Am I crazy?

[mcdonl]

Ok folks... so... I have a dilema. I want to cast some boolits.

I have my ingot molds, Lee 10 pound pot, my Lee 9mm mold, ladels and ww's...

The problem is, I do not have a turkey fryer yet and will not have the cash for a few weeks. I spent my money on small pistol primers :) so I have shells, cleaned and primed and powder, no bollits.

Here is the part about being crazy...

I got most of my 2.5 5 gallon buckets of WW's from a dealer so some of the weights are pretty much new and they look it.

I took about 15 or so pounds of the cleanest ones I could find and put them in a can, with some degreaser and boiling water and washed them... then rinsed and towell dried them and then put them in a dry container on my furnace in the basement to dry them.

Am I going to ruin my lee 10 pound production pot if I smelt them in there? I know it is best not to, but these are very clean...

What do you think I should do?

[spqrzilla]

Do you have a Coleman camp stove? Or does a friend? I'd use that and a cast iron pot to smelt them.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Some smelt with wood fires.

Sam :D

[mcdonl]

So am I seeing that smelting in my pot is a bad idea? :(

I like the woodfire idea, that may be a way to go at least it would allow me to get started. I am kinda going crazy having everything but a turkey fryer... I HATE BEING POOR :)

Thanks for stopping me from doing something stupid.

[Lead Fred]

Been using the same Coleman camp stove for years.

You can get a one burner for $20

[mcdonl]

Fred... when I say poor... I mean poor with a capital P - I do not have the $20 plus cost of gas canisters.

I give myself an allowance to spend on non essential items, like anything shooting related and I spent my allowance on my reloading and casting supplies. Didn't even have a $20 spot left over.

Oh well, I have waited this long I can wait another couple of months.

[beagle]

I smelt WWs in my RCBS furnace all the time, skim off the ****, flux and cast. I've done it with my old Lyman as well.

Not the best deal but it will work.

Wouldn't think Lees would be any different./beagle

[Springfield]

Smelting in a LEE pot works fine, but you run the risk of getting junk in the spout. So what you do is smelt all those wheelweights and when you get done clean the pot and spigot. Then cast the bullets. Being poor doesn't mean you can't do it, it just takes more time and effort.

[shooterg]

I did over 100 lbs. in my Lee 20 before getting a fryer. You'll just need to clean the pot well before putting clean ingots for casting back in. PITA ! But if you can't wait for the turkey fryer, it'll do.

[jonk]

The only downsides are the dirt and the lack of consistency from batch to batch alloy wise.

No issue though. Do it outside so the smoke cooks off.

Cleaning the weights is a waste of time in my opinion.

[NickSS]

I concure with what was said above. I have melted ww in my casting pot when I was poor. In fact I started casting using and old tin enamel pot on a one burner electric stove in my backyard and pouring with a ladle I made from a spoon. That was when I was poor so if I can do it you can do it.

[deltaenterprizes]

I smelted lead in my Lee 10 pounder when I started and was Poor too! And I started with a Lee 38 cal 150gr SWC 2 cavity mold. It made plenty of boolits before I had it drilled to make a core mold for 44 "J" bullets.

[Lead Fred]

Fred... when I say poor... I mean poor with a capital P - I do not have the $20 plus cost of gas canisters.



Sorry Bro, forgot to mention I use a adapter form Cabella's, and a 5 gal BBQ propane bottle. I was using one of those green bottles per casting session. It got real costly.

An electric furnace is cheaper. They just longer to heat up

Cabella's has a 10 lb one on sale for $36 now.
They are on back order.

I just ordered a 20lb from Midway for $62 to do some gold smelting with.

[lwknight]

Am I going to ruin my lee 10 pound production pot if I smelt them in there? I know it is best not to, but these are very clean...

It will NOT ruin the casting pot. At worst , some crud might clog the spout and you can clean it out. Its just an unnecessary drudgery to do so several times.

The only viable reasons that we say not to smelt in the casting pot is that we smelt large quantities of all kinds of junk and run a high risk that bits of grit or what not could clog up the spout. The stick on WWs are NASTY unless you go to the trouble of cleaning the adhesive foam with a solvent. No one would want to smelt nasty stuff indoors and the turkey fryer is a lot more productive.

Anything that is more or less clean should not give you any trouble in the casting pot.

[DLCTEX]

I smelted with my Lee pot for several years. Just clean it when done.However when I first started casting I smelted WW and then just cast from the pot. Smelt 10 # and cast again. You will get fewer inclusions if you put the metal in ingots and clean the pot before casting. If smelting in your casting pot it pays to put in as clean weights as possible. Not the best way, but a poor man has poor ways.:D

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Use your pot, until you can do better, if you have clean WW you should not have a problem, flux and remove clips, flux, stir and pour some boolits, when melting the WW try to keep your pot between 650-700 degrees, be sure to keep Zink ww out of the pot, they melt at about 750 degrees so if you get a floater, remove it....good luck

[mroliver77]

Just make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the pot aggressively while smelting/fluxing. The weight of the lead can actually trap stuff against the sides and bottom but when stirred and scraped it will float to the top and can be skimmed off.
Jay

[KYCaster]

So Mcdonl, you like the wood fire idea? I did all my smelting over a wood fire for quite a few years. If that's all I had I wouldn't feel the least bit handicapped.

Make sure the pot is well supported and keep the fire contained in a small area to concentrate the heat where you want it. I find fast burning wood works best, you need to stoke it more often but it's easier to control the heat. Construction scraps and old pallets work great, they're easy to find, easy to work with and usually FREE.

Cheap doesn't necessarily mean second rate. Try it a couple of times and you may find you don't need a turkey frier.

Jerry

[Blammer]

I've smelted in my casting pot for years before I did "mass production'' smelting. i just leave them dirty, I just considered it flux. :)

Won't hurt a thing.

[Echo]

I would guess most of us started smelting in our pots - I know I did, and continued for many years, until I decided to get the turkey fryer. Go ahead and use your pot for rendering down the WW's...

[runfiverun]

i bought my first 20 lb pot to smelt in, as i wanted the ingots for my shotmaker.
that pot is still going along fine 20 years later.
i used a little propane torch to speed things along.

[mcdonl]

LOL... thanks everyone... Ok, it is Saturday morning and I am not doing anything so I will tell about my adventures last night in smelting for the first time...

Ok.. so I opened my camper as I remember I did have a single burner propane stove... my wife said it didn't work right, but I figured I would try it anyway... :) what does she know right?

So, I looked and could not find any of the short Coleman propane tanks that fit the base I have, but I was determined so I looked around and found some of the tall tanks for sweating pipes (Ok... imagine the dangers and what COULD happen by using such a tall, thin device....)

I had the same thoughts, so I decided to grab some patio stones and build a fortress around the tank to shore it up. I think it worked, as... well... the structure itself never collapsed or fell over... :)

So, I got the thing lit and used all I could find for a bowl... a stainless steel salad bowl :) while I was at it, I grabbed a candle, slotted spoon and 1/4 measuring cup while I was in this undisclosed source of casting supplies :twisted:

So, now I had everything that I needed so I turned on the burner, grabbed some WW's and put them in the "pot" :) and I put all of the utensils and my Lyman ingot mold up on the stone fortress to heat all of them up as well.

You know that saying... "watch the pot and the lead never melts"? Well, aint that the truth!

But, eventually everything was starting to heat up, and the lead was getting soft and then presto... it turned to a liquid and I skimmed the clips and all right off the top!! Success!! Now I was just looking at a bowl of lead...

(Question about the fumes... I have to ask what will sound like a dumb question, but reading what you have read so far I am sure you will understand :) Is there a difference between being able to smell something and inhaling the fumes? I had a fan at my back, and I even held my breath every time I went to the pot... The hypoxia may have led to my end result, but I am not sure :) )

So, I am a little reckless, but because I am aware of it I manage to stay safer then the average buffoon, but not "safe".... so anyway at this point I was all excited. I was also a little overwhelmed as to what do do next. I had not fluxed yet, but the lead looked great and I started with clean pieces so I was not sure if I needed to. Also, I was very surprised at how heavy it was to stir. Also, I realized that the 1/4 measuring cup was a bad idea... I need a big spoon.

Well... It is a little blurry but what I ended up with are peanut brittle shaped ingots that were molded on my table top :drinks: as I said before I used my cautious recklessness to avoid being burned and I am actually pretty excited about the finished product despite the mixed results. I think that I wanted to tip the pot to see how easy it would be to pour it and when I put it back on the burner it was lopped sided. Next month, I get a damned Turkey Fryer, big spoon and ladel, and cast iron pot!

It was fun, and I learned a lot despite the end result.

Leroy

[Echo]

And what did SWMBO say when she spotted the BIG burnt spot on the table, Hmmm...

No problem, 30 minutes with a belt sander and a pint of clear will set things (sorta) straight.

Or was it a plastic table top? Oh me...

[markinalpine]

Don't forget to look at whatever thrift shops you might have in your area. I found two cast iron cornbread pans that produce pretty good ingots for my melter for $5.00, and I got a water boiler hot-pot that I use to mix and store lube for $3.00 Dollar stores are good too. Other people have reported wonderful bargains from yard/garage sales, but I've never found anything that way.

Welcome to the madness,
Mark :coffeecom

[blackthorn]

If you want to melt WW, or any other dirty scrap, over a wood fire, get an old 20lb propane tank (usually free), screw out the valve, fill the tank with water and cut a piece (3 or 4 inches) out of the top around the valve. Now that you have the danger of an explosion taken care of, drain the water, lay the tank on its side and cut it off as close to the top "shoulder" as possible. Set the "pot" up solidly and build your fire around it. This set up not only works with the wood fire, it gives you a free pot that can be used on your turkey frier when you can afford one! This pot will hold WAY more lead than you can lift so be prepared to "dip" it out.

Another option is if you have a "tiger torch" or even a good "weed burner": take four building blocks and set them on the ground leaving an opening where the blocks meet. Place a cast (or steel) 45 degree pipe "elbow" in the opening. Place your pot full of scrap lead on the blocks over the top opening of the elbow, fire up your torch and lay it in the lower end of the elbow.

Hope this helps! Have a great day.

[mcdonl]

Thanks everyone! I love the idea about the propane tanks. I have two with the old style valves that cannot be filled. Also, the table was an old junk one on my back porch :) Also, I would say it maybe topped out at 40 degrees today.

So, I took the "ingots" - peanut brittle shaped as they were and some more wheel weights and ended up with about 100 usable bullets and a few that seemed to be the result of the mold getting too hot. There was sprew under the sprew plate, and also the mold wasn't closing all the way after a while. But, I just dropped the bad ones back in. I also ended up with 5 ingots from my lyman ingot mold in addition to the 100 bullets. But, we were only out there for an hour!

Yard sailing is something me and the family like to do so this will be cool to look for casting supplies!!

Do I need to size these? I do not have a sizer, but the Lee sizer is a good price.

Thanks the help!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/IMG00657.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/IMG00658.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mcdonl/IMG00662.jpg

[ghh3rd]

Good job! As they say, where there's a will, there's a way.

I couldn't wait either, and on my very first attempt used a coleman stove. I pumped it, lit it, and pumped it again a few minutes later. When I took my finger off of the plunger, fuel shot out over my hand an arm and ignited. I still managed to make a few boolits that night, with a blistered hand.

ps: don't forget to mark your cookware somehow so it doesn't get used for food.

[Archer]

Mcdonl,

Way, way, way, back, when I was about 20, and in the same shape
you are now, and didn't know about the danger of lead fumes. I casted
a ton of round balls on the kitchen stove in a small pan, and used a bent spoon
for a ladle that I pinched in a vice to make a pour spout. I just used what I had
to make do, and the round balls shot fine. Took a lot of deer with them.
I'm 68 now, so I guess I survived it all. I still have the bent spoon. :o)

[Blacksmith]

Blammer
Tell them you want to be buried with that bent spoon in your pocket. They won't understand but we will.

Blacksmith

[captaint]

mcdonl - Go ahead and smelt away in your pot. I did a couple hundred pounds in my RCBS pot years ago. It didn't hurt anything. Just flux often. Scrape the sides & bottom with a paint stick or similar. You've even cleaned the weights up. I didn't do that. Like someone else said - keep an eye out for the "floaters" and get them out of there. Make some boolits, satisfy your hunger. You'll be happier for it!!!! enjoy Mike