Melting lead in July.

[kmw1954]

Just finished cleaning up the cut with an angle grinder on my old helium tank. It is pretty heavy gage steel and is 9.5" wide and 7" deep. Now per the info above I might go pour some water into it and measure it's volume.

Edit; Just poured water and 1gal is 3.5" below the top and 1.5gal is 2.25" below the top! So this should be more than adequate for what I want to do.

[peachhead]

I just can't do it in the summer. I sit there and sweat and feel miserable. However that's why I got a Lee pot for inside, hoping I can get it set up and cast in the basement where it's cooler. I am firing it up for the first time tomorrow, outside because I understand it smokes a lot the first time.

[Budzilla 19]

Finished up my last batch of wheel weights yesterday! Now I got some cast net weights to go, soft stuff, then 200 pounds of range scrap!! Hot as Hell down here in SW Louisiana. 85 F and 80+ humidity!! Sweat equity!!!!! Hahahaha! Get it done while I can.

[dogmower]

out here in Tucson, it's LOW humidity (20%), AND it was only 112 today. we got it made!

[abunaitoo]

We can cast all year round here.
Weather always the same.
Kind of boring sometimes.

[15meter]

Cooked a pot of range scrap this weekend ... 90 here as well. I was very afraid of dripping sweat in the pot ... yikes

I did a bunch of robot lead a couple of weeks ago, 90+ temp and humidity. Little pop-up shower came through, rain just sizzled on top of the molten lead.

Pretty cool watching the rain drops bead up and run around on the surface while shrinking until they disappeared.

I was going to try and video it but the shower was gone in just a couple of minutes.

Not sure I want to see what would happen during a trash movin' gulley washer

[Kylongrifle32]

I took a break for the last two week but the last day that I melted once I got the fire going I stayed at it and run four pots of lead for a total of about 660 pounds. I've been on the look out for a helium tank to build another melter but with the Covid shutting down all the parties I can't find any.

[15meter]

I took a break for the last two week but the last day that I melted once I got the fire going I stayed at it and run four pots of lead for a total of about 660 pounds. I've been on the look out for a helium tank to build another melter but with the Covid shutting down all the parties I can't find any.

Try an old style propane tank, the ones with the round knob. They won't fill them and you can usually get them for free, remove the valve, rinse out with water and cut off with an angle grinder.

I made one using the top of an old propane tank, cut the bottom off, turned the top upside down, welded legs on it. Then I threaded a street el in and a pipe nipple out the side.
I fill it up about 14-15" deep with sort of cleaned range scrap, build a scrap wood fire under it and walk away. I get what I get in an old stainless steel pot under the pipe.

When that cools, the pot and lead gets transferred to the turkey fryer for next melt/flux then into muffin pans ready for the casting pot.

It takes 20-30 minutes of minimal sifting of range lead to get generally a 50+ pound slab in the pot for final melt. Minimal effort, minimal exposure to the fumes from initial melting of the range lead(we use rubber belting from a stone quarry for our target holders) there is always chunks of rubber in the initial melt and it smells BAD. I suspect the
rubber is more dangerous to inhale than the lead. Further away I can stay from that stink the happier I am.

[farmbif]

yesterday it didn't rain and I went out to shop to make some wheel weights into ingots and cast some bullets, just waiting for the lee pot to melt what was left in it I got so tore up by the bugs I pulled the plug and decided to wait till the summer weather breaks since I still have lots of stuff I can load.

[kmw1954]

That is what was left of a 50# batch of range scrap after skimming all the jackets, fluxing and pouring about 40# of ingots. I have a picture of that pot with 50# of raw range scrap in it but haven't resized it to fit this forum yet.