AJ Peacock
09-04-2009, 05:34 PM
All,
First I'd like to thank you all for the great forum. I learned enough reading the forum to gather all the necessary equipment. I've been scrounging ML bullets and shotgun slugs from the 50yd berms of a couple local public ranges. Over the last few weeks I scrounged 28 pounds of slugs. I'd bring them home and blast them with the garden hose, then I'd lay them out on a screen under a computer fan and let them dry for a couple days. I then went through each slug and dug any dirt/sand that was packed into the bases.
I borrowed a couple ingot molds and a ladle from a friend of mine. He only has a nice Lyman bottom pour so I needed to figure a way to smelt my scroungings. I found a cast iron pot for $1 at a yard sale, along with a $0.25 muffin pan. I had an old pot with a top and decided to just put all the slugs in there and try to melt them all at once. I used a coleman portable grill for heat. The big question was whether or not it would produce enough heat to melt nearly 30lbs of lead all at once. I decided to NOT stand the grill up, it seemed a better choice to keep everything as close to the ground as possible.
Well, with a little trepidation, I put the pot on the grill and turned one burner on high. After about 25 minutes, the bottom slugs were melted enough to see the shiny from above. After almost an hour, the entire pot wasn't melted yet, but a little stirring with the spoon (that I liberated from my wifes kitchen [smilie=1: ) showed that the stuff I was looking at was just floating on top!
I decided it had melted enough to flux. I dropped a 1/4"x1/4" chunk of parafin wax and stirred the pot. I was totally amazed, as the top 1/2" of the pot was actually just floating on a beautiful silver pool of molten lead 8-) I was a little concerned that maybe I didn't have enough heat and I was going to be removing too much stuff, but I proceeded to scoop it out and drop it into the cast iron pot.
When the wax hit its flash point and ignited, I almost jumped out of my skin!
I fluxed it a couple more times until it was pretty much all molten lead. VERY COOL!
When I dipped the ladle into the lead, I realized I should have pre-heated the ladle :groner:
Well I decided I needed a drink of water anyway, so I placed the ladle in the pot and went and got a drink. I did pre-heat the mold, but should have done more.
I ladled the molds full a few times and fluxed a couple more times. I ended up with 24 ingots (mostly full) and I poured the last bit into the muffin pan. The small disposable bottle of propane bit the dust right at the end and a little lead was left in the pan (you can see it in the picture on the muffin pan). I'll probably take the muffin and last bit of lead from the pot and use it in my next smelt.
Here are some pictures of my setup and the results. The muffin is a bit porous (is this due to lack of heat?) I had run out of heat and the lead was starting to solidify in the pot as I poured it.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040628.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040630.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040629.jpg
Anyway, thanks again.
AJ
First I'd like to thank you all for the great forum. I learned enough reading the forum to gather all the necessary equipment. I've been scrounging ML bullets and shotgun slugs from the 50yd berms of a couple local public ranges. Over the last few weeks I scrounged 28 pounds of slugs. I'd bring them home and blast them with the garden hose, then I'd lay them out on a screen under a computer fan and let them dry for a couple days. I then went through each slug and dug any dirt/sand that was packed into the bases.
I borrowed a couple ingot molds and a ladle from a friend of mine. He only has a nice Lyman bottom pour so I needed to figure a way to smelt my scroungings. I found a cast iron pot for $1 at a yard sale, along with a $0.25 muffin pan. I had an old pot with a top and decided to just put all the slugs in there and try to melt them all at once. I used a coleman portable grill for heat. The big question was whether or not it would produce enough heat to melt nearly 30lbs of lead all at once. I decided to NOT stand the grill up, it seemed a better choice to keep everything as close to the ground as possible.
Well, with a little trepidation, I put the pot on the grill and turned one burner on high. After about 25 minutes, the bottom slugs were melted enough to see the shiny from above. After almost an hour, the entire pot wasn't melted yet, but a little stirring with the spoon (that I liberated from my wifes kitchen [smilie=1: ) showed that the stuff I was looking at was just floating on top!
I decided it had melted enough to flux. I dropped a 1/4"x1/4" chunk of parafin wax and stirred the pot. I was totally amazed, as the top 1/2" of the pot was actually just floating on a beautiful silver pool of molten lead 8-) I was a little concerned that maybe I didn't have enough heat and I was going to be removing too much stuff, but I proceeded to scoop it out and drop it into the cast iron pot.
When the wax hit its flash point and ignited, I almost jumped out of my skin!
I fluxed it a couple more times until it was pretty much all molten lead. VERY COOL!
When I dipped the ladle into the lead, I realized I should have pre-heated the ladle :groner:
Well I decided I needed a drink of water anyway, so I placed the ladle in the pot and went and got a drink. I did pre-heat the mold, but should have done more.
I ladled the molds full a few times and fluxed a couple more times. I ended up with 24 ingots (mostly full) and I poured the last bit into the muffin pan. The small disposable bottle of propane bit the dust right at the end and a little lead was left in the pan (you can see it in the picture on the muffin pan). I'll probably take the muffin and last bit of lead from the pot and use it in my next smelt.
Here are some pictures of my setup and the results. The muffin is a bit porous (is this due to lack of heat?) I had run out of heat and the lead was starting to solidify in the pot as I poured it.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040628.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040630.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/AJPeacock_photos/Boolit%20Casting/P1040629.jpg
Anyway, thanks again.
AJ