My first ingots from wheel weights

[supv26]

I've smelted in a little put like that. I just hooked a pair of vise grips to the bottom plate and left it. When I was ready to pour I just picked the entire pot up and poured it out.

[C. Latch]

I put my clips in a 5-gallon bucket. It usually has some water in it so they are slowly rusting away to nothing. I save my steel stick-on weights for slingshot ammo. Yeah, they're square and fly funny, but I can't hit anything with it anyway, so no great loss.

[Eagle66]

I'd like to add my 2c worth about starting on the cheap. Maybe that's all my advice is worth, but here it is.

Like the others said, save your good electric pot only for boolits. For smelting; Go to the thrift store and get a 2-3 qt ( 2 qt will hold 30 lb of WW's) stainless steel/copper bottom/etc pot, pretty much anything NOT Aluminum. (~$2 - $3). While you're there see if they've got a 1000W hot plate. (~$5), or a new one @ Wally's. (~$15) Stop at the dollar store an get a ladle & a slotted spoon, 1$ ea. With some pliers, crimp a "spout" into the side of the pot. and you're good to go. Use this pot only for smelting or alloy mixing. There's plenty of time for you to get the cast Iron kettle/turkey fryer , etc. setup later. For now, go simple & cheap while you're learning.

As for the trash leftover; I go two ways. The clips & dross go into my scrap iron bucket for sale with my other iron junk. For the Fe/Zn weights, save them in another bucket. There is a scrap dealer here that won't sell ANY metal to individuals. I buy my Pb/WW's/ scrap from another dealer who treats me right. They both pay 25-30 cents/lb for WW's and so I sell the sorted out Fe/Zn WW's to the one who doesn't.

[Foto Joe]

You "could" save the trash like clips, zincs and steels and haul it to the recycle place but it would probably cost you more in gas than you got for it unless you saved up a truck load.

Eventually you'll get a separate pot for smelting but in the meantime don't be afraid to put water into your empty pot, heat it up to boiling and then scrub the snot out of it with a steel brush before you use it for casting boolits.

[Eagle66]

$25 for a bucket full. Then I go to the good guy and spend it on more lead, tin, or whatever he has that I need.

[tbj555]

Great job, We all were newbies at one time. The sawdust works great but I also use a little candle wax, It seems to flux out any oil in the lead that the sawdust don't.

[mistermog]

One thing I noticed, it looks like you have the sticky wheel weights and clip on weights in the same pile. The stick ones are much purer lead than the clip ones. Most people take those out and only use the clip ons.

[WolfSpring]

One thing I noticed, it looks like you have the sticky wheel weights and clip on weights in the same pile. The stick ones are much purer lead than the clip ones. Most people take those out and only use the clip ons.

Yeah I didn't know that at the time, someone else had pointed that out to me as well. I know better now, thank you very much.

[Foto Joe]

If you know somebody or you yourself shoot Black Powder, those stick on wheel weights are great for casting round balls although you'll definitely need to add tin to it to get a decent fill-out.

[45-70 Chevroner]

The large slotted spoon works great for skimming clips and the nasty bulk. I use a soup spoon with a lot of 1/16" holes to get the fine nasty stuff out. I probably drilled 40 holes in the soup spoon and the lead drains through nicely and the nasty stuff stays in the spoon, you might have some real fine stuff go through but not much.

[MOA]

WolfSpring, be sure that any of the clips, or tools used for lead smelting or bullet casting are not available for your kids to play with. Lead dust and handling of equiptment should be kept away from children, and adults need to be washing their hands with appropriate hand cleaners after a casting or smelting session.


Amazon had a sale just before Christmas, on a King Kooker model 1644 Turkey fryer. It was being sold for around $50.00, normally it runs $147.00 it came with a cast iron pot and regulator, stand, and I think the burner was also cast iron.

Your ingots look fine. The purpose of ingots is just to facilitate easier handling of the lead for when you are preparing to cast bullets, and is the result of the cleaning process of the bulk resource used for casting. More important is how clean the alloy is, and to have the proper alloy content for your cast boolit performance.

Your off on a good start. Good luck on all your future endeavors in the world of casting.

[Cadillo]

Like MOA said, watch Amazon. I caught mine on sale for $39.50 delivered, and it has a braided stainless hose, regulator and cast iron burner. I built a small bench and bolted the burner frame to bring it to the correct height and for stability.

If you have an Academy Sports store nearby, they have a nice cast iron Dutch oven that goes for about $17.00 plus tax. I have three of them, one for smelting and two for casting. If you intend to do any more rendering of wheel weights or other lead sources, you will be very happy once you are set up to smelt/render and cast with different equipment, as it's a lot cleaner and thus faster.

I suggest you find a way to preheat your ingot moulds. It will make the tops flatter, which will make stacking for storage a lot easier. If you really get into this, you will be on the hunt for more PB, and will need to render, stack, and store more than you currently are doing.

Casting and loading are very satisfying as you are finding out.