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Thread: One home smelting production setup

  1. #101
    Boolit Master
    Mal Paso's Avatar
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    My best find after a lot of looking was an 11" round heavy stainless steam table insert from Smart & Final. It has made such a difference getting smelting out of my casting pot. I wasn't doing wheel weights but some of my scrap was oxidized. I was dreaming of a welded bottom pour but the 4 1/2 oz stainless steel restaurant portion ladle I've been using doesn't pick up the crud on the bottom and holds about 3# of lead.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  2. #102
    Boolit Master
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    Several years ago Cabela's had Turkey Cookers on a 50% off sale, just after Thanksgiving. 20lb tank included.

    Simple is best, and a Dutch Oven will not have the leakage issues...

    Rich

  3. #103
    Boolit Master
    Bullet Caster's Avatar
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    Howdy,
    I'm new to this forum as well as boolit casting. I started out with an 8 or so quart Dutch Oven with a lid and put it on my grill's side burner. After a lot of smoke and hardly no melted pb, I gave up. I have been searching all the forum sites and found out that my little Coleman camp stove would work for melting pb. Then I ordered a small melting pot from fleabay and it works great on my Coleman as long as I keep it pumped up. I was wondering what to do with the cast iron dutch oven now that I've ruined it for ever cooking again. As soon as I can find some WW, I'll give smelting a go. I see that you guys use a lot of muffin pans for moulds and that certainly looks like a viable method for making ingots. I don't use a thermometer since I can't afford those pricey ones--I tried to use a K-meter but the plastic melted off of the sensing rod and melted the solder holding the wire to the rod and I came up with a rod stuck in the pot and pulled out a wire. That idea got scrapped reallly quickly. If I could find a sensing rod that would not melt I probably could use the K-meter. I am a partially disabled Vietnam vet and just don't have the money to purchase all the extras. Anyone got any good ideas?
    I've found the information here and other forums very, very helpfull. Since I don't have a job, I spend a good deal of time doing research by visiting these forums. Keep up the good work as I have learned more than I can put into practice. BC

  4. #104
    Boolit Master
    Mal Paso's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bullet Caster View Post
    Howdy,
    I'm new to this forum as well as boolit casting. I started out with an 8 or so quart Dutch Oven with a lid and put it on my grill's side burner. After a lot of smoke and hardly no melted pb, I gave up. I have been searching all the forum sites and found out that my little Coleman camp stove would work for melting pb. Then I ordered a small melting pot from fleabay and it works great on my Coleman as long as I keep it pumped up. I was wondering what to do with the cast iron dutch oven now that I've ruined it for ever cooking again. As soon as I can find some WW, I'll give smelting a go. I see that you guys use a lot of muffin pans for moulds and that certainly looks like a viable method for making ingots. I don't use a thermometer since I can't afford those pricey ones--I tried to use a K-meter but the plastic melted off of the sensing rod and melted the solder holding the wire to the rod and I came up with a rod stuck in the pot and pulled out a wire. That idea got scrapped reallly quickly. If I could find a sensing rod that would not melt I probably could use the K-meter. I am a partially disabled Vietnam vet and just don't have the money to purchase all the extras. Anyone got any good ideas?
    I've found the information here and other forums very, very helpfull. Since I don't have a job, I spend a good deal of time doing research by visiting these forums. Keep up the good work as I have learned more than I can put into practice. BC
    Here is a link to a high temp K thermocouple, http://www.auberins.com/index.php?ma...products_id=22. They come in different heat ranges and connections. Your meter probably has some sort on plug you will want to match. Some people have had good luck on fleabay.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  5. #105
    Boolit Master
    Mal Paso's Avatar
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    Ingot Molds

    Finaly got roundtoit. I bought the 2" x 1/8 Angle Iron and 1 1/2 x 1/8 strap over a month ago. The ingots are 7" long, the ends are angled for easy release and they weigh 4 pounds. The metal was cut with a 14" abrasive chop saw and a homemade jig. I welded with a little Hobart 125 wire feed set on max, just took breaks to let the welder cool. I welded from the bottom. It cost about $20 for the steel and took a full Sunday afternoon. And of course I had to test them before posting. The ingot molds weigh about 7 lbs and hold 20 lbs of lead so those 1/4" rod handles were plenty big enough.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IngotMolds.jpg  
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  6. #106
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    Nice- I'd be careful of showing those around here to much. You might have to start making more of them ...

  7. #107
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    Personally, I like to use the 20 lb Lee melting pot for my actual casting of bullets and the cast iron dutch oven for the smelting. I have one of the propane "banjo" burners that I converted to use natural gas (just need a slightly larger orifice drilled out). I cast my bullets in my garage with the garage door open, but I smelt outside behind the garage late at night when the wind is blowing from a certain direction so that the fumes and smoke go away from the neighborhood (i.e. towards the greenspace behind my house) so that the neighbors don't notice.

    Live fast, die young, leave a cute widow...

  8. #108
    Boolit Mold
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    Hucks Wood fired Lead Smelter

    This is what I use to melt down lead pipe and wheel weights, It's a diesel trucks air tank, I cut one end off for the pot and put a hole on the back top and welded the pot with a gap for flame heat to rise. I have an old garbage can cut to slide loosely around the bowl to hold heat in and around the bowl. I have about 100lbs lead melted in it in the pictures with cast iron corn bread molds to make my lead stick ingots.
    http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q...ing%20casting/

  9. #109
    Boolit Mold
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    Well I'm finally back, shortly after making my initial purchases of boolit molding equipment and supplies, as recommended by my Gun Guru/Casting buddy in Georgia and getting ready to "CAST". Our home was hit with a Tornado and our lower floor the Ground floor/basement where my reloading/deer camp/gun room is. Had 8" of water in it. Fortunately the Fire seal around the Gun safe door rebuked the water and made it devide ashunder and all guns came thru dry as a tumble weed. The rest of the things on that floor were not so well off!
    Everyting from the floor joist to the floor had to be torn out and rebuilt. As I worked to carry out and haul off to the dump nearly 25 years of Hoarding and 'saving' by my wife and I both. I kept telling myself that God had simply put a date on that 'round-to-it' of cleaning out and remodeling the basement that I had been dodging for 15 years! It took nearly two years to get it all done, but I'm finally back on track and trying to get started 'casting' For me it's almost a new start as I had nod done much before!
    I BELIEVE I PICKED A GREAT THREAD TO START ON: Reading every post on this forum about smelting and casting has given me several good ideas. The first of which is to build my mega-pot out of a 20# prophane tank [I've saved two of them for years, just knowing not to throw them away] I'm figuring that by a little judicious red-nek enginearing of a set of sturdy legs for this thing that will allow it to sit right over a 'turkey fryer' burner on sturdy laigs and a good 'pour' spiggot. I should be well on my way to getting 1400# of WW smelted and about another 1000-1100# of 50-60# mega ingots melted down into more managable ingots. [How I ended up with nearly 3000# of WW lead is another story that will have to wait.]
    I have my first ingot mold already built out of 3" channel Iron, I have a 15# ingot of pure lead that I found when we cleaned out my dad's workshop.
    I used it as a pattern I set it in the channel iron and scribed a mark where the deviders were to be welded in. This gives me a total of 5 ingots in each pour. Since the channel Iron is approximately1/4 inch shorter in height than the ingot. I'm hoping for about a 10-12# ingot in each mold when it's poured, but for shure they will be more managable than these 50 pounders. I have ground small leveling slots in each partition of the mold to allow the molten lead to flow and fill all molds equally. I had previously intended to use a two Element 220V counter top stove to melt the lead in a smaller cast iron 'bean' pot. But with the ideas from these post for a melting pot. I can use that stove to keep the larger mold hot enough to allow the metal to flow properly!
    I'm also a 'castiron cookware' collector and over the years I have accumulated several cheap corn stick pans that are of no collector value. I will use these to cast smaller ingots to use in my casting pot or for 'bartering' as they would be handier to ship.
    That post about the 'air brake pot' gave me an idea for a WW clip scieve Also! With a little bit of junkyard scrounging I should be able to come up with a smaller tank that will fit closely inside my melting pot that can be drilled full of holes so that when it's slowly lifted out of the melted lead ureeeekee!! The clips are all out!! By using a air tank which will almost sure have a rounded bottom? Nearly all the molten lead should drain freely back into the pot to be fluxed? [Wonder if a freeon tank is smaller?]
    If I pull this off, I'll try and post some pictures later, it's deer season right now
    BTW Ohio allows .410 ga. for deer hunting, I am working on a 'project' gun a 410ga. Rifled slug gun and need to test some .44cal. cast Hollow point boolits? [YES I know that .45 is more natural, but I'm using .44 cal.] I would like to test several but I don't want to have to buy but one .44 cal. hollow point mold. And need to determine which one is going to do the job best? [I have it shooting very well with factory jacketed bullits but want to shoot cast.]
    If anyone has a .44 hollow point mold [s] and would be intrested in selling/trading me a few to work with? Please e-mail me, right now I am intrested in about any weight and would even try out a .44 round nose cast bullit? Gas checks are a must or If jacketed it could not be more than a 1/2 jacket, ending below the cannuler. If anyone has or is willing to make such a 1/2 jacketed bullet in .44cal? PLEASE E-mail me I'm bound to have something u want/need we can probably do some business
    thtwit, binlookin@frontier.com
    Last edited by thtwit; 11-26-2011 at 03:44 AM. Reason: Computer missing a lot of key strokes, needed corrected. [I need a new computer]

  10. #110
    Boolit Master


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    OK, I know this might sound a bit strange, but has anyone tried using a cast iron sink as a smelting pot? For some reason, I've seen a few cast iron sinks on CraigsList lately and they've been fairly cheap. I've even seen people giving them away. You would to weld a plug into the drain or convert that area into a smaller sized bottom pour spout and weld up a frame around it so that it could stand independently from your heat source. Might even be able to create two smelting pots out of it since they tend to be double sinks by cutting it in half with a circular say and an abrasive blade. The porcelain was put on the sink at a high enough temperature that there should not be a problem with it flaking off in the heat, but even if it did, you would skim it off with the dross...

    So, has anyone tried it (and would be willing to admit it)?
    Live fast, die young, leave a cute widow...

  11. #111
    Boolit Bub
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    Leadthrower, that's a great job on that bottom pourer

  12. #112
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    Old Ironsights's Avatar
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    I'd be real concerned about using a CI sink. That iron is really thin & brittle compared to cookware...
    A Democrat that owns Guns is like a Vegan that owns Cats...
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  13. #113
    Longwood
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    Quote Originally Posted by grumman581 View Post
    OK, I know this might sound a bit strange, but has anyone tried using a cast iron sink as a smelting pot? For some reason, I've seen a few cast iron sinks on CraigsList lately and they've been fairly cheap. I've even seen people giving them away. You would to weld a plug into the drain or convert that area into a smaller sized bottom pour spout and weld up a frame around it so that it could stand independently from your heat source. Might even be able to create two smelting pots out of it since they tend to be double sinks by cutting it in half with a circular say and an abrasive blade. The porcelain was put on the sink at a high enough temperature that there should not be a problem with it flaking off in the heat, but even if it did, you would skim it off with the dross...

    So, has anyone tried it (and would be willing to admit it)?
    Cast iron usually breaks as soon as you finish welding it.
    I would start with an old propane tank.
    Cheap, often free, and made of steel which is so much easier to work with.

    I started a combination bottom pour pot using both a valve and a bottom pour spout so I can also tip it like a smelting furnace for pouring.
    It should be interesting to see which method I like best.
    It would have been finished long ago if I could find a short piece of 1/4" pipe. Around here, it seems it is exttremely rare. Maybe i should hoard some if I can find it?
    Summer came and it got hot out so it got set aside. It has been really nice out lately so I will finish it and show photos here.

    I will probably sell it or give it away since I don't plan on doing any more smelting after how productive, lead scrounging wise, last year was.

  14. #114
    Boolit Buddy
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    If there is any welding to be done, stick with steel. Cast iron will break. Here is a link to a custom bottom pour smelting pot that I built.

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=146065

    Shad
    I believe in gold, silver, & lead, and the rights of free honest men... You can keep the "CHANGE"!

    Shad

  15. #115
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    Quote Originally Posted by partsproduction View Post


    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
    Wow..........some awesome set ups here. Just now getting to the point where I am ready to do quantity ww. I have gotten about 750 collected. All for "free".

    Partsproduction; I hope you moveed that propane tank that was in front of your trap BEFORE you started plinkin' Thanks guys for all the ideas. Awesome forum.

  16. #116
    Boolit Bub
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    After reading this entire post I'm thinking of a large bottom pour pot. I'm new to the casting hobby and been using a 8 qt pot for smelting but after reading and seeing all these nice pots I'm thinking maybe, just maybe. So here is my question. How tall should the pot be for smelting ww? I've got my hands on a failed high pressure gas cylinder. This is a steel cylinder like an oxygen tank on your torch set. It is about 1/2 inch thick, 9 inch diameter and 50 inch tall. I'm thinking if I cut off the bottom it will make a nice pot. So how high to make it? Would this work or is it a bad idea?

  17. #117
    Boolit Buddy
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    This pot that I built is only 4 1/2 inches deep, but it is 17 inches across. I think that there is a point to where you can be too wide or too narrow, or.. too tall or too short. I felt that I needed to have the ability and the room to add more lead, scoop, stir, flux, and flux again, and to accomplish this I needed a wider pot. I also made sure that I had a good heat source to handle this operation. I kept my depth at 4 1/2 inches so my thermometers would sit right and I would not exceed what my burner would hold weight wise (although I did beef up the burner). 1 gallon of molten lead weighs in at 95 pounds. My pot holds 4 gallons.

    IMO.. 9 inches across is not very big (wider is more stable and easier to use) and may become top heavy if you make it too tall. The heavier your material is (you said 1/2 inch thick) the longer it will take to heat up because you have to bring the pot up to temp too. I would suggest using a rim or piece of well casing instead, and save the cylinder for other projects.

    Good luck...


    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by shadowcaster; 12-04-2012 at 03:29 PM. Reason: paragraph separation
    I believe in gold, silver, & lead, and the rights of free honest men... You can keep the "CHANGE"!

    Shad

  18. #118
    Boolit Buddy


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    I am pretty envious of all of you guys. I just recently, last month, was able to get a little Lee 10 pound dripper and begin casting again. My ex sold a lot of my casting and reloading stuff when I was deployed before we got divorced. I had around 1300 pounds of pure lead and 500 pounds of WW that I had melted into ingots by the use of the fryer/dutch oven/muffin mold technique. She had her "friend" take them to a recycling center while I was gone. I was lucky I had about 30 pounds in my truck though. Been looking at tire shops for WW but they don't want to get rid of them for less than an arm and half leg. Be glad you have what you do. Nice looking set ups.

  19. #119
    Boolit Bub thegasharkman's Avatar
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    The Kenjudo's setup?
    Is there a detailed set of instructions to duplicate this pot?

    Quote Originally Posted by Buckshot View Post
    This is Kenjudo's setup, and build info, PART 1:





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  20. #120
    Boolit Master

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    Wow, I just red on another we page that cast iron cookware has it's structure changed by smelting lead, and just tapping it with. Ladle will make it crack, that the turkey fryer burners are dangerous because the hose is not armored, and all kind of other "interesting" things.

    Guess we all better hang up our outfits we use and have used for years

    Bill
    Both ends WHAT a player

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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