Ingot molds - How many do ya need?

[101VooDoo]

How many ingot molds does someone need, for a 6 quart dutch oven/turkey fryer setup?

I'm guessing you'd have about 25 lbs in an average pot? 50? Maybe the question ought to be, 'how long before you can dump and refill an ingot mold'.

Sorry if this has been answered many times before, I've searched for 'ingot mold' and read a ton of posts, but didn't come across this one.

Jim

[BABore]

A 6 qt dutch oven will hold almost 150 lbs of alloy. I use a 4 qt model on a turkey fryer. For ingot molds I use (2) corn bread muffin pans shaped like half ears of corn and (1) old Lee ingot mold. I can fill and dump for about 4 cycles before I have to let them cool down some. I usually reflux during that time. I would think maybe 4-6 of these cast iron pans would do you fine.

[steg]

I get by with four and their Lees, didn't know about that PITA half sized ingots that are in them, so i usually only fill the full size ingots, and by the time I get four poured I can start dumping and re filling them as I go..............steg

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Jim,

I have 6 4 ingot molds the size of the ingots you got from me, They hold a little bit less than my 6 qt DO. I also have a 12 soap bar Cast iron mold that does 1# ingots that I fill out of the same pot of lead, then refill and do it again.

Sam :D

[runfiverun]

build you a ingot mold from angle iron.
i have 10 lyman/rcbs and one 8 gang angle iron ingot mold.
for a 6 qt at 18 lbs per ingot fill [angle iron mold] that's bout all you'll need.
do a search for the angle iron ingot mold thread.

[fredj338]

I use two molds & wish I had more. It takes a couple of minutes for the ingots to go solid when the molds are hot. Water cooling the BOTTOM of the molds between pours speeds things up. I don't smelt often, so it's not worth buying more, but if you are making your own, I would go w/ at least (4) 2-3# molds.
Molds are easily/cheaply made form scrap angle or channel iron & some scrap plate. If you have access to a welder, maybe $4 each in steel. Like these:
http://www.glockpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11329

[XWrench3]

i was using 2 - 12 cup cupcake molds and a lyman ingot mold. last itme i smelted, it had to fill and refill them more than i wanted to. i ended up waiting for lead to cool down and solidify so i could dump and refill again. i have been shopping at all the resale stores, and now have 6 - 12 cup cupcake molds, 2 - 6 cup ones, and my lyman mold. i am hoping that this will suffice. you can pick up the cupcake molds cheap at yard sales and resale shops. well worth the small investment. i save my corncob mold for linotype. i also picked up several mini cupcake molds. i plan on using them for pure soft lead. that way all my lead will be a different size and easier for my old decrepid mind to keep straight.

[101VooDoo]

Thanks everybody,

I'd just seen pictures of someone with about a dozen or more of the 1x4s molds laid out, and was thinking that couldn't be right for the size of my pot, unless they took a while to cool down.

No joy in tracking down any of the used corn-bread pans, must not be a common item around Reno, and am a little leery of the muffin pans, having read more than a few 'stuck ingot' threads. Saw a couple mini-loaf pans at a restaurant supply store that looked just about perfect but seemed to be covered in a brownish no-stick looking finish of some sort.

I've got two of the 1x4 (an RCBS & a Lyman) and will get two more of the 4/5x4 size (someone on the site makes them, I need to track down the post).

Sam, your 4-5 lb ingots seem to be just about the perfect size. 4 Lbs is big enough without being too big, and not having to deal with a big pile of 1 lb'ers.

Jim

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Jim,

RayinNH makes some fine stuff for casting, Molds, skimmers and Ladles. I have his large ladle and skimmer and enjoy my smelting much more than before. If I hadn't already had my molds made I would have ordered from him.

Sam :D

[MT Gianni]

Ambient temp matters a lot. They set up really quick around zero. They take a while @ 95 F. I like water cooling ingot molds. Set the mold in an inch of water in a pan and it cools faster than air drying. Also if it is on a rack for the air to hit the bottom rather than on plywood, concrete or dirt. I clean up spills best if I put my ingot molds on a 4x4 sheet of plywood and that catches any spills.

[101VooDoo]

Thanks Sam, those are the one's I was thinking of.

Gianni - good idea on the rack, I'll try a couple bricks and a grill to get some air under them. Not sure if I have the stones to try the water/molten lead trick though.

Jim

[D Crockett]

Jim I will make you all the moulds you want up to 5 cavity at $5 per cavity plus shipping if you want to see pictures of them pm me your email address and I will send you pictures of some I uses now they are made out of angle and will dump out the ingot if you do not over fill them every time to answer the question I have about 30 single cavity moulds that I use but I made them to D Crockett

[Echo]

No joy in tracking down any of the used corn-bread pans, must not be a common item around Reno, and am a little leery of the muffin pans, having read more than a few 'stuck ingot' threads. Saw a couple mini-loaf pans at a restaurant supply store that looked just about perfect but seemed to be covered in a brownish no-stick looking finish of some sort.



Jim, don't sweat the non-stick coating. My muffin pan still has it, after many ingots. And don't sweat the teflon poison problem. There isn't enough teflon on these pans to be a problem.

[cheese1566]

I use three 12 cavity mini-muffin ingot pans for regular WW's and a large muffin pan and Lyman ingot mold for soft lead for identification. Don't make too large of ingots so they don't fit in your pot! I almost did with the large muffin pan.:shock:

I fill the three pans and while cooling, I refill my smelter pan with wheel weights. Once melted, I dump the ingots and let the pan cool while fluxing the new melt. Gets in a pretty good rythym since the pot is half full with molten lead when I add more weights. I did about 250 pounds last week in about 2 hours.

I used mini muffin teflon coated pans at first. The teflon burned off and the pans got too hot during my second smelting operation. One ingot in each pan stuck and the cavity had to be pounded out, leaving only 11 cavities in each pan. I sandblasted them to bare steel and left them outside for weeks wet to get a good coating of surface rust. No more sticking...[smilie=s:

[101VooDoo]

Crockett - thanks for the offer, but I had already put an order in with Ray.

Echo/Cheese, maybe I'll pick up one of the mini-loafs and give it a shot, seems like the ingots would be a nice 2lb or so size.

Jim

[casterofboolits]

I use three cast iron muffin pans and smelt in an old propane plumbers pot. One of the muffin pans only has five usable cavities as I broke it trying to get the muffins out. :violin:

I then used a dremmel to smooth out the cavities and nary a problem since. [smilie=w:

I get 27 2.2# muffins per pot. Approximatly 60#. These muffins fit my RCBS 10 kilo pots perfectly.

I have eight of the Lyman, RCBS one pound ingot molds and one of the Lee ingot molds. I only use these for Lino/Tin ingots to use as alloy "sweetner" for my 50/50range lead/ww mix when casting 9mm, 38/357, 40 S&W, etc. The sweetner is 90% lino, 10% tin. Tin and lino ordered from Rotometals.

I like my boolits to weigh exactly what the mold is supposed to weigh within plus or minus one grain. To achieve this I have milled or ground the tops of Lyman molds to match this objective. I always buy my Lyman four cavity molds in pairs. No need to do this with Saeco or H&G molds. I lways use three four cavity molds when casting to control heat.

[imashooter2]

Running 4 Lyman molds and the 2 large slots in a Lee, I can pour continuous ingots from an 8 quart Dutch oven. By the time #5 is filled, #1 is ready to dump.

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/break600.jpg

[101VooDoo]

One of RayinNH's Moulds - outstanding quality! Ingot filled with Hard Ball weights 5 lb 13 oz. If I hadn't been trying to empty the pot and overfilled it, I'm guessing the ingot would be just about 5 lb even.

Thanks Ray -

Jim

[qajaq59]

Every time I see anything that even resembles a mold at a garage sale I buy it. More is better.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use two Lee ingot molds, while smelting with a 4 qt pot.
but after reading this thread, I'm feeling a little inadequate :(

[Munkeyjoe]

Running 4 Lyman molds and the 2 large slots in a Lee, I can pour continuous ingots from an 8 quart Dutch oven. By the time #5 is filled, #1 is ready to dump.

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/break600.jpg

Holy Jeez..... Dats a lotta lead!!


And to get back on track... I have 2 Lyman molds and 2x 6 cavity muffin pans I use. I have a small set up (about 10# give or take) and that is more than enough for me.

[Echo]

I generally use the muffin mold for rendering. Those ingots usually weigh about 2+ lbs. Then for alloying to a specification, I use my angle-iron molds strictly for WW+2%Sn. Lyman/SAECO/RCBS ingot molds for other stuff, like 50/50 WW/Lino, or 4W-M (4 parts WW, one part Mono), and so on. And mark with date and mixture.

[imashooter2]

Holy Jeez..... Dats a lotta lead!!


And to get back on track... I have 2 Lyman molds and 2x 6 cavity muffin pans I use. I have a small set up (about 10# give or take) and that is more than enough for me.

That's break time. Here's the net for the day:

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/done600.jpg

And another from 2007:

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/smelt1.jpg

That's about all I care to do in a day. By the time I get it all cleaned up and stored away, I'm pretty shagged out. Getting old I guess.:oops:

[RayinNH]

imashooter, that's downright beautiful. Lead, the other precious metal...Ray

[Ole]

A couple 12 cavity muffin pans should be enough. Toss a wet rag on top of the one you just poured and it should be ready to dump by the time the other one is poured.

[Colorado4wheel]

I use two Lees. I water cool them to speed things up. Its a PITA so I would get more if you can.

[Munkeyjoe]

Imashooter2,

Thats more lead than I use all year..... you make my small set up look pitiful....;)

[riverwalker76]

I'm small time here! Compared to some of your setups. :veryconfu

I run a 6 Qt. Dutch Oven on a Turkey Fryer, and I usually only smelt 1 - 5 gallon bucket of WW a day. I use 1 Lyman ingot mould, and I add WW and flux to the mix whenever I am waiting on the mould batch to cool. I have my setup on an old piece of 3/4" plywood inside my 40 X 60 shop with constant airflow from a stable door in the back with a fan in and 1 large door on either side. The air moves really well in there.

After I fill my ingot mould on the plywood I transfer it to the concrete floor to cool. Plywood isn't conducive to hot aluminum, so I only fill my mould on the plywood to keep any spills on the wood. I've found the plywood to actually insulate the mould and keep it warmer ... longer. The concrete floor cools the mould really well. I'll probably buy another Lyman mould on my next order, but right now ... change is tight so I'm happy with what I have. :wink:

[Dale53]

This is what I am using now when I smelt. I have added two more of the angle iron ingot moulds to my stash:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/QWinter2009andleadsmelting-1769.jpg

Dale53

[JIMinPHX]

I've only run a big batch once. 1 Lyman ingot mold, 1 RCBS (same size) & 2 angle iron molds that each hold about twice as much as the Lyman were enough to keep me going steady.