Casting my first Ingets soon..... Stear me right

[340six]

I have a large buner and propane along with a new 6qt cast iron pot, a large cast iron laddle.
1)As far as starting get the WW in and then heat up pot?
2)Flux buy something made for it like the Lyman book says? Or get some cheap candles:confused:
3)Mix the flux in with a large wooden paddle or 5 galllon paint paddle? Or get a SS slottted spoon? Or get both you migt need both?
4) how long should the lead stay in the trays to get hard before tring to get the ingets out? Smack with rubber hammer? Or do not take a chance on brakeing the moulds?

[fredj338]

I sort ww first; gets all the really nasty stuff like rubber, steel, obvious zinc, plastic, etc. Then put in a couple pounds to get the pot going. Then start adding. When the alloy is melted, stir in some old candles or I like sawdust. Skim th eclips & dros & ladel into molds. Depending on the molds, they setup pretty quick, less than a minute. I use aluminum or iron or steel & they run out w/ just a little whack on the concrete. Be very careful about getting ANY moisture into the melt from ww or even your wooden stirrer. It can cause very bad things to happen.

[Recluse]

I have a large buner and propane along with a new 6qt cast iron pot, a large cast iron laddle.
1)As far as starting get the WW in and then heat up pot?

I always start my smelting session off with a COLD dutch oven filled with wheel weights, then set it on the fire. As it all melts, you can then add more wheel weights. Just make sure they're dry. So long as your temp doesn't get up over 750F or so, any zinc that might've made its way into the pot will float up to the top.

I smelt at a temperature just hot enough to fully melt the lead off of the steel clips. Any hotter and I run the risk of having zinc or other crud get melted into the mix.

I cast at a lot hotter temperature, but smelt at as low of a temperature as I can get away with.


2)Flux buy something made for it like the Lyman book says? Or get some cheap candles:confused:

I do several fluxings (is that even a word?) with each batch of wheel weights/pipe, lino/whatever I put into the pot and melt.

First round of fluxing is with nothing more than sawdust and stirred with a DRY stick of 1" x 1" pine. I skim off the debris/junk/gunk and discard.

Second flux is with small chunks of candle, again stirring with the DRY stick of pine. I skim off the junk and discard. (I light the smoke with a long-handled grill lighter)

I do one final flux with more chunks of candle and then skim off the junk.


4) how long should the lead stay in the trays to get hard before tring to get the ingets out? Smack with rubber hammer? Or do not take a chance on brakeing the moulds?

I use ingot moulds made by Lyman (wheel weights), RCBS (lino/WW/tin mix), and Lee (1-pound ingots for pure lead, 1/2 pound for linotype). I keep an old towel soaked down and set my ingot mould on it. I wear heavy gloves as what "sizzles" is STEAM coming off the mould. Takes maybe ten seconds for the alloy too solidify enough for me to turn the ingot mould over and gently tap it against the wooden bench to release the ingots.

I drop the ingots on a soaking seat towel.

But I DO keep my wet towels a good twenty or more feet away from my smelting pot. I've met the tinsel fairy on a few occasions. Can't print what I said to her.

:coffee:

[Three44s]

I would forget the Marvelux that is recommended for fluxing in some quarters.

It cruds up your lead pots/furnaces.

All the mentioned substances above work fine.

I personally like to run my ingot batches TWICE ............ and that affords me less trouble with slag inclusions when I am casting (cleaner ingots make for cleaner boolits!)

And it also insures more consistent alloy but to insure that, as you re-run your ingots don't re-melt them in the same order they were made ..... you need to re-shuffle the deck as it were.

ENJOY your new hobby, may your stay be safe, fun and productive!!!

Three 44s

[Bob Krack]

In several years of lurking and in participating I have never heard mention of the fact that our hand is near a hot object that flashes into flames our reflexes cause us to jump or jerk (withdraw) our hand.

Well guess what? If your hand is holding a stirrer or spoon/dipper in the molten lead when the fluxing agent flashes - you might just unententionally splash the molten lead all over the place!

My solution is to make certain to light any flammable fluxing agent after adding it to the pot. No problem with sawdust in my experience but candle wax and many others will flash after 10 to 30 seconds or so.

Bob

[JSnover]

Mix the flux in with a large wooden paddle or 5 galllon paint paddle? Or get a SS slottted spoon? Or get both you migt need both?
4) how long should the lead stay in the tray

If you stir with a wooden object you won't need any other flux.

The ingot mold will cool in a minute or so -- longer as the mold gets hotter. Set it down on a concrete floor or damp cloth to speed things up. No need to whack it, I just stand mine up on edge and left them fall over, face down. The ingots drop right out.

[David2011]

340six,

If you live in the desert a wooden spoon might be OK. If you have high humidity it might cause a steam explosion in the molten lead. No guarantee that it will but no guarantee it won't. The recurring theme here is to avoid moisture. I use a metal spoon with hole or slots like you would use to serve peas at a steam table to skim my melt. I don't try to get the wheel weights clean before melting them because the oil on them seems to make pretty good flux. It does make smoke so you will want good ventilation. I'll throw in some lube or candle wax if I feel like it needs more fluxing.

If you're smelting on concrete put some cardboard or plywood down to protect the concrete. Little splatters of lead are really hard to remove from concrete. Please don't ask- just take my word. If you just happen to have a sheet of steel or aluminum laying around that's the best thinkg to put your smelter on. The lead just won't stick to metal. It will adhere to ply or cardboard. A large oil drip pan for the garage floor is great to cast on once you have ingots. It protects the bench and molten metal won't stick to it. It may be a little small for the propane cooker.

David

[Sprue]

You are planning on melting WW's outside right? I shiver at the thought of doing it indoors. It can be done, but great preparations are in order.

Also think of wind direction as you will want to work from the down wind side.

Shroud, you will want to construct at the least, some crude type of shroud around your burner / pot area. This will kinda insulate and stabilize the temperature around the pot which will yield shorter melt times.

Make sure that your burner & pot are secure or rigid. You do not want your pot or setup to tip over or collapse.

Welding gloves work great. As for ingot mold, that is of personal choice. Me, I use cast iron muffin pans. It has nine cavities and by the time they are filled with melt, they are nearly ready to dump. I just turn the pan over and they volunteer to drop, themselves.

When choosing an ingot mold you want to think in terms of stackability.

Dress, at the very least wear leather boots and jeans.... clothing should not consist of anything other than cotton. You don't want to wear any attire made from materials that melt. Eye protection is a no brainer.

Heed...... moisture or water as has been mentioned, around liquified lead is a no-no. Make sure that your wheel weights, stir stick, whatever are dry before placing into melted lead.

Good common sense will make a fruitful day.

Have fun, welcome to the madness and a very - Merry Christmas !

[yman]

Dont forget the long pants, heavy gloves (leather), i perfer boots but at least good shoes, long sleeve shirt is not a bad idea, safty google or glasses,(burn your arms,legs,feet-bad deal-burn your eyes & your out of the pic (pun intented). Make sure you work in a well vented area, really, if you have to melt inside have all the windows open & run a fan. They are serious about the water, dont have a drink setting close by, hot lead & any liquid & you will have your own pot of popping hot lead, & not just a little popping were talking the forth. If i have a drink, and it is hot work, i have mine across the room. Yes a slotted spoon is very handy as you can use it to skim the clips out of the melted wheelwhts. If you use candles,which work fine, the wax will melt & then flame up alot of times, b/4 you stir it in so dont be caught off guard this happens. I use muffin tins to make my ingots, yes there is some questions about pouring hot melted lead into aluminum pans but alot of us do it & so far no problems. They will pop out after they are cool i never really timed them but they come out before i get my next batch of wheel wght melted down.
With all that said its really a fun & rewarding part of reloading, just like anything else in reloading, keep your mind on what your doing, dont wander off to answer the phone, pay attintion & you should have no problems. Good luck!

OH- and dont forget some kind of metal container to dump the hot metal clips & the dross you skim off into, i use a metal coffee can but they are getting harder to come buy so i picked up a couple old metal skillets at yard sales.

[John Guedry]

+1 on smelting outside cause everyone knows what dogs do when they see a tire. Its not an "inside aroma" you want.

[Echo]

+1 for the above. I render outside, on an old picnic table, using a turkey fryer placed on a water heater base (to catch any accidents). I stack the dutch oven up with WW's and light the fire, using a low heat. It typically takes me 30 minutes to melt down the first batch. Once fully molten, I use an SS slotted spoon to scoop the clips and other trash (the typical oil on the WW's acts as a flux and there will be other residue to be scooped) and dump into an old SS sauce pan for later disposal.

Once the clips and trash are removed, it's flux (again) time. I use a 1" wood dowel and paraffin or old candle wax. Generally it is warm enough outside that the paraffin is soft enough for me to pinch off a marble-sized chunk. I toss it into the center of the melt, and stir with the dowel until it stops smoking, or has burnt off. Time to ingotize.

I use an old 12-hole teflon-lined muffin pan for WW's. There is such a small amount of teflon that any poisonous outgassing is trivial, and the ingots drop right out after setting up. A dutch oven full of WW's will generally make 10-11 muffin ingots, leaving enough in the bottom for a starter on the next batch. I have an old towel under the pan that I soak with H20 prior to rendering.

After filling the muffins, I pile more WW's in the trace left in the bottom, filling up and piling as high as I dare - then go inside and read a book/play Spider Sol/do crosswords/lube-size some boolits/whatever for about 30 minutes. Come back outside, dump the ingots (the muffin pan cools rapidly) and repeat...

I'm not real anal about safety - I wear cotton clothes, usually shorts (Tucson, remember) and a knit shirt. I do wear socks! The idea of a splash into my shoe, in intimate contact with my tender flesh, doesn't appeal to me. And I wear glasses, so I have eye protection. I always wear gloves, when casting or rendering.

I use Lyman/Saeco/RCBS ingot molds for pure lead, flooding them so they are monobloc 5-pounders. I have also used old Coke cans, with the top removed, for Pb ingots. When I need pure, it is easy to peel the Al off the ingot and introduce to the alloying process, or whatever. I use angle-iron molds for WW+2% tin alloys. They produce 1+ pound ingots that work just fine in my Cute Little Thing Potter 3-pound furnace, or other furnaces.

Well, I do go on...

[chris in va]

FWIW I use a WalMart 'mini muffin' teflon pan so the ingots will fit in my 10# Lee pot.

[WHITETAIL]

:cbpour: All of what was said is great info.
Thats how most of us got started.
The only thing that no one mention
was what I use to put the lead WW
in the pot.
I like useing a long handel shovel.
I dump all of my stash on the floor
of my gerage and then scoop it up
with the shovel.
this way IF there is a surprize of
any kind I am far away from the melt.:holysheep