Propane Torch

[NavyVet1959]

Since you are re-heating an ingot and need more btu's use Mapp gas, available at Lowes

MAPP gas is more expensive, especially if you are buying it in the small bottles that Lowes handles. Enough so that the extra BTUs is not worth it. He would be better served by using a 20-lb LPG tank and having a torch that could run off of it.

[bangerjim]

MAPP gas is crazy expensive.....especially to just warm up lead ingots! (HOT PLATE!) I use it for fast heat when sweating copper lines in the wall. You want a ton of heat real fast.....or you could ignite the wall! And always use a heat barrier fabric!

MAPP works great for plumbing uses. But you only use it for a few seconds to get the job done. At least that is all the time I need!

banger

[NavyVet1959]

What size ingots are you casting? Are you using a ladle or a bottom pour pot? It's possible that the only way to get a smooth bottom on the ingot might be to have some sort of sprue cutter on the mold.

[bangerjim]

Why do you even care about what your ingots look like on the bottom? Most of mine look like carp and they still yield perfect boolits........every time. After all, the ingots are only an easy way to add a know measured amount of alloy to your casting pot, not win a beauty contest!

Ingots will slop around and harden as will and give rough, dimpled, dented, sunken surfaces all the time. And if you do not pour fast enough there will be layer lines on the sides. So for your example, you would have to remelt the ENTIRE ingot in the ingot mold. Might as well use it over a stove and re-melt in your ingot mold.

Beauty is only skin deep. Ugly ingots (if properly fluxed and cleaned during the re-melting process) give excellent boolits.

Save the propane torch $$ and buy more lead.

banger