Alright, alright, I'm in! ... now what to get?

[Markbo]

I have decided I have to try this. One more thing I don't have time for, but I HAVE to make my own bullets. I have only about 200lbs of wheel weights, but I figure if I get half that as melted lead that's a start.

Now everyone tell me if this is a good start for equipment. This is just for smelting. I will probably get different equipment for casting. In order to save money, I am looking for used stuff.

Dutch oven - may have to buy a used one
Turkey fryer - is 58,000BTU enough or do I need a 100,000BTU unit?
Heavy ladel - don't know where I am going to find that
Steel hand strainer - grocery store
Thermometer - a Tel-Tru 200-1000°F unit
Molds - whatever muffin tins I can find at garage sales, etc
Flux - do I need anything special or just crayons or cooking oil?
Apron - Now do I NEED a leather apron or will a cloth 'shop' apron do?
Gloves - Do I NEED welders gloves or will those big/uncomfortable blue suede 'work gloves' be enough?

I will probably get a face shield just because I don't see well through safety glasses that have to fit over eyeglasses. All I am looking to do first is smelt the wheel weights down to a useful size(s). I will ask a LOT more questions when I get to casting it later.

Also an aside... I have several large pieces of what I believe is pure lead: 4.5"x23.5"x1/2". How do I melt something that ... ungainly. Can it be cut in half first or does it just have to be melted? Should I keep that in separate ingots or mix in with the wheel weights?

Don't worry... I will have a LOT more questions.

[Edubya]

I see that you've been around since 2006. I would have thought that you would have read tons of these "Just starting, what do I need" posts by now. I don't mean to sound brash (but I'm not a diplomat). Before you ask for that much help you should try to help yourself. We will all try to help those that attempt to help themselves. The information that you are asking for is in just about evey thread on this forum to one degree or another.

EW

[deerslayer]

I posted this some time back maybe it will help
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...melting+budget

Also a search will reveal even more info on this topic

[Markbo]

Thank you Deerslayer.


Edubya, just because I first found this site and signed on in 2006 does not mean I have been here all that time. You might notice I have only 14 posts. I am sure I will try not to bother you with any questions that have been asked before.

Oh wait! That's impossible!

[Mk42gunner]

Markbo,

I use an old soup ladle that has the bowl rivetted to the handle for filling ingot molds. As to the gloves; I don't like the loss of dexterity with welding gloves, so I wear plain leather work gloves.

Robert

[Czech_too]

For utensils, forget the grocery store, to expensive. Check out the various $ or thrift stores. I found mine there along with the muffin pans.

[Bret4207]

Scrounge stuff man. Any old steel pot will do and a $10.00 hot plate will work too. Old soup ladles work and all you need to flux is a dry stick- stir and scrape. I don't wear gloves, aprons, face masks, respirators, SCBA, Nomex suits or anything else to speak of. Safety glasses are a a good Idea as are long pants and boots. I wouldn't smelt or cast in shorts and bare chested. Stand upwind from the smoke. Burning dog pee stinks. I used a small old shovel that has rust holes to get the junk out, but a big slotted spoon I found at a dumpster works better. You do not need a thermometer.

[mdi]

I got some of my "utinsels" from the dollar store; slotted spoon, muffin pans, etc. A stainless steel, one piece soup ladle came from an army/navy surplus store, works great for ingots. Paint sticks are great for stir-fluxing (clean and dry!). I don't remember where my smelting pot came from, but it was an 8" steel hex socket about 8" deep that I welded a base on. Never tried a hot plate but I've been using a Coleman single burner propane stove (the kind where the propane bottle is the base, less than $20, and yes it is stable).

I've never used a thermometer in about 8 years of casting. I don't use an apron or face shield, but I do wear safety glasses (My Rx work glasses). Leather work gloves are suffecient, but I don't use them much, after 35 years as a H.D. mechanic my hands are pretty tough.

http://www.lasc.us/IndexBrennan.htm This sight, along with Cast Boolits, will give you just about all the info you need to get started. Oh yeah, get Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook too.

[Markbo]

Excellent advice guys, many thanks. And thanks for that link. I will be spending a lot of time there reading up too. I guess eventually now I have to actually start segregating all the good WW from the bad, huh?

ETA: Got the Lyman book - my first when I started reloading about 8 years ago. Refer to it often.

[deerslayer]

The bad ones will float when the pot melts. That is how I segregate dump a bucket in the pot and turn on the fire!!!

[Echo]

Ought to be easy to find a used turkey fryer &cetera in Houston. Good luck, mate.

Milby'53, AKA

[geargnasher]

If you have a gas grill with a side burner, that will work for smelting if you use a piece of flashing tin to make a little apron around the pot to conserve heat. Just a 6" strip made into a band about 1" larger than the pot all the way around is perfect. Watch your shirt sleeves and arm hair!

Slotted cooking spoon from thrift store/garage sale works great for skimming. Stainless, 4-quart pan works, so does just about anything cast iron, including an old skillet in a pinch, but the skillets won't hold much. Don't use aluminum at all.

You will need some sort of steel ladle for pouring ingots, and an el-cheapo muffin tin makes good ones if you burn off the Teflon coating before putting lead in them. Lightly rusted ones work best.

This does not have to be expensive.

Gear

[Markbo]

Well I wasted most of today looking for stuff. Every 'stainless' slotted spoon I picked up was so flimsey it felt like it wouldn't hold the weight of stew, let alone metal. Not hot plate or utensils to be found at several dollar stores, 2 Goodwills and 2 Wal Marts. Only one cast iron pot at a Wal Mart for $35! Didn't get it.

Sheesh... it would have saved all my time just to order it on line.

Maybe I'll try some yard sales or a flea market on Sunday - my next day off. IF not cutting the grass today to shop allows it.

BTW Long Point (a street name in Spring Branch) I live near Tomball.. otherside of the Houston universe from you.

[RKJ]

Markbo, I don't believe you have to have a SS spoons and utensils, you just want to male sure they're not aluminum if you are using them to ladle and for your pot. The aluminum will give out (with no warning). For smelting I use a 1000W hot plate from Walgreens, I paid $10.00 for it but others have found it on sale even cheaper. I don't do a bunch at one time (I have a 2 qt SS sauce pan bought at Goodwill for $2.00) but it works very good. I found the other day that if I put in some candle wax (old ones I requisitioned from my wife) the heat goes up and it melts faster and it helps with fluxing. It makes it a lot easier to separate the junk from the lead. If you're like me you'll become addicted to the casting, it's pretty cool.

[johnlaw484]

The bad ones will float when the pot melts. That is how I segregate dump a bucket in the pot and turn on the fire!!!

Yep, What he said!

[johnlaw484]

Well I wasted most of today looking for stuff. Every 'stainless' slotted spoon I picked up was so flimsey it felt like it wouldn't hold the weight of stew, let alone metal. Not hot plate or utensils to be found at several dollar stores, 2 Goodwills and 2 Wal Marts. Only one cast iron pot at a Wal Mart for $35! Didn't get it.

Sheesh... it would have saved all my time just to order it on line.

Maybe I'll try some yard sales or a flea market on Sunday - my next day off. IF not cutting the grass today to shop allows it.

BTW Long Point (a street name in Spring Branch) I live near Tomball.. otherside of the Houston universe from you.

Yeah, but part of the enjoyment is scrounging for the equipt. In fact you never really stop looking. You;ll always run across something that works little better than what you are currently using.

[mdi]

A side note on eye protection. I have a pair of safety (work) glasses that I wear when I cast. One time I dropped maybe 4 sprues back into the pot an got a splash; not big enough to see or hear. But I noticed a very small speck on my glasses right in front of my pupil. I took off my glasses and found a speck of lead about the size of #12 shot melted into the safety glass lens. That little bitty drop of lead would have cost me the sight in my right eye had I not had glasses on, that dot of molten lead was heading right for my eyeball lens! Wear eye protection, please...

[Cowboy T]

For eye protection, I use nothing less than a full face shield from The Home Depot. It's about $15. The Tinsel Fairy came to visit me one time, would've burned a good chunk of my face off if I'd had just safety glasses.

I use welding gloves. That lead is very hot. Remember, molten metal. Don't waste your time with those blue suede gloves.

I also wear an old leather jacket and some good, thick, old denim jeans (loose fit). Old leather jackets are great protection against the Tinsel Fairy.

For ingot moulds, I use an old steel muffin pan. Muffin ingots stack pretty well.

Get a thermometer. My target temperature for melting down WW is 600 deg. F. Tel-Tru makes a good one. You want the one with the 5" stem that goes from 200 to 1000 deg. F. Available at www.teltru.com.

For flux, it turns out all that gunk on wheel weights makes a pretty darn good flux! But if you want something more, sawdust is also a very good flux material. And it's free.

Ladle: I bought a stainless steel ladle from the dollar store for...a dollar. While I was at it, I also got a slotted spoon, for fishing out the steel clips from the WW. They work just great.

And when you start casting your boolits, seriously consider a Lee 6-cavity model. They let you bang out lots of good boolits in a short amount of time.

[geargnasher]

+1 Cowboy T, excellent advice.

Gear