So a few days ago I got my first bullet mold but all I had was a 10lb lee bottom pour pot and all of you told me to not use it for melting range scrap.
SOOOO, I looked around my parts bins and cobbled together a PID 2600W hot plate so I can melt range scrap!
Finally got it together today. The parts are:
-2600W 8" range element (new from amazon $10)
-Matching electrical socket for that range element ($7)
-Omega PID controller with Type K thermocouple input
-Type K thermocouple with 6" 1/16" diameter stainless probe
-25A 250V solid state relay
-Large steel box to use as enclosure for electronics (previously had fused disconnect inside, gutted it)
-Various wires, cables, terminal strip, 250V plug, electrician j-box and cable strain reliefs, etc..
-Big stainless pot from garage sale
-Jacket-catching ladle made from piece of wood with 1/4" mesh
-Spoon
-30 lbs of jacketed range scrap
I tested it today and it worked great! Probably heats up about 25lbs of jacketed range scrap in about 30 mins or so.
I tried PID tuning it but it was taking forever so I just gave up and set it to 75% fixed duty cycle. That seemed to hover around 650F. I put the thermocouple probe in about 1/4" off the bottom of the pot.
Note: anyone considering this should know it would be alot easier to just buy a scrapped electric range. I dont really think the PID is needed. The temperature measurement is nice though. But you can probably get it to the right temperature just adjusting a non-PID control like that on a range. Also if you try making this, make sure to properly ground bond EVERY piece of metal. A more solid construction using EMT or armored cable would be better.
Anyways things were going well for awhile. After lead got molten I started using my ladle to get the jackets out. Then I used the spoon to get the dirt out.
Thats where I realized I didn't really know what I was doing. I tossed in a tea light candle which sent tons of wax vapor into the air for about 5 minutes. I started to scrape with the spoon to get the "dross" but after about 15 minutes of that I noticed it seemed to be endless and I had a growing pile of it.
Thats when I realized it was actually lead oxide I was scraping off the surface and it would keep forming forever, and I was just scooping out good lead. So I dumped most of what I had scooped off back in, forced it to melt with the spoon, and then scraped off the little pile of actual dirt it left.
At this point I dont really know if the pot of lead I have is clean enough to use or if it needs more fluxing / cleaning. How can I tell?
I have a bullet mold coming from UPS any minute, and if I knew what I was doing, I could get some good lead out of my smelter and then put it into my lee 10lb pot and be making boolits for the first time!!!! PLEASE HELP
(NOTE the lead in the pictures is only about 200F, it was after I did everything I described above and let it air cool for about 30 mins)