Need to make ingots and learn more about fluxing.

[TNFrank]

I think if I could make up ingots out of all my wheel weights it'd be easier to use them to refill my lead pot with. I have a Lee Production Pot, 10# and most of my wheel weights are the small ones having already run though my larger ones. If I could melt em' all down and make small ingots out of em' then it'd be easy to keep the pot full of pre-fluxed lead so I'd not have to work so hard taking out all the clips and having to reflux all the time.
I just wanted to see if ya'll thought that a small stainless steel pot, say a 2 quart, would work ok using my Turkey Cooker base as a burner. I can also pick up a stainless latte to dip out the molten metal and large stainless spoon to skim with during fluxing and then use some muffin pans that were the right shape as molds for the ingots.
Also, this talk about stirring sticks and stuff has got me interested in learning more. I've always used just a bit of Gulf Wax to flux with but I've been reading about saw dust, stirring sticks and other things that work. Think I might want to give something like that a try but need more info. Anyway, thanks in advance.

[ku4hx]

At it's most basic, smelting is the process of blending specific components to get a desired alloy. Fluxing is a process that aids that blending and helps separate all manner of trash and other undesirables so they can be skimmed off. You need to stay away from Aluminum, but steel and cast iron work well. Your proposed setup will likely work, with the major concerns being enough volume to blend what you need and sufficient heat to keep the whole melt liquid. Try your setup and see how it goes.

Most people do, in fact, smelt in a separate pot (I use a gas powered fish fryer) to keep as much of the mess and stuff out of the boolit casting pot and I do about 30 pounds at a time. I make ingots too, as most do, but that's just a natural outfall of smelting ... you got to do something with 30 pounds of alloy. And a single 30 pound ingot is not going to work, hence "muffins". If I had perfectly clean components, and could accurately weigh them in small quantities, I'd skip smelting.

Not the best picture in the world, but here's what I smelt in:

[Sasquatch-1]

For molds I picked up some stainless steel condiment cups from Sam's Club a while back. There were about 10 for $6.00 or $7.00. If you fill them up completely they are a little big to fit all the way into the 10# pot. Also being individual cups there is no extra metal you have to heat up when pouring.

[badgeredd]

For molds I picked up some stainless steel condiment cups from Sam's Club a while back. There were about 10 for $6.00 or $7.00. If you fill them up completely they are a little big to fit all the way into the 10# pot. Also being individual cups there is no extra metal you have to heat up when pouring.

Thanks for that little tidbit on the condiment cups. Often I'll have a little left-over alloy in my pot when I finish casting with an experimental alloy. The condiment cups I just purchased from Walmart work perfectly to save the leftover alloy. I got mine for $0.99 for 4 and picked up a dozen. Good tip.

Edd

[Echo]

First of all, TNF, quit rendering down in your casting furnace. The crud won't all get fluxed out, and there will be problems. Your solution of using a sauce pan on a turkey cooker is a good one, but maybe use a larger-then-2-qt version. I use an 8-qt dutch oven my grandmother used a hundred years ago. It will hold about 40 pounds of WW's. and makes the entire rendering/smelting operation go faster.
Saying that, if you could find a cast iron dutch oven at a swap meet, or whatever, that would be a good thing. If not, then a stainless steel 4-qt or 6-qt sauce pan, or such, would be quite suitable. Under no circumstances use an aluminum sauce pan! They are quite soft, and can break down if one allows the temp to get too high, with disastrous results.

[TNFrank]

First of all, TNF, quit rendering down in your casting furnace. The crud won't all get fluxed out, and there will be problems.

I think that might be the problem now. Seems like the first few(actually more like first 40 or so) boolits that come out of my pot just don't fill the mold right and the mix looks grainy, not smooth like it does later in the run. I just kind of figured it might be the mold not heated up enough but now I'm starting to think there's a lot of crud in the pot.
I'll probably just empty out what's in the pot and start fresh once I get some ingots made up.
Might see if we've got a good size cast iron pot sitting around the house, that'd save me from having to buy a pot then all I'd need was a dipper and spoon to skim off the stuff on tip with. We have some corn bread pans that are cast iron and shaped like little ears of corn so they're long and not too wide, just right to fit into the Lee Production Pot.
I need to get into the garage and do some digging to see what I can come up with before I buy anything. Thanks for the info guys.

[zxcvbob]

I do all my lead smelting and rendering in a 2 quart stainless saucepan (maybe it's 1.5 quart) on an electric hotplate. I have hundreds of pounds of condiment cup ingots, maybe over 1000 pounds. I generally do about 15 pounds at a time.

I have an empty freon tank to make a large crucible someday, but what I've got now is working pretty well and it's cheap to operate.

[TNFrank]

Took a look around the house today and out in the shed and couldn't find anything suitable for using as a melting pot to smelt my wheel weights. Probably have to hit the flee market this weekend to see if I can find an old dutch oven or something similar to melt lead in. I'm sure I can get a dipper and large spoon from Wally World on the cheap then I'll need to trade in my old 20# propane tank for a new style so I can use it with the burner from our Turkey Deep Fryer. That should get things going.

[geargnasher]

Frank, do yourself a favor and read the Glen Fryxell article on fluxing boolit metal on the Los Angeles Silhouette Club site. All you need to know is in there. There's a link at the bottom of the page to "cast bullet notes". Read Glen's alloy articles too.

Gear

[dRok]

can often find an old propane tank for cheap to free, cut it in half and throw it on top of a turkey fryer and you have a great smelting pot. Can do 100lbs of lead at a time in mine.

[flipajig]

I use a duch oven good for around 30 to 40 lbs of lead.
Colman stove I have two big spoons one slotted and the other solid
I use the slotted one to get all the big stuff out and the solid one to do all
The skimming I also made Wooden handles for each of them as
Heat transfers (I don't like to get burned) I also made my ingot molds
Out of a pice of 3 in chanel iron they work ok.
I'm also useing sawdust to flux with I like Misquite it smells good and makes
Me think of BbQ.
Flip

[gwpercle]

TNFrank,

Work in small batches at first, use a 1.5 or 2 quart pot. You can melt a lot of wheel weights in that size pot. It is easy to flux , stir , and doesn't take a lot of heat to melt. This is the size I use to melt wheel weights and cast in mini-muffin pans. I found these years ago, they are shiny aluminum , with no teflon coating. The small size is just right to add to 10 lb. Lee .

Now this is not good if you have a lot of metal to do or if you're blending alloys etc. but just for melting and cleaning wheel weights it beats doing it in your casting pot. this is what I did untill I found how much grunge adheres to the pot and this will cause you Lee bottom pour to leak and finally clog the pouring parts in the bottom so it no longer will function.

When you are working with a small pot you don't need a lot of heat to melt things, I have used an electric hot plate and a camp stove as heat sources. Rember to much heat on small pot bottom might warp it or burn a hole in it, so go slow and use just enough heat to melt the whl. wts.

Once the metal is melted and clean, I use my casting dipper , scoop up one ladel full and pour into mini-muffin, they are consistent and small enough to fit into the pot.

Hope this helps...gary

[Sasquatch-1]

Might see if we've got a good size cast iron pot sitting around the house, that'd save me from having to buy a pot then all I'd need was a dipper and spoon to skim off the stuff on tip with. We have some corn bread pans that are cast iron and shaped like little ears of corn so they're long and not too wide, just right to fit into the Lee Production Pot.
I need to get into the garage and do some digging to see what I can come up with before I buy anything. Thanks for the info guys.

Just remember that anything you use to smelt and cast with is a lead only pot from then on.

If you have an old worn out gun cleaning brush put it in a drill and run it around the inside of the pot to help clean it out. Also don't neglect the spout. A little piece of wire that is small enough to fit the spout but stiff enough not to collaps works. I use it with a pair of pliers while draining lead out of the pot, running it in and out from the bottom.

[zxcvbob]

Look for a 1.5 or 2 qt stainless steel pot at the Salvation Army or Goodwill store, preferably with a lid.

[largom]

TN Frank, The cast iron "corn muffin" pans work great as ingot molds. I have some that I have used for over 30 yrs.

Larry

[zxcvbob]

How much does a standard "corn pone" lead ingot weight, about 2 pounds? A little less?

[TNFrank]

Just remember that anything you use to smelt and cast with is a lead only pot from then on.

Ahh man, you mean I can't cook a nice pot of beef stew in it after I make ingots,LOL. I know, I've been casting for about 20+ years but just thought I'd start getting a bit more "high tech" by making ingots instead of just throwin' wheel weights into my production pot. Still need to get to Wally World to see what they've got. I also want to clean out all the "old" lead from my production pot and start fresh. Figure it's been in there for a while so it needs a good cleaning.


TN Frank, The cast iron "corn muffin" pans work great as ingot molds. I have some that I have used for over 30 yrs.

Larry

I remember seeing one around here somewhere but it's been years, no telling where it's at now. I can alway paint em' yellow so they look like actual muffins and just say that Elli May cooked em'. LOL

[leadshooter5]

Good advice from all. I use a dutch oven on a gas ring from a turkey fryer, and do 80lbs at a time. I keep each large melt separate, and cast 1 boolit out of the pot to weigh and check hardness on a SAECO gauge. You can then predict the resulting hardness level of a particular pot by averaging the ingot readings going in.