Any wood fire boolit casters out there?

[boise outlaw]

I have a charcoal grill we burn wood in (pine mostly) and have been melting some big linotype ingots down into muffin tin size, but for the life of me I cannot get a hot enough temp to drop boolits with. I am forced to preheat with wood til I reach melting point and then switch over to a coleman white gas stove to achieve a higher temp, from there they pour perfectly and i can control the heat real well.

Wondering if there are any tricks for achieving a higher and controllable temp out of the wood fire? The 750-800 degree mark seems to be ideal for my moulds.

[bob208]

I started with a wood fire to cast with. I think your problem is your fire is not concentrated. I used a small potbelly stove with the lead pot in the stove not on the stove.

now for charcoal you would need a forge set up. if you can blacksmith with charcoal then you can melt and pour lead.

[Victor N TN]

To add to the above post.

Can you hook up a bellows to your grill? I think that's what he was leading up to.

[HB0708]

I've got a buddy that made a forge out of an old brake drum. He just uses an old hair dryer to get enough oxygen to the fire. We've forged knives in his setup so surely it's hot enough for lead. He uses black pipe to get the air where he needs it without melting his hair dryer, I'd imagine you could do the same. Just get one at a thrift store and not from your wife's stuff...

[bedbugbilly]

I haven't in a number of years but I used to do it often when primitive camping. Pine is fine to get a fire going especially if it is a little "sappy" but your really need to have a good bed of coals. I usually used red oak, white ash, etc. because that is what is/was prevalent in my area. Get a good bed of coals, place your pot in it and bank the coals around it and you shouldn't have a problem - keep your fire going and keep adding good hot coals. I will add that the only thing I cast this way was pure lead in a "bag mold". I also had a folding ladle in which I could place a small ingot of lead that I had cast up in a mini muffin like tin - they weren't huge but enough for a half dozen pours in the bag mold that was a .350 mold. In between pours, I laid the ladle back in the coals and when nearly done with the lead, added another ingot, let it melt and keep going. A slow process but pretty much the way it was done by our ancestors when on the trail.

By the time you put together a forge like arrangement - if you have to buy the parts, etc. - you might just as well buy a single cast iron propane hot plate. I have used one for 50 years and just keep a 20 lb propane tank. But, if you like fooling around and building things, you could put together a small forge like arrangement and that should keep you in business. If you want a good hot fire, buy a bag of coal if you can find someone who has any. It will be smoky and messy but you'll have a good hot fire that once you get it going, won't need a lot of tending.

[Blackwater]

Yes, it can be done, but fires vary greatly in their temp and BTU's delivered, according to the fuel and the amount of O2 you can get to it. The hair dryer is good, and you may want to use a 2" or whatever dia. metal pipe fits your dryer's nozzle to keep the usually plastic dryer from melting by getting it too close to the fire. Many people can't even build a decent fire in their fireplace! It's an acquired talent, really, and the kind of fire you make depends on what you feed it and how you manage it. Most people don't use enough small stuff or kindling to get it going really good. What you have to do is get all the wood burning simultaneously. The more wood burning, the higher the temp will be. Make sense? You do that by using a good bit of kindling or small stuff to get a good bed of coals to keep it all burning consistently. Try that and see if it doesn't help.

Also, you can dig an appropriately sized fire pit in your back yard in some apt location, and lay in some metal pipe angling and coming out at the bottom of it, and just lay the hair dryer in that to get your fire going faster and the temp up. People have been smelting iron and other metals for millenea using these basic techniques, though they generally used a bellows way back when, so lead should be no problem. You just have to learn how to build and manage the fire, and that is something you just have to learn by doing, generally. It all makes good sense, though, when you simply think about it. That makes it easier to learn, at least. Don't skimp on the small stuff at first, any time you build any kind of fire. That's the biggest failing for most.

[6622729]

This is definitely interesting about using a wood fire for casting. I am using solar. I have a 400 watt set of panels feeding 460amp/hrs of battery and then invert it to 120volts ac. I'm trying to only cast using the electricity from my off-grid solar setup from now on. I use the solar to run my dry and wet tumblers as well.

[boise outlaw]

This is definitely interesting about using a wood fire for casting. I am using solar. I have a 400 watt set of panels feeding 460amp/hrs of battery and then invert it to 120volts ac. I'm trying to only cast using the electricity from my off-grid solar setup from now on. I use the solar to run my dry and wet tumblers as well.

i'm off grid as well but without solar, and wood is free vs white gas which is about $10 a gallon right now or $2.50 a casting session. I was considering building a brake drum forge anyways, shouldnt cost me all that much minus a hand-crank pump which you can get off ebay but I can use her for all sorts of stuff around the homestead not just casting. I had considered the ladle method but when I cast i like to do 200+ at a time, we shoot alot of 38's and its hard to keep up sometimes with the missus likes to burn through powder. I will try a smaller pot and a banked fire coals in the meanwhile though, just would have preferred to do it upright at the grill vs crouched over a fire.

[Big Dangle]

I melt soda cans to cast random things. I got an old fire extinguisher that I cut the top off of. I used solid cement bricks in a square and put coals in around it. Got an old cookie sheet for the top to hold in heat. I use one of wife's old hair dryers with a 2 ft steel pipe attached to it via magizine and duct tape to pump in air. It melts aluminum cans quickly never tried lead but you'd definitely have to not put so much coals in and maybe not so much air, it'd be way to hot for lead.
All this in the fire pit in the back yard.

[jsizemore]

Gray Wolf shared pictures of him casting at the front of his wood stove. Maybe he can help.

[country gent]

I smelted for several years over a fire in a big pot ( 400lbs+) the fire ring was 2 house trailer rims ( no centers) that the pot fit in with2-3" around it and a truck rim welded together. I set this up on footer blocks. A piece of 2" muffler pipe. WHile I didnt use wood I used stoker coal. I would put a nice layer in the bottom of the rims set the pot in and add stoker coal arould it. Soaked with charcoal lighter fluid A sheet or 2 of newspaper under neath to light it. Once started I put a reversed shop vac in the muffler pipe blowing for to kick it up. This set up would melt 400+ lbs of range lead in an hour or less. ( it took longer to pour the ingots than melt the lead). Once pot was 1/2 to 3/4 molten I would shut the vac off and it held the lead temp pretty well while slowing the use of the stoker coal. Wood would wrk the same but would need more as with the blower it will burn much faster. It does work and its a great way to smelt out in the open, but you need a way to not only dispose of the dross but the ashes as well.

[richhodg66]

I use a wood fire and old Dutch oven to render range salvage into ingots. Never tried to cast bullets over it though.

[Bullwolf]

Ive ladle cast from my fire pit. Oak fire, burn down to coals, lead in a cast iron pot.

My alloy was really close to Linotype, so it had a low melting point. I would assume I could have done the same thing with wheel weight lead though.



-Bullwolf

[shoot-n-lead]

How do you use a PID on a wood fire?

Based on posts here, thought that you had to have a PID to cast boolits.

[1989toddm]

How do you use a PID on a wood fire?

Based on posts here, thought that you had to have a PID to cast boolits.

LOL [emoji79]


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[6622729]

I know you are tongue in cheek about the PID.

I could whip up a PID in an evening as I have those types of things laying around from my work. I certainly don't feel it's necessary. I've only used my lead thermometer once to learn my pot. I don't even know where the thermometer is anymore and I seem to be doing just fine. I'm hitting a sheet of paper at 50yds freehand with 9mm handgun and the 300aac (16" AR) is hammering the center 3" at 100yds. I'm a happy caster.

[ubetcha]

I have been thinking about making a rocket stove, but I think controlling the temp may be hard to do. I don't want it to get too hot

[Mytmousemalibu]

My 1st foray into smelting down scrap into casting ingots was on a charcoal burner I made from some tubing and used a blower fan for forced air. It did pretty well, it could melt down a good amount at once but it was hungry for fuel, almost constant feeding while bringing solid lead to molten. It produced a ton of cinders & sparks too. The latest plan is to go with maybe an oil burner since I get plenty of free oil to fuel one with. That or i'll just go the propane route.

[just.don]

We made a rocket stove from a metal five gal. bucket and three 2 pound metal coffee cans. We used dead fall red oak from the yard and melted the "range scrap" from our bullet trap quite rapidly. The laser thermometer from work has a max capacity 520C. Our fire was off the scale. Yes, you can cast bullets from a wood fire. Caution...... someone has to feed the wood.

[1989toddm]

We made a rocket stove from a metal five gal. bucket and three 2 pound metal coffee cans. We used dead fall red oak from the yard and melted the "range scrap" from our bullet trap quite rapidly. The laser thermometer from work has a max capacity 520C. Our fire was off the scale. Yes, you can cast bullets from a wood fire. Caution...... someone has to feed the wood.

Do you have any pics of it?


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[ascast]

Wood will get plenty hot to melt lead for dipping, you just need more wood. If your running a 20# dutch oven, you will need a substantial fire. The problem is that a fire that big will cook you if you sit close 'nuff to dip bullits. Is your grill the cast iron type found at state parks? or a wally world sheet metal type? Stable 'enuff? You probably need forced air, as some one mentioned the hair dryer. Harbor freight has a heat gun with about 9 settings for heat /air volume. About $10 and well worth it. You might try a couple cement blocks with fire between and pot on top. I have used this type of setup many times. With more blocks to cover the end or go up is a very versatile set up. Your pine may be an issue, as I have always used maple, cherry, ash; but I sure pine wood work-just need more of it.
Get your melt with fire and coals and keep your temp with finger sized stick thrown in as needed. You got a thermometer?
Charcoal alone won't melt lead with out added air or an occasional few twigs tossed on. IIRC- it was something like cast 20, toss in a twig, cast twenty ad a twig.
You did not mention what, if any bullet you were dipping? Round balls are one thing and a Lyman 457121 PH is another gotta go

[1989toddm]

My 1st foray into smelting down scrap into casting ingots was on a charcoal burner I made from some tubing and used a blower fan for forced air. It did pretty well, it could melt down a good amount at once but it was hungry for fuel, almost constant feeding while bringing solid lead to molten. It produced a ton of cinders & sparks too. The latest plan is to go with maybe an oil burner since I get plenty of free oil to fuel one with. That or i'll just go the propane route.

Here is one I started to build, built a lead pot-bottom pour out of a semi air tank and I need to build the burner yet.
http://youtu.be/g-3V3lmSvLM

[kentuckyshooter]

PID control for wood fire casting set up. Thats easy. Just wire it into your forced induction set up. Your blower will run till u get up to temp. Once there it will cut of the forced air flow allowing the temp to platue and stabilize. If your fire gets to cool it will kick the blower back on to warm things up.

[just.don]

No pics. It would look like a 5 gal bucket with a a small portion of coffee can sticking out of the top and a larger portion sticking out of the side.

I could try to explain construction if you would like. But I would start another thread.

Lots of info on these on the web. My son and I love this one. We have four. The one I've mentioned.
One we bought, a Grover that we cook on quite a bit. One from two coffee cans for the exterior and soup cans for the feed and flue. Get about the same performance as the Grover. And one from clay bricks on a heavy lawn wagon. All are lots of fun to play with. Sort of a personal camp fire except that an arm load of dead fall twigs will last all night.

If the fire gets too hot, quit feeding it.

[Bigslug]

Never really gave the matter much thought, though they had to get those musket balls cast somehow.

Seems that if you've got electricity to run a hair dryer or shop vac as a bellows, you'd do better to plug an RCBS Pro Melt into the same outlet.

I think offering "free gym time" during which your local Tour de France wannabes can pedal your bicycle powered fan would be the better approach.

[boise outlaw]

I ended up going with a smaller pot and building a rocket stove out of cinder blocks. Cast about 5lbs of 00 buckshot and some 200 grain 358s. Works great!

http://s30.postimg.org/mgk5bdg2l/image.jpg


http://s30.postimg.org/oc2c8sfj1/image.jpg

[boise outlaw]

http://www.goodshomedesign.com/diy-concrete-block-rocket-stove-2/

this is similar to the design i used, only difference was I used a sawzall to cut the end off the lower cinder block to make the L for the air passage. Feeding the wood through the side worked well but I didnt like that it would burn horizontally and eventually blocked up the passage with coals. After using her a few times I figured out I could get a good hot fire going and then drop in a few 1/2"x4" pieces of split pine through the top every few boolit drops to keep the flame up. As long as its licking the bottom of the pot temps were high enough for me to drop perfect every time.

[trapper9260]

When I first learn to melt lead to make sinkers from my dad.We use wood. Like was stated that you need a good bed of hot colds and then you put the pot in it and put the colds around the part and keep adding as needed to keep the temp up.When I smelt my lead with wood and put it into ingots.I also have cast boolits with it also in the past.But do it in a small cast iron pot.Just be ready to deal with the heat when you do and a long handle ladle also.I even boil my traps with wood also and get it up to temp also for dye my traps.The thing is with for lead is use hard wood after you get it going.You can use soft wood to get the fire going.Soft wood will speed up the heat but will not last but hard wood will.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I've smelted on a rocket stove made from old bricks; no mortar, just stacked together.. It works. It works better if you add some forced air (air dryer, heat gun, blower...). I don't see why it would work to cast on too. I do really like the 4 cinder block rocket stove design. Simpler than building out of bricks.

[paul edward]

How do you use a PID on a wood fire?
Based on posts here, thought that you had to have a PID to cast boolits.

Not essential, but you can use the PID to control the speed of the fan in the hair dryer, thus controlling the temperature of the fire.