First Run New Smelting Pot

[Fathersalt]

Thought I would post some pictures of tonight's festivities.


Materials-200lbpure/200lbWW/7lb pure Sn from Roto.



Fluxing



And out with an alloy ready to drop in the pot and cast.

All credit on the pot goes to Shadowcaster, I copied his setup. It is truly amazing. To think I have been smelting with my Lee 20 for over 3 years boggles my mind at this point.
I did add one neat feature since I am in this as a small commercial caster. I have a scale underneath the entire setup that will handle 750lb and reads in .2lb increments. I have confirmed at this point it is going to allow me to measure out very precise alloy recipes.
This my very first run with this but I think it can manage 2,000-4,000 lbs of alloy on a long all day run.

[blikseme300]

Nice setup. Time now for some serious boolit casting.

[shredder]

Whoa! Look at the bar on the chainsaw! Are you logging in the old growth? Man that is a loooong chain!

Ok, now that I can concentrate again! Nice smelting setup. I really like the big flat bottomed pot for distributing heat. The best part is how you have braced it and insured against it ever tipping over. I am taking mental notes and marking this page. My very first smelt is only weeks away if the weather ever co operates.

[Chilmonty]

You need to get serious and step up from that puny operation with a cement truck for a pot and a flame thrower for heat!

LOL! Just kidding. That is a very nice setup and I am jealous! Makes my dutch oven look puny.

[Raven_Darkcloud]

Nice setup. I only get 40# to 50# in my tea kettle, but I don't have the space you do. Not to mention 2,000# is well past my needs at this point. 200-400# is more my range to reach. If I ever have higher needs this is the direction i might go.

[shadowcaster]

Mighty fine setup you have there!!

Shad

[USMC87]

I think you are ready for any smelting job out there, Nice setup and good luck with the bullet casting.

[Lance Boyle]

That's a hoss of a setup!

A couple weeks ago I cut an old style propane tank in half. Going to weld handles on the bottom for a pot for now and save the top for a bottom pour smelter down the road.

[Fathersalt]

I'm really happy with my setup. I must make a confession.
Imagine this....you've got 400 lbs of fluxed 2% tin bullet perfect alloy ready.
"The work is over boys, he'll yeah pass me a cold beer and lets pour some ingots!"

Umm No. I'm an idiot.
Instead of going with standard channel iron(rounded bottom corners that tapers outward), I thought hey....I will capture a bit more efficiency and get my hands on special channel iron that is .25" deeper with a square bottom and straight walls. DO NOT do this. We spent the better part of 2 hours freeing the ingots from the molds, which included the use of a roofing hammer, 8lb hammer, 12lb sledge a beast of a screwdriver and at one point I lost my cool and took a 60lb jackhammer to these molds trying to free my precious metal from them.
Lesson learned, I intend on taking an air powered die grinder to the inside of the molds and tapering them.
Did you say, penny wise and pound foolish? I try not to be but in many cases, it fits the bill.
Haha, God, I am most definitely in love with this despicable silver goddess.
To hell with with the tinsel fairy.

[Randy C]

I think I read some where timing is the key to getting the led out of that style mold you can't let it set in there to long

[Fathersalt]

Yeah we experimented with one mold that seemed to dropthe easiest. I could not find a window of opportunity with this mold. Try to drop it early the ingot fractures and casts of fragments ranging from .10-.5lb. Or you let it cool and 90-180 seconds later you look up with a hammer in your hand and realize ur sweating from beating on the back of of a mold.
Standard channel in my humble opinion is not only recommended but mandatory.
I learned this lesson in blood, sweat and tears.

[master caster]

Nice setup you have there and a buddy to smelt with. how funny about the saw it is big, but i was looking for old school Go Kart parts and engines in the picture. lol

[Randy C]

I guess I learned something, I will use round channel when I make mine.

[BruceB]

Normal 90-degree angle-iron makes perfect ingot molds.

Mine was made in the mine mechanical shop, using 1.5" angle with 1.5" flat stock for ends. A rudimentary handle is welded to each end.

Run the welding bead OUTSIDE the mould, to avoid irregular inside surfaces which will impede the free release of the ingots.

My mould creates 10.5" ingots weighing around three pounds each, and it casts four ingots per filling. At 10.5" long, the ingots fit comfortably inside a .50-caliber can, with ENOUGH SPACE AT THE ENDS to insert a finger and thus allow an easy way to lift an ingot from its "nest" among the others. If they fit tightly (too long) it's difficult to get a grip to lift them out.

A.50 can holds about 100 pounds of these ingots without any wasted space, and can be stored outside if desired while the ingots stay nice and dry.

[detox]

I cannot find my old muffin pan, so I just purchased another muffin pan (non teflon) at Walmart for $2.97. Ingots fall out very easily and have a smooth appearance.

[RobS]

Nice looking smelter. I have one made from a half propane tank with a similar bottom pour setup.

[TheGrimReaper]

Man! That is one sweet setup.

[Vinne]

My friend and I had a 500# setup made of a large pipe...about 30" diameter with a bottom pour setup. He had 20 bread pans bead blasted. The ingots came out about 20# each. Real nice setup but is a lot of work. I'm lucky to get 50# of WW at a time now...