FOUND... The Ultimate WW Melter!

[John Boy]

Propane Torch With PUSH BUTTON Igniter (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91037) < Harbor Freight Link

Melts a pot of WW's in under 5 minutes
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/91000-91099/91037.gif

Have one that I use to burn weeds and yesterday said - 'Why Not?' Turned a 5 gallon pail of WW's into ingots - lickity split!

[scrapcan]

A good friend of mine use this with the cast iron center from a tractor wheel to melt and alloy. He loads the little dish shaped wheel up and then sets the weed burner at an angle. it melts the mess and he then scoops the dross. he has built in a small tilt with a lip and a piece of angle iron so he only has to tip the ting a little bit to make his 1 or 5 lb ingots.

He said he had been doing that for more years than he can remember ( he is now over 80). If it works for him it will work for the rest of us. Of course his is not nearly as nice of a unit as the picture you put up.

I built a couple of atmospheric forge burners a few years ago nad have thought that they would make good smelting burners if you don't run them fullopen.

There is lots of info on forge burners if you go to Ron Reil's burner page. There is other good reading there also.

http://ronreil.abana.org/SiteMap.html

[targetshootr]

Might be worth using along with the turkey cooker. It takes nearly an hour for mine to melt ww.

[BruceB]

I've been using a Harbor Freight weedburner as my smelting heater for years. In fact, I just bought another one two weeks ago, when visiting HF in Reno with NVCurmudgeon.

Now, I can have a dedicated smelter burner and a weedburner, too, all for well under $35 total, and no switching-around is necessary.

I have an old table outside for smelting. I cut a 6"-diameter hole in the top, and made up a 1/8" steel plate about 12" square to cover the hole. A 3/4" wide slot is cut into the plate from one side, right to the center of the plate. The slot slips over the shaft of the weedburner, and the "head" sits on top of the plate, pointing straight up. The rest of the weedburner is suspended under the table, and out of the way.

Almost any arrangement can be cobbled together to support the pot. I might try brick or concrete blocks, if my lads in the mine shop hadn't built me a neat steel supporting set-up. The weedburner puts out HUGE amounts of heat....much more than I need for my 60-pound melting pot. Nice thing is, the burner is fully adjustable.

It's a great device.

[454PB]

That sounds interesting, Bruce. Got a picture?