gray wolf
04-04-2010, 05:54 PM
Been a long winter and the snow is almost gone here in western Maine.
Plus I have been under a little pressure lately. Today I forced myself out in the sun and did some casting.
My friend Clyde gave me a smelting set up last November and it's been in my shed. It's a home made welded up one that looks like a Turkey fryer.
It had an old rather thin in the bottom cast iron 8 quart dutch oven with it.
I looked all around the camp and gathered all the pure lead I could find.
I came up with 48 pounds of old roofing lead. All my casting to date has been with my little 10 pound bottom pour Lee pot.
Well I stood the thing up in the back of the camp and it looked like a teradoctile
with out the wings. I guess a better way to say it is ( iron Art ) Anyway next to it was the tank. I never used one of these before and was a little scared of it
( I think ) Julie was on the deck with here hand over her eyes when I fired it up.
Naturally I had to be the big strong guy and tried to look like I had done all this many times before. Been casting since I was about 25 but could you believe I never used one of these set ups.
Fired her up and adjusted the thing for the air flow and that 48 pounds of old lead
smoked like a Indian sending signals. Fluxed it up took off the dross and made some perdy corn cob ingots. So now I got 48 pounds of pure. I think if I mix it with 1/2 WW metal it should be good for the 45 and 32 auto. I want it soft enough for some hollow points also, About 950 FPS 200 grain in the 45 acp.
If I can come up with the WW's I will have almost a 100 pounds of metal and that should get me enough shooting for the summer if I leave Julie home a little.
Man that girl likes to shoot ( that's a good thing ).
All and all the smelting was a piece of cake and a great thing for me to do.
For all the new guys--don't be scared of the big iron smelting set up. Just read the post and ask the questions ( I did ) go slow and think it all through.
It's a blast and loads of fun to see it all come together.
Now when I cast I can say " I did all that--and I did the smelting too "
I asked my brother casters about how to do it months ago and didn't forget what I was told, and it all worked great. Thanks again men.
For everything [smilie=s:
Plus I have been under a little pressure lately. Today I forced myself out in the sun and did some casting.
My friend Clyde gave me a smelting set up last November and it's been in my shed. It's a home made welded up one that looks like a Turkey fryer.
It had an old rather thin in the bottom cast iron 8 quart dutch oven with it.
I looked all around the camp and gathered all the pure lead I could find.
I came up with 48 pounds of old roofing lead. All my casting to date has been with my little 10 pound bottom pour Lee pot.
Well I stood the thing up in the back of the camp and it looked like a teradoctile
with out the wings. I guess a better way to say it is ( iron Art ) Anyway next to it was the tank. I never used one of these before and was a little scared of it
( I think ) Julie was on the deck with here hand over her eyes when I fired it up.
Naturally I had to be the big strong guy and tried to look like I had done all this many times before. Been casting since I was about 25 but could you believe I never used one of these set ups.
Fired her up and adjusted the thing for the air flow and that 48 pounds of old lead
smoked like a Indian sending signals. Fluxed it up took off the dross and made some perdy corn cob ingots. So now I got 48 pounds of pure. I think if I mix it with 1/2 WW metal it should be good for the 45 and 32 auto. I want it soft enough for some hollow points also, About 950 FPS 200 grain in the 45 acp.
If I can come up with the WW's I will have almost a 100 pounds of metal and that should get me enough shooting for the summer if I leave Julie home a little.
Man that girl likes to shoot ( that's a good thing ).
All and all the smelting was a piece of cake and a great thing for me to do.
For all the new guys--don't be scared of the big iron smelting set up. Just read the post and ask the questions ( I did ) go slow and think it all through.
It's a blast and loads of fun to see it all come together.
Now when I cast I can say " I did all that--and I did the smelting too "
I asked my brother casters about how to do it months ago and didn't forget what I was told, and it all worked great. Thanks again men.
For everything [smilie=s: