Do I need a cast iron pot?

[superior]

I'm going to be using a pot and ladle. Do I need cast iron or can I use aluminum or stainless? Thanks

[2muchstuf]

I wouldn't trust alum, cast holds heat best.
2

[jcwit]

Stay away from aluminum. Good S/S pan or regular steel OK. Got mine from Good Will, pick out a heavy one. Reason to stay away from alu. it weakens from the heat and with the weight of lead not good. If the bottom goes it's not a fun time. Best of luck.

[superior]

I hear ya !

[nighthunter]

When rendering WW or dipper pouring bullets I would not use anything other than my cast iron pot. This is me ..... you have to make the choice. Cast iron holds and distributes the heat better than any other type of pot. A good cast iron pot will last for several life times. I am not talking about cast iron cook ware. I mean a good cast iron lead pot meant to do nothing else except melt lead and lead alloys. Find a good one and you will be very happy.

Nighthunter

[docone31]

Cast iron pots are cheap. You can find them anywhere.
I am not sure I would pick it up unless cold, but it will help keep the heat up also.

[grumpy one]

If the pot is to be handled and moved around, I personally do not care for cast iron because of its brittleness and tendency to crack. I use a fabricated heavy mild-steel pot. Perhaps I am being unduly conservative - if you drop a pot of molten lead you are likely to be in trouble whether it breaks or not - but my experience of only finding cracks in dirty black cast iron after they have extended catastrophically probably colours my viewpoint.

[wills]

I'm going to be using a pot and ladle. Do I need cast iron or can I use aluminum or stainless? Thanks

You may not use an aluminum pot.

[jnovotny]

No one is going to move a full pot of molten lead!! For any reason. So a stable heat source and a cast iron pot capeable of holdig 20 or more pounds of lead is what you want.

[jcwit]

No one is going to move a full pot of lead?????

I would guess it all depends on how big or how small the pot is. I move mine around at will as I need to.

[jcwit]

BTW the lead being molten has nothing to do with it.

[kodiak1]

I am old school and just feel a whole lot better using a cast iron pot.
SS is probably fine but I just have a phobia about it I have seen it melted in wrong usages.
Alum for me not a chance.

Ken.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

In choosing a pot for ladle casting...I'm assuming that you are not referring to a thermostatically controlled electric pot, I agree that aluminum is not the best choice. Cast iron as already stated will do a good job and last a very long time. I believe that an excellent choice exists on the market; It is compact, has a flat bottom, has a sturdy bail and overall, is easy to manage. It is produced by RCBS and is sensibly priced. I have used one for many years and the design has not changed. It also features a pouring spout which comes in handy. Lyman also produced a pot for ladle casting and it used to be made out of cast iron, but the one they are currently marketing...I'm not sure that is still made out of cast iron....it may be stamped steel or stainless. That doesn't effect what you are going to use it for, but if it is stamped steel it can rust....so does cast by the way, so wiping the pot down with an oily rag when it is empty and cold will keep it in ok shape. You might find an older version of the Lyman on E-Bay. The Lee version of a ladle pot I suppose will work too, but it holds only around 4 pounds of metal. A pot that holds 10 pounds of alloy is generally sufficient for use with 1,2 and even 4 cavity molds when coupled with a good ladle such as made by Lyman, RCBS or Rowell. A 20 pound pot is desireable when you intend to cast a large quantity of bullets-particularly if they are of heavier weights. Excellent bullets can be made using these tools; that is the way it was done over 100 years ago when no other techno was around. And the shooting done by the riflemen of that era was respectable enough to set some records that lasted quite a while. LLS

[BoolitSmith]

My favorite pot is one I made from 10'' iron pipe.I welded a piece of flat stock 2'' bigger than the pipe on the bottom for the base.This made it good and stable.This and my turkey fryer works real well.

[357maximum]

My dipper pot is made out of an 8inch diam piece of gas pipe...do not trust aluminum.




For smelting I use a pot I fabricated out of 14inch gas main on top of a beefed up turkey cooker.


DO NOT TRUST AN ALUMINUM POT OF ANY FLAVOR...AT SOME POINT YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE FOR THAT..I DID, and have the scar on my ankle to prove it..do not do it.

I have had cheap cast iron fail on me also, hence tha steel pot made out of gas main. I totally trust that pot and I can do a big batch and have a consistant batch of alloy that way.


When a pot with 50 or 100 or 150+ pounds of molten lead fails It give no warning you stand a pretty good chance of having a bad day.

[Junior1942]

It boils down to this: use an aluminum pot only if you have a high tolerance for pain and good hospitalization insurance.

[Wayne Smith]

I cast with a 20lb Lyman cast iron pot mostly, sometimes with an old steel 1 qt kitchen pot. I prefer the mass of the 20lb, it's easer to keep the temps stable. Nothing wrong with cast, just don't hit it with a hammer!

[opentop]

It boils down to this: use an aluminum pot only if you have a high tolerance for pain and good hospitalization insurance.

I'm with Junior on this one.:groner:

[MT Gianni]

My dipper pot is made out of an 8inch diam piece of gas pipe...do not trust aluminum.




For smelting I use a pot I fabricated out of 14inch gas main on top of a beefed up turkey cooker.


DO NOT TRUST AN ALUMINUM POT OF ANY FLAVOR...AT SOME POINT YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE FOR THAT..I DID, and have the scar on my ankle to prove it..do not do it.

I have had cheap cast iron fail on me also, hence tha steel pot made out of gas main. I totally trust that pot and I can do a big batch and have a consistant batch of alloy that way.


When a pot with 50 or 100 or 150+ pounds of molten lead fails It give no warning you stand a pretty good chance of having a bad day.

Thin wall or standard wall thickness on the 14? Did you cap the bottom with 1/4 " plate? I was lucky enough to find an old 10" weld pipe cap I then welded a foot of 10" on for my smelting pot.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Somewhere on these threads I described how I made my melt pot. I used 2 different sizes of steel pipe, 10 and 12", I think. I installed heat coils from 2 electric fry pans on the smaller pipe, bought at a thrift store. I weld a steel plate larger than the small pipe on. I carefully place the larger pipe over the smaller with a cut out for the connectors for the coils to peek thru. I then weld the larger pipe onto the steel with the other pipe. The insulation material we used then, over 20 yrs ago, was a thickish liquid that set up like concrete between the pipes. I welded 1" pipe nipples with caps threaded on on end for legs. You can level the pot by unscrewing the caps some. Full of ww, about 75 lbs. melted, it takes about 30-45 min. to melt with both coils plugged in. I unplug 1 coil to maintain a lower temp. This a great unit for either first smelting or for a large dipping pot. Actual cost now days can`t be that much, but you need someone to weld it up. I trimmed the square edges of the steel plate off when it was done and ground off anything sharp. :castmine: Robert

[357maximum]

Thin wall or standard wall thickness on the 14? Did you cap the bottom with 1/4 " plate? I was lucky enough to find an old 10" weld pipe cap I then welded a foot of 10" on for my smelting pot.

Heavy wall pipe,12 inches long..errr tall , 3/8 plate for a bottom



I have a 24 incher ready to build, but I have not got my rounds to it. It will be only 18 inches tall though. It's weird you get a cleaner melt if the smelting pot is wider than it is tall<thanks Bob> it must be a air pressure inversion/surface tension thing..

The round bottom on my 8inch slug casting pot sure spreads the heat nicer than the flat plate, but those steel weld caps are expensive, and the opportunity to liberate a large forgotten/junked one or to recycle an old used one never came up when I was paying attention. .



I spent most of my time putting in plastic pipe, I was not generally in on the big steel jobs. I did mostly renewal and new service work. Luckily one of the old retired boys down the road was a collector of great magnitude while he was an operator.

You would love my 72" fire pit we use up to the cabin. Now that would be a smelting pot now...wooooweeeee:roll:

[azrednek]

Gotta agree with jcwit. Find a Goodwill or second hand store and get a heavy pot for dirt cheap. Also a good place to get the older and heavier muffin pans. If you're a real cheapskate like me. Find out what day of the week Goodwill has their 25% off. I got two tiny sized muffin pans and a heavy ladle recently for two dollars and change. My lead pot is a heavy gauge steel pressure cooker I got at Goodwill with no lid for less than a dollar a few years ago.