Cracked Dutch Ovens!????

[TORCHrider]

I just purchased a dutch oven from Harbor Freight to use in melting my wheel weights for ingots. I just read in another post that some people are experiencing cracked cast iron pots. Do I need to be worried about this? What causes the pots to crack? :?:

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Crack pots have been common throughout history, sometimes it's genetics, others, poor workmanship.

It this case it is likely to be red chinese manufacture with substandard materials, engineering, production, marketing and distribution. I'm convinced that if these pots were used with dried horse dung for fuel in northern China to make barley gruel they would not crack. BvT

[TORCHrider]

Crack pots have been common throughout history, sometimes it's genetics, others, poor workmanship.

It this case it is likely to be red chinese manufacture with substandard materials, engineering, production, marketing and distribution. I'm convinced that if these pots were used with dried horse dung for fuel in northern China to make barley gruel they would not crack. BvT

OK, so given that I got mine from Harbor Freight which is about the least expensive one you can get, and likley made in China, should I search out another pot? :confused:

[richbug]

OK, so given that I got mine from Harbor Freight which is about the least expensive one you can get, and likley made in China, should I search out another pot? :confused:


Use what you have, odds are it will be fine. It would be a terrible shame to ruin a century old Griswold or Wagner by lead contamination..

[imashooter2]

My first Harbor Freight pot cracked straight up the side as soon as the fire hit it. The replacement has had a couple thousand pounds through it and seems like it will last the rest of the century. I wouldn't be too concerned.

[TORCHrider]

They are great. Just don't drop them, don't tap on them when they are hot, inspect them regularly for signs of cracking, do not cause the thing to be heated unevenly, and never, ever use a torch around them!

I for one was taught to use the right tool for the job, I don't take a .22-250 elk hunting, and I don't use a cast iron pot for melting lead (although many do).

So what are you recommending as the correct tool?

[DLCTEX]

Stainless steel pot will not crack.

[buck1]

My harbor ft pots have served me well for years. No trouble. I think any cast iron pot may crack if droped eather by us or at the factory before we get it.

[Mntngoat]

I for one was taught to use the right tool for the job, I don't take a .22-250 elk hunting.

Will my 7mm Dakota work for elk.

Sorry couldn't resist!


ML

[Mk42gunner]

So what are you recommending as the correct tool?

Torchrider,

While my Cummins Tool (a couple of grades below Harbor Freight) Dutch Oven didn't crack; I have broken cast iron used for ingot molds. I built my smelting pot from 8" schedule 80 iron pipe by welding 1/4" plate on the bottom. It works fine and holds over 100 pounds of lead, enough that I am thinking about reinforcing the turkey fryer.


Robert

[Jim]

You get what you pay for. Spend the money and buy a Lodge brand and you can leave it to your grandchildren.

[JIMinPHX]

A Harbor Freight pot has been serving me fine so far. If you need to get a cast iron pot repaired, find someone with a TIG machine & ask him to stitch it up with Silicone Bronze rod. That's the best quality cast iron repair that I've found so far. It beats the heck out of NiRod if you need to file, grind or otherwise machine it afterward & it runs a little easier too. I've repaired tool holders on CNC machines with that method & never had a problem.

[MT Gianni]

It is easy to crack a cast iron Dutch Oven if you heat it empty. Make sure there is something in it to transfer the heat before it gets hot. I'm not talking about warming for cooking though if you over heat it it will happen, don't run them on top a gas flame for more than a minute before your ingots are in. It's better to heat a full pot from a cold start anyway, it displaces moisture.

[jcwit]

Get one made by Lodge Ware, quality cast iron made by American Citizens right here in the U.S.A. Save our own jobs.

[RayinNH]

JIMinPHX, I gotta respectfully disagree with repairing the cast iron pot. While I don't quarrel with your method of repairing cast iron tool holders or other cast items the pot is different. Your tool holders aren't getting heated or cooled many times over.The problem lies in the fact that nickel or silicon bronze rod heats and contracts at a different rate than the cast iron. You can seemingly repair the crack but it's just a matter of time before it fails again. It could one heating or it could be fifty heatings but with a pot full of lead it's just not worth pushing your luck. In the case of a Horror Fright pot it would be cheaper to buy a new one than pay to repair one...Ray

[buck1]

Heck , just solder it! LOL
Someone had to say it!

[JIMinPHX]

Good point Ray. I've done that type of repair on an engine head before, but never a pot. The engine head gets heated up to probably 200-300 degrees over & over again, but probably not anywhere near the 600-800 degrees that a lead pot would see. I didn't take that into consideration. Thanks for catching that.

[grages]

Well,

I use a HF cast iron pot and have had not problems, doesn't mean that I wont. But for $15 it will do.

Shawn

[lwknight]

I wouldn't fix it. I think that if its poor enough material to crack the first time that it is likely to break somewhere else.

[357maximum]

After gettin burned when an aluminum pot collapsed and having stainless stock pots get weak in the side and fail and 2 cast iron C.C.P.O.S pots crack on me I went to this.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l80/357maximum/smeltpot004.jpg

It is 14inches I.D and 12 inches tall X 3/8 thick and made of steel.....it will not fail me. I made a bigger one also, but do not use it much. This one will smelt 2+full 5 gaL buckets of ww.

[JIMinPHX]

That's a heck of an ingot stack in the background there. I hope that it never falls on anyone.

[357maximum]

That's a heck of an ingot stack in the background there. I hope that it never falls on anyone.

As crooked as that old wall is the only way it could fall on you is if you were outside on the other side of it. I actually put alot of my ingots in that room trying to level out the house. ;-) this room was a garage at one point in this old ramblers history.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I suspect the cracked chinese pot problem is truly a chinese cottge industry/multiple supplier problem, where generic pots useful with twig fires and charcoal are being sold by one or more large suppliers similar to the lead tainted painted alphabet blocks that have plagued major toy sellers for years. You just can't get rid of them for a hundred reasons. African pots are already here too, all the way up to cane kettle sizes.

Now, a number of us scrap hounds have over the years have used a great variety of cheap ,old and new new pots of various sizes for simple personal casting and had no problems with sauce pots, dutch ovens, or other big cast iron pots from taiwan. I suggest scrounging around for such utensils at the usual places. Believe me, they are out there.

As in another thread on currently available electric hotplates, my theory is that the farther you get from American manufacture, as in from here to Japan, to taiwan, to red china, particularly with western cultural items like forks, the worse the iterations become. Is it not so? Will we someday melt scrap in charcoal filled pits smothered with banana leaves covered over with dirt?

BvT

[Suo Gan]

357Max, How do you get the lead from the bottom of the pot when you are done smelting?

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have a 10" Griswald skillet that the handle snapped of when I picked it up after it had cooled and had been sitting on the shelf for several hours. You just cannot tell with cast when some interior casting flaw (if one esists) will let loose.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Missionary5155,

so you are in Peru, huh?

Cool.

I have an uncle and a few cousins who live in Arequipa. (My uncle is a Pastor).

My father is from Huancayo, and my mother is from Lima.

In Christ: Raymond

[mold maker]

357maximum He He,
That wall, in a shelter, would shield you from an Atomic blast.
My stash is on the foundation of a chimney. Hope it doesn't sink it.

[357maximum]

357Max, How do you get the lead from the bottom of the pot when you are done smelting?

I have a tripod setup that the pot hangs from (see the heavy welded on washers on the pot) over my modified turkey cooker base. When I am getting close to the bottom I put a pair of large vice grips on a small welded on tit near the bottom and simply tip the pot on it's side. Normally I just leave about an inch in the bottom though....it makes the next smelt .....melt faster.






357maximum He He,
That wall, in a shelter, would shield you from an Atomic blast.
My stash is on the foundation of a chimney. Hope it doesn't sink it.

That wall them ingots are sitting on is a panel covered concrete foundation from when the room was the garage. My wife said something about being well protected from a nuke blast also.............I find that funny and the wall is a west facing wall so if the bad guys decide to nuke lk Michigan or Wisconsin we are covered.[smilie=l:

[wistlepig1]

Well I will show just how dumb I was for the last 30 yrs, I had a Aluminum pot I used. It was cast Al and i used it not knowing that it would give up without notice and fill my boots with lead. Well after knowing and being warned I quit using using it, did want to find out it was true or not!

[docone31]

My son, in cleaning the chimney, put all the ashes in a plastic bucket, much like yours. He went out for groceries and came home to a molten pot, ruined floor, and carpet.
Have you not found similiar issues with your set up?
I would imagine, the large steel pot works great. The limit, would be the plastic pot. I suspect, the heat source to heat the lead in the steel pot might be enough to melt the bucket. I could imagine, then the weight of the wheel weights might make the pot unstable.
I would feel better, if you had it over a grating, or hung it from something that could take the weight rather than trust a plastic bucket.
Just my 2C. Other wise, the steel melt bucket looks like the cats meow! I could do all my ingoting in one sitting rather than every weekend.

[357maximum]

My son, in cleaning the chimney, put all the ashes in a plastic bucket, much like yours. He went out for groceries and came home to a molten pot, ruined floor, and carpet.
Have you not found similiar issues with your set up?
I would imagine, the large steel pot works great. The limit, would be the plastic pot. I suspect, the heat source to heat the lead in the steel pot might be enough to melt the bucket. I could imagine, then the weight of the wheel weights might make the pot unstable.
I would feel better, if you had it over a grating, or hung it from something that could take the weight rather than trust a plastic bucket.
Just my 2C. Other wise, the steel melt bucket looks like the cats meow! I could do all my ingoting in one sitting rather than every weekend.

:veryconfuI just throw a few 17 lb magnesium anodes in the plastic bucket and smelt away......does ya think da bucket will melt at some point? :veryconfu:veryconfu

I sat the smelter up on that bucket when I noticed the concrete beginning to do it's rusty thing to the pot.[smilie=s:

[Rockchucker]

I brazed a couple water pump housings and they're still in service today, brazed a couple 6 cavity Lee handles for members here and as far as I know they're still in service also. Brazing a casting pot, not sure I wouldn't just buy another pot from a different manufacture.

[firebyprolong]

Just take it back to harbor chances are they'll just give you a new one. harbor has always stood behind all the junk ive bought from them with full knowlege i was buying it to beat it to peaces. they know they sell junk i know they sell junk but for the price its well worth trouble

[DLCTEX]

Our local welder charges $75 an hour, $75 minimum. LOL Harbor freight pots are cheaper! If the pot doesn't crack on first use, it probably won't. If it does, return it to Harbor freight.

[Jon]

I've been using a HF dutch oven for at least 2 years, and I haven't had any trouble.

Fill it before you turn on the gas, and don't hit it with anything.

I have a bottom pour ladle that I use to get the lead out of the pot. There's always some left on the bottom, but I can get most of it out. I don't cast bullets directly from the dutch oven. I just make ingots to put in my LEE 10lb pot later.

[Dale53]

The biggest problem with cast iron pots is some drop them, bang them around in general, or hit them while hot. If used with respect they should last a long time. I am currently using a Harbor Freight 12" pot (six quart - about 120 lbs working capacity) and have put well over 1000 lbs through mine.

A similar capacity welded up steel pipe would be better, but I don't have access to that.

If you get through the first melt without problems and take care of it you shouldn't have any problems. Also, look at Suo Gan's first sentence...

Dale53

[GLL]

I made several welded steel pots for ingot production and they can take a beating ! I still use cast iron pots for blending smaller batches of alloy though. There are four of the smaller pots as shown on the burner that are great for 200+ pounds at a time. Each one is reserved for a particular alloy and I can leave excess cooled in he bottom.

I used a plasma torch to cut holes for attaching the cooled pots with hooks to a chain engine hoist.

The burner in the photo has now been heavily braced to support over 300 pounds of WW.

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/FA460DE8C435B56/orig.jpg

[jsizemore]

I use one of those cheap chinese pots. I just have to remember to not hit the edge of my spoon or ladle on the edge of the pot when it's hot and/or full of melt trying to clean the remnants of lead off the spoon.

[Steel185]

I also have a Harbor Freight dutch oven, but just this morning i was at Academy sporting goods, and in their barbeque section they have a whole shelf full of different dutch ovens, the cheapest was $17.99 and looked exactly like my harbor freight. They also have the corn bread molds some use for ingots for $11.99, and a small two inch frying pan that would make a good ladle if they put a longer handle on it.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

There are uses for cracked pots, however.

Don't let your casting chum toss it. Sell it for scrap iron for shipment to red china or use it to collect the hot, smoking, melt-down scum, clips, valve stems, misc. cra..., er...junk the shop guys put in the bucket they sell you to make weight, etc. till they are cool then you can dispose of the crud without hazard to yourself.

I take my crud in a little cardboard box over to the liberal, save the condors, anti-lead, anti fishing, anti-shooting, no dodge ball, kids can't play in the dirt neighborhoods, and set it out beside their trash, sometimes in the green bin, sometimes in the plastic only bin. I usually look for an Escalade or Navigator parked next to a bin with only one piece of recycle in it.

BvT

[Cowboy T]

The Harbor Freight ones Dutch Ovens are only $15, eh? Well, I bought my Lodge one at Wal-Mart for $19.99. That's $5 more, but closer to my house (thus saving me fuel), will last forever, and made in the USA.

Seriously, $5 isn't that much to get something that will last a good, long time.

[zuke]

I picked up a pressure cooker at a Thrift shop for $3.00.
It had no pressure gauge,but has a lid I can clamp down with and is stainless steel.
It's about 16 inch's across and 8-10 inch's deep.
Best thing I've ever bought for smelting, next to the 5 LEE ingot mold's!

[jcwit]

I picked up a pressure cooker at a Thrift shop for $3.00.
It had no pressure gauge,but has a lid I can clamp down with and is stainless steel.
It's about 16 inch's across and 8-10 inch's deep.
Best thing I've ever bought for smelting, next to the 5 LEE ingot mold's!

Check that puppy out with a magnet, lots and lots of pressure cookers are made of aluminum, not a good thing when melting lead.

Opps, missed the part about being made out of stainless. Sorry.