"Smelter" on sale at Bass Pro

[Dale53]

Our local Bass Pro has their Fish/Turkey fryer on sale for $29.97. They come complete with a regulator and hose. I have had an identical unit for a couple or three years and can state without fear of contradiction that it will easily handle 150 lbs or more of "smelting lead". My present set up includes a Harbor Freight 12" dutch oven that holds well over 100 lbs. I have done 650 lbs in an afternoon (with my brother helping). It is no great trick for me, even at my advanced age to do a couple of hundred lbs in an hour or so.

It is not just a reasonable price but is plenty sturdy enough, also. Good gear at a MOST reasonable price.

I have no connection to Bass Pro but just want to pass this on to someone who maybe be teetering on the fence about getting started or someone that needs to upgrade their equipment.

Dale53

[fishnbob]

Dale53, did you brace up the legs to bear that much weight or will it hold it on it's own?

[bumpo628]

Nice! Perfect timing too.
I'm stopping by there today on the way home from work to buy my long awaited GP100.
I've been waiting for this fryer to go back on sale.

[Dale53]

fishnbob;
I consider the "as issued" legs strong enough.

YMMV
Dale53

[buyobuyo]

Thanks for the info. I've been wanting to pick up a propane burner for smelting.

Here is the link for anyone that doesn't have a shop near by: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Propane-Cooker-with-Aluminum-Pot/product/10205245/-1631022

[Dale53]

NOTE:
Do NOT try to use the aluminum pot for melting lead (the high temperatures required will seriously weaken the aluminum - there have been catastrophic failures reported). Either get a heavy steel pot or the Harbor Freight cast iron dutch oven I mentioned.

Dale53

[bumpo628]

I bought one today; they had a bunch of them in stock.
You can use the fryer basket as a tumbler media separator, but leave the aluminum pot in the kitchen as mentioned above.

[buyobuyo]

No worries about the pot. The pot I've been using is steel (an old pressure cooker), and holds ~70 pounds of alloy. The burner is just an upgrade from the old coleman stove I've been using.

[Skipper488]

I bought the same burner with turkey fryer set up when I started gathering stuff and I bought a 6qt cast iron dutch oven to smelt my wheel weights and I have had it full to within an inch or so of the top, I don't know how much 6 qts of lead weighs but it didn't have any problems supporting it.

[Dale53]

Six quarts of lead weigh 142.62 lbs. Lets say a "working capacity" of 120 lbs. I could easily handle 8 quarts but didn't find a cast iron dutch oven of that capacity for the money I was willing to pay (yeah, even I have my limits:mrgreen:).

The Six quart size makes a very efficient lead smelter when coupled with the Bass Pro Fish/Turkey fryer.

Dale53

[Beagler]

Depending where you look you can get them dirt cheep a day or so after turkey day. You can find them cheep In Cab@@as Bargain corral sometimes. Alot of people don't read the directions just plop the bird in the oil or put it in frozen, burn off there eyebrows and return the things. Don't wast a good old dutch oven get the harbor freight model that was mentioned or get on of the LODGE brand pot there just recycled honda/toyota parts anyway

[bumpo628]

I bought a dutch oven at a thrift store for $3 or $4. Now with my new smelter, I can retire my old SS pot & hot plate equipment.

[Skipper488]

Thank you Dale, I knew someone would have the answer for that as soon as I posted it. :D

[94Doug]

I was in Target this weekend somewhere in the Milwaukee area, they had a close out on the turkey fryer set up for 29.94. Looked to have sturdy square legs.

Doug

[buyobuyo]

I ordered one of these and it came in on Saturday. Got it put together and it looks good. Hopefully, I'll be getting another bucket of weights from my source next time I make it into the city, so I can try it out.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Let me just jump on ths band wagon as well. :castmine:

I started with 2 single burner Coleman stoves. With both running full blast I was able to smelt one 5 gallon bucket of WW (about 100lbs. in one 8 hour day! this sucked![smilie=b:

I bought one of the afore mentioned turkey fryers and I had a cast iron 20Lb plumbers pot to use.

I smelted 10ea, 5 gallon buckets (about 1000lb) in one 5 hour push.

I usually smelt lead on July 4th, I don't know why? as it is usually over 100 degrees.

The thing I'm taking away from this thread is getting the Harbor Freight Dutch Oven to use as a pot.

I use a industrial muffin pan (heavy aluminum construction) and can do 12ea 2 lb ingots in about 3 minutes. They harden immediately and you flip the pan and they all fall out, and away you go. This is the fastest way I have seen to do this but the larger Dutch Oven pot would even improve on that as I always have to wait for more WW to melt in the smaller pot between fillings of the Muffin pan. With the bigger pot I could run 2 pans and really kill it!:Fire:

I use a stainless steel ladel to move the molten lead. if it is full it completely fills one Muffin cavity in one swipe.

I literally used 3 gallons of fuel on this venture so these cookers are really smoking when it comes to heat output.

Luckily I don't have to do this very often. Here's a pic of my yeild for that one 5 hour day. there are 411 1.75-2lb pucks about 780lbs yeild from approx 1100lbs of WW and other debris. One can turned out to be about 1/4 full of gear oil with the WW and when I dropped them in the pot the smoke was a billowin'. Quite entertaining from a distance.

Randy

[cephas53]

Got the sucker off BassPro, arrived today. Up to this point have only used coleman stove and small rcbs pot. Thought I'd try it out with an old cast dutch pot. Did about 40 lbs of lead pipe and all my old dross in a leisurely couple hours. Another step taken down this madness.

[Defcon-One]

Here's the math for those who care!

57.75 Cubic Inches per quart X 6 quarts = 346.5 cubic inches

A cubic inch of lead (Pure) is .409 lbs., so .409 X 346.5 = 141.72 lbs.

That is pure lead, an alloy will be slightly lighter depending on the mix.

I'd keep it to 60% of that amount for safety, say 85 lbs. Also, never pick your lead pot up by the handle when full of molten lead. It WILL dump instantly due to the center of gravity being so much higher with liquid lead than with a heavy iron pot full of relatively light water.



Six quarts of lead weigh 142.62 lbs. Lets say a "working capacity" of 120 lbs. I could easily handle 8 quarts but didn't find a cast iron dutch oven of that capacity for the money I was willing to pay (yeah, even I have my limits:mrgreen:).

The Six quart size makes a very efficient lead smelter when coupled with the Bass Pro Fish/Turkey fryer.

Dale53

[JeffHolt]

Dale,
Thank you! I was wondering how to smelt in volume. I tried using my little LEE 20 lb melter but with 800 lbs of wheel weight , well, life's too short.
This is a low cost way to really refine some casting alloy.

Regards,
Jeff

[Dale53]

Jeff;
Happy to help out. They call me "The Enabler'...:veryconfu

Seriously, tho', this set up works SO well and for so LITTLE money that it is a dream for us who cast a lot.

I actually enjoy casting bullets. I enjoy reloading. I enjoy shooting. I do NOT enjoy smelting. So, a plan that enables me to get serious production for a relatively small amount of money is a boon to me and I just wanted to share it with others.

Dale53

[t_dickinson]

Just ordered my burner from Bass Pro. Thanks Dale!

[Doby45]

I am going by the Bass Pro in Leeds, Alabama tomorrow and I am gonna see if I can get me one.

[ColColt]

For a few more bucks, you can get it with a 6.5 qt cast iron pot. I have no way currently of smelting the variety of wheel weights I picked up today and this looks like a viable option. A review I saw indicated it was maxed out at an 18 pound load however. You can't melt much lead at that rate. Wonder if they have a large ladle to sift through the clips and to dip with to pour into ingots with...probably not. Would a 20# tank be of sufficient size?

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_10215772_325009003_325000000_325009000?cmC at=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT