could you use this to smelt

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I was thinking you could wrap it around and under a 6" pipe cap or section with a welded bottom. has anyone done it? does it get hot enough? obviously I would insulate it from the outside.https://www.amazon.com/GE-WB44K5012-...eating+element

[Dusty Bannister]

Would you think a range top heating element might be a bit more appropriate for a flat bottom pot?

[skeettx]

How about this???????
http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/outd...e-turkey-fryer

And I would save the pot and stuff and use an OLD propane tank cut off above the center weld

Mike

[KenT7021]

I would think the oven heating element might break if you tried to wrap it around something.I've replaced a number of oven heating elements over the years and it doesn't seem they would bend easily.They probably cost at least half as much as turkey fryer.

[runfiverun]

you can get the elements and bend them around a pot.
they don't become hardened and brittle like until you heat them up.
a 110 stove element will melt 10-12 lbs of alloy in about 20-30 minutes.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I already use a bayou sp1 jet fryer, and a half propane tank, was thinking electric would be easier/cheaper. but I usually do 100-120lbs at a time, so not sure if it would do it

[dikman]

Generally when we talk about smelting we're referring to large volume melting of dirty lead, to clean it up and make smaller ingots suitable for casting. A 6" pipe sounds more like a casting pot - is that what you're referring to?

[Rcmaveric]

I have contemplated an electric smelting idea a few occasions for doing 100 pounds at a time. Using a pot with in a pot. didn't know where to start about elements. I would imagine a stove element would work well. I have melted lead with a hot plate.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

no, I wasn't really thinking when I said six inch, I guess it would be bigger, I usually use a half propane bottle, I wonder if I wrapped the element around the bottom of it? but yeah, its for smelting, I have a lee 20lb bottom pour for my casting.

[lightman]

I've though about how nice a large electric smelting pot with a bottom pour spout would be. But with the work and the cost, I just keep on using my home made propane burner and steel pot. Plus, I'm sitting on enough lead that my need to smelt is much less than it was in the past. Good Luck to you if you follow up with this project.

[bangerjim]

It is all in the BTU concentration! And you need A LOT to re-melt 100+ pounds of Pb in a few minutes.....not hours. An electric element has very little surface contact with the melting pot (even wound around it) and the BTU concentration transfer is very poor. Lots of time (and watt-hours!) needed to melt anything decent in weight.

A gas flame wraps around and "kisses" the re-melting pot, transferring tons more BTU's to the pot and the melt.

Personally, I would never use elecric for a large volume re-melting pot. Time is money to me. I have, in the past, used a little Lee 10# casting pot for re-melting small quantites of lead sheet for a few ingots. But it took a lot of time to melt!!!!!!!

Leave the electric elements for the kitchen stove. Get a high-quality gas-fired turkey fryer or plumber's furnace to re-melt in. My plumber's pot will melt over 90# of Pb in less than 8 minutes. It roars like a jet engine!!!!!!!!

Good luck and be safe with whatever method you choose.

[WALLNUTT]

Heck Electric is pitiful in the kitchen. Gas is waaay better.

[Mr_Sheesh]

I've used an old Coleman stove a lot in years past (the main burner of a 2-burner camping stove) - You could use a newer duel fuel one that runs off gasoline, if you don't have propane. Propane's good though. You can buy 10# melting pots for $20ish; I just wish I still had the 25# or 30# bottom pour pot that I used to have, but I can get a tired propane tank

(Note that the lead on a Coleman stove deal WILL sorta warp the metal grid as you're heating it red hot for a long time; I may change over to the turkey fryer as it probably does output more BTUs and BTUs count! Can always do the 10# pot for smaller mixing jobs.)

[Oklahoma Rebel]

like I said , I use a bayou sp1 110000btu friar jet burner, but it still takes forever to heat up 90-100 lbs. I am making a round sheet metal piece to go around the propane tank and hold more heat in, banger, do you use any type of heat shield to hold more heat in? also, the propane tank I was using for fueling was probably only half full, but looking at (and hearing) the flame, it shouldn't have taken nearly as long.

[Mr_Sheesh]

I was confused at first, realized you mean more a sheet of metal surrounding the burner and the melting vessel (the cut/modified Propane Tank) than the tank full of fuel. You want the fuel to get some heat in from the surrounding air so it doesn't freeze, not so much that it explodes of course I think at midnight my brain turns into a non Internet enabled brain LOL

[lightman]

like I said , I use a bayou sp1 110000btu friar jet burner, but it still takes forever to heat up 90-100 lbs. I am making a round sheet metal piece to go around the propane tank and hold more heat in, banger, do you use any type of heat shield to hold more heat in? also, the propane tank I was using for fueling was probably only half full, but looking at (and hearing) the flame, it shouldn't have taken nearly as long.

How long are you talking about? My homemade burner will melt 350+ pounds of wheelweights in 20 minutes or so. The type of lead and the amount of contact it has with the surface of the pot makes some difference in melting time. Something like range scrap that makes better contact with the pot will melt a little quicker while folded up sheet lead with less contact will take a little longer.

My burner is built like a weed burner and I'm guessing it will produce 150,000 btu's.

[skeettx]

half propane tank made into a pot full of range scrap
with a bigger cast iron pot with bottom cut out to go over
the propane tank pot to direct the heat

[Oklahoma Rebel]

im talking like 45 min- 1 hour. I am thinking with a sheetmetal ring that extends almost to the top os the pot down to about even with the flame will hopefully double the heating speed, by concentrating the heat and keeping it from dissipating into the open. should I make the sheet metal shroud a tight fit around the pot or leave a little gap to keep the heat flowing up and around it?

[Idz]

My propane tank smelter has about a 1" gap around it, then a sheet metal shell, then 2" of fiberglass insulation, all placed in a 30 gal steel drum. The smelter rests on bricks with a HF weed burner underneath it. This week a buddy and I smelted down range scrap and got 450 lbs of lead and used 10 lbs of propane. In use I cover the pot with the cutoff top part of the propane tank and then partly cover the steel drum with a trash can lid. Some air gap is needed to chimney out the combustion gases. If covered completely the backpressure blows out the burner.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

so your pot is down in the wash basin, I was wondering why your pot was the wrong way up! I don't really have all those materials, but I still have the other half of the pot for a lid, and I hope just having the shroud around the pot with improve its efficiency, because I still have a appx. 120lb batch mix ( not really a smelt, although im sure I will clean it up a bit more) not to mention a heaping full 5 gal bucket of all sorted lead coww's , but I am saving those as a rainy day fund. I already have 80-100lbs of lyman #2, and about the same of 5%tin with 1.9%sb, but I am still calling it 1:20.