Only 900 lbs more to go

[John Boy]

Converting muffin ingots to 6 lb blocks

[sigep1764]

If you get tired of it and what to get rid of some of your workload, you can send some to me

[Smoke4320]

why to 6lb blocks ?

[lightman]

why to 6lb blocks ?

I was thinking the same thing. I like small ingots when adding to my casting pot because they don't cool the melt so bad. And I like for them to fit into my pot. I guess if you have tons and tons of scrap to smelt that larger ingots go faster. I can see going from big to small. I"m sure that being a veteran caster that John Boy has a good reason.

[Plate plinker]

Probably has a big ole pot or a magma machine.

[BK7saum]

I cast 8lb ingots using 3" c-channel, but that speeds up pouring from a 4-500 batch of range scrap with my bottom pour smelter. They melt just fine in my Lee 20lb pot. I do have to take a break while they melt, but I preheat on my hot plate, which helps. The 8-lbers work out well for me and stack well, too.

I couldn't imagine pouring 1 lb ingots using lee or rcbs molds. That would be a lot of extra work, and I usually add about 16 lbs to my pot when it gets low.

I run a PID to maintain temp and even adding a 1lb ingot cools the pot enough that I don't trust my boolits to fall within the normal range until the pot heats back up.

[John Boy]

why to 6lb blocks ?

Two reasons:
1. Storage instead of muffin tin ingots stored all over the place
2. Three 6lb ingots fit in the 20lb pots I cast with

[jsizemore]

Muffin tin ingots won't fit in the pot? My muffin tin ingots store in a 55 gal drum just fine.

[kevin c]

A friend and I have over three tons of alloy stacked in one corner of a multiuse conex in a two foot square by six foot long space, some as flat sheet lead cut to fit a MFRB, but most as flat sided loaf pan ingots of 3+ or 9+ pounds. They stack stably and compactly. The small ingots fit a twenty pound casting pot. The large ingots are raw alloy storage.

[Miller85]

A friend and I have over three tons of alloy stacked in one corner of a multiuse conex in a two foot square by six foot long space, some as flat sheet lead cut to fit a MFRB, but most as flat sided loaf pan ingots of 3+ or 9+ pounds. They stack stably and compactly. The small ingots fit a twenty pound casting pot. The large ingots are raw alloy storage.

I wish I had mine all neatly stacked. I have over 6,000 pounds of lead wheel weights in a pile of 50 pound bags covering an 8’x10’ of shop floor space. Melted down into ingots 1-2,000 pounds stacked into milk crates.

[jdfoxinc]

And my wife says I have too much lead. I made 3"×12" molds out of channel and angle that cast 15+ lb. Let the pot get below 1/4 full before quitting, add one ingot when I start the next pour for my 20 lb. Start my 40 lb pot with 2 ingots and go from there.

[lightman]

I wish I had mine all neatly stacked. I have over 6,000 pounds of lead wheel weights in a pile of 50 pound bags covering an 8’x10’ of shop floor space. Melted down into ingots 1-2,000 pounds stacked into milk crates.

I stack mine in milk crates too. I have a few stacked on the outside wall in the store room and some more stacked on the outside wall of the shop. I would like to have them in the same place but I don't want to crack the concrete. I'm thinking the outside walls should at least be partly over the footing. I've counted a few when loading the milk crate and want to say there are 700 1# ingots in one.

[RogerDat]

I have had the bottom of milk crates compress and essentially fall apart from the pressure of the weight.. I use bread loaf pan slabs for bulk storage. They yield flat slabs that run around 10# each Angle iron bars or pucks for ingredient ingots such as WW or Plain lead.

My angle iron ingots are the right length for USPS small or medium boxes but it is tough to hit just the right amount of fill of the mold to get to a full box. Angle iron ingots stack fine if I box them but in a stack on a shelf they end up in a tapered stack.

I'm currently signed up in a group buy of cast boolit ingot molds. At 2.7 lbs +/- and flat enough for stacking and sized to completely fill a SFRB with 30# of lead they seem like a good choice for my lead ingot mold needs and the price each is less than an RCBS ingot mold.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ty-Ingot-molds The pictures of these look pretty good.

This is what they would be replacing...

The molds are rusty metal stacked toward the back next to the burner leg.


End view of ingots. Molds I have on back left.


I do like the SFRB's for my "inventory".

[kevin c]

That's a nicely organized/stored stash, there, Roger.

[RogerDat]

That's a nicely organized/stored stash, there, Roger.

Thanks. When I started it was just some Lee ingots stacked on the bottom shelf. As time went on.... the floor got into the act. I just kept searching and getting lead where I could and adding it faster than I used it. After about 6 years I passed a ton. Starting to get hard to justify to dear wife why I would buy more. And yet I do buy more.

[dondiego]

I have also had milk crates give up the ghost while holding various ingots. The bottoms also collapse if you stack the crates onto another crate while holding ingots. They don't call it plastic for nuttin'!

[mold maker]

Milk crates are only made to hold 30 or so lbs of milk. A full crate can hold up to 745 lbs of lead, so its slightly overloaded.
That said, I have 9 full crates (in stacks for each alloy) and a partly full one on top of each stack. The only failure I have had was when a wheelbarrow hit the corner of one and broke it. I did put a fitted piece of 3/16 plywood in the bottoms for reinforcement.
They absolutely can't be moved even if I was able. Also, modern crates are much less strong than the antiques (up to 44 yo) I use. I even still have several made of welded heavy wire and one of metal reinforced oak. Like wheel weights, they don't make em like they used to.

[lightman]

I have not had any crates break yet but I don't stack them on each other either. A scrap piece of plywood or paneling on bottom helps. And yes, only load them once a permanent location has been chosen! I have had 5 gallon plastic buckets full of ingots split open. Thats a good argument for marking them in some way.

[RogerDat]

I have not had any crates break yet but I don't stack them on each other either. A scrap piece of plywood or paneling on bottom helps. And yes, only load them once a permanent location has been chosen! I have had 5 gallon plastic buckets full of ingots split open. Thats a good argument for marking them in some way.

That marking of the lead alloy content is one reason my bulk is in larger 10 -12 lb. bread loaf pan slabs. I can use Harbor Freight stamp set to permanently mark 10 of those for 100 lbs. plus. The angle iron ingots I would have to mark like 75 of them. Way too much work, so for those angle iron bars I only use marker and box them together.

One reason I am looking forward to the group buy ingot molds is they have common alloy names cast into them. All I have to do is hit the right cast label with a punch to mark if it is WW, Pb, or Lino. Size is good middle ground between storage and using size.

Storing this sort of heavy stuff is sometimes a pain. Moving it after it is stored to store it someplace else is even a worse pain. Cleaning up a storage collapse or failure is a royal pain. Don't want to talk about it.

At least twice I have purchased scrap ingots with no markings that turned out to be linotype or solder from a casters stash being disposed of. So not only for ones own use but for family that may inherit and desire to sell your stuff to other casters it makes sense to provide a way for them to sell the lead and alloy supply as known material cast in manageable useful ingots. Or for you to sell it yourself if you find in time you want to downsize your supply as your hunting and shooting needs slow down or as part of downsizing living arrangements.

[jsizemore]

I had the plastic milk crates give out just like the plastic buckets. The cardboard drums with the metal bottoms and removable clamping lids work great. If you want to move them, a hand truck works fine even with pneumatic tires. Steel drums work best and you can mark the outside of the drum as to it's content. Clamping lid cuts down on oxidation too. When I'm processing 400-500lbs, I got better things to do with my time then to neatly stack ingots. Like sort WW's and mark ingots.