Smelting setup recommendations?

[robpete]

Hi all, I want to start by saying that I'm new to this site and I've already learned more in the past month than I have in the past two years of casting. I'm definitely hooked. So thanks everybody.

With that said, I've been noticing that a lot of you have custom setups for smelting large quantities. I've recently made some very good connections and now have large amounts of scrap coming my way. Way too much for my two 10 pound pots to handle. Is there a cheap and easy setup that one of you could recommend? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Kraschenbirn]

Kinda depends upon what you mean by "large amounts" and how much 'smelting' you're planning to do. For those of us who run through, maybe, a couple hundred pounds of alloy a year, a six or eight quart cast-iron pot (dutch oven, kettle, deep fry pan, etc.) and some kind of propane burner (deep fryer, plumber's gas ring, etc.) will do quite nicely. I, personally, use an 8-qt dutch ($12 from a resale shop), a 2-burner plumber's ring ($20 from a yard sale) converted to natural gas (cheaper than propane), and a cast-iron muffin mould for all my 'smelting' and alloy mixing. With this set-up, working by myself, I've run through as much as 300# of range scrap or COWWs (melted, skimmed, fluxed, fluxed again, and cast into ingots) in a single afternoon.

Bill

[robpete]

Bill, That sounds like the ticket. I have a few thousand pounds laying around, but only plan on doing several hundred pounds per outing. This might be a dumb question, but do you use a large ladel or did you fashion some sort of spout in your dutch oven? I did view the sticky above, but didn't see any how-to's. thanks for the response

[Kraschenbirn]

Bill, That sounds like the ticket. I have a few thousand pounds laying around, but only plan on doing several hundred pounds per outing. This might be a dumb question, but do you use a large ladel or did you fashion some sort of spout in your dutch oven? I did view the sticky above, but didn't see any how-to's. thanks for the response

I've actually got two ladles that I use. One is cast-iron and dips about three lbs. and the other is a smaller stainless steel soup ladle that I've reshaped for clean-up when I'm getting down to the bottom of a melt.

Bill

[robpete]

Excellent. Thanks again Bill

[Spawn-Inc]

i don't use a whole lot right now, but i have a $50 turkey/fish fryer i got from bass pro. i used a small compressed air tank (half the size of a propane tank) and use that to smelt in. it can hold about 40lbs of lead safely. i then use a small cast iron pan to pour my ingots. later on i will build a custom pot with spout to pour quicker.

[robpete]

I've been searching Craigslist and other local classifides for a used turkey fryer burner, no dice. I guess early December was the time to score that one. I'm going to have to buck up and buy a new one. I did purchase a cast iron muffin pan today on Amazon to go along with my Lyman ingot mold. Will head up to Harbor Freight tomorrow to pick up a Dutch oven. I'll just have to find some good ladels....though I suspect my father-in-law will have some in his treasure garage(he's a collector of sorts...lol). Thanksfor the suggestions

[arjacobson]

I use a modified turkey fryer. I cut the legs down a bit to get it closer to the flame. I have some crappy steel bent around the bottom to keep the heat in(works fantastic) For my lead pot I have a large enameled stew type pot. I welded a few pins sticking up to hold the pot on as 60-70 lbs of spilled molten lead would be BAD... Most of my smelts are in the area of 100 to 300 lbs. In fact as soon as the weather breaks I have a couple hundred pounds of WW-70lbs or so of Pure lead-85lbs of linotype. I actually like smelting lead better than casting bullets!!!

[gbrown]

I have an air conditioner recovery tank for coolant cut in half. Kinda like a light weight propane tank. Holds about 75 to 100#. A low pressure burner that gets hot--use it for casting, also, and can run about 15 pours before I have to turn it off and let the alloy cool. Got a ladle and skimmer from RayinNH, just for smelting. Use 4 cornbread "corn ear" molds and an old aluminum cash register change drawer for the ingots. Cornbread molds for WW and other for "pure" lead. Works just fine for me. I'm looking for COWW right now. Been casting, down to about 100#.

[shadowcaster]

I have $35 in the turkey fryer and about $75 in this bottom pour pot. It was easy on the wallet and easy to build.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?146065-New-bottom-pour-smelting-pot!&highlight=bottom+pour+smelting+pot

Shad

[robpete]

I ended up buying a 12", 6 qt cast iron dutch oven from harbor freight for $23 w/20% coupon. I got a turkey fryer burner for amazon for $45. stepped up to this one because it has a metal ring built around the base to block the wind. I also bought a cast muffin pan from Amazon to go along with my Lyman ingot mould. Scored some nice cast iron ladels from my father in law. Will have to buy a cheapie to modify to scrape the bottom of the pot.

[robpete]

how hot will a setup like this get? I don't have a thermometer and really have no way of knowing. I'm going to be smelting lots of wheel weights and didn't want to risk accidentally melting any zinc.

[imashooter2]

how hot will a setup like this get? I don't have a thermometer and really have no way of knowing. I'm going to be smelting lots of wheel weights and didn't want to risk accidentally melting any zinc.

A turkey fryer can get a 6 quart Dutch oven way over 1,000 degrees if you just turn it up and let it go. So don't just turn it up and let it go. Watch the melt and when the majority of the WW turn liquid, give it a stir and scoop out any zinc or steel you might have missed on your sort.

[robpete]

Thanks Dale. In the meantime, I'll be on a hunt for a deal on a decent thermometer.

[shadowcaster]

A turkey fryer can get a 6 quart Dutch oven way over 1,000 degrees if you just turn it up and let it go. So don't just turn it up and let it go. Watch the melt and when the majority of the WW turn liquid, give it a stir and scoop out any zinc or steel you might have missed on your sort.


This is good advice... Also, for a bottom scraper use a large paint stir stick from the hardware store.

Shad

[fcvan]

last year I had a couple hundred pounds of smelting to do. Propane cook stove stout enough to hold up 200 pounds, tin coffee can, sheet metal shroud that surrounded tin can to focus heat, stainless steel ladle, pliers, gloves, used polishing media (ground walnut). The tin can when full yielded 80 1 lb ingots. The tin can held up fine, the camp stove is rather stout, and the used media was a great flux. I smelted down several hundred pounds a lot faster that I had imagined.

[FN in MT]

http://www.advancecarmover.com/rowellbottom-pouringladles.aspx

Rowell bottom pour ladles.

They do some large ones as well. My 6$ capacity ladle works great for smelting WW's.

[robpete]

very nice ladles. will definitely be adding one to my short list