.jpg

So my questions are: what is the likelihood that I've contaminated the mix, given that the max temp I know I reached is 750, but could have been higher as I poured the ingots? Is there visible evidence that molten zinc is present? Does it stick to the sides of the pot as one pours ingots?

Thanks!

Oh yeah....this thing does sound like a jet!

[DLCTEX]

Check them with a magnet, they may be iron. The zinc has to be a lot hotter to melt. If you skimmed the clips soon after melting you probably got any zinc out. If there is zinc in the ingots it will rise to the top when melted and most can be removed. If you bottom pour you will have to run hotter than normal to cast good boolits and you can dump the last bit to escape the zinc. If you ladle, you will have trouble with zinc clumping on top and messing up the boolits. This is from limited experience. DALE

[jmaurer]

Dale:

You were right. The two weights I removed from the top of the molten metal were iron/steel.

[TAWILDCATT]

any name cast in those ingot molds???

[jmaurer]

Wildcatt:

I'll take a closer look at them tomorrow to check, so you can be on the lookout for them. I remember some markings partially obscured by the dross, and I'll try to post a better picture.

[RP]

I like that ingot mold what is the weight on the ingots and if you got two will you sell one.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Well, after finding the bits needed to get this beast going, I tentatively claim initial success, but I still have a couple of questions.

Here's the setup; a couple of pards at the office gave me the hose with valve and regulator (which mated up with the threads after I took off the the valve from the first set of photos) and an empty propane bottle, which I promptly exchanged.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01019web.jpg

After the weights were melted and skimmed (and I recovered from being mesmerized by watching the foul goo bubble, smoke, and burn on the top surface) I checked the temperature. The hottest I remember seeing was about 750 degrees F (more on that in a minute).
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01021web.jpghttp://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01023web.jpg

After just a few minutes, the ingots started to accumulate.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01022web.jpg

The ingot moulds used were an old Lee and a huge cast iron one that I found in a junk shop. From one of the posts here, I added a bit of motor oil as a flux and stirred vigorously to bring the crap to the top, and convert the oxides.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01024web.jpg

After roughly an hour, I had 60 pounds of rendered wheel weights. This also included the initial step of taking a sand blaster and cleaning up the pot and ladle. I was surprised at how quickly it went, and my concern and questions as mentioned above are:

Did I go too fast?

I seem to remember that the melting temperature of zinc is somewhere around 800 degrees F. I didn't really worry about contamination from zinc, because I thought I'd done a pretty thorough job of culling the trash from my weights. Then, when I examined the the pile of dross and clips, I found this:
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/jjarcher/SmelterInAction/DSC01025web.jpg

So my questions are: what is the likelihood that I've contaminated the mix, given that the max temp I know I reached is 750, but could have been higher as I poured the ingots? Is there visible evidence that molten zinc is present? Does it stick to the sides of the pot as one pours ingots?

Thanks!

Oh yeah....this thing does sound like a jet!

I think you might want to experiment with running that furnace straight from the tank without a regulator, it might speed things up. Below is a photo of my plumber's furnace. It uses the same burner as the blow torch lying next to it. They both run straight off the propane tank with out a regulator, and sound like a LOUD jet engine. It'll melt 100lbs. of WW in a 1/2hr. At full throttle, it will easily heat it to a glowing red in broad daylght. Not a good thing to do, but a measure of the BTU's this type of burner puts out. Yours looks similar, and may be made for higher pressure. This is the photo I said I'd add in my original post, but haven't had the setup out 'till today.
Morgan
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa159/pgfaini/smelting1.jpg

[jmaurer]

Morgan:

Thanks for the photos and advice. Right now I only have access to the propane supply as pictured.

I guess the rate was about the same as you're getting; I probably spent a good half hour sandblasting the ladle and large ingot mold (which looks to be the same as yours!). Hopefully, after a move in the near future, I'll have a larger supply of fuel, and with practice, I hope to speed things up a little.

[montana_charlie]

Morgan has one of those ingot moulds, too!
CM

[shooter575]

I also have the same burner.Got it some 10 years ago tried it with a regulator and it did not work
worth a crap.So I forgot about it till someone else on this BB started a thread and I dug it out and
removed the regulator and it works like a champ.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/MVC-009F-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shooter575/MVC-010F-1.jpg

I got a deal on 2 tons of pure pb in huge 2"x 24" slabs so I made a large pot out of a old propane tank
just to save me a bunch of cutting.This burner will keep the pot melted up to 1/2 full [about 350 lb.]
But to speed things up I got one of the Harbor Freight weed burners to help out.
Did a buddys lead stash and had over 750 lb in ingots in less than 4 hr.
That big iron mold is a linotype mold. Cast 9 3lb ingots that fit into a Lee pot.I got two of them.Wish I
could find more

[wheelgunner]

Isn't running without a regulator dangerous? I thought the regulator also contained some sort of anti-reversion valve (I could be wrong). I found this adjustable regulator. Seems like most turkey fryers are 5 or 10 lb regulators. This one will adjust from 0 up to 30 lbs, makes a real hot flame that is is still adjustable.

http://www.turkey-fryers-online.com/7850-turkey-fryer-regulator.htm

Btw I ordered the huge burner they offer and several other parts. Service was excellent, had the parts in just a few days.

[Texasflyboy]

I like that ingot mold what is the weight on the ingots and if you got two will you sell one.

I have one of those ingot moulds also. I don't know for sure about these, but mine came from a Houston, Texas, print shop that closed in 1985. Those ingot moulds were all over the place then, and no one wanted them. The owner told me that they used them to cast ingots for linotype which were easier to stack and handle than the long bar linotype ingot moulds you normally see (they look like long bars about 2 feet long by 2" wide and thick).

My guess is that these moulds were common ingot moulds used in the printing industry to recycle linotype.

My ingot moulds casts an ingot that weighs in at about 3.5lbs. They stack really well and fit nicely into .30 caliber ammo cans, my preferred method of storing ingots.