Cast iron pot: Smelt, cast or both?

[Racingsnake]

Hi Guys,

I'm relatively new here and I'm still getting my casting kit together. The local hardware store has a cast iron pot at a good price - looks similar to what Lyman and RCBS sell and is placed on top of a gas flame.

Are these large pots ok for ladle casting when heating with gas or are they only intended for smelting large quantities of lead into ingots?

They have a wide surface area, which I thought may cause oxidisation of tin and loss of heat control.

I'd appreciate your advice...


With thanks, Racingsnake

[fredj338]

You can certainly ladle cast out of the same pot you smelt, but I prefer a bott pour pot myself. Easier to maintain the correct temp & I just find the process simpler. A Lee 20# BP pot is pretty cheap & they do work just as well as the more expensive ones IMO.

[Racingsnake]

I suppose with the larger surface area on the cast iron pots, temperature control is difficult?

[Markbo]

FWIW I smelt in a converted propane tank and dip from a cast iron pot. I find the flotsom and jetsom from smelting does stick to the smelting pot and in order to keep the actual bullet metal and thus the bullets as clean as possible, I put only clean ingots in the dipping pot. Seems to work for me. I think my pot is about 6 quarts, but I never put more than about 6-10 lbs of ingots in it.

[mooman76]

It would be best to have 2 separate pots even for ladle casting. You don't need a big pot unless you are cranking out a 6 cavity mould or larger plus your lead would be cleaner unless you cleaned the pot each time after smelting. It's certainly doable if that's all you got available or that's what you want to do.

[Racingsnake]

Thank you