CUSTOM Wood Fired Lead Smelting Furnace

[mallardsx2]

Works Pretty good and a heck of a lot cheaper than melting with propane! I'm glad I got that Hobart 140 I love this welder!

Pictures show a lot of smoke but its just the oil that I used to get the wood going coming out of the bottom of the barrel. Once it got burning there was no smoke coming out the bottom. I need to put a plate over that exhaust pipe. Thats a 4" High pressure gasoline pipe for a chimney. I can easily control the heat surprisingly. When the fire is burning I can melt a whole dutch over full of wheel weights in about 5 minutes. WAAAAAAAAAY quicker than that stupid turkey burner.
All I need is lead!

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[mallardsx2]

I need to get a little better seal around the pot I was thinking of coating the top with cement but i'm not sure if the high heat would crack it or not. Any thoughts?

[jsizemore]

Concrete or Brixment will both crack. They'll both pop loose from the metal when it expands from the heat.

I'd cut a close fitting washer that the pot will slip into and tack weld it to the top.

If it's melting lead in 5 minutes don't screw with it.

[tcbnick]

Concrete will Blow up when extreme heat gets to it, the sand in concrete expands tring to melt into glass. Just my experence working with a tourch on concrete floors. I think they do make some high temp sealer for fireplaces and stove though.

[para45lda]

What does the inside look like? Specifically how far do you have those pipes inserted? Any baffles or anything like that?

Looks like something worth building. Definitely save on Propane.

Wes

[geargnasher]

Holy COW! That's bad-****! I gotta build one of these things, that's the second one I've seen pics posted of here recently, and I'm sick of fiddling with small batches. I was thinking about reinforcing a 55-gallon drum with some rebar or angle-iron ribs run from top to bottom, cutting a door low on the side, welding a rebar grate inside that intersected the middle of the door (scoop ash from the bottom, add wood to the top through the same door), cutting a hole in the lid and welding the bottom 2/3 of a 30lb. propane cylinder into it. If I retained the clamp ring for the lid I could still pull the top off for maintenance/repair if necessary and the top would still be solid and supported. I figured I'd cut a hole near the top and weld on a collar for regular stovepipe, 90 it out, and run it up at least one 5' section. For a blower I was going to weld on an short exhaust pipe flange and use a removeable 4-6' section of steel pipe to lead to my shop-vac hose, run in "blow" mode. The pipe should be long enough to insulate the vac hose from the heat, plus stay cool from air blowing through it.

Too many projects, not enough time!

Gear

[mallardsx2]

Its just a barrel with a door cut in the bottom of it. No baffles ect ect...just a drum. All I did was weld the pipes with about 1" sticking inside the drum for the blower and the exhaust. I got the blower motor from an outside woodburner that was junk so that was free. The only thing I had to buy was the Dutch oven. I just cut a circle in the drum and pounded that down in as far as it would go. Its a pretty snug fit so smoke doesn't escape. Sombiach gets hot in a hurry. There are a few more things I need to do to perfect it but I'm gonna need a couple thosand pounds of lead before I fire this thing up again.

[mallardsx2]

I split my firewood and cut small stuff under 4" and then just drop it down the chimney so I dont have to open up the door...Clearly I used a little too much oil to get her going.... haha! That blower motor pipe is about 16" long and its cold to the touch when the thing is running full out....no need for 90's in the chimney either.....that propane cylinder seems like a good idea but you would have to run some kind of a spicket to the outside of the barell to be able to drain it. Unless you had a really long ladle...and I dont like to be looking down into a hole with melting lead in it. I use a cast iron ladle on a 4' pole and stand back when I dip for lead. One dip and I get 4 muffin tins full. A damper on top of the exhaust pipe, some levers to hold the door at the bottom slightly more air tight and a rheostat motor and I would be set...

[DIRT Farmer]

I made one several years ago using an old wood stove kit, cut the hole in the top (with the barrel on its side. The normal draft would get the barrel red hot if you opened it up.

[10 ga]

Some of that european or limey blood coming out. He was heating the beer! LOL

[beagle]

I was going to suggest a "bellows" fan when I first read the thread but I see you thought of that and included it. Looks like a real blast furnace./beagle

[JIMinPHX]

I need to get a little better seal around the pot I was thinking of coating the top with cement but i'm not sure if the high heat would crack it or not. Any thoughts?

They make stuff called refractory cement that is intended for high temperatures. I've repaired a 1700 degree muffle furnace with it before. It works. I think that it may have some kind of poisonous components in it though. Some kind of warning sheet came with it. It's been several years since I've touched the stuff, so I don't remember all the details.

My little brother has a burning barrel that is basically just a 55-gal drum with an open top & some holes punched into the bottom for air vents. I've meted lead in it before. The only problem that I had was that it was tough to regulate the temperature of the melt, so if zinc was in the mix, it probably would have melted into the alloy. An IR thermometer registered 1100F, when pointed into the center of the barrel as it was at full throttle. Your rig looks more efficient. It may get hotter than that inside.

[mallardsx2]

I dont have a rheostat motor on it. If I did I would be able to control the temperature a lot better. The door on that blower motor opens and closes. So I just stick a wedge in there to open the door and close it more. This allows for me to adjust the air going into the thing quickly. I can turn the lead from melting super hot to almost 400 degrees by just shutting that blower off. I might even just put an on/off switch on it. That would be easiest. I'm going to be smelting about 600 pounds Sunday so I will take a video of it and put it on here. I'm concerned in my haste that I got the lead way too hot and I have infiltrated zinc into my 60 pounds I melted for a trial run the other night., I have been searching using sulfur to drive the zinc out of the pot but there are so many opinions I'm not sure what to do. I think it would be easiest to get the lead super super hot then add the sulfur and not worry about the zinc because it would come out. I know for a fact that the lead in the pot got to 1000 degrees the other night...It was a PO-pouri of wheel weights thats for sure. WHERE CAN I BUY PURE SULFUR FOR CHEAP??

[mallardsx2]

AND BY THE WAY THAT'S YUENGLING BEER NOT SOME FOREIGN TRASH........

Its Americas oldest brewery you know? Pottstown PA... 1829......It runs deep in my blood...specially when i'm casting!

[ErikO]

That blast furnace is now added to the 'hobby farm retirement plan' as I am sure that I'd get a visit from the County over that one if I built it now. ;)

Very nifty, thanks for posting this. :)

[SlowSmokeN]

That blast furnace is now added to the 'hobby farm retirement plan' as I am sure that I'd get a visit from the County over that one if I built it now. ;)

Very nifty, thanks for posting this. :)


Just tell the LEO you are burning your leaves. You save them and burn them year around. :kidding:

[Freightman]

Good idea, except there is a burn ban here and it isn't going to be lifted anytime soon. Fine is real hefty you can buy a lot of propane for what it would cost you. Like the idea and if it ever rains enough to lift the ban I will build one, thanks.

[mallardsx2]

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[The10mmKid]

Hey Mallard,
You can install a sliding plate on the fan inlet. Restricting the air, even to fully closed has no effect on motor wear-n-tear.

'da Kid

[mallardsx2]

There is a door in it. I just prop it open with a piece of wood. Works better than anything I figure.

[letsmeltlead2693]

You can melt aluminum in that thing! Try to melt some aluminum or at least some zinc! Please will you melt some Al or Zn for me? Post some pics of you meltin' some Al or Zn if you do.

[mallardsx2]

Actually the surface temperature of the lead only got to about 675 degrees. I kept her backed down pretty good. I'm 99.9% sure that you could not melt aluminum with it.

[Hamish]

Hey, how about a better look at that mudbug lookin' getup on the back of that duck boat?

[Philngruvy]

Hey, how about a better look at that mudbug lookin' getup on the back of that duck boat?

Yea, I was curious about that also.

[Mumblypeg]

Hey, how about a better look at that mudbug lookin' getup on the back of that duck boat?

Yea, what kinda contraption is that on that transom???

[mallardsx2]

Its a GTR 35 short shaft mud motor without a motor on it because I sunk it in the ocean last year and the motor is being re-built

[letsmeltlead2693]

I think it will melt some ally if you insulate the sides and top with some kaowool.

[snowshooze]

That appears to be a lead reclamation furnace.
I am trying to figure out how to practically separate the zinc, from the tin, nickle, lead and antimony...
How is it done? Heat and stratification???
I am quite interested as I cannot trust any chunk of " Lead " to be purely anything...
Thanks,
Mark

[mallardsx2]

You got me..... Most of the people on here dont have a clue to be honest...I smelt it....try and remove the zinc and then make shot out of it. I dont cast many bullets. I have a .44 bullet mold and a .50 caliber muzzleloader mold...thats about it...

[mallardsx2]

This machine finally saw its last run a few months ago.

17,000 pounds of lead later. She gone. RIP.

Well...I should just ask if anyone have a new 55 gallon steel barrel? lol

Burned the side of the barrel out.

214048

[lightman]

Metal 55 gallon barrels are not too hard to come by here where I live. I could probably even scrounge up a piece of pipe that size. Nice looking set up by the way!

[Rcmaveric]

Find them pretty easy on craigslist around here aswell.