Colman stove??

[gray wolf]

This may be a common sense question but advise is always good.
I have a Colman stove that is fairly new, and in good solid shape.
I also have a bunch of lead that needs to be mixed with some tin and WW.
Bout 150 pounds in all. Simply to much for my 10# lee pot.
If I use a wide base cast iron pot what do you guys think would be a safe weight to ask the stove to hold? and how much do you think it can melt with the heat that a stove like this can generate.

Gray Wolf





Edit to ask:

I also only have one tin for making little engots.
Are there any things arround the camp that I could use as molds for making
little chunks of metal for future use?

[beagle]

I've used both a single burner and a double burner Coleman in my lead melting ventures over the years.

In my opinion, using them for melting down operations is asking too much of the structure and a molten spill would be catastrophic.

If I went with one, I'd get a pair of cinder blocks and some kind of grate or iron rods to support the pot and set the stove underneath and shim it up until you get the heat close enough.

You might get by with it on top and then again...you might not./beagle

[leftiye]

You can take the lid off of the Colemans to get it out of the way. What beagle suggests with bridging a support over the stove is wiser than using the stove itself to support the lead pot. A couple or three 3/4" square stock bars should hold a 75 lb. pot of lead. At least it did for me once, and I just laid them across the Coleman stove to keep the weight off of the grill! The Coleman grill gets red hot when melting lead, so don't expect it to withstand any sizeable weight. The last Coleman stove I bought I got for $5 at a thrift store. The gallon of fuel I bought for it at Wally world cost almost $7, oh,well. Nowadays I melt lead with natural gas on a big hefty cast iron camp stove (modified for natural gas- you just bore out the jets a little), I still use the 3/4" bars to support the dutch oven- the grill on this one gets red hot too.

[gray wolf]

thanks -- looks like I don't do it.
Here in the bush the stove could be a very important thing to have.
I can't afford a knew one or risk an accident, and what you have said makes it sound iffy.
I thank you for the advise and truthfulness.

[MT Gianni]

You do not want to smelt down ww in your casting pot if there is any other option. It's much too dirty then clogs your nozzle. Beer/soda cans work ok for ingot molds, cut the top off then pour. They will not fit into a Lee 10 lb pot. Try a cast iron corn muffin pan, a rusty muffin pan or weld up some angle iron to pour ingots. If all that is out of your reach, cool your ingot pan in water. It's ok to pour lead into water, never water into lead. Any spills would have to be remelted another day, starting out in a cold pot. Gianni.

[stanley2]

You can always make a frame for your stove like this one:

[Wayne Smith]

If you are in the bush you can melt lead over a hardwood fire. You can over a softwood fire, too, but your pot gets covered with carbon externally!

[ron brooks]

G.W.,

How about charcoal? I bet a bag or two of Kingsford would fix you right up.

Ron

[TCLouis]

Buy any steel container that will hold as much as you want to melt down.

I use 2/3 of a 10 gallon water heater cut lengthwise.

Sit it on some strong supporting rocks/firebrick to hold it several inches off of the ground.

Fill in under the container with 3-5in limbs.

Fill it with lead until it is slightly over the top.

mix about a shovel or two full of sawdust in with the lead, this is important as it forms a carbon blanket floating on the leads surface and protects the melt from oxidizing

Build a tepee of wood over it of using limbs of about the same size.

Sit the wood on fire and check on it every 10 minutes or so.

Depending on the wood and amount of lead it should take up to 1 hour to melt.


Put on gloves, long sleeves, and a clear full face shield.


Stir it real well leaving the coating of carbon on the top (that is all of the sawdust).

Clean off most of the carbon floating on top of the melt and flux the melt

Cast ingots til you get tired, and then do the other half of the melt.

My ingot molds are made from 1.5X1.5X.125 angle iron and as luck would have it cast ingots that weigh 1 pound on the average. This triangle sits pretty in my 20 pound Lee casting pot also ( mine does NOT drip very often

I cast three gang ingot molds full and then dump them, which come out to about 18 pounds.

The melting pot is not very strong considering the amount of lead, but then it is fully supported underneath and to the sides.

When one thinks about the heat in this it is easy to figure out that it is a project best sit aside for a cool to cold DRY day. You will end up tired and ready to ignore casting by the time you get this all done.

[jonk]

Don't frighten the guy, lol. Of COURSE he can melt down his wheelweights on a stove, he just can't do it 100 pounds at a time. I do mine in 20 pound batches with no problems; the stove is more than robust enough to take that much weight; I mean, figure it is meant to hold two heavy cast iron skillets; so no issues. If you want to go higher, then I agree- a further stengthening of some kind is called for.

[gray wolf]

OK Guy's that's a bunch of good ideas. I new all was not lost. I guess this dog still has a chance to hunt EH. I have been offered some help from one of the great people on this forum. So with all the good advise and help from a member I think this can come togeather.
I thought all was lost for a moment. Now I am looking forword to smelting like the big guy's. EH. Or at least smelting.


Thank you all.

P/S I have no welding stuff.

[Old Ironsights]

I do "mini melts" all the time using a little camp stove and a 2qt cast iron stockpot.

24lbs of lead isn't going to crush the stove.

[jar-wv]

I use a camp stove and 8 quart ss stock pan, and have smelted 100 lbs at once, adding wheelweights as it melts down. I did notice the other day that the grill on top of the stove was bent down pretty good. Probably will lighten up on future smelts.

jar

[Dale53]

>>>I did notice the other day that the grill on top of the stove was bent down pretty good. Probably will lighten up on future smelts.<<<

That is EXACTLY the problem. It can get MUCH worse. If it collapses (mine did ) it can dump a large quantity of molten lead just where you don't want it! We MUST be careful when we are dealing with molten lead!!

I would no longer use a Coleman stove unless I seriously reinforced the grille. When the grill gets red hot (as it will when melting lead) it loses most of its strength.

Let's be careful, folks. We don't need to get anyone or anything hurt!

Dale53

[BruceB]

I've said it before:

The easiest and cheapest heat source I've found is a Harbor Freight weed-burner for LESS than $20. With such a burner, a steel or iron pot, and a dozen or so concrete blocks or bricks, one could build a strong, wind-protected and secure setup that will melt lead unbelievably fast.

With my weed burner operating yesterday on virtually its LOWEST setting, it was melting wheelweights in my fifty-pound-capacity steel pot just about as fast as I could fill my ingot mould, add WW to the pot, dump the mould, and get ready for the next filling. It was practically continuous production. The 20-pound propane bottle was nearly empty, judging by its weight, but I smelted fully 200 pounds of metal and it's STILL not empty!

If I had more than one ingot mould (mine is made from angle iron and casts four 3-pound x 10" ingots at a time) I could probably double production just by turning up the heat. The risk there would be in the possibility of accidentally melting a zinc weight by mistake due to the rapid temperature rise.

My burner works on a dedicated old table, with a hole cut to accept the burner head so that it operates vertically under the pot. The men at the Shaft & Hoist shop at the mine built me some fine goodies to accomplish the job, but it's easily duplicated. The weed burner can also be used for....burning weeds.

[Duckiller]

Wayne, if you don't want carbon on the bottom of of your pots coat the outside of the pot with liquid dish detergent prior to putting on the fire. When through cooking the soap and carbon easily washes of.