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Thread: Cooling ingot molds with water?

  1. #21
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Nice pile of lead and a good days work!

  2. #22
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    sqlbullet's Avatar
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    I certainly do.

    I have a sheet pan about 1" deep. I fill it about 80% full of water, then fine tune the levelness of my platform. I keep some framing shims around for that purpose. Once I am happy with the leveling, I place five mini-loaf pans in the water. Each mini-loaf will weigh about 7.5-8.0 lbs.

    I have to refill the sheet pan with water about every third round. In a typical session I will steam off and boil over 3-5 gallons of water while cleaning 600-800 lbs of lead.

    Years back when I cast into Lyman aluminum 1lb molds, I used the towel method. But with the larger mini-loaf pans I need more water volume.

    Someday I would like to build a "lid" with loaf shaped holes for the sheet pan. This would keep the boil-over to a minimum and probably allow me to get closer to 5-6 rounds between refills. Next step would be a float mechanism that I can attach a hose to, which would just keep it "topped up".
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  3. #23
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    If any mods could change the title of this to “cooling ingot MOLDS with water” that would be great. I feel like it’s a bit misleading and I don’t want to cause anyone to misunderstand. I tried to change it but I don’t think I have permissions.

  4. #24
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    I have one Lyman cast iron ingot mold that I use along with some old aluminum cupcake molds. I cool the Lyman mold by simply holding it with channel locks ( with ingots in it after they set up) and dunking it in a 5 gal bucket of water for a few seconds. I dump the ingots out, watch as the mold quickly evaporates the moisture (takes seconds) and repeat. You can easily see any moisture in the mold so the tinsel fairy is no problem. I also pour the lyman mold to full binding all the ingots together which makes for a nice 5 lb block for stacking and I just break off individual ingots as needed.
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  5. #25
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    I use an old water soaked towel to put the mold on after the pour. I doubt it does anything to the alum or iron ingot molds, maybe warp them, but who cares.
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  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I water drop mine so I can keep pouring ignots. If you drop them too quick they will brake apart.

  7. #27
    Boolit Buddy
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    Once the entire ingot is solid introducing water shouldnt be an issue. I let my ingots sit for couple mins then they get dropped on an old pizza pan and hosed with water. At that point all you should get is some steam. Just be safe and keep it away from your melting pot. I know I'm a newbie here but this seems safe unless someone here is going to bust out with some horror story telling me otherwise.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master



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    No, I use lots of ingot molds (14) (Lyman, RCBS, SAECO) and the ingots are solid by the time I get around to dumping the first mold poured.

    4 pounds x 14 molds = 56 pounds.

    Then the lead in all 14 molds is solid and dumped because the molds started out cold and a second pour is done, another 56 pounds.

    Two pours = 112 pounds and that is a full melt.

    So will take time to melt another pot full of lead and the ingots will be dumped out
    and the molds allowed to cool.

    Last edited by skeettx; 10-24-2017 at 06:11 PM.
    NRA Benefactor 2004 USAF RET 1971-95

  9. #29
    Boolit Buddy RoGrrr's Avatar
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    I built my own ingot moulds after I dropped my cast iron cornbread mould and broke it. I made my mould out of angle iron so I could drop it from any height and not worry about it breaking. See my sig.line for my imgur access to get into my account to see what I have, moulds and smelting furnace.
    Initially, I had only one set of moulds and had to drop the mould and ingots into water to cool them so I could increase my throughput. Eventually, I built a second set of moulds so I could let one cool while pouring a second run of ingots. I'm not sure if you have to cool them or not but I really don't care. I just start pouring and go.
    Each of my ingots weighs about 3 Lbs and being triangular (2" angle iron about 6" long), I can stack them easily without having to worry about them falling over. I've toyed with the idea of making a new set of moulds from C-Channel so they stack even easier. With winter coming on, I might just do that.

    The people who see me mining rag on me - dirty. I say "SOAP AND WATER".
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  10. #30
    Boolit Master


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    Great pile of ingots.
    I just melted down 30lbs of FOUNDRY TYPE that I got from ROTO METALS. I used the 1/2 lb ingot slots in LEE ingot molds. They are pretty generous people; I got 34lbs of alloy in the 6 5lb bags of "nuggets" before I started melting/pouring ingots. I put the 2 LEE ingot molds on a sopping wet towel, filled each mold, waited 15sec. in the steam cIoud, and dumped the molds onto the cold concrete. Every 3-4 pours I flipped the towel. Never added more water. Poured 69 1/2lb ingots out of the 2 molds. No cracking of the molds.

    I tried using the wet towel cooling method on Cast Iron ingot molds once. Rusted the heck out of them.

    I'm lucky enough to have accumulated 19 ingot molds over the past 40+yrs. I never have to worry about cooling time. Just protecting all that cast iron from rust.
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  11. #31
    Moderator Emeritus

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    Done!

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew P View Post
    If any mods could change the title of this to “cooling ingot MOLDS with water” that would be great. I feel like it’s a bit misleading and I don’t want to cause anyone to misunderstand. I tried to change it but I don’t think I have permissions.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

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