Smelting day

[imashooter2]

Well, I promised SWMBO that I'd get a little garage space back for her over the Christmas break. The weather report for today was dry, 43 degrees with a little breeze. Could do with a little less wind, but all in all not a bad day for the job.

I had 1/3 left in an old 20 pound tank and a fresh one on the shelf. Even with the wind blowing off my heat, that 1/3 did 2 buckets and it has a start on the third. I'm pretty sure it'll be gone by the time I finish typing this and head back out.

2 five gallon buckets of indoor range scrap gave me 246 Lyman bricks. Lots of junk in this stuff. I've got two 100 pound buckets (Tidy Cat buckets) of range scrap to go and then I've got a five gallon bucket and a half of clip on WW. Not sure if I'll get to those or not. Her Majesty should be happy enough with 4 buckets gone. I'll have to see how I feel after the range scrap is done and put away.

Break time's over! Back to the salt mine.

LOL! I'm pathetic... I typed this at 2:00 and didn't send it!

[imashooter2]

Well, that 1/3 tank of gas held out all the way. I must have underestimated the fill.

I stopped after the last 200 pounds of range scrap and wound up with 426 Lyman bricks. That should keep me casting for another week or two. Everybody likes pics, so here you go:

I always turn my buckets out into a wheelbarrow and load the pot with that garden shovel. It gives me one last chance to look over the scrap for dud .22s and if I should miss one, at least I'm not standing right over the pot. Believe it or not, this is the nice clean scrap. The other stuff had a little trash in it...

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/scrap600.jpg

The Bayou Classic and the never ending tank. :-D A little too low. I should have put it up on another layer of blocks.

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/smelt600.jpg

Break time, 256 bricks. I was light on molds today. I normally borrow a couple more from friends. Didn't work out this time.

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/break600.jpg

And the end result, 426 bricks. Losing light at this point. I had to turn on the flash.

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/done600.jpg

You know, 28 years ago I worked in a little job shop and I literally moved a couple tons of sheet metal every day while running a shear. I don't recall it beating me up like this. Too much time riding a desk I guess.:neutral:

[Down South]

That's a nice size pile of ingots. A hard days work for sure. I'd be wore out too. I have the same thing to do but just waiting on the right time to do it. I've got (buckets) of WW and range scrap to smelt down into ingots. Soon as hunting season is over and we have those cold wet weeks/months before spring I plan to geterdone. I do have a well ventilated place out of the weather that I can do it in. I envy that great big pile of ingots and I congratulate you on your work. I figure that is just about how much that I have to do. A days time and a 12 pack of beer should take care of it for me. Thanks for the thread and pics.

[Vly]

Nice job! Well done. My ingot stash is running alittle low as well. Time to get busy.

[Gunslinger]

When I see ingots stacked like that I get the chills :grin:

They're the next best thing to gold bars...

I see the idea of having a few ingot molds. Thing is they're $50 a pop around here :-(

[imashooter2]

For way less you could get a friend to weld up some simple angle iron gang molds. Here in the states they sell a very simple 1.5 x 1.5 angle iron bed frames and often give them away free with a mattress purchase. It isn't unusual to find the old ones out on the street for trash pickup. They make great raw material.

[Gunslinger]

I know, I just like that the ingots says Lyman :roll:

[imashooter2]

LOL! Me too.

[opentop]

Wiking, Have you tried to order through Midway? I don't know what thier shipping charges would be to you, But seams like you could get some one to ship them to you. I would think you would be looking at half the cost at least with shipping included.

[GLL]

OUTSTANDING day's work !

Almost a quarter ton of ingots per day times 365 days = !!!!!!! :) :)

Jerry

[imashooter2]

OUTSTANDING day's work !

Almost a quarter ton of ingots per day times 365 days = !!!!!!! :) :)

Jerry

Wouldn't that be nice? This takes me to about 1,200 pounds of range scrap and I don't have any more raw. That said, it's been over a year since the members at the range I was getting it at decided they were going to get rich selling the scrap to the local yard. With prices for scrap down and the work smelting remaining the same, they may be back into the "please take it" mode. The place is 75 miles up a toll road, so stopping by after work is out... I should get up there in January or February to shoot USPSA if the match director decides to host his usual winter indoor matches. We'll see.

[FISH4BUGS]

It was almost 58 here in NH on Sunday but it was VERY windy. I have a great deal of trouble smelting outside in strong winds even though I built a heat/wind shield out of stove pipe. So rather than make a dent in the 1000 (or more) pounds of wheel weights in buckets, I just decided to cast for the day.
I got a bunch of 358627's done ( I certainly DO wish that was a 4 cavity!) and a TON of 44's from a H&G 45 gc mould (4 cavity). I am looking to shoot the heavy 358's in a Rossi 92 lever gun.
Next up 9mm and 380 for the subguns.
I am down to about 400 lbs of ingots. I need to smelt! Thanks for the reminder.

[imashooter2]

I keep telling myself I'm going to build a heat shield and then the next thing I know I'm smelting without one... again! The wind for me was gusty to 10 - 12 mph. Not a wind storm, but I'm sure it carried off a lot of heat. On the up side, it carried off the smoke and stink. The place I got this scrap from oils it to keep dust down when they clean the trough. The smoke, stink and flame off the pot when it gets to temperature is something to behold! The picture above is a fresh load, just barely seen the fire.

I sure do wish I could score some WW. I haven't been able to get them anywhere but the scrap yard for years. I'm jealous of your pile. The paltry bucket and a half I have were purchased from the yard at ruinous prices.

Not familiar with the 358627 and I can't find it in my references... What is it? My 1894C loves the SAECO #353 and the Lee C358-180-RF group buy boolit.

[GLL]

Here is a 358627 plus the HPed version for .357MAX ! :)

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/82D11B496D91FBC/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/764FE0DF38E319D/standard.jpg

[Papa Foxtrot]

Here is a 358627 plus the HPed version for .357MAX ! :)

Now that's beautiful...

[Gunslinger]

Wiking, Have you tried to order through Midway? I don't know what thier shipping charges would be to you, But seams like you could get some one to ship them to you. I would think you would be looking at half the cost at least with shipping included.

Yes I did and that's a no go. They won't ship to countries that already have a Midway branch, so Midwaydenmark actually gets to dictate the prices... which they do by doubling them :-(

[imashooter2]

Here is a 358627 plus the HPed version for .357MAX ! :)

Jerry


That's a lot of boolit! What do those things weigh? Looks like they'd fill way too much case for a .357 mag. They do have the dual crimp groove, but I'm thinking nose to the second groove would make them too long for the 1894. Nice pictures too.

[imashooter2]

Yes I did and that's a no go. They won't ship to countries that already have a Midway branch, so Midwaydenmark actually gets to dictate the prices... which they do by doubling them :-(

Sinclair International has a SAECO ingot mold for $17.25 US. They'll ship internationally. Not sure of all the details, but it might be worth looking into.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REMI&item=RD23000&type=store

ETA: Just looked over the Midway Denmark site a bit and ran some prices through a currency converter. Holy Smokes! Sure am glad I'm on this side of the pond!

[crabo]

I keep telling myself I'm going to build a heat shield and then the next thing I know I'm smelting without one... again! .

I went to Home Depot and picked up two pieces of tin, pop riveted them together and cut out slots for the feet and the hose. The slots give plenty of air and the tin goes up to the top of the smelting pot. I then roll it up to store after use. Quick, cheap and easy.

[imashooter2]

That does sound pretty easy. I still have a few days off. Maybe I'll pop over to the Home Depot and see what they have for cheap.

[JFriis]

I went to Home Depot and picked up two pieces of tin, pop riveted them together and cut out slots for the feet and the hose. The slots give plenty of air and the tin goes up to the top of the smelting pot. I then roll it up to store after use. Quick, cheap and easy.

Mind taking a picture?

[crabo]

Doesn't get much easier than this. Soup's on

[Bret4207]

Here is a 358627 plus the HPed version for .357MAX ! :)

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/82D11B496D91FBC/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/764FE0DF38E319D/standard.jpg

Jerry, you really should be taking pics for Handloader. Some of the awfulist looking boolits I've seen have been proudly displayed in that rag. Your's are works of art and so is the positioning.:drinks:

[Gunslinger]

Sinclair International has a SAECO ingot mold for $17.25 US. They'll ship internationally. Not sure of all the details, but it might be worth looking into.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REMI&item=RD23000&type=store

ETA: Just looked over the Midway Denmark site a bit and ran some prices through a currency converter. Holy Smokes! Sure am glad I'm on this side of the pond!

I'll check it out thanks. 1 mold is gonna be far too slow for all that smelting I have to do 8-)

[dondiego]

Jerry, you really should be taking pics for Handloader. Some of the awfulist looking boolits I've seen have been proudly displayed in that rag. Your's are works of art and so is the positioning.:drinks:

Why can't I see the pics of the boolits?

[imashooter2]

Old, old thread. The host is probably long gone.

[Chaparral66]

A couple of weeks ago I ran 150+ pounds of 6% antimony (x-ray shielding from out dead products) for about 200 ingots (boolits in larvae form). Just went through my new batch of wheel weights sorting out the non-lead bits. Running about 50% usable. Can probably get a 5 gal bucket every week. SWMBO my not see the value in me spending my time sorting WW. I soooo love smelting, and the roof flashing with the tar adds such a nice fragrance.

[FISH4BUGS]

I am also looking to smelt my sorted WW's. I have 3 or 4 5 gallon buckets of sorted WW's to smelt.
There never seems to be enough time, but I KNOW when I run out of ingots I'll do it.
I enjoy smelting. You get into a rhythm and you can put out a lot of ingots.
The limiting factor are ingot moulds. That was a lesson I learned very early.
Overall, the satisfaction of having 200+ lbs of WW ingots ready to use is worth it.

[lightman]

I saw this thread and wondered why I hadn't posted in it. Then I noticed it was from 2008! You guys are right, when your smelting several hundred pounds of lead you need several ingot molds.

My pot holds 400# or so but I usually stop at about 350 to give me room to get aggressive stiring and fluxing. I usually run 8 of the Lyman style molds. After about 4 cycles they need a short break to cool.

I've gotten so that I save my scrap all year and get a buddy over to help. We usually do both mine and his. Usually after hunting season is over and before it get warm. That time is coming up shortly!

[imashooter2]

Yeah this thread got legs again after I posted in another thread just to show my setup.

2008… hard to believe it is 13 years gone already. Time is speeding by! Since those “last” buckets I found another source and expanded stores quite a bit. Pretty sure I have twice what I need to get to the grave at this point. My little girl's husband is going to be muttering about her crazy old man as he hauls ingots out of the garage. :lol:

Anyway, I haven’t had the pot out of the shed since 2012. I retired in 2020 and now I’m living the good life casting what I need from what I have. May you all be as fortunate! :drinks:

[SoonerEd]

I've got 2,700 lbs of range lead to smelt in February, after deer season, and before crappie.

[imashooter2]

That’s a nice little pile SoonerEd!