Cooling ingot molds

[trixter]

I have 3 Lyman, 4 cavity ingot molds, and after the third pour, they really stay hot for a long time. Can I set them on a wet towel, or just dunk the whole thing into cool water and let sizzle dry? I know that need to be 'good n dry' to reuse. How do you cool your ingot molds?

[cbrick]

Mostly I use enough ingot molds that by the time I get the last one full I can dump the first one and start over.

But yes, setting the ingot mold on a wet towel would speed things up.

Rick

[jonas302]

Wet towel or a fan would be fine I sure wouldn't dunk them

[JSnover]

I used to have a 1" thick slab of aluminum that worked pretty well as a heat sink. But then I did the same as cbrick; bought another mold.

[bangerjim]

Soaking dripping wet towel.

DO NOT dunk in water. The thermal shock can warp the mold!

bangerjim

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

YEP, soaking wet terrycloth towel

[durango]

Table top off of an old table saw. I use an aluminum one but cast iron is better than nothing.

[bhn22]

Set it on a concrete floor, or on a brick. You'll need to give it a minute or two, no matter what you do.

[WilliamDahl]

A lot of BTUs are used up turning water to steam. A folded soaking wet towel works great.

[ph4570]

Yes, go with a wet towel. Just a few seconds does the trick.

[lightman]

I usually work with 6 of these molds and they still get hot enough that I have to stop. Usually in about the third or fourth cycle. I just stop and have a beer break. The old back appreciates this a lot! I am planning on making some molds out of 1 or 1-1/2 inch channel, but they will still get hot. The increase in size should just about empty my pot in that number of cycles. Thats my plan, anyway! I'm also hunting a larger piece of channel for a landing zone, thinking "heat sink" here. Lightman

[Catshooter]

The last time I did much smelting was the winter of '10. I have four Lyman ingot molds. Not wanting to wait for them to cool, I just opened the shop door and set them in the ice on the patio outside. It was fifteen below, so they cooled very nicely.

Thermal shock indeed.


Cat

[zomby woof]

make sure it's a cotton towel

[skeettx]

Sorry, I have 10 ingot moulds and melt about 100 pounds of WW
at one time, I do two pours and leave 20 pounds in the pot to
help start the next batch.
No heat buildup that way.
Mike

[chboats]

We were pouring 500 lbs into ingots. Had 8 Lyman and RCBS ingot molds. The towel method was not cooling the molds fast enough. Ended up with a bucket of water. After dumping the mold we quickly dunked the mold in the water. It cooled the molds enough for the next pour but was still well above 200 degrees so the water was gone by the time the mold was set down. We never had a problem with water left in the molds when we refilled them.

Carl

[DRNurse1]

I know this was implied, but some DA (does not stand for Double Action') here left the wet towel under the ingot moulds during the pour. Not a happy time until I figured out how to hit the mold with all of the alloy. The steam is super heated and, as a gas, can get under things that the liquid alloy cannot.

Just one more learning curve.

[CGT80]

I made some ingot molds out of 1"x2"x1/8" aluminum channel. I put a towel and a 1/4" of water in an aluminum lasagna pan (the thin throw away pans). I set my molds in the pan after the lead solidified. 20 seconds later, I put the mold on a steel plate, but upside down. The ingot came right out and the mold was still hot to handle even with welding gloves. I later added even more water to the pan. It doesn't seem to have warped my molds. The molds have tig welded ends and are not cast, so this may have something to do with it. Each mold is about 6 inches long and makes an ingot that is 3.3 pounds.

When I cast with my cast iron rcbs 1 pound molds, I was more careful. I used the same pan and rag, but with only an 1/8" or less of water. It didn't seem to hurt the mold.

[MGySgt]

Why worry about a hot mold? It just takes longer to solidify the lead. I have 8 or 10 of the RCBS/LYMAN/SAECO 1 lb molds. By the time I fill them all it is time to dump. All the ingots are hard enough.

What I have been using lately is the mini bread mold sold by Wally World - I use 4 of them at a time - 8 mini loafs at 3.5 pounds per mold - That is 112 pounds per pour. Twice and I have emptied my cut off propane tank (by D Crockett)

These fit in my Lyman 20 pound dipper pot. I keep 2 on the back surface, I can add one, flux and my pot temp is back up to pour temp.

And they Stack nicely too!

You do have to be a little gentle with them when you pick them up by an end with a pair of channel locks. You could add some al angle to them for rigidity.

[D Crockett]

I have what I think is the best set up for me. I made 20 ingot molds that fits in a milk crate I also made a bench just wide enough to hold all 20 of them by the time I get to the last one I can go back and dump all the ingots out that is around 60 lbs of lead I get 2 set of pours out of a pot of lead with some left over which I put into a ingot and let get hard then start all over again the ingots fall out of the molds with out sticking like some mold that I have I use a pair of pliers to dump the ingots with I can do 1000 lbs of lead in a day easily on my turkey fryer. D Crockett

[Lead]

I rotate but hot mold is slow drying for sure.