Need Advice about giving advice***Or a Lesson in Lead Pots.

[Suo Gan]

My buddy is starting to get into casting. I have recommended that he weld himself up a pot from steel pipe like I did. He seems convinced that his Harbor Freight 10 qt dutch oven is up to the chore. He says that his uncle used a plumbers pot that was made from cast iron for decades. I said that the cast iron in a plumbers pot was much thicker, and actually designed for heating lead, blah, blah.

Is he right and I am just in overkill mode by using steel instead of cast iron?

The only real life example I can use was when I was rendering scrap in an old skillet (that held about 10 pounds). That sucker cracked with an audible snap, I was lucky and did not spill any lead. But it was enough to scare me. But the pan was old, and there might have been a crack or weak spot already there, I dunno.

Maybe some of the people just getting into the game here would also benefit from any insight in problems associated with super heated cast iron pots. Or how wonderful and safe piece of equipment they are to use when casting while wearing their bikini briefs :shock:.

[runfiverun]

i've been using the two cast iron smelting pots for um somewhere betwen 10-15 years now not sure where i got them.
one holds 80 lbs and one holds about 70.

[Mk42gunner]

There were several threads a year or two ago about the dangers of a casat iron dutch oven cracking while in use.

I think the issue is more the cast iron getting hit while it is cold and cracking; you just don't discover it until the lead is melting. I got to thinking about my six quart $9.99 dutch oven from Cummins Tools, (about three grades below Harbour Frieght in quality), and welded a pot from eight inch steel pipe with 1/4" plate on the bottom.

Is it necessary? No. Does it make me feel safer? Yes.


Hope This Helps,


Robert

[mj1angier]

I have been using a old Koren made dutch oven for about 2 months now to melt down the WW and have not had any problems. I have a smaller cast iron pot with a handel that I use a ladel to pour out of.
I know if you push cast iron too hot toofast it can crack or blow out the bottoms- I take it slow and easy, keep temps low so I don't get any melted zink. So far this works for me.

[snuffy]

Welllll, I sent for and received a harbor freight dutch oven. Put it on a turkey fryer to start heating it before putting lead in it. Less than 5 minutes, it made a loud CRACK sound, it had nearly cracked in half! I returned it to the local harbor freight store, got a new one. Before I could try the new one, a buddy that cast a LOT of fishing weights gave me an old dutch oven that he'd been using for years.

I smelted at LEAST a ton of range lead with it last summer. It keeps on keeping on, so the saying goes. YMMV.

If I ever see a chunk of pipe in the local scrap yard, I'll weld up one like yours. It ought to work quite well.

What I have heard about cast iron, is to NOT strike it hard while hot. That means no hitting a ladle against it to knock the last bit of lead off it!:-|

[jbunny]

little johnny waveing franticly in the back row, pick me, pick me. hehehe
for those people with a 5 inch angle grinder with zippcuts, a cutting torch,
plasma arc. get some old propane tanks, 20 lb, 10 lb, even 5 lb if u want
a small one. cut the top of and with the round bottom makes it easy to scoop
the lead out. the price usaly free. they will not crack with casting temps.
jb

[SharpsShooter]

I use a 8 quart cast iron kettle. Did 340 pounds yesterday as a matter of fact. Harbor freight has questionable quality at times. I forget where my pot came from now, but it will hold well over a 100 pounds and is stoutly thick.

SS

[sqlbullet]

Got mine at Big Lots for $10.00. It has worked fine for a year now.

[testhop]

i think theres a diffrance between a plumber pot and a the cooking cast pot. the plumbers pot is thicker to allow for the extra heat . i have 2 small that holds about 10 lbs and a larger one holds 40 lbs but the handle hole on one side broke off so i now use a stanless steel pot so far no problums any body elseever have a problum with stanless?

[Pitmaster]

I suspect that in addition to a cast pot getting hit the application of high heat to cold metal or the reverse may have something to do with it.

[Kskybroom]

I have cracked 2 one i think had water soaked in to it i heated up to fast at start. The second one i seat on gardge floor when it was hot. Jbunny has the idea.. I cut a 40 lb popane tank for my old plumers pot. Itll hold 500 lb. But it takes alot of heat to smelt 500 lb..

[jbunny]

here is my lead dipper for smelting wheel weights. the right hand on the T handle
and the left hand on the big insulated slideing handle which u slide right tight
to the pot when lifting it half full of lead. the slideing handle was used initialy when
this pot was used to melt and pour babbit bearings. the slideing handle was kept
back to keep it cool. u get the picture!!
jb

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/leaddipper.jpg

[mooman76]

Cast iron will work but it should be a quality one. Some of those made in China and other places abroad ar notof the quality of a good american made one. I hae a small 1qt one I have had for over 20 years and it is still holding up good but I havene't used it for awhle. I finnally broke down and bought a electric pot.

[Bret4207]

I use a Lodge brand cast iron dutch oven. Have been for years, no issues. Harbor Fright has some iffy stuff.

[wheezengeezer]

I have used a freon bottle for many years.Cut it at the weld,cut a 3 inch wide ring from the top half and weld to the bottom.It sits on the turkey burner and will hold 200 lb of lead with stability.Picked up 2 propane bottles that were in a fire.Can make 2 more for my buds.

[jbunny]

cast iron has good comppresion strenght.
it has very low tensile strenght.
the quality would affect the tensile strenght more than the commpresion strenght.
uneven fast heating will cause it to crack, as well as uneven fast cooling.
jb

[MT Gianni]

Welllll, I sent for and received a harbor freight dutch oven. Put it on a turkey fryer to start heating it before putting lead in it. Less than 5 minutes, it made a loud CRACK sound, it had nearly cracked in half! I returned it to the local harbor freight store, got a new one. Before I could try the new one, a buddy that cast a LOT of fishing weights gave me an old dutch oven that he'd been using for years.

What I have heard about cast iron, is to NOT strike it hard while hot. That means no hitting a ladle against it to knock the last bit of lead off it!:-|

One way to ruin cookwear is heating it without something to transfer the heat. I would make sure any smelting I did started with a cold pot and cold weights. Great point about not hitting it when hot. Cast is not as strong as steel, it will expand and contract from heat without cracking very well but we need to know it's characteristics.

[JSnover]

If you feel like welding it up yourself, go ahead. In the past year I've made over 1,000 ingots in my 8 qt Lodge dutch oven.

[HeavyMetal]

My experience with cast iron "Dutch Oven" type pots.

1 if you put them on the heat source empty you can crack them, pot needs something in it to melt. This "spreads" the heat around instead of letting it concentrate in one spot. Cracked an empty pot 15 years ago, never had a failure if I had lead in one.

2 any kind of "sharp" contact with hot cast iron and the risk of having a crack, or worse, happen is very high! Mostly this happens after someone flux's and figures he needs to get the dross off his ladle and raps the ladle on the rim of the pot!

I now keep a seperate container for dross thats big enough for the ladle to rest in or on. I rap my ladle on that if I feel the need to "clean" it off.

It is very hard to resist smacking the ladle or skimming tool on the side of the pot, particularly if you do any cooking! It's a hard habit to break!

[Mk42gunner]

JB,

I like your dipper, one of these days I'll have to make one like that to try. Currently, I am using a one pint cast iron suace pan for a dipper, when I render wheel weights.


Robert

[jbunny]

JB,

I like your dipper, one of these days I'll have to make one like that to try. Currently, I am using a one pint cast iron suace pan for a dipper, when I render wheel weights.


Robert
Robert; thanks, this one is actualy to big. the small short, fat berzomatic
propane disposible cyls would make good dippers. got to make one soon

Louis

[Mk42gunner]

Robert; thanks, this one is actualy to big. the small short, fat berzomatic
propane disposible cyls would make good dippers. got to make one soon

Louis
Louis,

I couldn't really tell what size yours was; I was thinking of using three or four inch pipe to make one out of. So many ideas, so little time...

It has been a while since I bought any small propane cylinders; but, I noticed the newer ones in the stores have a little green pin to depress the valve after they are empty. That should make it a little safer when cutting the top off.

Robert

[jbunny]

Robert; yes 4 inch would be perfect. this one is 6 inch X6 deep. too much for
old men. i just got done making 2 melting pots to use on hotplates. bought
one at wally world yesterday. have not tried it out yet. i made my pots with
a wide base after reading where someone said that they burned there element
up by spilling lead on it. i also took a pic on my sprue and cull catcher. when my lead
pots is down i dump it back in the pot through the open corner of the tray.
my lee bottom pour pot is just above on a cantalevered shelf so i don't
have to bend over to pour. (note the cantaleverd shelf is not in the pic cause
i don't want u to see the messy shop. hehehe)
Louis
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/newSSmeltpots.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/spruetray.jpg

[Suo Gan]

Bunny (This was my uncles nickname too) You weld a thousand times better than me!! I weld thick and ugly, like my...mother in law.

I made mine from square pipe so that I could get a ladle in. The scrap yard I go to has enough odds and ends to make a thousand pots, they sell the stubs for the price of scrap. The thing weighs too much, is ugly as sin, and was made from black iron. Named it Toby's Nose.

Thinkin about chroming it out, a few diamonds, so's I can blend with the crew in the hood.

Even wrote a rap song about Toby for your medicinal use
(I know, I know you all said to never ever rap on a lead pot):

Smoke a little lead, make you teef fall out...bling, bling. Just lowered my turkey burner, so's I can smoke a little lead, bling, bling. Don wanna make it go "pop" like that Chinese ****, don't wanna make it sound like I'm bustin caps, when I'm smokin a little lead in the back yard, bling, bling. Got a chromed out pot, I smoke my lead in, got my g-ma picking up wheel weights, I'm the king of smokin lead, bling, bling.