Muffin tin ingot mold disaster.

[Mactrekr]

Hi all, been a lurker here for over a year gathering all the info I "thought" I'd need to get started casting boolits, guess I missed something. So THIS is my first ever post. and before I proceed, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to all of you who share your time and wisdom on this site.
So....I just smelted my first bucket of wheel weights, all lead, (I took great lengths to ensure no zinc) and everything went swimmingly right up until I tried to get the damned ingots "out da mold".
. These are my beautiful ingots, (at least I think they're beautiful). AND THIS is the end result of my ingot mold.

I'm sure I did something wrong, but I can't figure out exactly what. As you can see, I used a cheap crappy steel muffin tin from WallyWorld, and that may be a contributing factor, but I think it's a temperature issue. Y'all have any insight? Many thanks in advance. Mac

[500MAG]

Yeah, those wallyworld pans or dollar store pans don't work well. Get yourself a cast iron muffin pan or corn muffin pan.

[imashooter2]

While I like cast iron, those steel tins will work if you let them sit outside and rust before you pour.

[dragon813gt]

With that pan coating it looks like you welded the ingots to the pan. Next time remove the coating and let the pan rust. They won't stick at that point. And spend the money on the higher quality thicker pans. They individual cups won't break out of them.

[Jeffrey]

Silver colored pans are actually tin plated. Use the nonstick (black) pans. The ingots fall right out.

[leeggen]

I use the cheap 12 hole muffin tins from Wally world, I spray the pans with the Frankfurt Ars. drop out spray that is good for just that. I poured some ingots let cool and flipped it over, they all came out easly. If you don't coat the tin with something they stick from the high heat. Don't use the nonstick pans, the coating on them acts like glue.
CD

[Mactrekr]

Thanks guys, they have a a mini loaf pan at Wally World that runs about 10 buck, I'll try that one next. Much higher quality and I'll find a way to either coat it or rust the s41t out of it. Live and learn...

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Ya can't go wrong with cast iron ...imho

[Bzcraig]

Hi all, been a lurker here for over a year gathering all the info I "thought" I'd need to get started casting boolits, guess I missed something. So THIS is my first ever post. and before I proceed, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to all of you who share your time and wisdom on this site.
So....I just smelted my first bucket of wheel weights, all lead, (I took great lengths to ensure no zinc) and everything went swimmingly right up until I tried to get the damned ingots "out da mold".
. These are my beautiful ingots, (at least I think they're beautiful). AND THIS is the end result of my ingot mold.

I'm sure I did something wrong, but I can't figure out exactly what. As you can see, I used a cheap crappy steel muffin tin from WallyWorld, and that may be a contributing factor, but I think it's a temperature issue. Y'all have any insight? Many thanks in advance. Mac

I did the EXACT same thing, bought a cast iron baking pan and haven't looked back.

[Andrew Mason]

+1 for cast iron

I have a lodge cast iron bread sick pan, makes nice long slender ingots that weigh 1.5 lbs.

[Norbrat]

Thanks guys, they have a a mini loaf pan at Wally World that runs about 10 buck, I'll try that one next. Much higher quality and I'll find a way to either coat it or rust the s41t out of it. Live and learn...

Don't bother to coat it.

If it's tin plated, your ingots will solder themselves to the tin, which is what happened to your first muffin pan.

If it's teflon coated, the teflon will burn off, but will stink and fumes are not nice. Some folks have wire brushed the teflon off before use.

If it's cast iron, it won't stick, neither will aluminum or stainless steel.

Lotsa folks have good luck with little s/s condiment cups and some have screwed a serious of them to a piece of wood to get a string of them which makes it easy to dump them out in a batch.

Aluminum muffin and fairy cake "tins" from the OP Shop also work great.

[dragon813gt]

The $10 ones work just fine. They're Teflon coated. Your first couple ingots will be bubbly if you don't remove the coating first. I burnt it off w/ a torch, not recommended w/out proper PPE, and then filled them with water to rust over night.

[Mk42gunner]

Speaking as someone who actually broke a cast iron cornbread pan while using it to form ingots, I will recommend angle iron ingot molds.

There are many threads with pictures to give you ideas.

Robert

[Jim]

The $10 ones work just fine. They're Teflon coated. Your first couple ingots will be bubbly if you don't remove the coating first. I burnt it off w/ a torch, not recommended w/out proper PPE, and then filled them with water to rust over night.

Last year, I smelted and ingotized 4 tons of range lead from a range reclamation project I did. I used those same pans. The only thing I did to the pans was reinforce the long sides with some light angle and a coupla' sheetmetal screws.

The molten lead will burn the teflon coating off, but I never had a problem with the ingots sticking. I still have those pans and they still work fine.

[Mactrekr]

Well, I'm going to try the $10 mini-loaf pan from WallyWorld, but I just ordered a nice cast iron 6 hole muffin pan on ebay for $17 delivered. IF both work properly, I'll have 2 differently shaped ingots, if not, I'm sure the cast iron will do nicely. My casting pot and bullet molds should be here today!!! I'm really excited.. Thanks for all the great info and advice.

[GLL]

Cast Iron (or steel) + RUST + Tin = happiness !






Jerry

[gwpercle]

Mac,
You got the wrong muffin tin. In Wally-world you have to go to the special cake baking and decorating section, not the regular kitchen cooking and baking section. It has special cake pans for making Mickey Mouse, Superman type cakes for kids birthday parties and such ....here is where they hide the Aluminum muffin pans. They are made by Wilton and are all aluminum with no coating (silver color). Thats what you want. I have been using a 12 count mini-muffin pan scince 1973, this is a good size for my small Lee electric pot. The other day I went to that section to get another, good to have a back-up, they had pans for 24 mini-muffins...twice the fun, so I got one. Go to Wilton's site and you can see all the different size muffin pans they make, mini, regular, jumbo and muffin top sizes. The lead will not stick to the aluminum, don't have to do anything to it. Wilton is the name to look for and they are not expensive.
My wife said you might also try Party Stores that sell stuff like that for kids birthday parties.

Gary

[RobsTV]

These work great at around 4 for $1.00, and rotating $5 worth will cool as fast as you can fill them.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-...-Cups/14964954

Each cup holds about 1.25 lbs and they stack nicely.
I use them more than the cast iron corn ear molds.

[trk]

These work great at around 4 for $1.00, and rotating $5 worth will cool as fast as you can fill them.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-...-Cups/14964954

Each cup holds about 1.25 lbs and they stack nicely.
I use them more than the cast iron corn ear molds.

Thanks for posting the link - I'd gotten some at YARD SALES - not a dependable source when you want more!

[Mactrekr]

So, it would appear that I have the fever.. I ordered a cast iron muffin tin on eBay, but couldn't wait so I went back to WallyWorld and bought the mainstays 12 hole muffin tin for $6. It forms beautiful ingots with zero sticking issues. I really am hooked, I work for a large car dealership group, and am fortunate.... or cursed..... because I can pretty much get as many wheel weight as I want for free. I'm going to be casting several hundred lbs over the next couple of weeks, and that should last me a while. thanks again for all y'all advice. I'm really glad to be here. Mac