28,000 lbs....yes 28,000

[43PU]

I just secured 28,000lbs or lead from a indoor range all in 5 gallon buckets, how would you even start smelting? I mean where to even start I need to remove some
Rubber from it but would you all use a wood fire instead of propane?


Let the ideas start!!

[OS OK]

Just stockpile it in an area behind the barn or the like and smelt as you have time. Your gonna need a rest and prolly a chiropractor when you just haul it home...

You isa 'Lucky Duck'!

[sukivel]

That’s over a million 180 grainers for your Garand!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[6bg6ga]

good go

[acoop101]

Water should work well to clear non lead out of the mix just make sure you start slowly with a cold pot for each batch.
A Dutch oven and a turkey fryer work well and you can get quite a lot done with a 5# tank. The big issue I have when doing large remelts is having enough ingot molds once I get going to not have to stop.
Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

[Uncle Jimbo]

Good find. Approach it like you would eating a whale. One bite at a time.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Hire some local starving college students to move the lead FOR you - Prevents back injury :P

[jsizemore]

You can make some money from the jackets if you can control your melt temp. you may be able to do it with wood but much easier with propane. Scrapyard gives better money if the jackets are clean of lead. With 14 tons of lead to practice you should get it figured out. I made enough off 1.5 tons to pay for my smelting propane for the rest of my life.

[Geezer in NH]

Rubber melts and burns away

[MyFlatline]

All good ideas,,especially about the ingot molds. I run into that with my small batches. I would shy from the water, maybe spread out on the concrete and use a leaf blower to blow the trash out , then scoop up with a shovel. Burning rubber might not go to well if you have neighbors.

Congrats on a nice haul

[kens]

I smelted range lead, and, got a good turn of money from the copper jackets.

[F_L]

I think propane is your best bet. It will take a LOT of wood. Temps will be harder to control and keeping the fire stoked is work itself. Around here Tractor Supply has the best price on propane. $12 for a 20lb vs $17 at the propane place vs $18-20 for the bottle exchange. I have melted a few keels and can get 6-700 lbs out of a 20lb cylinder. I am melting 300lb blocks so there is little surface area to start. It takes me about an hour to get the pot to temp. I think range lead would melt quicker.
Great find and good luck with it.
F_L

[PaulG67]

If you can submerge the lead in water, the rubber will float, maybe mix it up with a spade. And what was said in post 7 seems like a really go idea. Nice score.

[dragon813gt]

Be very careful w/ the lead if you decide to use water to separate it from the rubber. Water will find its way into the jackets. Even if you start w/ a cold pot the tinsel fairy is likely to show up. I've melted down a good bit of lead that was picked up from an outdoor range. A lid over the pot is a necessity. If it's a TMJ that's still intact the lead will not melt out of the jacket.

You're going to have your work cut out for you. Separating the lead from the jackets takes a good bit of time. And hopefully a scrap yard in your area will accept the jackets. It seems most won't. If you're lucky they will pay #2 copper prices. Gilding metal is not #2 copper.

[MaryB]

Sounds like a good time to build a separator that vibrates the light bits to the top so they spill out onto a conveyor and the heavy bits spill the other way onto another conveyor I can picture it in my head but to draw it would be a pain... then use a bobcat to dump buckets in the top!

[country gent]

I made a smelter from a 25lb propane cylinder and 3-4 16 5 truck rims the older split rims. I used a torch to cut the centers out of all but 1. I then welded them together with the complete one on the bottom. cut a small slot in the bottom one 2 1/2" -3 1/2" wide up to the center. This is the stand. Cut the propane tank just below the top radious 2-3". You've over looked the other fuel. Plain simple stoker coal the fine chipped version. This burns very hot and long. Use a piece of exhaust pipe and a shop vac on blow for a blower. Set the exhaust pipe in the slot a few inches and the blower pushing thru it. Put a layer of stoker coal in the bottom fire it up and set the pot in add stoker coal around the sides and fill pot with lead. The pot cut in the above manner should hold 300-400lbs of clean alloy. With the coal and blower you can have it molten in less than an hour. It takes longer to ladle into ingots than melt it. Have several ingot moulds ( 6-10) to help keep them from overheating. I made 6 5 cavity ingot moulds from 2X2 Angle iron 8" long, these poured a bar of about 3 lbs and would fit in a lee pot. Also would recommend making or buying a bigger ladle in the 8lb-12lb range so one can fill several bars at a time. DOne right you can do 3-5 pots a day if you work hard. A helper is handy also. For moving ingots and loading the pot up.
Once fired just add stoker coal to the top around the pot and the coals ashes filter down thru. you end up with a hot fire of red coals around the pot. Start slowing down on the fire with the start of the last pot. also don't add water to coal to put it out extinguish it as it will explode the same as lead. Hard woods work but you go thru a lot more and less heat.
Ive done a 5000 lb batch as described above and it works well

[RP]

Best thing is to do small batches until you got it done. I got a lot of range lead about 6 tons and built me a wood smelter with a blower but I have a crane to lift the lead in and out of the fire. I do not think not having a way to lift it out of the fire wood would be a good thing since you can not kill the heat to flux and dip it out. A engine hoist may work but very tricky moving it away with out a mishap unless it rolls really well.

[D Crockett]

43pu you have a pm D Crockett

[D Crockett]

I am probably going to get tore into about what I am about to say but in safety sakes I got to say it. one day someone is going to tell someone to cut open a propane tank an get them hurt or even killed someone here suggested to cut open a propane tank. with out telling him the safe way to do it . what if he does not know about purging a tank and starts to open a tank with some gas in it with a side grinder what happens next if you do not know I will tell you there is a explosion the man doing the cutting is one of the following hurt or dead . I have been cutting tanks open for over 14 years now and I have said this before on this site and I guess I will have to say it again " if you do not know how to do it safely DO NOT DO IT " and don't tell people to do something that is not safe if you do not know what you are talking about. I have cut open tanks from 20lbs to 1000 lb propane tanks open. and I have a set of rules I go by to open one safely. guess what I an trying to get across is there are things you might get away with and tell someone else that will get them hurt or even killed because they did not follow all the steps in opening a tank the right way. end of safety sermon D Crockett

[lightman]

Thats a good score! But big scores mean big work! Lots of good ideas but this is what I would do. I would invest in a large smelting pot and a gas fired burner. Bigger than a Dutch oven or cut off propane tank. I would go natural gas if its available in your area. I would have several ingot molds built from either channel or angle. Maybe up to 10 or so. My new pot would either be bottom pour or I would buy a nice ladle and a nice skimmer. My thoughts are that you made a big score, so now you need to smelt in a big way. I would not want to do this 100# at a time! You can recover your equipment cost by selling the copper jackets and/or some of the lead. I would hire some help. High School or College students maybe. Good Luck, You have a lot of work ahead of you.