Casting over an open fire

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I got a 60# pig in the mail recently so I tried to melt it down with my trusty turkey fryer and cast iron skillet. For some reason it just wasn't cutting the mustard this year. I thought the lead was just absorbing the heat so I used a propane torch to help it along, but once puddled in the pan it would not stay liquefied.

I didn't have many options so I laid a few bricks in the fire pit and tried doing it the old fashioned way. Worked pretty good but got a lot of smoke in my eyes trying to ladle it out. Temperature control was just by feel. If I wasn't using such a big pan I would have tried my little rocket stove.

Does anyone prefer the open fire method?

[eggwelder]

I got a 60# pig in the mail recently so I tried to melt it down with my trusty turkey fryer and cast iron skillet. For some reason it just wasn't cutting the mustard this year. I thought the lead was just absorbing the heat so I used a propane torch to help it along, but once puddled in the pan it would not stay liquefied.

I didn't have many options so I laid a few bricks in the fire pit and tried doing it the old fashioned way. Worked pretty good but got a lot of smoke in my eyes trying to ladle it out. Temperature control was just by feel. If I wasn't using such a big pan I would have tried my little rocket stove.

Does anyone prefer the open fire method?

i render all my scrap dirty lead and wheel weights on an open fire in a 1 quart cast iron ladle with a 3 foot handle. It`s wide and shallow. Easy to scoop the clips and other dross from, and has a pour spout to pour the lead into the ingot pan. Not sure of the weight it holds, and it`s more obvious when you have a zinc weight floating after all the others have melted. It will melt if you don`t get it out fast though. I pour the ingots as soon as the lead melts and the dross is cleaned off.
I have a 31 lb sash weight of pretty soft lead, not sure how i will do that then the time comes. It came from a rivet factory in gananoque, Ontario when it was gutted out.

[country gent]

WHen I blended rendered smelted ( what ever you want to call it) it was in a wood or coal fired set up I made. Three truck rims with centers cut out and welded together. These sat on blocks about 8" off the ground with a piece off grate under it a pot made from propane tank cut just below the to radius sat inside the rims.around and under this was hard wood scrap or stoker coal. Once burning a shop vac blowing in really kicked the heat up. When I started seeing molten I would shut the blower of and let the bed of coals do the rest

[nelsonted1]

I render my dirty scrap in a big, old propane container I cut the bottom third off with saw. Then build up a big fire.
A few years ago I was hanging around waiting and watching when a friend shows up. He stood in the door of his pickup asking for my brother. He, for some reason, stood in his truck with the door open and the engine running.
After some discussion he finally walks up and looks in the pot. He told me he saw a person through a massive cloud of white smoke, with a fire running underneath, me sitting on a stool staring in the pot. Therefor, clearly, I was cooking meth. I was all agog at how the whole thing had gone. Me cooking meth in the middle of our driveway. Gauldang.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I render my dirty scrap in a big, old propane container I cut the bottom third off with saw. Then build up a big fire.
A few years ago I was hanging around waiting and watching when a friend shows up. He stood in the door of his pickup asking for my brother. He, for some reason, stood in his truck with the door open and the engine running.
After some discussion he finally walks up and looks in the pot. He told me he saw a person through a massive cloud of white smoke, with a fire running underneath, me sitting on a stool staring in the pot. Therefor, clearly, I was cooking meth. I was all agog at how the whole thing had gone. Me cooking meth in the middle of our driveway. Gauldang.

If I saw a guy wearing a hat like yours I'd assume he was the kind of guy to cook meth in his driveway too.

[GhostHawk]

I've done it in the past, but a modern jet type turkey fryer has been working fine for me the last few years.

Even dripped some lead shot with it.

[P Flados]

The configuration has changed just a tad, but it has worked well for me ever since I placed it in service. I used it earlier this week to convert a ~80# chunk of 5 BHN boat keel into ingots. At the same time I disposed of 20 - 30 gallons of pine cones.

See the photo at post 12 of http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lt-range-scrap