Hot plate for Ingots?

[Gliden07]

Will a small electric hot plate work to melt WW down for ingots?? I see that most of the pot melters are only about 500 watts.

[H.Callahan]

It can. It is a lot slower and it seems some plates have problems getting hot enough, particularly the solid top models. If you can get one of the coil types and as high a wattage as you can find, it should work, albeit somewhat marginally.

[Gliden07]

I hope so I'm on a tight budget and figured this could serve double duty to warm boolit molds too! Use 1 bought item to multi task!! At least thats what I was thinking!!

[Old Iron Sights]

Trick is to have a flat bottom pot that makes good contact with the coil.

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[zxcvbob]

I have about a thousand pounds of ingots all melted on a hotplate. About 10 pounds at a time. It's slow, but not as slow as you'd imagine and it's a lot cheaper to operate than propane or Coleman fuel.

I burned up one hotplate running it on HI all the time, so the second one I turn down just a little so that it cycles occasionally and it's holding up much better.

Make sure you get one with exposed coils, not the more expensive cast iron top. The cast iron ones dont get hot enough.

[shadowcaster]

I hope so I'm on a tight budget and figured this could serve double duty to warm boolit molds too! Use 1 bought item to multi task!! At least thats what I was thinking!!

Honestly... If the hot plate is all you can get by with for now, then that's better than nothing. I think that you should save your pennies and eventually get a turkey fryer (about 50 dollars) as it will do both the large and small batches. You will be much happier with it. The hot plate can then serve as a heater for your ingots and boolit molds. :cbpour:

Shad

[popper]

It will work, but add a mapp torch to melt the stuff and the H-P keeps it liquid to flux.

[Bill*]

I got an open coil 1000 watt hotplate ("Aroma" brand) from Kmart for well under $20. Just added a windscreen by bending some aluminum flashing and slipping it under the trim. Works well for me. Picture to follow in a few minutes.(I hope)

[Hardcast416taylor]

I`ve got an old 2 burner hot plate I got for $1 at a yard sale. I`ve been putting a 10" square piece of 1/8th inch steel plate on a burner to warm ingots and molds before using. I had (5) 1 lb. WW ingots "warming" as I was casting. I glanced over at the ingots and saw they were melting! A large puddle of lead was just starting to drip off the steel plate onto the bench. Don`t know the wattage of the old hotplate, but it sure can throw out the heat!Robert

[Gibson]

I use a Fisher Scientific hot plate/magnetic stirrer. Works fine. The small cast iron pot gets plenty hot. I do small batches and ladle them into muffin tins. Had the hot plate, snitched the tins and cast iron pot from my wife. No cost :)

[mold maker]

I get tanks of propane refilled for $14. That amount of electric heat would kill my power bill.

[John Boy]

Harbor Freight Propane torch - heats to 3000 degrees.
Melts WW's for ingots faster than one can say ...

Will a small electric hot plate work to melt WW down for ingots?? I see that most of the pot melters are only about 500 watts.

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html

[BK7saum]

Electric will work, but I much prefer a propane turker fryer and large cast iron pot for smelting to ingots. I've got a fill tube in my bulk tank, so propane is about $2.5 a gallon. I don't waste as much time waiting to get to temp.

[zxcvbob]

I get tanks of propane refilled for $14. That amount of electric heat would kill my power bill.

That raises an interesting question about the price difference between propane and electricity. Let's assume the efficiency of heat transfer is the same. (it's not; propane wastes more heat)

A 20# propane tank holds about 4 gallons, which yields about 370000 BTU's, and costs $14.

A 1000W hotplate running full-tilt for one hour costs about 10¢ to operate and generates about 3400 BTU's.

Cost per BTUpropane = 1400¢ / 370000 = .00378¢

Cost per BTUelectric = 10¢ / 3400 = .00294¢

Electric is cheaper, but not by as much as I thought. Propane costs about 20% more.

[dbarnhart]

Don't forget the used market. My first Lee 10# bottom pour pot cost me all of $5.

[John in WI]

last weekend I bought a 1000W hotplate to replace the Coleman dual-fuel stove I had been using. Seems that they don't tell you if you run the dual-fuel strickly on gasoline, the tube clogs!

Anyway, the hotplate, for me, was a failure. It BARELY brought the lead up to temperature, and when I set the corner of the mold in it to pre-warm, it took forever for it to liquify again.

So, I spent about $20 on an electric hot plate, and about $40 on a Coleman stove--and still ended up buying a Lee production pot!

One of these times I'm going to learn to just buy the right thing first time around instead of paying for everything 2-3 times.

[H.Callahan]

I need a new hot plate, but I am having problems finding the exposed coil type locally. All I seem to find is the solid, cast iron type. Is everyone else seeing this too?

[zxcvbob]

I need a new hot plate, but I am having problems finding the exposed coil type locally. All I seem to find is the solid, cast iron type. Is everyone else seeing this too?

I bought mine at Walgreen's a year or two ago -- They were $10, marked down to $5 so I bought two. I just looked online and they don't list them anymore. I wonder if UL or CSA doesn't certify exposed coils anymore?