burners and smelting

[glockfan]

i have enough of smelting in my lill 4-20 lee pot because it's too time consuming, and that my goal is to produce all my lead for the year inside a couple days,which means anywhere from 500 to 800lbs of clean ingots.

obviously, i need a cast iron pot (which i've found) and a burner powerfull enough so i can pitch half a 5 gallon bucket of COWW in the pot and let the heat do the work....then,idealy after 10 minute i would start to removes the scrapp-iron-steel floating on top of 50lbs melted lead lol.

i was looking at the many different burners i could get and the bayou classic SP10 with a 10psi valve at 80$ shipped pop'ed on amazon. the burner can spit a 185.000BTU .

is 185.000BTU with maybe a 30psi valve instead of the 10psi would be enough power for the result i'm aiming at ( a higher production rate) ?

[D Crockett]

glockfan just to let you know that if you take a ladle that has some stuff you want to knock out of it and you hit the side of your cast iron pot that is hot it can crack on you ( ask me how I know ) my advise to you would be get a steel smelting pot there is no chance of it cracking D Crockett

[Rcmaveric]

10 Psig regulator is more than enough to melt quite a bit of lead. I also recommend a steal pot. Those huge enameled soup and stock pots are easy to find. Extra points if you find them in a dumpster or the good will.

[pcolapaddler]

I lucked up on some nice stainless stock pots at a local thrift store. Heavy guage sides and a thick bottom.

Bought them both.

A turkey fryer serves as my burner and stand. Though with 50 lbs in the pot, most turkey fryers will want significant reinforcement added.

Sent from my Frankenphone using Tapatalk

[glockfan]

thanks for your inputs guys !

i wasn't aware that steel is preferable to iron cast, i thought iron was less prone to cracks.

i'm taking note of this, i could probably find one of those homebrewing stainless 50 qrt used ,it
would do the trick.

PCOLAPADDLER ,good insight about the burner's legs diameter ,some seems more flimsy than others, i'm guessing that if i can stand on the burner's ring without it getting unstable,it might be solid enough for a 60lbs pot of lead..

[Grmps]

A heavy steel pot from a thrift store works well, stay away from the aluminum ones :(
Got too hot smelting.
https://i.imgur.com/U6lsLAV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/QyGeyPP.jpg

[lightman]

Some propane places sell cookers and burners so you might look at any places close to you. A couple of the local ones around here have some nice looking sturdy shop built ones for reasonable prices. Don't forget that when testing it with your weight that its strength changes once it gets hot. My burner can get the top of mine red hot. Everyone discourages the use of aluminum and if you choose to go with cast iron, remember to start heating it slowly and to be gentle with it.

[country gent]

I used a weed burner from harbor freight its 500,000 btus I did some modifying with a elbow and small plates ( feet) and a couple valves to get just what I wanted. It melts 130 lbs to casting temp in about 15 mins. My pot is a cut off propane tank ( If you decide to go this route flush the tank clean several times and be safe ) I ladle cast from this pot. D Crokett on here sells these also.I use a turkey frier stand that's been modified stiffened for the extra weight.

Cutting the tank apart isn't hard but needs to be done safely. pull the valve out its a 3/4 npt pipe thread. fill tank partially full of dish soap and water and slosh around good. a 3/4 plug and you can roll it around here. Fill full and agitate it a little then pour out. I did this 3 times. this pushes any fumes out of the tank and cleans the inside of any possible flammable contaminantes. Let sit for a day or 2 and rinse once more. Dry out side of tank and mark desired height of tank on side. a couple wraps of masking tape laid on with no wrinkles and edges matched gives a straight true line to follow. I cut mine with a hacksaw and 32tpi blade working around the tank. This way there are no sparks or arcs to ignite any gases if cleaning wasn't effective. I then cut a 3" ring from the extra part of the tank for a new base ring. I remove the old base and tack welded the new ring on. This gives a much better foot print to the pot and allows the flame to wraparound the bottom better.

The weed burner I got from Habor Fright was 1/8" pipe and 1/8" NPT so this was simply screwing together pieces. I added a 1/8" lever valve for on off function and a 1/8" ball valve for adjusting flame. This allows me to maintain flame adjustment and still turn off the burner. On the other end I unscrewed the burner added an elbow and 4" nipple( depends on the stands height here) and the burner head. A front foot can be made from 3/8" X 1 1/2 X 6-8" long. Drill a clearance hole in the side for the 1/8" pipe 1/2" from edge on centerline then a 10-24 set screw hole to it. Slide this over the pipe before the elbow goes on. One can be made for behind the valves to maintain level also. Set burner to straight and square and lock with set screw. All threaded joints need to be sealed Teflon tape or pipe dope and checked for leaks before using. I put a cap on in place of the burner and charged mine with air pressure on a gage shut valve and watched gage if it dosnt drop no leaks. soap water and watching for bubbles works to. This makes a high powered burner reasonably priced. I think my last flier had them on sale for 19.99

[country gent]

I had a cast Iron dutch oven crack. Was a cold day I was in a hurry I lite the burner and cranked it up Right off. No warm up time. I had it pretty much full from last sessionsolid so a bg mass of cold metal. About the time molten metal was showing all around good I heard a tink and a few small sparks under the pot, and lead was running out the bottom. If you go with the cast iron pot give it 10 mins or so at a lower to medium heat to warm up and expand slowly before putting the juice to it.