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“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
I always smelt at a state campsite and bring fix or six oak pallets cut up in small sections. I just start a fire in one of the fire pits that has a grate. It's all free. I find it a bit hard to regulate temperature but it doesn't take long to get a dutch oven stoked with COWW reduced to ingots. The nice part is that there is not a lot of bulky burners and propane tanks to won and store
A lot of you guys are way over complicating how simpl it is to smelt over plain old wood fire. All you need is a fire, a cheap beater Dutch oven, and fireproof blacksmith or foundry gloves/apron.
The choice of what fuel to use is mainly an economic question... if you have to buy wood - it probably doesn't make sense vs gas. If wood is free (and you have the space to do it safely) but you gotta buy gas - then wood is a no brainer.
And I have way more wood than I know what to do with down at the farm
I smelt range scrap in a cheap junk Dutch oven over wood. Wheel weights get smelted in my 20# Lee pot. It just takes such a huge amount of heat and way too much time to do range scrap in an electric melter...... and I used up a whole bbq tank full of propane on my 1st good range scrap smelting run and only got through half the range scrap.
The real key is to make a good fire to start with. Start the smelting process in that - then when it starts burning down - that's the time to pull the lid and start stirring. Then feed less wood into it to keep the heat about right. Off you go.
Good leathers and fireproof gloves are definately a must have though.
One time I did a large melt with wood ,its harder to control temp , you can overheat the alloy , + with the possibility of zinc in WW . I would not use wood fire again to process any alloy, buy a turkey fryer kit and use propane with a dutch oven with a lid and a thermometer. through a hole drilled in the lid
So back to the beer kegs , in a tavern though they have yuppied themselves up since I was there years ago and the urinals were beer kegs cut and adapted , was pretty good work and funny. Have smelted in fire , have cast using a pan and fire as a teen , I find that my trucks brake drum fire pit with a bed of coals and toss my cut in half propane tank full of scrap drop a splash of waste oil in it along with some saw dust of whatever I cut on tablesaw last and come back next day to find a large pretty clean chunk of lead , the scrap was old fishing net lead , some of it was cast around outside of line every so far and the newer is inside the line it is a pain .
I primarily started smelting with wood because I couldn't afford a propane setup. I had everything I used already for free so, for me it just makes sense. Heat control doesn't seem to be an issue, I don't run real hot anyways. I hand sort all weights I melt so I don't have any chance of zinc contamination, that includes nipping each weight with a set of dikes.
Thanks all for the comments and ideas. I have a new project I'm pondering on, casting with a wood fired melting pot. I have a small air tank that I'm thinking of using to make a rocket stove setup and see how it works. If and when I get it going I'll start a new thread about that with pictures. Aught to be a challenge.
I used to use open fire in a barbeque-like setup with a dutch oven to clean my WW.
I also did lots of casting with ladle like that,the same open fire setup, for many years. I still do both in my summer place every now and then.
Can you use a barrel for a melting pot? Reason is, I have a barrel about 2/3 's full of range scrap I need to melt. I have a 30 gal drum I could cut in half to make things a bit easier to manage, but unsure if it would have the strength to keep its shape.
Might have to go down to the metal yard and see if I can pick up a cut off end of a 250 gal. propane tank.
I wouldn't use a barrel, it might work just fine but do you really want to find out it won't? I'd keep the pot smaller just for the fact that you'r more likely to reuse it later than some big monster that uses a full cord off wood to fire it and make a pour. I use a regular BBQ sized take and fill almost to the top and guess it holds about 100lbs. Having a larger tank would be nice sometimes but I'm about done in after the second pot full anyway.
It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years (Abe Lincoln)
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington
As for Truckjohn.....I agree completely.
I just posted to a Stickie on bullet mold and no handles the following:
And if I could do this at 15 years old, don't over think the process.
USE CAUTION AND FOLLOW THE RULES REGARDING BREATHING IN FUMES ETC., TAKE YOUR TIME, ITS NOT A RACE , but
Here's how I started
I started casting boolits by first learning to cast lead sinkers. I had a old 6 sinker metal mold I got somewhere. I was 14 or 15 at the time.
I was a junior shooter at a local club that was being torn down after the building was sold and the new owner had other uses in mind for the building than a shooting range. We're talking late 1960's here.
So, I got the idea of digging out the lead from the backstop area and selling it for cash. Now we're talking real lead now!
Well after a weekend of digging and riding back and forth on my bike, I had enough lead for all the sinkers I could use in a life time and then some.
That lead followed me around to 4 houses, always ending up in the back of the garage somewhere, because "you never know".
Then I got into casting for bullets.
I did all my melting from a 6 inch wide cast iron pot and a ladle. Sometimes over a fire, sometimes with a propane touch. That's how high tech I was at the time.
And I too, didn't have a set of handles for a .45 caliber mold that was given to me by older man who just didn't want it any more, let alone the metal sinker mold. But he did give me a very nice thick chunk of burnt cork that the mold sat in, and I used that for two years.
So we all have to start somewhere. For me it was sinkers and yes the feeling is back in my hand also.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |