Has anyone made an ingot mold out of wood?

[letsmeltlead2693]

Have any of you ever made a ingot mold out of wood and is it durable? If you did, how would you make it?

[C.F.Plinker]

I made a couple by cutting V grooves in a 2x2 and attaching some plywood ends. The major problem, for me, was that because the wood is an insulator it seems to take forever for the ingot to solidify. It was an experiment, I'm glad I did it, but because of the long cooling time, I won't be using them again.

[midnight]

I used to cast decoy anchors with a wood mold and it worked very well. I used a small hardwood block & used a 2in hole saw & a chisel to make a hole about ½in deep. Bent a coathanger wire into a U shape with the ends bent at right angles. The wire fit over the decoy head. 12 ga copper wire worked too. I also carved an anchor with an oval hole to fit over the head and two legs to wind anchor cord on. I then coated it with parafin & pressed it into plaster of paris. After sprinkleing a little fine sand in it I poured the lead. The sand was the release agent. Been using them for 45yrs. They are all linotype which I got free. If I had only known.

Bob

[letsmeltlead2693]

Could you make a simple ingot mold from wood, then line it with steel to cool it faster?

[Sonnypie]

What if you just lined it with aluminum foil to try it out?
(Maybe an old cup or something?)

I use a thing called a condiment cup made out of Stainless Steel.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Condiment-Cups/14964954

I use a pair of pliers to handle them while hot. But be really careful! That is molten lead.
And the little "ingots" fit back in my furnace really well.
I also have a brass cup thing I use that makes slightly larger "ingots".

[mooman76]

If you go to a thrift store they have all kinds of things you could use for ingot moulds. Aluminum or cast iron are your friends.

[Mk42gunner]

Could you make a simple ingot mold from wood, then line it with steel to cool it faster?

If you are going to go to all that trouble, why not just make the ingot molds out of angle iron? Any size from 1 1/4" to 2" about ten inches long works well, just be sure to cut the ends at a slight angle so there is enough draft for easy release.

Robert

[runfiverun]

you can make an ingot mold from wood.
remember that the mold need to be angeled on the sides to release the lead.
it will smoke and char for the first couple of pours.
i made a mold for a home made cannon with a 2x4 pinned and bolted onto a piece of plywood.
i would pour it, pull the pin [nail] swing it open, and knock out the little cylinders.
you could cut a v groove in a piece of wood and screw ends on it, it would work fine.
sand the ends on a little bevel,and pre drill your holes.

[Longwood]

[QUOTE=Sonnypie;1606712]

I use a thing called a condiment cup made out of Stainless Steel.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Condiment-Cups/14964954

I use a pair of pliers to handle them while hot. But be really careful! That is molten lead.
QUOTE]

My pot is warming up right now.
It has ingots from those swell little condiment cups in it.
The cups work soooo well and are soooo cheap.
They work great for making cute little tin ingots that only weigh a couple of ounces.

[btroj]

If you are going to go to all that trouble, why not just make the ingot molds out of angle iron? Any size from 1 1/4" to 2" about ten inches long works well, just be sure to cut the ends at a slight angle so there is enough draft for easy release.

Robert

I would growth wood over angle iron for one simple reason- I have the tools to cut and fasten wood, I don't have the tools for metal.

I think a wood mould would be quite easy to make in whatever size ou wanted.

[letsmeltlead2693]

Here's an idea, why not make a v shape with wood, get some angle iron or whatever metal, put that inside the wood and then make the ends out of flat thin steel or thick metal, whatever you have, then put some wood blocks on the end, and you have an ingot mold made out of wood and get long bolts to hold it in place where the holed are drilled in the wood ends and you don't have a welder.

[plmitch]

Here's an idea, why not make a v shape with wood, get some angle iron or whatever metal, put that inside the wood and then make the ends out of flat thin steel or thick metal, whatever you have, then put some wood blocks on the end, and you have an ingot mold made out of wood and get long bolts to hold it in place where the holed are drilled in the wood ends and you don't have a welder.

now that sound like a job.

[plmitch]

The condiment cup are great to use and are cheap!

[LUCKYDAWG13]

or just cut a pop can in half

[Reverend Recoil]

I would think some kind of pottery clay would make a decent ingot mold. I am happy with my cast iron cornbread mold.

[MikeS]

I too use the condiment cups. While I also have some Lee ingot moulds, and a couple of the special Cast Boolits ingot moulds, the condiment cups come in very handy, not only for making ingots (they're perfectly sized to make an ingot right about a pound), but I also use them stacked together as a support for mould handles when I'm preheating an aluminum mould (where the wooden handles are heavier than the mould!), it's nice because by just adding more cups to the stack, or removing cups it's very easy to adjust the height. And did I mention cheap? When I bought them they were $0.88 for a four pack. I use them when I empty my pot, they're just much handier for stuff like that than a normal ingot mould.

[btroj]

I would think some kind of pottery clay would make a decent ingot mold. I am happy with my cast iron cornbread mold.

A lot of clays don't handle thermal shock real well. If you preheated a fired clay mould it would be ok. Problem then is that the clay would hold the heat and it would take forever for the ingot to harden. Pouring water on it would break the mould due to thermal shock again.

Metal works well as it conducts heat away from the lead quickly. That is what allows the lead to harden.

[kbstenberg]

I used wood in combination with aluminum angle for my ingot molds. Just because It was laying around, and I can't weld.
First I cut the angle to the same length, with square ends. The length was 9" just for convenience.
Second I cut 2 boards long enough so they are 2" wider then the angle set side by side. and high enough to cover the height of the angle.
Third I drilled 2 holes in both boards so I could use all-thread to tighten the boards to the ends of the angle.
I have used the same molds for probably 10 or 12 smeltings. Yes the wood is charred from each smelting. But when you tighten the all-thread for the next smelt all the slack is taken up, an the boards are tight to the angle's.
My bars are about 4 lbs an you can fit 2 in my 4-20 lead pot at a time.
After the sun comes up I will go out an get them so I can take some pictures.
Kevin

[Longwood]

I pour my pan lube into those condiment cups too make little lube ingots for easilly storing it.

[hiram]

mini-muffin tray, aluminum, 12 at a time.

[gbrown]

I was at an estate sale just snooping, and saw an aluminum tray that looked like change slots from a cash register. It has 7 or 9 divisions in it ranging from about 2-1/2 inches to 1-1/2 inches by 3 inches long by 1-1/2 inches deep. Really heavy aluminum. Not sure what it was made for, but I thought, "Those look like molds." Bought it for $2.00. Makes great ingots. As said by others, above, there are plenty of cheap things to use for molds. Go to garage/yard sales or estate sales, if possible.

[fredj338]

Could you make a simple ingot mold from wood, then line it with steel to cool it faster?

Then why not just use steel, iron or alum??

[Longwood]

I think a fine grained wood that is free from resin, would make good molds.
I have a gin bottle from the early twenties that was blown into a square tapered wooden form.
I can see the grain of the wood in the glass.
I would think molten glass is considerably hotter than lead.

[mrbill2]

Use angle iron to build a mold and wood to build a fire. Infact if you poor molten lead into a wooden mold, chances are you will end up with a fire anyway.

[wv109323]

What kind of ideas do you have for a wood stove?

[Salmon-boy]

As far as wood goes, if it's slightly damp you can use it for very high-temp things like glass without an issue. I'm not sure I'd chance it with molten metal, there might be too much spitting.
I've cast small items in wood, but as previously posted, it is too good of an insulator for any reasonable speed.

I've got a LOT of ingot making coming up and was thinking of the Lodge cast iron divided mini server:
https://secure.lodgemfg.com/storefront/product1_new.asp?menu=tableware&idProduct=4112

Other than that I'm going to be welding up some channel iron.. Not sure at this point which I'll do as it's time vs money, and right now I'm one of the lucky few in America with no time...

[kbstenberg]

YA I'm always late an a dollar short.
Here is my wooden sided ingot mold. Pic *1 are all the pieces. Pic#2 is the threaded rod in one of the wooden sides. Pic#3 is both wooden sides on the threaded rods. Pic#4 is the bottom side with the angle aluminum in place. Pic#5 is the top side of the mold.
Kevin

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[Chihuahua Floyd]

Small sheet of 1/2" plywood and some 3/8" X 3/8" strips. Makes 2" wide by 10" long by just under 3/8" ingots. Thats how I keep my soft lead from stick on WW from the clip ons in the muffin tins. Same day, different molds, different pots.
Smokes a little and cools slowly, but I'm outside on concrete.
CF

[letsmeltlead2693]

Should have tried to make one of those wood-steel mixed molds. I brought 2 Lee molds for $31.

[kbstenberg]

letsmeltlead ya mine costan hour of time. I cant weld so I went this way.

[Elkins45]

I love the condiment cups for segregating my alloy. I pour WW into regular muffin tins and use the little condiment cups for pure Pb for muzzle loader ammo. Saves me from having to mark them to tell them apart.

[blackthorn]

I made some barrel slugging slugs using 1/2" plywood. I just drilled a bunch of different sized hole through the plywood, "C" clamped the strip of plywood to a flat steel bar and poured away. When they cooled, I just knocked them out and put them in pill bottles according to size for when I need them.