My fabricated smelting pot, lot's of pics

[truckerdave397]

Easy to see the lead flow is around the head of the screw as it raises when it is unscrewed. Half turn or so on the handle gets the lead flowing.
Great design.

[Budzilla 19]

If i looked at the pictures correctly, the valve is only threaded on the bottom, the top of the valve body has a chamfer cut to match the screw head profile. Unscrew the rod one turn and the valve only opens the amount of one turn of the threads. Pretty ingenious in my book, I bet it works awesome!

[BK7saum]

Easy to see the lead flow is around the head of the screw as it raises when it is unscrewed. Half turn or so on the handle gets the lead flowing.
Great design.

It is not that easy to see on the screen of my phone. After Budzilla 19s explanation, I was able to make out the details of the valve body. On my screen, the picture is a little dark and not exactly crisp. When I enlarge, it only gets more blurry.

I can see now that the upper portion of the valve body is larger than the thread major diameter by quite a bit.

Brad

[Road_Clam]

I drilled the upper segment of the clearence hole to .593". I checked the flow with water and it works perfect. The 82 degree angle of the countersink stops the water flow and seals off flow nicely. Could not test this past weekend as temps were well below freezing. I'll post a vid when I get it up and melting!

[BK7saum]

Thank you Road Clam for providing that information.

[country gent]

Once the surfaces wear together it shouldn't take much force for a good leak proof seal.

[Road_Clam]

Should I put some anti seize on the threads of the countersink bolt or is that not a good idea? I'm concerned about the bolt threads jamming up.

[BK7saum]

I don't know that I would unless a problem presented itself. It would probably burn off in short order.

If you end up backing the screw out too far and disengage the threads, do you have any relief port for the lead to flow out of the threaded valve body when screwing the valve screw back down?

[finstr]

Should I put some anti seize on the threads of the countersink bolt or is that not a good idea? I'm concerned about the bolt threads jamming up.

A little graphite on the threads can't hurt. Keep in mind that lead, like copper is a bearing material. Once you do your first smelt the molten lead will fill the voids around the threads.
Btw that's a great design. The only concern I might have is the amount of thread you have in the bottom of the block vs the amount of leverage you have with that long handle. It would suck to pull the threads out of the block and not be able to shut the valve off thus emptying the entire pot. But hey, that's what prototypes are all about!
ps. those are some really nice looking TIG welds!

[Spector]

Any advantage to threading the the portion in the valve block rather than threading the portion in the upper guide instead other than the molten lead working as a lubricant? Just wondering if the valve would have fewer potential problems with no threads in the valve.

Mike

[Taterhead]

This is pretty neat project. Nice work. Thanks for the show and tell.

[Iron Whittler]

Great looking pot. If I may make a suggestion on your valve assembly. Instead of using a screw at the bottom for a valve, how about making a taper on the valve handle at the bottom and thread the handle where it goes through the upper support. Threads will not be in the molten lead and can be lubed with graphite from time to time for smooth operation. Just a suggestion. Keep us posted on how it works out. Iron Whittler

[flint45]

I like what you have done good job. Self built stuff is awesome keep it up.