Any special tricks to making Ingots?

[Utah Shooter]

Have some lead that I am going to melt down. My first time ever. Is there anything that I NEED to know or just the usual?

[MBTcustom]

Keep your heat low.
Flux with saw dust.
Have plenty of ingot molds (cupcake trays work good).
Label the ingots as soon as you can with a paint marker describing what alloy they are. Sure, you may only have one alloy for the moment, but in the future you might start alloying different alloys to get the right hardness. Good habits are good to have.

[Utah Shooter]

Just straight Sawdust for Flux? Not sure what the alloy is. As far as I know it is pure lead. Scraps from sheets made for walls.

[runfiverun]

its pure

[Utah Shooter]

So is that good for making wire for Swaging? I would assume so.

[OBIII]

Don't use plastic or wood for molds. :roll: Some things to consider, how are you planning to store them? Young and strong, 50-70 pounds not a problem. Old like me?, I cast in 1 lb ingots (Lee Ingot mold (on sale at Midway for 9.99)). I had a shipment of ingots come to me in a large frb. The shipper had built a wooden box that just fit inside the frb. He used 1 lb ingots, and was able to stuff 65 of them in there. Muffin tins work well, but they don't stack to well. Also consider the size of your casting pot. Kind of hard to stuff a 5lb ingot into a 4lb pot. :???:
By all means, label your ingots, some go so far as to acquire letter punches and punch them. Oh, let them cool long enough before you dump them out of the mold. Also, let them cool long enough so that when you go to gather them up, you don't get surprised and drop one on your bare toe! Wait, you weren't wearing flip flops were you? :mrgreen:

OB

[BulletFactory]

safety glasses

[Lead Fred]

shoes.....

I pour it in, set it on the concrete floor, and after 10 minutes, turn it over and knockem out.

I flux with bee's wax bits. I like it better than sawdust.

[Wal']

Poured my first ingots last week, feels good doesn't it. :awesome:

[Shiloh]

Gloves, safety glasses, and pay attention.

The good thing is, unlike boolits, wrinkles and proper fill are not an issue.

Shiloh

[C.F.Plinker]

Safety glasses, gloves, long sleeve shirt and pants made from cotton or wool (NO SYNTHETICS), boots or closed toed shoes. Use a sheet of plywood to protect whatever surface you are casting on. Pieces of 1x4 or 1x6 to set your molds on while they cool and to catch your ingots when they drop free of the mold. Good ventilation. 3 pound coffee cans or gallon paint cans to put the dross in. A good supply of flux ( I use either sawdust or old candles). A stainless steel slotted spoon and a stainless steel ladle, both from the thrift store.

[rintinglen]

A hot ingot looks just like a cold one.[smilie=1:

[williamwaco]

I am fussy.

I want my ingots to be just as pretty as my bullets. ( Well - almost. )

The first ingots poured in most ingot molds will be wrinkly and ugly. Dump them and refill the ingot mold immediately, it will then be hot enough to make "pretty" ingots. Remelt the wrinkled ones. they will not stack right anyway.

( Pretty ingots will not make better bullets. )

.

[44man]

I am fussy.

I want my ingots to be just as pretty as my bullets. ( Well - almost. )

The first ingots poured in most ingot molds will be wrinkly and ugly. Dump them and refill the ingot mold immediately, it will then be hot enough to make "pretty" ingots. Remelt the wrinkled ones. they will not stack right anyway.

( Pretty ingots will not make better bullets. )

.
NAW, a hunk of lead that fits the pot is good. No need for "pretty."
Yes even a big groove in hard wood can make a good ingot.

[zomby woof]

I have an 11 cavity cast iron muffing pan. It makes an ingot a little over 2lbs. If you're smelting a large amount, it helps to keep a wet cotton towel under the pan, it cools the ingots faster. the heavy work takes a toll on your back. Have your set up so you don't have to do much bending or stretching. Safety first.

[C Broad Arrow]

I am of the mind set that the making of an ingot is a necessary step. I don't care how pretty it is so long as I can process the lead I have and then get on to casting boolits. I find the cupcake molds work great and allows me to store them in coffee cans(plastic ones) or pails. If I was staking them on the shelf I would maybe chose an ingot mold. But for now the cupcake pans from the dollar store work ok!

[Wal']

I am fussy.

I want my ingots to be just as pretty as my bullets. ( Well - almost. )


( Pretty ingots will not make better bullets. )

.

I dun'no, mine wern't alway's as pretty when I woke up in the morning. :kidding:

[Stick_man]

A hot ingot looks just like a cold one.[smilie=1:

True, but they don't feel the same. [smilie=f:

[geargnasher]

I'll second the motion for heavy clothes, face gear, insulated gloves (at minimum leather work gloves that you can sling off fast if you get a big splash of lead on them), closed-toe leather boots, and leather apron is nice too.

Don't stick anything under the surface or add anything to the pot that isn't absolutely dry, or you'll meet the Tinsel Faery, and she's a mean be-atch if you savvy. She really likes to give people 3rd degree burns over large areas, particularly faces, forearms, shins, and feet. She'll put your eye out if you give her half a chance, so NEVER skimp on the safety glasses around molten lead.

Sawdust is chemically the best thing you could possibly use for fluxing lead alloy. Long explanation as to why, and some sawdusts work better than others, but it's the only thing that will both revert the oxide scum back to elemental metal AND soak up things we boolit casters consider impurities in our metals like calcium, aluminum, iron (rust), and to a certain extent zinc while leaving things we want like tin, arsenic, copper, and antimony (if you're melting an alloy like wheel weights that has that stuff in it). Avoid sawdust from plywood, mdf, treated lumber, or OSB. stir the alloy well with the sawdust on top, ladle it up and pour back through the sawdust layer to expose as much of the metal as possible to it. You're purifying the alloy, so think in those terms when fluxing. You can add wax or oil and light the smoke, too, it cuts back on the smoke plume.

As for ingot moulds, you can buy them, make them, buy stainless steel condiment cups from Walmart, iron corn-pone moulds, muffin pans (NO teflon!), cut soda cans in half lengthwise to make troughs, just about anything that can handle 800 degrees for 20 minutes. Some of our members here make them, too, do a search for "ingot+mold" or "mould" and you'll get a lot of hits, all sorts of threads ingot moulds have been started in the past. At least one of our members makes smelting ladles and skimming tools, too, I think it's "ray in NH", you might search him out on the members list and follow the link in his signature line to his vendor-sponsor thread.

Gear

[Cadillo]

When I render wheelweights or lead from any source, I immediately cast it into ingots. I learned early on to preheat my ingot moulds on a separate burner, and to place them on a verified as LEVEL surface for pouring. If this is done, the ingots will be uniform on all sides and stack much more neatly into stable stacks.

I bought a couple of four cavity moulds from a member here, and they yield beautiful uniform ingots that nest together into very nice stacks. Never more will I create the headache of those dreaded muffins, that topple over every time I look in their direction.

I also mark the ingots with a punch to indicate whether they are range scrap, WW, near pure PB, alloyed with Monotype, or alloyed with tin etc. At my age I tend to forget such things without a little help.

[alfloyd]

"So is that good for making wire for Swaging? I would assume so."

Joe:
Yes, that lead would be great to make lead wire out of.
It is about as close to pure as you are going to get in the scrap lead market.

How are you doing these days?

Lafaun

[Colorado4wheel]

I have some Chainsaw Dust. Makes a great flux. But it can have water in it. I now lay it on top of the lead. Let it sit a minute, melt some wax in it and light the melting wax. The whole thing burns and I stir it in. Safer, Never had it go POP like that.

[Utah Shooter]

"So is that good for making wire for Swaging? I would assume so."

Joe:
Yes, that lead would be great to make lead wire out of.
It is about as close to pure as you are going to get in the scrap lead market.

How are you doing these days?

Lafaun

Doing great Lafaun. How are you doing?

Yeah I thought it was good. I got more than I can use so I will be very busy on the weekends.

So here is a question. I did about 50 lbs this weekend and after fluxing and skimming it the lead was in the pot for just a little bit it would turn a gold then blue then to purple on the top. Has anyone ever seen this? Is it too cold or too hot?

[Cadillo]

Doing great Lafaun. How are you doing?

Yeah I thought it was good. I got more than I can use so I will be very busy on the weekends.

So here is a question. I did about 50 lbs this weekend and after fluxing and skimming it the lead was in the pot for just a little bit it would turn a gold then blue then to purple on the top. Has anyone ever seen this? Is it too cold or too hot?

If you're talking about making ingots it's fine, just preheat the mould(s) and fill them. If you're talking about casting bullets, you REALLY need a thermometer!

[Utah Shooter]

Making ingots. There is swirls of those colors mixed in with them. Look kinda funny. My buddy told me it was not a big deal. I have contemplated selling some of it and did not want that to be a bad sign.

[D Crockett]

Utah Shooter you have a pm D Crockett

[bigboredad]

I believe the colors means it too hot but for ingots it wouldn't be a problem. Are you making lead wire for swaging?

[Utah Shooter]

I believe the colors means it too hot but for ingots it wouldn't be a problem. Are you making lead wire for swaging?

No. Perhaps trade for some but I do not have the equipment to do so.

What I was thinking of doing though is getting a mold for 9mm. Then use that to make projectiles for shooting through my 9 and also using them as cores for my 40 cal.

[alfloyd]

bigboredad:

Utah Shooter gets his lead wire from me.
He trades me raw lead for lead wire.
If you want some lead wire, send me a PM.

Lafaun

[gwpercle]

MOST IMPORTANT

DO NOT DO IT INSIDE YOUR WIFE'S KITCHEN ON HER STOVE !!

And do not use any of her good cooking pots for melting unless permission is granted first.

Ladies get all hot and bothered when you smoke up the house and spill lead on the stove top. It takes several days to get the smell out of the house too. So don't think you will do it when she's gone , clean up and she will never know... she will find out and you will be in the the dog house !