Cheap and easy heat source to smelt lead outdoors?

[RPRNY]

Coal. It's lovely.

[NavyVet1959]

6-7 inwc nat gas (standard house pressure most places) is not enough to get the needed BTU saturation of a high presssure propane rig. That low pressure is OK for a cook stove boiling water or baking pies and heating the furnace, but not for melting lead in large quantities like we like to do.

I guess it depends upon your definition of "large quantities". I recently smelted two 5g buckets of wheelweights and remelted 600 lbs of lead shielding / bricks into smaller ingots over a 2 day period. It would have been just one day, but it started raining and I was outside. It's not just the pressure, but rather the size of the supply line and whether you have a burner that can handle the gas supply. With natural gas, it seems to work best with a lot of small gas orifices in the burner like you see with the "banjo" burners.



I extended my gas line from one side of my house to the other with 1" (IIRC) steel pipe for my outdoor kitchen area and then from there, I use a standard air hose to go to the burner. I've used both 25 ft and 50 ft air hoses -- just kind of depends upon where I want to do the smelting on that particular day.

Just look at the cheap gas log fireplace inserts to get an idea of how many BTUs can be generated from natural gas at standard service pressure. A quick look on the Home Depot site showed one gas log burner for $189 that had 60,000 BTUs. That's more than is necessary to heat my entire house.

Or just look at the gas cooktops to see their total BTU output to see what gas burners are capable of doing.

http://jennair.com/appliances/details/JGC7636BP

In this one example, it can output 78,000 BTUs at the same time and this is not even one of those units with the high BTU wok burners. Sure, it's 6 separate burners, but the issue here is what can the gas supply handle. There's nothing preventing you from using a single burner that was designed to output 78,000 BTUs from the same supply line that comes into your kitchen.

Here's a wok burner that outputs 137,000 BTUs with natural gas:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/town...85SR24CSS.html

[Hankster1962]

I would be a little leery of putting a pot full of lead on top of that stove. Seeing it spill would not be fun to watch. Unless you have it hooked up to a large propane tank, it will go through those little burners like mad.
If you are on a budget, try and locate a used naptha 2 burner stove. They are a dime a dozen seen in a used goods store etc, for very little, and generate an incredible amount of heat. Naptha could be purchased in one gallon containers for cheap.
I used to use an old Coleman 2 burner Naptha stove for years, many many years ago for smelting and ingot forming. Still have it. Haven't used it for years. It worked beautifully, and generated plenty of heat. What I liked about it was that fuel was cheap, and when the level would run low, I would fill it up between batches. I have used a turkey fryer, then years ago, I had taken a cast iron burner out of an old water tank, cut a 20 pound propane tank in half, and set the burner inside the tank, then made a grill for it to set the pot on. I also welded three stubby legs onto the bottom of the propane tank, using angle iron, and large washers on the bottom of the angle iron. It is what I use now. It cost me my time only. Just an idea. If you have been bitten by the "casting bug", you will eventually end up with an electric lead pot somewhere down the line. Be careful, and enjoy.

[dikman]

Yep, wood fire works well - but is hard to regulate the heat and I felt like a smoked kipper, even though I was doing it outside!

Personally, I wouldn't consider those little gas bottles, too expensive and too unstable, in my opinion. For years I melted lead for fishing sinkers using a camping gas stove (the two burner type) and a stainless steel saucepan. I used the same setup when I first started casting boolits, but eventually progressed (in stages) to a portable forge and half-propane tank for smelting and eventually bottom-pours for casting.

[ubetcha]

I have been thinking about building a rocket stove, but the down side would be the temp regulation. Fuel would be extremely cheap. Just sticks and twigs. I think the temp regulation can be done with the amount of stick or twigs one put's in the burner

[GhostHawk]

I suspect charcoal in a small grill or container would work well.

[NavyVet1959]

I have been thinking about building a rocket stove, but the down side would be the temp regulation. Fuel would be extremely cheap. Just sticks and twigs. I think the temp regulation can be done with the amount of stick or twigs one put's in the burner

Air flow will also affect the temperature regulation. Design it with a damper that you can close to help with the regulation.

[nanuk]

I use a wood fire sometimes, too. I have a steel pipe about 1" i.d. and a few feet long that I poke into the middle of the coal bed and a length of old hydraulic return hose that I hook a hair dryer to. Without the forced air, it never gets hot enough.

Gear

I have a fire pot for camping that I have gotten hot enough to soften alloy steel, that I cut it with a hatchet.
no forced air, just a lot of ventilation.

I'm thinking though that a 30gal barrel, with a couple Vs cut into it, opposite sides one higher than the other and open the higher one, slide a piece of 3x3x0.188 angle iron through.

make a rake of some sort to push the WW in, and pull the clips back out.

the lead will pour out the low side.

[Roundgunner]

This is my wood burning setup. Shown here before.

[mjwcaster]

I used a 2 burner coleman gas camp stove to smelt 200+ pounds last year (my first time).
Was $5 or $10 used.
Worked ok, just brace up the grate.
I think I used a gallon of gas, about $4 at the time.

One trick is to use a propane torch on the top to speed up the initial melt.
$4 or less per bottle and I can't make one run out just smelting.

I have cast on the stove in 28F and it worked, some aluminum foil for an additional wind screen helps.

The stove will get things melted by itself, I'm just impatient.
And remember to keep the thing pumped up, especially at first.

I want a better setup, but this works for now.

[GoBig]

This is the set up I use. I fuel it with scrap 2x4" and 4x4" pieces cut to 4 inch lengths. I've also used firewood cut small enough to feed in through the hole. Blower is from an old dryer.

[454PB]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...1-Lead-Smelter

[LarsP08]

I have been told several times that my method is next to pathetic, but what do I care?
I smelt a couple of buckets of range scrap and a few pots of roofing lead a year. It is enough to keep me in home made bullets and my old Primus needs the exercise. If I was smelting as much as some of the people on this site, I might build a wood burning furnace.....
My first try was with an alcohol burning camp stove and that also worked splendidly, although a bit slow.
This old primus cost me zero in investment and it burns filtrated degreaser (more or less kerosene) from my work shop so fuel cost is also zero, hard to beat prizewise and fun to use.


Start slow and make some trials runs in a small scale before going all in. Smelting lead is fun!
/L