Lee PrecisionMidSouth Shooters SupplyLoad DataRotoMetals2
Reloading EverythingTitan ReloadingInline FabricationWideners
Repackbox
Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst 12345678 LastLast
Results 121 to 140 of 154

Thread: One home smelting production setup

  1. #121
    Banned

    PatMarlin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    6,341
    You can't buck modern trends and modern wisdom Bill, with all the high tech ways of thinking nowadays.

    That's what ya call progress. A progressive kind of thing. Keeps us moving forward...

  2. #122
    Boolit Bub 1bilmr59's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    stockbridge Ga
    Posts
    36
    I like all the posts thanks for your time it helps.

  3. #123
    Boolit Master Slow Elk 45/70's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Clear, AK
    Posts
    1,289
    With the price of fuel these days, one needs to watch his bottom line when venturing far and wide foe W/W....
    Slow Elk 45/70

    Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammo

  4. #124
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    3,570
    Quote Originally Posted by Cheshire Dave View Post
    Well I'm a little embaressed. I went the low tech route. Propane is too damn expensive and I'm lucky to find ww at all so I made up a simple wood fired set up. I was able to smelt 120 lbs. in 3 hours or so. I had done a much bigger batch using a propane burner but got some zinc in the batch and ruined about 120 lbs. Think I'll be able to make boat anchors out of it but I do much smaller batches now to be safe. I was able to use mostly bark and chips left over from splitting wood so the cost was pretty much zero. Threre is a box fan just outside the picture that controls the heat.
    Attachment 12723

    Attachment 12724
    If you ruined mix with zinc it might be possible that your local scrap yard will take your ruined mix as clean lead. Depending on the scrap yard you might be able to trade for other lead or wheel weights they have. Large blocks of clean material are worth much more to them then wheel weights with steel clips in them. Just a thought

  5. #125
    Boolit Buddy

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Flint Hills of Kansas
    Posts
    136
    Great idea. Gives me something to play with during the upcoming winter days.

  6. #126
    Boolit Man Mike0904's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Freegrazer
    Posts
    85
    Just finished my Kenjudo's bottom pour smelter, gotta try 'er out soon got 100lbs+ waiting.
    no leaks testing with water.Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMAG0285.jpg 
Views:	289 
Size:	51.9 KB 
ID:	91341Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMAG0286.jpg 
Views:	271 
Size:	58.5 KB 
ID:	91342
    Cast Boolit Shooter and Caster

  7. #127
    Boolit Master




    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    WV
    Posts
    4,709
    I'm in the process of redoing my smelting set up, I was using a coleman stove which took forever to melt. I have a new burner that I am building the pot around, I'll post pictures when I get done.

  8. #128
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    South Texas Coastal Bend Area
    Posts
    525
    A couple decades ago I built a burner stand out of a truck clutch spacer plate (a flywheel or brake disc/drum would've worked), some angle iron legs and a repurposed water heater burner, and used a cut-off Freon tank as a pot, with a pour spout heated/bent into the rim and a pair of rebar handles welded on. It worked fairly well. In the mayhem of four moves and a divorce/remarriage, it became lost, along with my six Lyman ingot molds, and now I'm using a scavenged steel pipe cap for a pot, heated on a storebought turkey fryer (AKA garage-fire-starter) and using a small wood-handled cast iron saucepan for a ladle, and two Lee ingot molds. With the Lyman or Lee ingot molds, I usually fill them up above the dividers to gang the ingots together. I find this takes about an extra pound of alloy. This makes them easier to count and stack. I use number/letter stamps to differentiate alloys/metals. When I need them for the production pot, I break them up with two big crescent wrenches. At present I have to bum cutting/welding capability, but I plan to make some angle or channel iron ingot molds so I can just use different shapes for different metals and no longer have to bother stamping them. I must say this thread makes me want to build a bottom pour smelter, but one thing at a time...

  9. #129
    Boolit Mold MRBACKHAND's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Clovis California
    Posts
    23
    I've been reloading for 3-4 months now and get tired of paying 50$ or more for 500 boolits .I want to make my own lead boolits what's a fair price to offer the tire shops here in California for there wheel weight take offs? Is there a cheaper way to get lead ?Any info will be greatly appreciated.
    Are the lyman smelting kits worth the 80$ ? No propane just plug into the wall and comes with ladle . I would appreciate your advice.. Thank you

  10. #130
    Boolit Master


    grumman581's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    The Lone Star Republic
    Posts
    759
    Quote Originally Posted by MRBACKHAND View Post
    I've been reloading for 3-4 months now and get tired of paying 50$ or more for 500 boolits .I want to make my own lead boolits what's a fair price to offer the tire shops here in California for there wheel weight take offs? Is there a cheaper way to get lead ?Any info will be greatly appreciated.
    Are the lyman smelting kits worth the 80$ ? No propane just plug into the wall and comes with ladle . I would appreciate your advice.. Thank you
    Call your local recycling place and find out how much they are offering to pay people for wheelweights. Probably around $0.50 per pound, but you need to remember that there will be a lot of non-lead scrap, clips, and such in there. I would not be surprised if there was a higher percentage of zinc and steel wheelweights in CA than in other areas. You can often get lead off of ebay that has already been smelted or in the for sale area of this site for around $1 per pound in 50 lb quantities.

    And I don't particularly think that is a good price for a smelting setup. I prefer a gas burner anyway. I use natural gas, so I don't have to worry about my tank running out.
    Live fast, die young, leave a cute widow...

  11. #131
    Boolit Master



    NavyVet1959's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    409 area code -- Texas, ya'll
    Posts
    3,775
    Quote Originally Posted by MRBACKHAND View Post
    Are the lyman smelting kits worth the 80$ ? No propane just plug into the wall and comes with ladle . I would appreciate your advice..
    The cost of assembling your own kit is going to depend upon your resourcefulness and what you might already have that you can re-purpose. If you already have a gas burner from a fish fryer or whatever, you've just decreased the cost of your kit quite a bit. An old out of date propane tank can be acquired either for no or very little cost and it's easy to cut the top off of it and you'll have a nice size smelting pot. But then, it's going to depend upon whether you have access to a welder and a circular saw with an abrasive blade or maybe an angle grinder. An 8 qt cast iron dutch oven can be had for $40.

    http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/outd...h+oven&Ntk=All

    Or maybe $29 over at Harbor Freight. Plus you can often get a Harbor Freight coupon good for 20-25% off the listed price.

    http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch...ven-44705.html

  12. #132
    Moderator Emeritus


    MrWolf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    NE West Virginia
    Posts
    4,853
    MRBACKHAND, check and see if you can repurpose items to make it cheaper. A few threads down I repurposed a Weber grill I found on the side if the road. I cut my own propane tank which I got from local hardware store who charged folks $5 to leave their old tanks - gave a few to me for free. Used a welding blanket as a wind screen. Works great and I can just leave it out with the grill cover.

  13. #133
    Boolit Mold Ficus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Charleston, WV usa
    Posts
    18
    Quote Originally Posted by felix View Post
    Folks, Sundog and I, plus children, have enough clean lead to last all of us for the rest of our lives. It is time to think about selling this gadget that will smelt 2000 pound easy. When a source of WW or other junk lead arrives in your neighborhood, even for a reasonable cash sale, this large mother will do justice in cleaning it up pronto. Here, pronto means one 8 hour day for 2000 pounds, provided there is enough BTU's around to melt the stuff in 4 hours or so. This thing is not for the faint of heart. ... felix (and Corky)

    http://www.castpics.net/RandD/moas/moas.htm
    link gives "404" error, file/page not found
    NRA Endowment Member

    Imagine the potential power of a worldwide network of people aligned
    with the vision of saving the world from the sociopaths currently in charge.

  14. #134
    Boolit Master



    NavyVet1959's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    409 area code -- Texas, ya'll
    Posts
    3,775
    Quote Originally Posted by Ficus View Post
    link gives "404" error, file/page not found
    Well, felix does have a pretty good excuse for not keeping the links up to date...

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...40#post2726140

  15. #135
    Boolit Buddy

    MostlyOnThePaper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Adrian, MI
    Posts
    473
    Quote Originally Posted by NavyVet1959 View Post
    Well, felix does have a pretty good excuse for not keeping the links up to date...

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...40#post2726140
    I'd have to agree with you on that!
    Bless him!

  16. #136
    Boolit Master
    woodbutcher's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    LaFollette Tn
    Posts
    1,398
    Just a thought here.For some cheap(read free)angle iron for molds.Check out the local bed sales stores.You can most likely get all the old angle iron bed frames just to haul it off.IIRC,its just 1" angle,but for free,who cares.Good for all kinds of projects too.
    Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
    Leo

  17. #137
    Boolit Buddy RoGrrr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Central Ohio
    Posts
    357
    Jim
    How about floating a thin piece of black steel on the melt to take your reading from ?
    On second thought measuring, why bother ? After all, lead doesn't vaporize until you heat it to 1750* CENTIGRADE, which is over 3000* F.
    I simply heat it until it pours intoignots and not worry about the tin or antimony content. It's all going to shoot better than I can.

    Quote Originally Posted by JIMinPHX View Post
    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.
    <SNIP>

    You can see my boolit traps here - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=29648
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TC2xTCb_GU

    Have you ever heard of an anchor holding SLOW ?
    As far as some of us on this forum, we don't bite; We shoot !
    To see my images at imgur.com
    sign in as BOOLITCASTER
    password - 123456789

  18. #138
    Boolit Master Pee Wee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Debary, Florida Volusia County
    Posts
    596
    We use 3 cut down lp tanks and small muffin pans

  19. #139
    Boolit Buddy Doggonekid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Utah
    Posts
    275
    Buckshot I'm impressed. Cool set up. You do good quality work. Thanks for my sizer die too.
    "Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid." John Wayne

  20. #140
    Boolit Mold Connelly47's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    14
    I have the basic dutch oven on a turkey cooker. The only thing I can add is that I built a brick chimney around the turkey cooker and pot to keep out out the wind. Saves quite a bit of fuel and the dogs and kids can be in the yard without them getting into any accidental trouble. The bricks are old landscape bricks that would have been thrown out, so the cost was free.

Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst 12345678 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
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