My homemade ingot mold

I had this idea of using a cupcake pan to make ingots. I figured out that I can use steel stamps to identify the mold by stamping the bottom of the pan. I stamp from the bottom so the impression is backward inside the pan. I had to pour my first ingot, then used it to support the inside of the pan so that it wouldn't collapse when I hit the stamp with a hammer. A cupcake of lead is a little over 2 pounds so I stamped it "2 lb", and the type of lead used. For example I've been melting range lead recently so I stamped it "bullet lead", but since I have a bucket of wheel weights coming to me in the near future, I'll just stamp another cupcake "wheel weight". This way I'll alway know what kind of lead I'm using. I bet everyone has an old nasty looking pan crammed away somewhere in the kitchen, I bought a new one for food and used the old one for lead. With twelve cupcakes per pan you have the ability to identify several different alloys. I have a small melting pot so I only needed to stamp two of them for the bullet lead alloy, when I get the wheel weights I'll stamp two more.

Here's a pic of the bottom of the pan.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...323102102a.jpg

And here's a pic of the lead ingots.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...323102103a.jpg

Nice!!

Thanks Centaur, i was just pondering this very thing this evening since i have come into a winfall of many wheel weights.

This just goes to show that there are still great discoveries to be found in boolit casting.

I am going to DEFINITELY use this idea.

Glad you liked my idea, I just happened to have a set of stamps on my bench when I was pouring lead cupcakes and it just came to me. I was thinking about a box of old lead I have that's not identified, and I was wishing that I could remember which one was cerro-bend, and which one was bismuth. I really don't want either mixed with bullet lead.

Great idea!

That is a really great idea! I have been thinking about making some ingot molds myself.

Right now I use different shapes to identify the alloys.

Cornbread sticks are WW, Lyman ingots are Lino, and cornbread wedges are pure lead.

A set of punches can be had at your local Harbor Freight for about the price of a cheeseburger.

I think you are infringing on my patent. I will let it slide, just send me the lead and we can settle out of court.
Jack

Nice, but you spelled it wrong.

See it just goes to show what great minds we have here![smilie=w:

Awesome Idea. I am going to use this....just have to convince the wife that it is OK to have the bottom of her muffins identified as 2 pounds of lead...LOL She might take that s an insult...LOL

J/K......All the pans I find around here are non stick coated....guess i will need to hit the flee market this summer..
Thanks again for the great idea..... Have a good 'un, Guy

bump for a good idea

Simple but effective idea!

Haha very nice idea!! Very creative. -BD

Thats a great idea. A lot of times I don't have the time or energy to stamp ingots after a long smelting session.

Well done. I just use diff molds for diff alloys. That way I know at a glance what I am grabbing.

Nice to be able to indent print! Good thinkin!!

For improvised ingot milds I like angle iron. They stack beautifully and as a welder I walsys have and is east to make up.

CW

Don't know if this is the best idea I have seen on the forum but has to be in the top ten if not the top five.

Nice idea. You can use the non-stick muffin pans. Just heat them and eventually they finish off gassing from the non stick coating. Doesn't take filling them with hot lead many times before they stop making bubbles of gas on the surface of the ingots. Other than that cosmetic blemish on the first few fills they work fine.

Thrift stores and estate sales seem to have muffin and bread loaf pans at good prices.

You might also consider some of these being discussed in group buy forum. I bought some of the Cast Boolit logo versions awhile back and they are nice molds. Now getting ready to do a Red Neck Gold version. I'll probably buy one or two just because I like them and the price is good.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ds-(round-2)-)

I don't use muffin pucks for lead as much as I use them for tin alloys. Garage sale scraps of solder end up as muffin pucks, sometimes I pour them sort of thin like coins. Also use mini muffin tins for portions better suited to pot size batches.