Only 900 lbs more to go

[John Boy]

582 lbs done, mostly Pure and 13.5 Bhn & 14.5 Bhn ...


Now after the 15 or so alloys in muffin tin ingots are now sorted ... I'll be done

[Hossfly]

I’m down to about 8’’ of plastic Bbl that I guess was 1600# worth. I’ll never do that again, fill a abbl full from 5 gal buckets. That’s been sitting there since last summer, besides they seem to pack and hard to get a holt of just sitting. And all the junk, zinc, trash, nuts bolts, plastic covered etc.

[lightman]

You'all are starting to worry me about the milk crates! I have had buckets split in 5 years or so but I've had milk crates in service for more than 15 years. They seem to be holding up ok. I did stack the ingots so there is not much pressure on the sides. And I have scooted them around a little.

I gave some thought to buying some of the 12 inch deep heavy duty shelves known as pallet racks and stacking my lead on them like Roger has shown in some of his pictures.

I also thought about buying a truck tool box or a job box and putting dividers in it.

But for now, I'm not that ambitious!

[dverna]

I think you may regret adding 6 lbs at a time if you need to top off the pot.

[RogerDat]

those locking truck boxes seemed like they had a lot going for them if they were water tight enough for outside storage. Or in a shed where the lock would provide a second layer of theft deterrence.

Odd note on those construction job boxes, if properly secured to the floor and/or walls they make a pretty good gun "safe" With a good padlock they are really pretty hard to break into. I would guess more secure than many cheaper gun safes in the same price range.

I like the pallet shelves pretty well. Only bad thing I can say is there is some wasted space on each shelf. Each shelf can handle a lot of weight (1,500 lbs.) but that will still leave a lot of space unused between the lead and the bottom of the next highest shelf. I tend to keep a few taller lighter items of storage in the center of the shelf which helps use the space up.

The pallet shelf I use is this one or close to it. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-77...8W-4/202251082 I then added 3/8 osb I had on hand that rests on the shelf rails and the inset wire shelf that comes with it. I think it helps spread the weight, get it out over the shelf rails and I'm sure it makes sliding lead ingots on and off the shelf easier on the wood than on the stock wire shelf. I also added small wood pieces under the feet to help spread weight out on concrete floor. Hard to see but on the floor the wood bin and stack of lead on a piece of wood are riding on harbor freight four wheeled furniture dollies. The rope is used to pull them out. I can slide the 5 gallon buckets out. But the box of pucks and stack of slabs was too heavy to slide so it got wheels.



This shelf has a sort of special bottom shelf brace that seems to be working since I overloaded the bottom shelf by a fair amount. The 5 cans in the back are 15# each, ones in the front are at lest that heavy, and I have added at least 50# to it since this picture. The next two shelves have been beefed up by gluing together a shelf out of left over 3/4 inch tongue and groove oak flooring that rides on top of the 1/2 inch stock osb shelf and out over the shelf rails. Would have been simpler to use 3/4 inch plywood or osb but I had the oak flooring scraps on hand. The second shelf up is a more "normal" load.



This is that special bottom shelf brace I added. It is a supported center brace to the wood shelf glued and screwed from the shelf side. The brace has t-nuts and bolts on the bottom that allowed me to adjust bolts to support shelf across center. The bolts allowed me to adjust for less than perfectly flat concrete. Angle of camera makes it look like brace is at an angle it isn't. Right down the middle and divides the span into 3rds. Combined with the oak flooring shelf added is why it can take the extra weight.

[David2011]

I need to move around 2400 pounds of ingots, COWW, pure and type metal 700 miles. I’ll probably make uniform size wood boxes that can be picked up on a hand truck. I’ll keep them to a weight that I can stack 30-36” high.

[kevin c]

Roger you are a man after my own heart. My wife says I over engineer all my projects, but I like sturdy and well thought out solutions to anticipated issues.

[lwknight]

I must be one of those guys that are just different. I store my lead in 25 pound bricks out in the barn. It is a lot easier to take inventory that way. 100 pounds to a stack. 10 stacks in a row. Just count the 1000 pound rows.

[dondiego]

How do you get a 25 pound brick in a 20 pound pot?

[jsizemore]

Maybe he has a 40 or 90 lb pot?

[RogerDat]

For storage the 25# blocks would work better than small ingots, for in the pot I would guess not so much.

My base alloys are mostly going to get mixed in a Dutch Oven that handles a bit over 100# so the 10 to 12 pound slabs work well for me. I guess 25 pound ingot would work the same, just harder to get a fine adjustment of how many pounds of each ingredient.

I could see a person taking 4 of the 25# ingots in say WW's and making a batch of "ready to use" smaller ingots as needed. This is in effect what I do. Small are easier to measure into a batch, and casting pot ready. Downside is stacking and storing all those small ingots. Left end of the big black shelf is "mixed" alloys. 50/50 plus tin, 94/3/3, Plain soft, Lyman #2 etc. all in ready to go in the pot sizes. The big stuff is the ingrediants and it is located on the right and middle of the bigger shelves.

[kevin c]

I try to do the same, though 9 or 10 # ingots for base alloy storage and casting ingots of final alloy in the 2 to 3# range is where I want to be. 25 pounds is too much for me to deal with, though I confess, the weight range of my ingots has been rising as my stash grows. I started with one pounders, then three and then nine as zeros were added to the total poundage figure.

[RogerDat]

I try to do the same, though 9 or 10 # ingots for base alloy storage and casting ingots of final alloy in the 2 to 3# range is where I want to be. 25 pounds is too much for me to deal with, though I confess, the weight range of my ingots has been rising as my stash grows. I started with one pounders, then three and then nine as zeros were added to the total poundage figure.

Similar to my experience. A few times I found a deal on larger quantity of lead. Was NOT going to melt 400# acquisition into 1.5# ingots when I knew it was an ingredient for a later batch.

I like to mix alloys in larger batches for consistency. Nice to know the next 100# of bullets from that stack of 1 or 2 pound mixed alloy ingots will cast and perform the same. Plus testing of alloy is more practical. Just send in one sample and know composition of the 100 pound batch.

I'm ordering the 2.5 pound cast bullet logo ingot molds from the group buy because they are good size for pot, efficient size for pouring, storing, and good size for shipping. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ty-Ingot-molds

If I want to pick up 25# of lead I'll grab two of the 10 - 12 pound slabs and round up. Or it's a 28# linotype pig. For linotype pig I don't mind the extra effort though the price I pay later for the effort seems to rise every year.