Who's got some nice wooden ingot molds to show off?

[7Acres]

This weekend I got my first sizable score at just under ~1,000 lbs and I'm still beaming with excitement! [smilie=w: The scrap yard owner actually reached out to me regarding a specialty beekeeping need he has out at his house that I'll be doing for him at some point this year. I'm hoping to develop that relationship so I can be a regular lead supplier here.

Anyway, to the point, I am a woodworker and have all the tools to make some fine ingot molds out of wood. I started out here researching ideas for angle iron molds. In my reading I saw some people here with no access to welding equipment (my situation) having success with wooden molds. But all the posts were in the archives and none of the photos of the molds or the ingots that drop from them were showing any longer.

I'd like to ask for some photos of your wooden molds and ingots so I could get mold design ideas and see how the ingots end up looking. Also, can you share your experience with how long it takes the molten lead to cool down and harden? I've read that it takes significantly longer for lead to solidify in wooden molds due to wood being a much more of a thermal insulator than angle iron. And I'm assuming fine-grained hard woods would produce the nicest ingots. But thoughts welcome on that too.

Thanks in advance!

[colt1960]

Ive got a lyman and lee ingot molds. cast iron and aluminum. There not very expensive. Alot of people use muffin tins also. Never heard of using wood. Nice score on the lead. Rick!

[dbosman]

I suggest you trade some lead or wood working for steel molds.
All wood is going to burn and depending on the wood lo course, some of wood oils that can fume out are nasty.

Phoenix offers a mold that produces ingots sized for flat rate boxes.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?193965-Ingot-Molds-Very-nice&highlight=ingot+mold

[slim1836]

I made some using pine wood and just routed some slots in them. I wanted them to be primitive as I am into pre 1840 reenacting and wanted to put a few on the prize blanket. They did not hold up too well but got the mission accomplished.

Slim

[7Acres]

I suggest you trade some lead or wood working for steel molds.
All wood is going to burn and depending on the wood lo course, some of wood oils that can fume out are nasty.

Phoenix offers a mold that produces ingots sized for flat rate boxes.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?193965-Ingot-Molds-Very-nice&highlight=ingot+mold

This is fantastic! Thanks, dbosman!

[clodhopper]

I tried wood ingot molds, they cast one nice ingot and go downhill from there, once they start to burn, the void in the ingot wall captures the ingot. Then with the ingot stuck in there they burn up faster.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Iffin yur gonna have a wood mold, ya should have a wooden smelter too.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/03/rocket-stove-wood-2.png.492x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/build-wood-burning-rocket-stove-made-entirely-wood.html&h=292&w=492&sz=54&tbnid=go5ivkdc4gVEaM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=116&zoom=1&usg=__4yebrhtsHrJwfaCRAuAWYS12LsQ=&docid=DdsjB_kuRu6QHM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ag1sUc24FZTryAGHjwE&ved=0CEUQ9QEwBg&dur=1005

[Bullshop]

In Alaska we had an outside summer kitchen with a wood cook stove. It was for the couple months that it was too hot to cook and bake in the house on a wood cook stove.
Anyway on the outside stove I would just remove one of the plates from the stove top and an iron dutch oven was a good fit in the plate hole. The dutch oven would set in the plate hole for about half its depth. It worked good if the draw and damper were full open.
So much for progress.