Smelted a bit today

[seanhagerty]

I had accumulated about 200 lbs of lead over the last year and today was the day I decided to smelt it into ingots. Last year I had a propane burner, but in my quest to remove the stupid timer/shutoff, I rendered it completely inoperable.

Not one to be easily deterred, I went ahead anyway. I have seen several folks on here that used a wood fire to smelt, I figured I could do this. So, away I went.



I was using the pot made for me by Dcrockett (thank you sir.) I set up a few firebricks to reflect the heat back to the pot and made fire.



Once this got to the liquid point, I stirred several times with a pine dowel ( I figured this would flux a bit too) then skimmed a bit and starting making ingots.



I ended up with about 200 pounds in ingots. All in all, it was a good day.

I learned several things today. 1. I need a better ladle. The Lyman dipper is just not big enough, It would take two or three pours to make each ingot. 2. I need to design/build a better firebox. The heat was sufficient, but I think I can make it more better.

[Walter Laich]

Looking good.
now to the casting of bullets

[seanhagerty]

Casting can wait a while. I can do that just by setting out my pots and going to town. I was out of ingots!! Now I need to scrounge more lead, and smelt more, and scrounge more...............

[leeggen]

Put yourself a forced air system on that fire and it will get real hot. Just use a leaf blower,shopvac on blow, or a fan in a peice of metal duct. Just as long as you force air under the fire like a black smith would.
CD

[seanhagerty]

I was thinking this all day long.

I would like a hand cranked one so I don't have to worry about power. I Think I need a more permanent furnace before I go after forced air.

I will have to think on this a bit.

Put yourself a forced air system on that fire and it will get real hot. Just use a leaf blower,shopvac on blow, or a fan in a peice of metal duct. Just as long as you force air under the fire like a black smith would.
CD

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

Looks like you found an ingot field there in pic 3

You got the job done and your addiction continues

[bangerjim]

Look for a SST ladle. I found one that holds 2# at a time, has a real long handle and a wooden grip on it. It was in a junk store but I believe came from Sonoma-Williams!

When I cast 1 pounders, I have more than enough to pour fast and always have some left over on each pour. Perfect ingots from my Lyman, Lee, and RCBS molds.

It is always nice to know we can get back to basics and smelt and cast using the methods of our forefathers......a wood fire!!!!!

Thanks for posting pix.

banger

[dikman]

Nicely done, Sean. A couple of possibilities - a hairdryer for a blower, or a computer fan that can be run off a battery. You could mount it in a cardboard box, taper it down to a smaller diameter and feed it into a piece of metal waterpipe pushed into the bottom of the fire. You do not need a big blast of air - a leafblower (or vacuum cleaner) would probably blow your fire apart!

This is the principle behind traditional Japanese swordsmiths' forges - a charcoal fire on one side of a low brick wall, with the air flow pipe poking through at the bottom of the wall and into the middle of the fire, and a simple hand-operated air pump on the outside of the wall.

Be aware that hand-cranked forge blowers can be a bit of a pain - the moment you stop cranking the fire starts to die! (I have two, and don't use them).

[bangerjim]

Nicely done, Sean. A couple of possibilities - a hairdryer for a blower, or a computer fan that can be run off a battery. You could mount it in a cardboard box, taper it down to a smaller diameter and feed it into a piece of metal waterpipe pushed into the bottom of the fire. You do not need a big blast of air - a leafblower (or vacuum cleaner) would probably blow your fire apart!

This is the principle behind traditional Japanese swordsmiths' forges - a charcoal fire on one side of a low brick wall, with the air flow pipe poking through at the bottom of the wall and into the middle of the fire, and a simple hand-operated air pump on the outside of the wall.

Be aware that hand-cranked forge blowers can be a bit of a pain - the moment you stop cranking the fire starts to die! (I have two, and don't use them).

So right! Hand cranked forges (I have an antique blacksmith forge) were intended for the blacksmith to do the real work and the apprentice to crank the bloody thing continuously.

Hummmmmm.........another use for rug rats????????


banger

[seanhagerty]

The puter fan idea is intriguing, and I bet I can run one on batteries. I need to research this.

I am looking at amazon and found a SS 8 ounce ladle. 8 ounces (volume) should weight about 6 lbs, so I should be able to fill my molds easily.

[dikman]

Yep, if you use a 12v fan you could run it off a car battery (or a sealed lead-acid type). I use a portable forge for my (s)melting pot, and the air supply is a very old hair dryer. The air flow isn't as strong as modern hair dryers, but it's perfect for my forge. With coke it's quite capable of reaching forging temperatures, and when I ran out of coke I used wood in it to melt some lead. Main down-side to using wood is that with the forced air it chews through the wood much quicker than the coke.

Banger, I see now where I went wrong with the hand-cranked blower - I didn't have a minion to power it with!!

[seanhagerty]

Where would I find coke (I assume you mean coal) ??

[dikman]

Yep, basically it's coal that has had the impurities (well, most of them) burned out. Unfortunately, I have no idea where you might get it in the States, but a good place to start would be asking any blacksmiths/farriers that might be in the area, or farrier supply places. You could use coal, but it requires a bit more management of the fire than using straight coke.

[MrWolf]

Where would I find coke ... ??

Jeez, not on a public forum

[concho]

I found a Blacksmith in PA he used blacksmith coal which is super hot in his forge I assume it is coke ? He called it Black smith coal . Old fellow
Ask at a coal supplier where to get it !

[seanhagerty]

I will. Thx

[tomme boy]

I made my own ladle. Took a wood dowel and a campbell's soup can. Then wrapped metal strapping around the can and screwed the strapping to the dowel and one screw thru the strap and can. Bend a little spout into the can and it work great. And I use a lot of aluminum pop and beer cans for ingot molds.

[seanhagerty]

go ahead, show me up there smart guy.

That is actually brilliant.

[Ibgreen]

An air mattress blower wired to a battery makes a good remote blower.

[leeggen]

Radio shack has 12V box fans in 2in to 4in dia. With the suggestion I made on the dif. force air fans I assumed you know enough not to use full force of air as some incinuated. you just need enough to help increase heat temp so you can melt at about 700 to 750 deg.
CD