A Winter Supply Of Ingots

[insanelupus]

I just got started really doing any lead melting at the end of June. Since then, I've gone through several 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights and have already learned quite a bit. I used old candles for flux and melted all the weights in an old cast iron pot. I plan to melt the ingots in my new WAAGE, hoping to keep it clean. The cast iron pot was a little dirty at the end of things.

Seemed no matter how much I fluxed or stirred, crap kept floating to the top. I skimmed out most I could get (the dark chunks that were charred and the stuff that looked more like dirt, not the grey skim that was just oxidation), but I did learn when I was pouring ingots to keep the ladle off the bottom and sides to minimize any more junk in the melt than necessary. I also found several zinc weights, but thankfully my stove won't bring the temp much higher than about 675 on a warm day. Just right for lead, keeps zinc solid.

I found my RCBS ingots tended to weigh a bit more than a pound, usually averaging around 1 pound 3 ounces. Is this normal? I assume it is, perhaps I was filling the mold a bit full. Either way, I tried to make it the same on all of them and managed to some of the time.

I ended up with 409 clip on wheel weight ingots and 14 stick on wheel weight ingots which were shinier and I marked differently. At an average of 1 lb. 3 oz. apiece that equates to just over 502 pounds of lead to make bullets from this winter. That job is now done and the learning curve starts all over again with casting bullets.

I have several molds, 2 Lyman Lubesizers (I may rebuild them to start out with, haven't decided yet) and need to buy several sizing dies as well as ordering or making some top punches (I can't find the making your own top punch thread, but I know it's here somewhere). In the beginning, I have a cousin that wants to play around with the 358009 bullet mould I bought (it's never been used, brand new, single cavitiy in the newer gray/black box) so I may cast up some straight wheel weight stuff for him with a touch of tin thrown in if necessary. He wants them unlubed and unsized so he can do that step and try it out in his 35 WCF. At least I can practice casting!

Anyway, a few pictures to go along with the post.


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3234.jpg
My setup.


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3218.jpg
The beginning.


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3219.jpg
Just fluxed.


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3229.jpg
Some of the first ingots.


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3395.jpg
The end results. A new toy pile and plenty of practice fodder.

[Down South]

Nice going. That is a nice stock pile of ingots.

[Catshooter]

Welcome to the board. Nice first post, too.


Cat

[Thumbcocker]

I am moved to tears by the sheer stark beauty of that last photo. Ansel Adams eat your heart out.

[Rooster]

That last picture is ripe for a motivational poster. I like it. :drinks::drinks:

[Leadforbrains]

Nice pictures. I must be crazy cuz I am diggn' all this Lead Porn.:mrgreen:
:drinks:

[Shiloh]

Beautiful stash!! Enough to keep you busy for a long time, both casting and shooting.

Shiloh :castmine:

[AZ-Stew]

I **DO** like the roll-around cart.

Nice stash. I have a few priority jobs to do now that it's starting to cool off, then I can get to the 3 or so buckets of WW my son and I have to smelt. Should keep us in boolits for a while.

Regards,

Stew

[copdills]

welcome to the forum and thats looks great keep it up:castmine:

[Just Duke]

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_3395.jpg

Great job! Welcome aboard! :-D

[hunter64]

Welcome to the forum and the addiction. I have a similar pile on one wall of my garage but they are 25 lb. ingots which I call my "Long Storage" lead supply. I have an old cast iron bread loaf mold that I use and the lead filled right to the top of the rim is 25 lbs. I then have a smaller 1 pound mold that I use for my winter casting fun and do the same as you. So when I score a 5 gallon bucket of WW, the first three ingots I make are the 25 lb. ones and the rest are the 1 pound. Work is taking a lot of my free time so I can't get out as often as I would like but at least I am still looking at garages when I go by them and hording lead. With the way the anti's are heading my next step is to make a bullet trap and take it with me to the outdoor range and recover my own lead. Waist not want not.

[Just Duke]

Will that be enough to tide you over in case of a cold Democratic winter? :roll: ;)

[MakeMineA10mm]

With the way the anti's are heading my next step is to make a bullet trap and take it with me to the outdoor range and recover my own lead. Waist not want not.

With the way things are looking, we'll all have to start working on this.

[Three44s]

I have been digging my boolits out of the dirt back stop for some time now.

And thinking about boolit traps along the way.

Great first post and nice pile of "one pounders"!

For what it is worth, I have been re-running my pounders again to clean them a second time. When I go to a bottom pour furnace and start casting slugs ...........I have many less issues that way.

Three 44s

[HamGunner]

I also like the looks of your portable smelting cart. And the stack of lead looks so nice it might as well be gold bars.

I really like to have clean ingots. I have used about every flux that I have read about, but sawdust has worked the best for me. After my last smelting session of melting down some type metal and using sawdust for flux, my pot is the cleanest it has ever been. I have yet to order any of the California Sawdust that is offered on this site, but I believe I just might since I have proven that even my Missouri oak sawdust makes great flux. It just smells too much like a nasty wood stove. I would like to try the heavy resin pine saw dust and just may order some if nothing else, just for the auroma of the pine sap burning.

I used to smelt successfully in a large cast iron kettle also and without a thermometer(I have one now), but I no longer have a way to heat such a large pot and I want to keep the increasing number of zinc WWs from melting when I smelt WWs so I have just been using my regular electric furnaces. I may have to figure something else out.

But, sawdust flux has stopped the problem of the bottom pour nipple clog up problems. If you have not tried sawdust, then you really should give it a whirl. You can still throw in a bit of your favorite scented candle or what have you to spice up the smoke a bit. I try to keep a layer of burnt sawdust on top of the melt at all times. I flux after a new melt, then add more while bottom dropping the lead. I suppose that wouldn't work while ladle dipping though. I used to mold out of a ten pound cast iron pot with great success using the egg shaped dipper.

Casting is so much fun.