Hot plate for melting?

[mdi]

If you choose to use a pan and hot plate to melt your alloy, do not use an aluminum pan!. At casting temperatures aluminum will become soft and will slump, fall apart. The temperature at which the pot will "slump" does not have much if any indication like color change. You can be happily melting some alloy in your aluminum pot jes waiting to get started casting, and with no warning the bottom falls out of the pot and hot lead goes everywhere. Get a stainless steel pot...

[kmw1954]

Thanks folks,

Already had the discussion on Aluminum pots which is why we are going to the flea market. Also after reading this over I believe it looks like a small sauce pan will hold about 20# of lead. Which also leads me to thinking that for a casting pot deeper is better than wider, or doesn't it make a difference?

Anywho, I will soon see if that hot plate actually get hot enough to melt lead. I have a nice small pile of small COWW that I am going to test with.

Next question, recommendations on a thermometer? The couple I've looked at the reviews seem to be all over the place. The Lyman digital, one place had about a dozen reviews 6 said great, 6 said junk doesn't work.

[JBinMN]

Lyman works great for me. Just keep lead of the face of it. Like away from the lead. Stretch out that curly cable to the probe when you are checking temps. I know from experience. Went to dip out some dross & caught the spoon I use on the mechanism one uses to open the bottom pour spout & splashed lead on it because I left it close to the pot. I can still read it , but it doesn't look very good.

[KenT7021]

The Lyman digital thermometers work well.Some had the wires crossed in the thermocouple and don't work.A phone call to Lyman get you a new thermometer delivered and you keep the defective one.A replacement thermocouple from Amazon or wherever will fix the defective thermometer.I now have two of them and they check out with the readout on a Lyman Mag25 and a Brownell's thermometer.

[Nodakjohns]

Good luck and hope your endeavors are productive ! As far as thermometers go you could have 4 of them in the lead they could all have a different readout. As long as you can get a repeatable temperature from it you should be ok. I always check mine at freezing and boiling and call it good if they can do that.

[kmw1954]

Sadly I ran out of time today as we had a dinner party to make. Only now I'm not sure if I should go ahead and start rendering this down or if I should wait until I get a thermometer. Some of the very small COWW I wasn't sure if they were zinc of not and surely don't want to contaminate the whole pot by getting the melt too hot.

[lightman]

You can test the questionable weights by trying to cut them with a pair of side cutters. Lead will cut easily while Zinc will be very difficult to cut. I use a pair of cutters called Dykes, used by electricians. Tel-Tru is a good thermometer for casters.

Good Luck in your search for cookware.

[reddog81]

I wouldn't worry too much about the zinc melting with a hot plate. It'll take a while for the lead to get melted down and the zinc will still be solid for a while. The melting point of zinc is 787 degrees while your lead will probably be around 650 to 700. Any zinc or steel will be floating on the top. I'd be kind of surprised if the hot plate could even get hot enough to melt zinc.

I think deeper is better than wider because the wide sauce pan will have much greater surface area and cool much quicker.

[mdi]

If you're just cleaning, fluxing and pouring ingots, no need for a thermometer. I didn't use one for the first 20 years I cast, I just adjusted temps but the bullet's appearance. When I did get one I got a Lyman dial casting thermometer which works quite well. But, it's not lab quality and may be "off" +/- 10 degrees, but there are so many variables involved and exacting temps for my alloys is not a necessity, and I still get consistent weight and diameter bullets...

[Jackpine]

In my early years I smelted a lot of COWW with Wally World coil hot plate and a two quart cast iron pot. Made a sheet metal collar, about eight inches high that for a wind-heat shield, which really improved performance. Now I use it to premelt ingots to feed the casting pot. Will not get the lead up to casting temp, but especially when casting bullets in the 500 grain range, the casting pot gets back to casting temp much faster.

Bought a second pot a couple of years ago, with primary plan to preheat molds. Tried it once with pot, and even though it, like the old one, is rated at 1500 watts, it did not do as good a job of melting lead.

+ 1 or more on the cookie sheet. Use on under hot plate and casting pot and one lined with folded bath towel to drop bullets.

[kmw1954]

Sorry guys, got a little side tracked with a trip to the ER having chest pains Sunday morning. Kept me over night and did a stress test today. All is good, no explanation for the pain other than PB was very elevated.

So I checked my ebay and missed out on that 356-102 mold so I'll keep watching for awhile or buy a new one. Have to take it easy the next couple days and then I will be trying that hot plate and the skillet.

[lightman]

Glad it was a "false alarm". Take care of yourself, everything else can wait.

[JBinMN]

Sorry guys, got a little side tracked with a trip to the ER having chest pains Sunday morning. Kept me over night and did a stress test today. All is good, no explanation for the pain other than PB was very elevated.

So I checked my ebay and missed out on that 356-102 mold so I'll keep watching for awhile or buy a new one. Have to take it easy the next couple days and then I will be trying that hot plate and the skillet.

Be well & safe.

This type of stuff can wait.

Prayers for your well being.

JB

[kmw1954]

Thanks, guys, with my past history I don't fool around to long. Not going to take the chance.

Sadly I had just finished sorting my 1st bucket of free wheel weight and was really looking forward to trying to melt all the small stuff. There is about 10lbs of small weights I want to try to melt first.

[kevin c]

Glad to hear you're OK.

On your question about pot depth, if your going to ladle cast out of the pot on the hot plate, I'd think deeper would serve you better, given the same lead holding/melting capacity, since you'll have to be able dip the ladle deep enough to fill it.

As for how much equipment capacity to start off with, it's true that it partly depends on what you need/want to do. Just getting your feet wet for the first time, and especially if you're not anticipating a need for high volume production, a small pot on a hot plate is fine. Move up only if and when you're ready. Others may start or end up bigger (there are folks I know who literally have an order of magnitude more lead, primers and powder as well as guns to shoot them in than you mentioned; naturally their needs differ commensurately), but that's not where you're at right now.

[StuBach]

Before I say this I want to agree with all the comments made before. Go with what makes sense for your situation/need/finances.

That being said, maybe consider getting one of the Lyman Big Dipper kits on Amazon. For $90 you get a nice starter pot, dipper, ingot mold, and bullet lube. Maybe I’m way off base but getting everything you need may end up costing most of that amount anyways.

You might also see if there’s a local caster near you generous enough to let you try out their pot and show you the ropes. I know I’m still new at all this relatively speaking (only 4-5 years in) but I’ve gleaned a lot from local casters I’ve met and talked with that I may or may not have discovered on the forum.

Seems to me it’s better to start right and enjoy the hobby rather than waste a ton of time messing around with half equipment that makes it harder and eventually drives you to get out of the hobby or invest the money anyways.

Again it is all relative to what your financial situation is and how much your time is worth to you but that’s my 2 pennies.

[kmw1954]

StuBach, I have a thread here and on another forum asking about a mentor. No one close by.

Right now I've finally got my feet wet . Picked up a bucket of unsorted WW, found for free. Had a 1500watt hot plate, bought 2 pans this past weekend at the flea market. One is a 9" cast iron skillet and the other is a small SS sauce pan with lid. Also found a 12 hole muffin pan. Picked it all up for $10.00

Tried out the hot plate with the Skillet and that didn't go so well then tried the sauce pan which worked much better. More detail in Hot plate part 2.

[nccaster77]

StuBach, I have a thread here and on another forum asking about a mentor. No one close by.

Right now I've finally got my feet wet . Picked up a bucket of unsorted WW, found for free. Had a 1500watt hot plate, bought 2 pans this past weekend at the flea market. One is a 9" cast iron skillet and the other is a small SS sauce pan with lid. Also found a 12 hole muffin pan. Picked it all up for $10.00

Tried out the hot plate with the Skillet and that didn't go so well then tried the sauce pan which worked much better. More detail in Hot plate part 2.

If you have a side burner on your grill that works well too. Also a cast iron skillet is what I started with. That would work on either heat source. Scoop off dross. Flux with candle wax. Then Wood chips. The cast iron skillet has a little lip you can pour from into your ingot mould. Just don’t fry your eggs in the morning in that skillet.

[kmw1954]

nccaster77 , things are going will. Made some modifications to the wind break I had and it's slow but steady. Also have moved up to a Lee ProIV pot and after using it a bit I am now thinking of moving to the Lee 20# Magnum pot and just ladle cast. I have gotten use to opening the mold over the pot and dropping the sprue right back in, mostly because I am just using 2 cavity molds.

[nccaster77]

Awesome. We all move forward in some way or another over time. This is a good place to find out about anything. Great forum. I never could get the hang of ladle casting. I’m a RCBS Pro Melt guy. And I’m with you. I like 2c moulds. No more than 4. Easier to maintain temp as far as I’m concerned. Usually cast 2 diff boolits at same time. Rest one on a hot plate while casting the other. Then rotate. Mould temp stays pretty consistent.