Melting lead in July.

[jsizemore]

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

I sweat so bad it looks like I jumped in the lake. I keep me at arms length so the dripping sweat doesn't free fall and get submerged and do it's explosive thing.

[lightman]

I'm more worried about when adding more to the pot splashing molten lead on my soaked and sweaty skin. Sure sticks and burns way worse when the skins all soft and hydrated. Splash a dab on you when it 40 degrees and it seemed you can pick it off and go on with out getting so much as a blister but not when your all sweaty. Get that deep steam burn effect that smarts for awhile.

Be very careful adding material to a pot already containing molten lead. Any piece of scrap with moisture on it will sink and cause a steam explosion. ( known as the tinsel fairy ) Most of us consider adding material to molten lead a no no.

[onelight]

Though I'd give it a go out in the driveway. Three big shady maple trees to block the sun and I at least had a slight breeze today. So much shade u didn't get a go picture of my set up.
In the spring during nice weather I spend my week ends chasing turkeys or fishing. My fall weekends are spent chasing deer and turkeys again. Would like to do most of my smelting in the winter but my hands cramp to much if it's below 50 degrees out so it looks like I will be confined to doing a lot of smelting this summer. Going to rig up so lighting and try a night time run.

Hang a light right over your pot and you can auto flux with June bugs and moths

[redhawk0]

Nice pile of lead you got there...

I don't smelt in the Summer as I live in town with neighbors on both sides...When the windows are open...they complain to me...but in the Fall when the weather is below 60...no more open windows....no more complaints. I can do it hassle free.

redhawk

[LabGuy]

I have been in SW Florida for 40 years. I will not render down lead in the summer, to hot and likely to rain. I will cast bullets if I get desperate, but planning ahead precludes summer lead melting.

[Russel A]

How long does it take for that wood fire to melt that big ole pot of lead?

[kevin c]

Hang a light right over your pot and you can auto flux with June bugs and moths

BTDT. The smell isn't too bad, but the sizzle and pop is a bit disconcerting...

[44magLeo]

I wear long sleeve button up ALL cotton work shirts. no synthetic material in them. Full length jeans, no shorts and leather work shoes.
I wear my welders gloves with guantlets that come half way to my elbows. A ball cap on backwards with a face shield. I do my best to not expose any bare skin for lead spatters to land on.
I keep a squirt bottle near by to keep the shirt damp. The water evaporation helps keep me cool.
Even at that I try to smelt on cooler days or wait till fall.
Winters a bit to cold around here.
I do like those ingot molds. I have both styles, the Cast Boolit and the Red Neck Gold. I like how well they stack. Not so much wasted space between ingots.
I see your set up in the shade. You might want to run an extension cord down to run a fan.
You can drop a few poorly filled out ingots into the pot when it gets low. This drops the temp of the melt enough so it won't splash when adding more lead.
Leo

[Kylongrifle32]

How long does it take for that wood fire to melt that big ole pot of lead?

Russel.
My set up is a 37 or so gallon barrel with a 30 pound R134 refrigerant tank cut off at the top where it starts to curve to form the top. This tank probably holds 170-180 pounds of lead. With it filled to a couple of inches below the top I can pour 80-90 ingots leaving a couple of inches in the pot to help start the next batch.
If I'm really serious about it and can maintain the fire i have done it in about 2 1/2 hours from lighting the fire to the last ingot poured. But it usually runs about 3 hours for a batch as I am mutli tasking ( mowing / plinking with 22 ). This is also done with just the natural draft of air in the stove. I have a hole in the side of the barrel and a hair dryer to increase oxygen and heat but have not done that yet as most of the time I'm melting out away for and electrical source. Now that I have it set up where it is in the picture I will give the forced air set up a try and see how much time it takes off the heat up process.

I will try to post a better picture of the pot and stove combo.

[44magLeo]

If your filling those ingots to 2.5 lbs. each 90 ingots is 225 lbs.
If you measure the volume of your pot in gallons each gallon of lead will weigh about 92 lbs. If your 30 gallon Freon tank cut off holds 15 gallons that's a lot of lead.
Leo

[Kylongrifle32]

If your filling those ingots to 2.5 lbs. each 90 ingots is 225 lbs.
If you measure the volume of your pot in gallons each gallon of lead will weigh about 92 lbs. If your 30 gallon Freon tank cut off holds 15 gallons that's a lot of lead.
Leo

Leo
The R134 tank that is the pot is rated that it holds 30 pounds of freon. I'm not sure what the volume is on these tanks. When I pour my ingots( not to full capacity of the mild) they average 2.2 - 2.3 pounds each.

[Kylongrifle32]

Here is a picture of the wood burner pot next to one on a turkey frier stand. Both the pots are made from the same R134 freon tanks.

[44magLeo]

I have a 20 lb. propane tank cut off at the seam. It measures about 11.75" ID. measuring to the bottom of the curve I get about 7". The curved bottom will give less than a flat bottom so lets call it 6" that gives me about 250 lbs. lead capacity.
If I cut it off where the top curved part meets the straight side that would add another 4 inches of capacity. That adds another 165 lbs. for a total of 415 lbs.
I was just reviewing this thread and realized I misread your earlier post. I was thinking you had a 30 gallon Freon bottle instead of a 30 lb. bottle.
Sorry about that.
as I was out measuring my 20lb. propane tanks it is marked at holding 47.6 lbs. of water. Water weighs about 8.6 lbs. per gallon. That equals about 5.5 gallons. so cut at the seam should be about 2.75 gallons. Cut at the top of the sides would be about 4.5 gallons.
Sorry about rambling on about this, just like figuring these things out.
Leo

[Ozark mike]

I sweat so bad it looks like I jumped in the lake. I keep me at arms length so the dripping sweat doesn't free fall and get submerged and do it's explosive thing.

Water has less mass than lead by quite a bit. A drop of water will dance on molten lead like a hot pan. Ive dropped water on a pot of lead from a distance to see what happens and it takes more than you'd think to cause a significant steam event to splash lead. Now im not saying to do dumb stuff but i have casted in the rain and all my hairs and skin is still intact. Fact

[Scrounge]

Water has less mass than lead by quite a bit. A drop of water will dance on molten lead like a hot pan. Ive dropped water on a pot of lead from a distance to see what happens and it takes more than you'd think to cause a significant steam event to splash lead. Now im not saying to do dumb stuff but i have casted in the rain and all my hairs and skin is still intact. Fact

Get that same drop under the surface of the melt, and see what happens.

[Kylongrifle32]

Leo

No worries about the post just letting you know that it was pounds not gallons. Interesting to know about lead volume to weight.

My next attempt at a wood burner was going to be a 20 pound propane tank inside a 55 gallon drum. Not sure how the drum will handle the weight of a pot that size. Might take some inner support.
I'm fortunate enough that I work where I can come across the components I need for no cost.

[Kylongrifle32]

The reason I have to add more material to an already molten pot is that the lead I'm working with is in the form of hollow tubes. It takes the volume of about 7 pots of the lead material to render down to 1 pot of molten lead.

[44magLeo]

I set my cut of propane tank on my fish fryer burner. It's like a turkey fryer but it was sold as a fish fryer.
It's a fairy heavy built burner 21.5 " tall with a 14" top. Big enough for a 20 Quart stock pot to set on easily. It will hold up my 200 lbs. without any problems.
I have an old galvanized steel trash can the bottom had some big rust holes in it. I cut a hole out of the bottom to a bit over 15 " in diameter. I set this down over the burner till were it stops by rubbing on the burners legs, they taper out to 24 ".
This holds the can up off the ground so when the lead pot sets inside on the burner they come out about the same height.
I cut a hole in the side to run the hose from the burner out to the propane tank. I use the cans lid to set over the top when heating when not in use.
This way the can doesn't have to hold the weight, the frame for the burner does.
If you have access to steel, building a good solid frame your 55 gallon drum can fit over and support the pot will be fine.
Leo

[44magLeo]

On the lead weight figuring I looked up a few facts online.
Lead weighs about .4 lbs. per cubic inch.
1 fluid ounce is 1.8 cubic inches.
So 1 fluid ounce of lead weighs .72 lbs.
So you can figure out lead capacity of a round cylinder by measuring and using the formula of pi x r squared x the height of the container. This gives you the cubic inches then multiply by .4 to get the amount of lead by weight it holds.
Or, you can just fill it with water and measure the fluid ounces it holds then multiply by .72 to get the weight.
On the fill with water there are 16 ounces to a pint, 32 to a quart, 128 to the gallon.
So if your ever interested I figuring out how much lead something holds with out melting lead into it then use these figures to calculate the lead.
Leo

[Slugster]

Smelting lead in the summer must be a Kentucky thing. I smelted 177 pounds last saturday, and 151 pounds the saturday before that. The 177 pounds was all roof jacks and water and drain pipe. The 151 pound batch was range scrap. Thinking about going to the salvage yard again tomorrow to pick up more lead while I can, before the gubbmint decides to ban it too.