Steel Muffin tins for Ingots

[afish4570]

My new Dollar Store tin (steel plated or coated) when used for casting ingots stick like a ......gun. I lube with old candles and/ or used motor oil to no avail. Is there anything that works better as a release agent. Was thinking of burning off the coating on tins with my propane brush burner then trying the candle. Would spray silicone work any better?? afish4570[smilie=s:[smilie=s:

[Mk42gunner]

What I found worked best was to leave them out in the rain to get a coat of rust; then the ingots will fall out. It doesn't take much bouncing trying to get a few stuck muffins out to destroy a light guage metal pan.

I have since changed to using welded angle iron for ingot molds; more capacity and very hard to hurt.

Robert

[NZSarge]

I use an old muffin tray for range lead ingots.

I have poured over 300 to date and as soon as they are set I turn the tray upside down, bang the edge on the cement path and they just fall out

[Sasquatch-1]

I use the SS condiment cups that are sold, in with the comercial restaraunt stuff, at Sam's club. You get a dozen for about $6.00. They work great and you don't have to wait for an entire pan of ingots to cool.

[Inkman]

I bought a couple muffin pans from the dollar store. Don't know if they were aluminum or what but the ingots, when cooled, needed pliers to peel the muffin pan away from the lead.

Dumped them and went with the old ones from the cupboard and been fine ever since.

Yes, i bought new ones for the kitchen lol.

Al

[MN91311]

Use aluminum muffin tins, the one-piece units, not the type where the cup is a separate piece pressed into the holes in the frame. Lead or lead alloy will not stick to aluminum. I got mine cheap at garage sales on Saturday.

[Wayne Smith]

Let them rust. Lead won't stick.

[dragon813gt]

Rust is your friend
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/Reloading/0dcc18ac.jpg

If they have a Teflon coating burn it off before you pour any lead in them. Just make sure you don't breathe in any of the burning Teflon.


Brought to you by TapaTalk.

[Jeffrey]

Muffin pans that are 'shiney' are plated with tin. Molten lead will 'solder' itself to the tin. I had to destroy a pan and put the cups in the pot to melt my alloy out of the cups. Use 'nonstick' black / grey coated muffin pans. The 'muffins' will fall right out.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

There is ongoing controversy over the use of muffin pans for making ingots and the facts are really simple. A muffin pan (or anything/shape made out of aluminum, cast iron or stainless steel will not have the ingots stick in them because lead does not, and never will, stick to any of those three. A muffin pan made out of steel, unless it is allowed to rust first....will have lead stick to/in it and you will have to beat the daylights out of it (and ruin its shape) to get the ingots out (if you can)....or else heat it with a torch and melt them out. A pan coated with nonstick will not allow the lead/ingots to stick so no prob. But if the non stick is teflon...beware as toxic fumes may be released when the pan is heated. For smelting lead, muffin shapes are practical and handy, but keep in mind that if they are too big, then when you (have to) add one or more to your casting pot the overall temperature falls and interferes with the casting process/rhythm...and you have to sit around waiting for the temp to go back up or sit out a "freeze-up. Not fun! Its attractive to raid your dollar store or a neighborhood yard sale and score muffin pans for a buck, but try and be sure what they are made of before you get carried away by the "bargain". Its called look before you leap .LLS

[Rolling Stone]

I have a problem with full size muffins too. I figured out that I only wanted to put 2-3 ladles of lead in each muffin cavity and that smaller amount works great and doesn't chill the pot.

[afish4570]

Tried to heat up up a couple on the stove top (natural gas) while wife was out yesterday. Heated them up for several mins. and put them outside after wetting them down, hopefully to rust over night. Well the devils barely got a rust spot on them. My next trick is to take my propane brush burning torch and really burn'em up. The plating or coating is surprising tough so it might take a good session to destroy coating so I can let them rust till a fall smelt......Will keep you posted. afish4570:Fire::Fire:

[Swampman]

Lee ingot molds are worth the money.

[shadowcaster]

There is ongoing controversy over the use of muffin pans for making ingots and the facts are really simple. A muffin pan (or anything/shape made out of aluminum, cast iron or stainless steel will not have the ingots stick in them because lead does not, and never will, stick to any of those three. A muffin pan made out of steel, unless it is allowed to rust first....will have lead stick to/in it and you will have to beat the daylights out of it (and ruin its shape) to get the ingots out (if you can)....or else heat it with a torch and melt them out. A pan coated with nonstick will not allow the lead/ingots to stick so no prob. But if the non stick is teflon...beware as toxic fumes may be released when the pan is heated. For smelting lead, muffin shapes are practical and handy, but keep in mind that if they are too big, then when you (have to) add one or more to your casting pot the overall temperature falls and interferes with the casting process/rhythm...and you have to sit around waiting for the temp to go back up or sit out a "freeze-up. Not fun! Its attractive to raid your dollar store or a neighborhood yard sale and score muffin pans for a buck, but try and be sure what they are made of before you get carried away by the "bargain". Its called look before you leap .LLS

Having experienced the hassles of regular muffin pans, I totally agree with what LLS has said here. I use exclusively cast iron.. wedge pans, mini muffin pans, and bread stick pans. They were not free or picked up from the dollar store and I paid about $10 each for them. Spending a few extra dollars is totally worth not having the hassles involving ordinary muffin pans. It's like spending a few extra bucks on a specific boolit mold that you know is going to work every time. If you want smaller ingots, don't fill them as full. Lots of guys here are making ingot molds from channel or angle iron with good results. I use the regular muffin pans for things like wax and boolit lube. But, if muffin pans are what you like and working for you, then go with it. Just my 2 cents worth. :)

Shad

[Inkman]

The muffins work for me. I just keep em warmed up on a griddle. Add one or two to the pot and temp doesn't drop much at all. Nice to be able to keep on casting instead of waiting for the pot to heat back up after adds.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/Inkmanno1/casting%20boolits/warmingingots.jpg



Al

[zxcvbob]

I did the same thing with a dollar store muffin pan. What a mess! Had to destroy it to get the lead out.

Use stainless steel cups from Walmart or Sam's, or a cast iron "corn pone" or wedge pan.

An empty pop or beer can makes a pretty good single-use 8.5 pound ingot mold. You have to peel it off but that's not hard to do.

[Sasquatch-1]

Having experienced the hassles of regular muffin pans, I totally agree with what LLS has said here. I use exclusively cast iron.. wedge pans, mini muffin pans, and bread stick pans. They were not free or picked up from the dollar store and I paid about $10 each for them. Spending a few extra dollars is totally worth not having the hassles involving ordinary muffin pans. It's like spending a few extra bucks on a specific boolit mold that you know is going to work every time. If you want smaller ingots, don't fill them as full. Lots of guys here are making ingot molds from channel or angle iron with good results. I use the regular muffin pans for things like wax and boolit lube. But, if muffin pans are what you like and working for you, then go with it. Just my 2 cents worth. :)

Shad

If you think about what is said here it makes you wonder. You have some people who will go out and spend $350.00 or more for an RCBS melting pot for casting, $30.00 or $40.00 for a smelting pot (if not more), $40.00 and up for molds and then spend a dollar for ingot mold.

Now I am on the cheap side. I use a ten pound drip-o-matic to cast from (that I have had for over 30 years), a little 1 qt cast iron pot to smelt in (difficult with larger scrap like istope cores) that I paid $9.00 for new, and Lee molds. Now for ingots I have one of the cast iron cornbread pans and a dozen of the SS condement cups that Sam's club sells. Comparitively speaking they are the most expensive part of my casting operation.

Just strange how we decide to spend our money and what to buy on the cheap.

[HDS]

I use a cheapo teflon coated one, its got banged around but I don't have any serious sticking issues, but maybe it's not standard practice to just throw your muffin tins onto the ground upside down a few times amongst you guys?

I just beat out the dents with a hammer, it's started to release more readily now :p

[afish4570]

Let them rust. Lead won't stick.

Used my propane brush burner Harbor Fr. torch and burned the finish off. Will scratch them up with sand paper abit.Then let them sit in the outdoors,wetting them down occasionally to encourage a nice thick rust coating. Shot tonight and spoke to one of the regulars who I haven't seen in 6 mos. since he was laid off. Told me he worked in a garage 20 miles away and had the guys saving me some lead. Next week we are scheduled to meet and pickup a pail of lead......How full or what type of wheel wts. will be interesting to find out. afish4570:lovebooli:lovebooli

[Ziptar]

I prefer the cast iron mini loaf pans but, a while back I bought 15 of those $1 steel muffin pans at dollar tree to use as ingot molds. First time I tried one it stuck too.

I put a cupped wire wheel on a cordless drill to the rest of them and scuffed and scratched the coating off as best I could. After that I filled a 5 gallon bucket with salt water and tossed the muffin tins in and left them to "pickle" for a week,

They work great now.

[shadowcaster]

Having experienced the hassles of regular muffin pans, I totally agree with what LLS has said here. I use exclusively cast iron.. wedge pans, mini muffin pans, and bread stick pans. They were not free or picked up from the dollar store and I paid about $10 each for them. Spending a few extra dollars is totally worth not having the hassles involving ordinary muffin pans. It's like spending a few extra bucks on a specific boolit mold that you know is going to work every time. If you want smaller ingots, don't fill them as full. Lots of guys here are making ingot molds from channel or angle iron with good results. I use the regular muffin pans for things like wax and boolit lube. But, if muffin pans are what you like and working for you, then go with it. Just my 2 cents worth.

Shad



If you think about what is said here it makes you wonder. You have some people who will go out and spend $350.00 or more for an RCBS melting pot for casting, $30.00 or $40.00 for a smelting pot (if not more), $40.00 and up for molds and then spend a dollar for ingot mold.

Sometimes "value" is not placed on the actual dollars spent, but on the performance and function of the item being used, based on ones personal needs.

Shad

[HDS]

So anyone tried silicon muffin pans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k8CskYWv9I

[Boyscout]

I must have gotten lucky. I purchased a "muffin" pan that was very shallow (indiviual browie?). So I get 3.5" wafers that pop out of the pan easily. I don't worry about fumes as I only cast outdoors. The wafers are easy to deal with in my Lee 10 lb bottom pour as the pour rod keeps me from using too large of ingots. I also have two Lee ingot molds and rarely fill them to the top. Between the three I can dump 10 lbs of alloy pretty quickly.

[afish4570]

Tried to heat up up a couple on the stove top (natural gas) while wife was out yesterday. Heated them up for several mins. and put them outside after wetting them down, hopefully to rust over night. Well the devils barely got a rust spot on them. My next trick is to take my propane brush burning torch and really burn'em up. The plating or coating is surprising tough so it might take a good session to destroy coating so I can let them rust till a fall smelt......Will keep you posted. afish4570:Fire::Fire:

Been sitting behind the shed since the burning finish off episode and will rust until the fall when I melt another batch. An occasional spraying with hose and rain are insuring a nice finish of rust..... Will keep you posted o:Fire::Fire:n results.afish4570

[MikeS]

I have 5 ingot moulds, 2 of the custom Cast Boolits ingot moulds, and 3 Lee ingot moulds. I also have 24 stainless steel condiment cups. Walmart was selling them for $0.88 per 4 cups. While inexpensive, they really work well for making ingots, and they last a lot longer than you would expect them to! One really nice thing about them is that because they're individual cups, you don't have to wait for the last one poured to harden up before you can dump out the first ones filled.

The only thing I use a muffin pan for is making ingots of lube. For this it works great, I pour in the hot boolit lube, then once it's cooled off I stick it in the fridge, and after about an hour I take it out, and the lube ingots just drop right out!

[Sasquatch-1]

I also have 24 stainless steel condiment cups. Walmart was selling them for $0.88 per 4 cups. While inexpensive, they really work well for making ingots, and they last a lot longer than you would expect them to! One really nice thing about them is that because they're individual cups, you don't have to wait for the last one poured to harden up before you can dump out the first ones filled.



I have been using these for a while now. Sam's Club sells them by the dozen. I find that a pair of pliers, with a long jaw section, handled by the jaw section, works well for moving the hot cups around.

I know, why don't I get a good pair of gloves to handle them with.

[zomby woof]

E-bay

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/DSCN03361.JPG

[guidogoose]

I use a six cavity aluminum muffin pan made by I think Mirro. For larger ingots, I use a cast iron melt pot made by Lodge Logic. Never had lead stick to either. Ingots fall right out.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

The cast iron muffin pan shown by Zomby Woof two posts ago is also called by some a "popover pan". The one shown appears to be the design originally made by Griswold in a period of time between 1890 and the mid 1950's. There were/are 15 variations of the design recognized by collectors of Griswold cast iron and a few of those are rare/highly collectible and worth some big bucks. A similar but different design was also made by Wagner and a couple of other foundries in cookware history. Can't tell by picture which model/variation is shown as the markings on the back would show the ID info, but in any case this type of muffin pan makes an excellent ingot mold. It quickly makes 11 units and with the aid of a pliers to turn the mold over and dump ingots, one can crank out a lot of them in short time. No sticking issues or need to rust it; just keep it wiped down with an oily rag. One can find them usually in antique shops or on E-Bay. LLS

[NZSarge]

About 350 Lb of Range lead and WW. $NZ1 ( .75c US) Ali muffin tin mold from a junk store

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=745&pictureid=5557

[MBTcustom]

First, I would like to say that you don't need to fill the muffin tins all the way to the top. That practice gives you 2.25-2.75LB ingots that really hit your pot hard when you slide them into the melt. I fill 'em about 1/2" and that gives me a very nice little disc ingot that weighs pretty close to 1 Lb each, and it only drops the temperature of the silver stream about 20 degrees.
My favorite ingots of all time are the Castboolits group buy ingots. I don't own one myself, but I have received a bunch of them in trade for solder, and they are just the perfect weight and shape.

[Gator 45/70]

I use a silicon fudge pan i picked up at a hobby store...
I've poured 3 time's so far in it...No sign's of wear or any problem's...
I just wait a few minute's and plot them out on a flat baking pan...

[D Crockett]

I use ingot moulds made out of angle iron that I make. they never stick they are just right for a 20 lb pot. tride the muffin pans never will do that again. I used just about ever kind of ingot mould made but I have found out. the best kind are the ones I make just flip it over and out comes the ingot every time. to let every one know if they want some I will be happy to make them some in 1 to 4 cavitys just give me a pm D Crockett

[Elkins45]

I use a silicon fudge pan i picked up at a hobby store...
I've poured 3 time's so far in it...No sign's of wear or any problem's...
I just wait a few minute's and plot them out on a flat baking pan...

I will confess I am surprised by this. I expected the silicone pans would fail at lead temps. The baking pans we have warn they aren't supposed to be used over 500*F.

I use the cups from one of the cheap steel muffin pans. The pan itself was ruined when I tried to dump my ingots but the individual pressed in cups work fine when pried out of the ruined matrix. I also use the great SS condiment cups, but I use them just for pure lead so I can tell it apart by the shape of the ingots.

[Scott_In_OKC]

I just snagged this cast iron pan on Ebay. Once I clean it up, it should make some nice ingots.

http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx239/Scott_In_OKC/General%20Images/T2eC16ZHJIkE9qU3k6PUBP8ydssdzQ60_12.jpg

[afish4570]

The cast iron muffin pan shown by Zomby Woof two posts ago is also called by some a "popover pan". The one shown appears to be the design originally made by Griswold in a period of time between 1890 and the mid 1950's. There were/are 15 variations of the design recognized by collectors of Griswold cast iron and a few of those are rare/highly collectible and worth some big bucks. A similar but different design was also made by Wagner and a couple of other foundries in cookware history. Can't tell by picture which model/variation is shown as the markings on the back would show the ID info, but in any case this type of muffin pan makes an excellent ingot mold. It quickly makes 11 units and with the aid of a pliers to turn the mold over and dump ingots, one can crank out a lot of them in short time. No sticking issues or need to rust it; just keep it wiped down with an oily rag. One can find them usually in antique shops or on E-Bay. LLS

Cast iron pots seem to be quite collectible.....fry pans,corn muffins shape, muffin tins etc. I too have used a couple but would probably sell them off if I bump into any new finds. I am an old guy so I try to keep the investment as low as possible and put the money into actual shooting supplies. When I do my late fall smelt I will use the 15 or so old muffin tins, some are alum.,one cast iron and the rest $$dollar store that are rusting away in preparation. afish4570:cbpour::cbpour:

[MGySgt]

I just snagged this cast iron pan on Ebay. Once I clean it up, it should make some nice ingots.

http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx239/Scott_In_OKC/General%20Images/T2eC16ZHJIkE9qU3k6PUBP8ydssdzQ60_12.jpg

Why clean it up? It will just rust again. Just pour your ignots and store them. I would oil it after you are done smelting (spray with WD40).

[MGySgt]

I have 4 of the minie loaf pans like in post #8. Each one weighs about 3 pounds, 8 'loafs' per pan = 24 pounds, 4 pans = 96 pounds per pour.

You can go through 200 pound pot in a hurry with them.

That also gives you 200 pounds in a specific alloy if you want to blend up a 1000 pounds or so a a specific alloy.

I believe I have about $3.50 per pan when I bought them from Wally World.

[Scott_In_OKC]

Why clean it up? It will just rust again. Just pour your ignots and store them. I would oil it after you are done smelting (spray with WD40).

Mainly because I'm OCD about taking care of my cast iron :)

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I am using the cast iron cornbread ear of corn moulds. I need a good way to separate different base alloys from pure lead, and they were $7.99 apiece.

Rich

[GLL]

Before he passed away jawjawboy made me eight of these beautiful 5-pound ingot molds.

http://www.fototime.com/5A6777B8FA7EE62/orig.jpg

Muffin loaf pans are used for the 2-pound ingots.

http://www.fototime.com/FB02054454498D2/orig.jpg

I use this breadstick mould for tin and solder ingots. They can be cut into smaller size using large garden shears !

http://www.fototime.com/4BFECD999A11993/orig.jpg

Jerry

[Gator 45/70]

I'm still quite new to all of this...However i've ran close to 200# through the floppy pan...I only fill the center's mold's since this is a fair amout of weight at one time..If it fail's anytime in the near future i will post it...



I will confess I am surprised by this. I expected the silicone pans would fail at lead temps. The baking pans we have warn they aren't supposed to be used over 500*F.

I use the cups from one of the cheap steel muffin pans. The pan itself was ruined when I tried to dump my ingots but the individual pressed in cups work fine when pried out of the ruined matrix. I also use the great SS condiment cups, but I use them just for pure lead so I can tell it apart by the shape of the ingots.

[ShooterAZ]

Just spray with Frankford Arsenal mold release. I never use it for molds, just for muffin trays and my Lee ingot molds. Works good.

[gwpercle]

I like the one piece, stamped aluminum , mini-muffin pans . Don't remember where I got them but lead doesn't stick and they are of a nice small size, convenient for adding to the pot. Stay away from pressed steel and teflon coated....aluminum is the way to go. and you don't have to spray the mould/mini-muffin pan with anything.

[evan price]

Muffin loaf pans are used for the 2-pound ingots.

http://www.fototime.com/FB02054454498D2/orig.jpg

I use this breadstick mould for tin and solder ingots. They can be cut into smaller size using large garden shears !

http://www.fototime.com/4BFECD999A11993/orig.jpg

Jerry

Jerry, I use the exact same Griswold #11 french-roll pans (rather the clones from other makers) for my soft lead ingots. I also use the same breadstick pan for my solder & pewter ingots.

I've got three of the #11 clones and learned the hard way that tapping one on concrete will easily chunk the edge of a cavity. Treat them with care! They throw ingots of either nominally 1.5# (for the Griswold clones which are shallower and flatter with no holes in the spine between the rows) or 2.5# (For the Wagner Wear clones which are deeper and rounder on the bottom and have a perforated channel in the spine.)

The Griswold store still sells them for $150 new; collectors are asking $100 apiece for those pans today and I surf eBay regularly looking for inexpensive rusty ones for under $20 shipped.

For my range scrap and clip WW lead I use mini tart tins that look like a big muffin cup. Makes a 4.0-4.5# nominal ingot and two of them back-to-back just barely slide into my RCBS pot.