Shooting WW

[161]

Can a guy just shoot straight clip on WW without mixing anything with it in handgun calibers? Most will be shot out of a rifle but FPS will be well below. Also will an LP turkey firer develop enough heat to melt large amounts of WW so I can make ingots ahead of time? If I can find a suitable melting pot.
Thanks
Warren

[clintsfolly]

To make this short Yes,and Yes Have Fun Clint

[161]

What would you recommend for a pot would it have to be cast iron?
Thanks again
Warren

[*Paladin*]

Yes on the WW's.

Yes- Lots of us use a turkey or fish fryer for smelting. For a suitable pot, Harbor Freight sells a decent cast iron dutch oven thats popular around here.

[mold maker]

Yep on WWs.
Yep on turkey fryer.
Yep on cast iron pot.
Your headed in the right direction.

[man.electric]

Turkey fryers are perfect for what we do. I melt WWs, process scrap solder, and even fry an occasional turkey with mine. I keep three 20 pound propane tanks on hand and as soon as two are empty I make a refill run to make sure that I am never out of gas.

[Taylor]

flea market's and yard sale's are a great source for cast iron pots and fryer's.

[bumpo628]

Bass pro has a turkey fryer the comes with a cast iron pot

[161]

Hey thanks guys for you patience if I would have looked at the thread just above this one I would have seen the words turkey fryer and dutch oven 5 or 6 time and a couple pictures of them melting lead.
Warren

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Be careful Warren. That melted lead is incredibly hot. 700 degree lead will melt your skin. Be sure to wear all your safety gear.

[161]

What do you use for a thermometer and where wound I get one.
161

[*Paladin*]

What do you use for a thermometer and where wound I get one.
161

I got mine (a Lyman) at Cabelas. Any of the reloading suppliers should carry them. There is a company called Tel-Tru that makes thermometers, and they were pretty cheap, but apparently they recently raised their prices. RCBS also makes a lead thermometer.

[keyhole]

I share this just so you won't have a bad experience. Be very careful not to get any source of water or moisture near your melt.
In my last casting session I put in some WW which apparently had some moisture on them. It caused a violent eruption of melted lead. It looked like a 4th of July fountain. I have known for 40 years of casting that water in melted lead was a bad combination but did not realize that a couple of the WW had a tiny amount of water on them. I had on full protective gear, including goggles, so there was no injury.
The ww were stored in a sheetmetal box on the garage floor. Snow melted off my car had apparently stayed underneath the box and had rusted through the bottom. The very bottom bunch of ww had some moisture on them that I did not feel with my heavy gloves on.

[Doby45]

Can a guy just shoot straight clip on WW without mixing anything with it in handgun calibers?

I would suggest making them into boolit form first. WW do not seal the bore well in their native form. ;)

[bumpo628]

What do you use for a thermometer and where wound I get one.
161

This one is $24.95 delivered:
http://www.kck.com/tel-tru_grill_smo...ermometer.html
Model no. BBQ250-5-1000-cl
The price is $18.95 + $6 shipping
Fast shipping and they accept Paypal.

[161]

I would suggest making them into boolit form first. WW do not seal the bore well in their native form. ;)

[smilie=l
Warren

[161]

I found a Dutch Oven that my wife has flowers planted in. She understood the great importance of making boolits vs flowers. Like I've said in other threads I'm off with rotator surgery, only working half days. I'm going to try smelting some ww and pure lead 50/50 this week some time. You guys have been a great help. Don't worry I'm sure more questions to follow.
Warren

[EMC45]

I use a turkey fryer stand. Got it from my Dad. Had it so long he said "keep it, I already bought a new one". I use a cast iron pot I dug out of my attic. The wife had 2 that were identical. So one is alloying metal now. Straight clip-on WWs for pistol? Do it all the time! Even use it in rifle (.308, 7.5 Swiss, 45-70 etc.) with no ill effects. My straight clip-on alloy has consistently shown to be right neck and neck with Lyman #2 according to my SAECO tester. I do plan to start smelting my tape WWs. I have some super hard bullets that will get mixed in to harden up the tape weights. Go shoot 'em! Then dig them out of the dirt and remelt and shoot again!

[WILCO]

This one is $24.95 delivered:
http://www.kck.com/tel-tru_grill_smo...ermometer.html

Link not working.....

[MtJerry]

Try this one ...

http://www.teltru.com/p-272-big-green-egg-grill-dome-kamado-replacement-thermometer-lt225r-2001000-degrees-f.aspx

[songdog53]

Been shooting pure WW's in my pistols for many years...have added some silver babbit but then they were sure hard and wouldn't mushroom after going thru 2 one inch oak boards and then dug out of red clay bank still looked like could was them and reload them. I do add some plain lead to WW's when casting HP's so will work and roll back instead of breaking off if too hard. Enjoy your casting and be careful and beware Tinsel Fairy.

[pmer]

I have been using cast iron water dishes out of an old dairy barn for smelting WW into ingots. I have a home made stand and use a burner from a old LP water heater. I can heat one dish and load the other with WW.

I have only smelted a few times and was ladeling at first from the cow dish. Have a Lee bottom pour now. I've been at this about a year and it is rewarding. I never taken pictures of my ammo or boolits till I started casting. LOL

[mdi]

Not wanting to be the odd man out, but, I started with a copper clad stainless 1 qt. pot. I used a Coleman stove for heat and just receintly got a thermometer (Christmas gift, haven't used it yet). I guess a thermometer may help, but I haven't had a need for one in 7 years of casting. Temp control is not too difficult to learn by studying your results.

[WILCO]

Try this one ...

http://www.teltru.com/p-272-big-green-egg-grill-dome-kamado-replacement-thermometer-lt225r-2001000-degrees-f.aspx

Oh yeah. That one works. Thanks.

[4719dave]

BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!! P.S. work that shoulder do all the bands etc push it or you will loose motion . BEEN THERE BOTH OF MINE 4 SCREWS PINS WIRES THE WHOLE DEAL . ALL the guys ive met here are GREAT dont be affraid to ask 1st !! love this place
I found a Dutch Oven that my wife has flowers planted in. She understood the great importance of making boolits vs flowers. Like I've said in other threads I'm off with rotator surgery, only working half days. I'm going to try smelting some ww and pure lead 50/50 this week some time. You guys have been a great help. Don't worry I'm sure more questions to follow.
Warren

[161]

I worked till 4:00 today and did some running around. Fired up the turkey fryer with the pot loaded with WW. After the first melt I cleaned the clips and weights that didn't melt out, only had about an inch of lead in the pot. I shut the fire down and reloaded it and repeated. Did that three times to get the pot full. It took half a 5 gallon bucket to get 27 3 lbs. ingots. Tell me if you think this is a bad practice for zinc contamination. I would let it heat until I started getting molten lead on the bottom and things started floating. I would start to stir and anything that didn't melt right away got pulled out. I don't have a thermometer yet but I'll get one. I kept the heat down as low as I could and still melt most of the WW. Also my nephew gave me about 40 lbs of pure lead. I mixed that 50/50 with linotype. The lead was in 10 lbs. ingots and after I had them melted I took time to wounder where he got them. I don't know they may be old battery lead. Since he was the one who melted them first did he burn off the acid or is it still there? If indeed they are old batteries. I don't know. Also I cast about 400 357-158TLSWC
Thanks
Warren

[Duckiller]

Warren I sort through every weight to try and eliminate zinc weights. Then keep the heat fairly low to medium to get the lead to melt. If you scoop clips off as soon as possible you should also get wild zinc weights.
Water anywhere near melted lead is bad. Wet weights in a COLD cast iron pot is ok. Heating the pot will evaporate the water before the lead melts.
I start smelting with a heaping pot of weights and add as the weights settle and melt. I have been known to put wet weights on top of thick layer of weights over a thin layer of melted lead. The more lead melts the more careful I am about water. With an 8 qt pot I can get approx. 25 lbs of lead from each melt. Takes me a couple of hours to do a pot. Big hold up is I only have two 1lb ingot molds. The more they are used the slower the lead cools. You realize that this little hobby you are starting is very addictive and everyone here is an enabler.

[161]

I bought a cupcake pan at Wal-Mart for $5.00 makes 12 3lbs. ingots at a time. Worked pretty well. I've had the pot blow up years ago just from the dampness on linotype that was sitting on the concrete floor. Don't want any part of that again. In the future I'll fill the pot like you said. This time I just had no idea how much it would hold. Still don't understand this zinc issue. What do the weights say if they are zinc?
Thanks
Warren

[*Paladin*]

161 -MOST of the time a zinc WW will have a small Zn on it. But don't rely on that, because I have fould LOTS of zinc WW's with no markings other than weight. If suspect, try cutting it with some dykes or whack it on something steel. I usually whack the suspect WW's on the edge of my vise. If it dents, it's lead. If no dent and it makes a "tink"-ing sound, and won't attract a magnet, it goes in the zink bucket.

[161]

I found a few that that looked funny, and made a tink sound when I dropped them on the floor. And a few just like them that didn't melt so I got em out in time. Only a hand full of stick in weights. I threw a couple that said FE out. Don't know what that means.

Also Paladin
Thanks for your service.

[Jailer]

I found a few that that looked funny, and made a tink sound when I dropped them on the floor. And a few just like them that didn't melt so I got em out in time. Only a hand full of stick in weights. I threw a couple that said FE out. Don't know what that means.

Also Paladin
Thanks for your service.

Sounds like you've got the process figured out, nice work. The ones with FE on them are steel.

[Duckiller]

Zinc weights are the reason for not turning your heat up full bore. Their melting point is somewhere above 700*. It is posted somewhere here. Keeping temperature fairly low and skimming clips and non-melting weights as soon as possible will minimize possible zinc contamination. You do realize that stick on weights are close to pure lead as opposed to clip on weights that contain tin and antimony. Lots of casters separate out the stick on weights and use them for muzzle loaders or trading material. SWMBO's cousin has linotype that he is willing to trade for smelted stick ons, Only problem is $4.00 /gal gas and a 2000 mile trip,one way.

[161]

I hit the three shops in town today and had enough ww to make 52 three lbs ingots. invested $10.00. The boolits I cast and sized to .358 last night weighed 156.5 after TL and a coat of mica. They look really good. I'll give the shoulder a couple more weeks to heal and try to shoot a little. I can run a single stage press but my progressive is a little tricky one handed.
Warren