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Thread: One home smelting production setup

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy Marine Sgt 2111's Avatar
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    gotta love this mass production processing

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master
    9.3X62AL's Avatar
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    Welcome to the board, Marine Sergeant. Some of these smelting set-ups are monsters, and I'm in awe of the skill and ingenuity displayed by their makers and users.
    I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master



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    Nuthin special, just another turkey fryer with a dutch oven.





    Fluxed, ready to pour ingots.



    Results! This set-up works well, I'm a little leary of filling the pot all the way up. I had 90 pounds in it without a wiggle.

  4. #24
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    .........There ya go. That's what it's all about.

    ............Buckshot
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    Proud former Shooters.Com Cast Bullet alumnus and plank owner.

    "The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

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  5. #25
    Boolit Master



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    Smile

    Thanks for the tips. Still learning.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master

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    I did about the same thing with the base from a turkey fryer and ducth oven. It may not be able to hold hundreds of pounds, it does about 100 pounds. I do like the tap idea to pouring the lead.

    Great idea!

    Jerry
    Honor is a Way of Life

    NRA Benefactor Life Member

  7. #27
    Boolit Mold
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    I'm not new to casting been doing it for years on a small scale. These are some of the best ideas I've seen. This web site is the best.

    Sam

  8. #28
    Boolit Buddy hotwheelz's Avatar
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    Well here is my home made humble but useful set up. I cut a piece of 12" pipe about 14" deep and welded a flat plate on the botttom made a small pour spout on the top edge and put a couple apposing handles on it. Works well on the turkey cooker stand we melted down almost a 1000lbs today of WW my back is a little sore but Ill be in good shape for a few months...




    This was most of the catch from the last 2 months
    Ill be as nice as you let me and as mean as you make me, your Choice

  9. #29
    Boolit Buddy hotwheelz's Avatar
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    Had to reopen my account at photobucket here are the pics




    Ill be as nice as you let me and as mean as you make me, your Choice

  10. #30
    Boolit Buddy gunarea's Avatar
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    Old back needs a new plan

    Hey Guys
    Nothing new for smelting down hundreds of pounds of WWs and other scrap but I can't be the only geezer who doesn't need to be constantly bending over. The picture shows my answer. Some blocks and a small gate puts the ingot moulds up to counter top level. Roofing steel has since been replaced with some diamond plate and a homless traffic sign. The gate and sheet metal act as a heat sink to cool things off more rapidly than dirt or wood and easy to keep free of debris. This rig also shortened the distance between hot alloy and waiting ingot mould. Spills aren't contaminated with dirt near as much and are easier to reclaim in just a few minutes. Been doin it this way since my early fifties. The waste cans are being used as a wind break only. Roy
    [ATTACH]10267Attachment 10269 HTH

  11. #31
    Boolit Mold
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    Here is my.

  12. #32
    Boolit Buddy yodar's Avatar
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    Here's my setup, burner also used for Beer

    bayou classic burner for cooking lead and beer!



    adding 2 oz 67/33 solder and when application demands, 1-2 lb magnum shot to alloy the wheelweights to a harder bullet



    flux with sodium tetraborate octahydrate flux (do NOT stir)-it will crystallize as a glassy crust around contaminats-easy to remove- and flux when casting with beeswax/alox scraps



    use rowell ladle from Antimonyman and cornbread stick ingot molds



    50 lb of wheelweights makes a heckuva lotta these lil' 118 gr pills



    add magnum shot to harden the rifle bullets



    yodar

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy
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    Wow nice setup. I've got a cast iron dutch oven fired by charcoal in the bottom of a scrapped Weber smoker. Works very well but chews through charcoal at a fairly high rate. I've been dipping with an SS ladle and it works OK thus far. Just having trouble getting all of the trash out of the melt. It's mostly pure WW but there's always a few black dots on the top of the ingots.

    Made about 50 lbs of ingots over the weekend and my back hurts like hell!

  14. #34
    Boolit Buddy Jaybird62's Avatar
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    Nice setups. I've been going the Dutch oven and turkey fryer route, but I'd like something a little more "aggressive." I'm thinking about picking up linotype remelt unit that runs off of natural gas. If I can find a few other casters in the Middle Tennessee area it might be worth the expense.

  15. #35
    Boolit Mold
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    hi,
    Goatlips You presented a very nice presentation, It would have suckered me in!
    It all looks familiar and common to the low budget reloader/caster as myself, You use what is at hand to get the job done.
    Thanks,
    Tim

  16. #36
    Boolit Mold
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    hi,
    Goatlips You presented a very nice presentation, It would have suckered me in!
    It all looks familiar and common to the low budget reloader/caster as myself, You use what is at hand to get the job done.
    Thanks,
    Tim

  17. #37
    Boolit Mold Fan of the 1911's Avatar
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    I wish I had found this web sight about 2 years ago!!!! The ideas are racing through my head a modified goatlips setup.... now I need more ww.

  18. #38
    Boolit Bub
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    All dandy and effective...

    Goatlips gets the prize for a great presentation!

    Thanks!

  19. #39
    Boolit Mold
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    Finished this yesterday, holds 550 lbs of alloy. This is just a batch mixer, note 25 lbs of 50/50 solder melted in the bottom.

    In the foreground are two wheel weight pigs 115 lbs each. I'm waiting for an ingot mold before I melt the whole soup up.

    The valve is all 300 series stainless except for the ball on the handle and the hinge bolt. I'll use an infrared thermometer to know the temperature, any thoughts on the best temp? When I melted the WW they got pretty hot, I'm sure there is zinc sponge in the pigs, that's why I want to pour at low temp.

    Note the bullet trap in the background, just finished it last week. I shoot in the shop.
    parts

  20. #40
    Boolit Grand Master JIMinPHX's Avatar
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    The infrared thermometers are calibrated to read the temperature of a flat black surface. The readings that they give on liquid lead are pretty far off. You might get away with pointing one at your black pot. Otherwise, it's not that big of a deal to weld in a thermal well for a plain old mechanical thermometer.

    Zinc is pretty hard to get out of a mix once it's in. I've been told stories by people that have claimed to reduce the zinc contamination by skimming off a soupy mess at a specific temperature, but I've never been told a story about anyone getting it all out.

    You can see my boolit traps here - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=29648
    Last edited by JIMinPHX; 03-05-2009 at 02:47 AM.
    “an armed society is a polite society.”
    Robert A. Heinlein

    "Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset."
    Publius Tacitus

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check