Wood fire for smelting lead?

[spurgon]

I am thinking about using a wood fire to smelt my wheel weights. I probably won't be

doing it that offen so I thought one more thing not to have to keep up with. I've got

300 lbs of wheel weights . Am I on a viable path here?

thanks
spurgon

[Pepe Ray]

on your fire holding equipment. Pit?.Forge? Stove? Forced air? Convert to charcoal? Hard wood? Softwood? Actually wood has plenty of calories but needs a controllable feeding system. If you've got the experience , go for it.
Pepe Ray

[beagle]

Actually, if you have the place outside and not close to neighbors, it's a good solution. You can make a pit that will support the pot from old fire brick. Find a junked vacumn cleaner and reverse the flow of air and you have a electric bellows. With plenty of scrap wood, you can knock some WWs down to ingots really quick./beagle

[Lloyd Smale]

i use a cut in half hot water heater with legs welded on it. They allready are threaded for a nipple for the drain valve and a nipple and a gate valve to control flow and your all set.

[skullmount]

i use a cut in half hot water heater with legs welded on it. They allready are threaded for a nipple for the drain valve and a nipple and a gate valve to control flow and your all set.

You are doing something very interesting !
What type of gate valve do you use ? (Steel)

BTW, How much lead will fit in half a water tank ?

[Slowpoke]

I am thinking about using a wood fire to smelt my wheel weights. I probably won't be

doing it that offen so I thought one more thing not to have to keep up with. I've got

300 lbs of wheel weights . Am I on a viable path here?

thanks
spurgon

In the old days I melted all my lead with a home made pot made from 12 in. well casing setting on rocks with a little hollow scooped out under the pot.

I used mesquite and oak for wood and had several small pieces of sheet metal that I leaned up against the pot to concentrate the heat.

I melted sheet lead, babbit and WW this way, Back then the hotter the better, but today I would go a little slower and use a thermometer and stay around 600* 650* in case you have a few zinc weight's in your batch.

Be a good way to spend a cold clear day.


good luck

[twoworms]

I have an old cooking pot that holds 150lbs + of lead. The first time I used it I melted about 100lbs of lead with 2X4 lumber cut about 16" to 18" long added as needed around the bottom of the pot. It took a lot of the boards but as it was scrap lumber it didn't matter. If you have better burning wood it would help.

Good luck,

Tim

[miestro_jerry]

Make sure you are not down wind from your pot. lead is very dangerous to living things.

Jerry

[Lloyd Smale]

you have to find a valve that is totaly metal. (brass, bronze) alot of the valves you find in the hardware store have plastic parts inside of them. YOu also need a dammed good pair of gloves to reach in and work the valve. Its not a nice clean easy job. You eat smoke and have to put up with the heat but whats nice with the setup is you just fill it with wws. It holds about 3 buckets and light the fire and when your done just let the fire go out and the next day dump out all your clips and junk. biggest reason i quit doing it is zinc contamination. Im to lazy to sit and pick the zinc clips out of 3 buckets of wws. When i use my turkey fryer i can control the heat and pick them out before they melt because they float to the top.

You are doing something very interesting !
What type of gate valve do you use ? (Steel)

BTW, How much lead will fit in half a water tank ?

[waksupi]

Make sure you are not down wind from your pot. lead is very dangerous to living things.

Jerry

Jerry, unless he decides to boil the lead, it is no health hazard, as far as fumes are concerned.

[schutzen]

Lloyd Smale & Skullmount:

I use an all brass plug style gas valve with a lever handle. A two foot section of steel pipe with a wooden plug in the handle end makes operating the lever a lot cooler job. By the way, do not forget to plug the handle end. A good gas flame can travel a long way up and even out the pipe.

[TCLouis]

that there is a way to smelt large quantities that does not involve getting rid of wood scraps and branches.

load the lead in the 1/2 water heater tank, build a pyre, pour sawdust in the tank (forms a nice carbon blanket on top of the melt).

Set the fire and come back in a hour with long sleeves, full face shield (300-400 lbs of molten lead could get unfriendly if something happened), three or more (1 1/2"X1 1/2" angle iron) gang molds, a dipping ladle and about 1.5 hours to cast and tote a "batch" of raw Boolits!

Something I have to do next month . . . several times.

NOT a recommended activity for June-October in the south!

[KCSO]

Here's how I use to do it..
I took a section of 30 gal metal drum and set it on bricks and then put wood around and under. I loaded the drum with 150 pounds or so of lead and poured in a quart or so of used motor oil and lit it off. Soo I had lead with clips on top. I used an old long handled metal spoon to remove the clips and dross and then used a long handled dipper to pour out the lead inot a bunch of commercial muffin pans. I could work up a whole batch in about an hour or so. I have since invested in a turkey fryer from Bass Pro for $29.95 and I can do the lead just as fast with less mess and fuss.

[spurgon]

KCSO

What function does it serve when you pour in the old motor oil?

Spurgon

[JIMinPHX]

I've seen it done by building a fire in a 55-gal drum that had some air holes punched in the bottom of it. A pipe was put across the top of the drum & a bucket the size of an army helmet was hung from the pipe. it took about 10-minutes for the lead in the bucket to melt. An infra red thermometer registered 1100 when it was pointed at the base of the flames.

[Junior1942]

I smelt my ww over my front yard cooking campfire. I use a Wal-Mart coffee can with a bail added. I hang the coffee can from a wire rope.

[hydraulic]

Yesterday it warmed up, and wanting to get outside for awhile, I wandered down into the woods back of the house and, remebering this post, decided to try smelting with wood. Found a low spot, scraped up a buch of leaves and twigs, and started a fire. Added branches and some old lumber that was lying around and got a good bed of coals in about an hour and a half. Went back to the house, got my plumbers pot, filled it with WW, took my pliers and muffin tin and returned to the fire. Nestled the pot down in the coals and had melted WWs in 20 minutes. Picked the pot up with a stick, tipped it up with my pliers and poured the mix into the muffin tin. Fun and cheap.