first muffin pan ingots stuck

[Mitch]

I got 200lbs of lead at the scrap yard today.I got a muffin pan from wallmart come home smelted about 18 lbs of lead,poured it into the muffin pan.They are completly cooled and will not come out.Is there some trick?Now I have 6 stuck muffins,poured the rest in my 1 lb ingot mould.

Mitch

[azrednek]

My guess and let me reiterate, just a guess. The new pan was covered with some kind of substance to prevent rust. Happened to me several years ago and following a suggestion I got somewhere on the net, possibly here. I stuck them over night in the freezer and with some banging against my wooden work bench most fell out. There were two I literally had to pry out with a screwdriver. Following another suggestion I coated the pan with Motor Mica and afterward they fell out with just a bit of persuasion when slammed against my work bench. The more I used the pan the easier it became.

[Idz]

I use an aluminum muffin pan and the ingots drop right out.

[Goatwhiskers]

Mine is an elcheapo kind made of thin sheet metal. I smoked the cavities before ever using it, haven't had a problem yet. did have one of the cups fall out early in the game, but what the heck. GW

[Jeffrey]

"Shiny" muffin tins are plated with tin. If your tin is shiny, they're soldered in. Use the grey "non stick" pans. Lead "muffins" fall right out.

[azrednek]

Mine is an elcheapo kind made of thin sheet metal. I smoked the cavities before ever using it, haven't had a problem yet. did have one of the cups fall out early in the game, but what the heck. GW

Come to think about, whomever advised me to stick the pan overnight in the freezer. Closed with saying next time remember to smoke the pan first. I now use an old pan of an unknown metal I bought used at a Goodwill thrift store. It is a bit on the heavy side so it is likely iron or possibly steel. Lead just falls right out now after it cools.

[GLL]

Lightly rusted steel or cast iron work best for me !

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

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

Jerry

[hickfu]

Jeffrey beat me too it.... Dont use shiny muffin pans. Thrift stores usually have the gray ones at a very good price. I have probably 20 or so that I have picked up for .50 to 1.00 a piece.

GLL, I really like your channel iron mold..

Doc

[freebullet]

Ha ha ...reminds me of my buddies first melt. I had offered him to come up and see how I was doing it. He called me bout 10pm one night. He had 150lbs melted over wood, mangled muffin pan with ingots stuck in.

You may ruin the pan removing them. I get muffin pans at goodwill cheap, try there. Pour the pan 3/4 full, let it cool at least a few min. Then lift one side about an inch and drop it, then do it to each side. Your mingots will drop out without issues/smoking/cussing/mica/whatever. Good luck.

[Teddy (punchie)]

we were running a lot of lead one night melt was about 250-275 in a hour the non-stick muffin tin well was not so non-stick. Use cold (cool) water to back of pan to shock it out.

[Mitch]

Thanks to all who replied.
It was a shiny pan.Might be coated with something but I didn't think so.It is now a 6 hole pan.I tried to knock them out with a hammer.They are or were roll formed into the pan.I have a mould I made long ago.It is cast iron from an old die shoe.I figured out the volume of one pound of lead.Use a 1/2 in. ball end mill.It works great but is slow,it has made hundreds if ingots so far.I may have to make another if I keep buying lead maybe a 4 hole who knows.I smelted 75lbs this morning but did not melt the cups out yet

[383]

"Shiny" muffin tins are plated with tin. If your tin is shiny, they're soldered in. Use the grey "non stick" pans. Lead "muffins" fall right out.

BTDT! Only way I got mine out, and this was because they were individual cups and not part of a pan, was to throw them in the pot the next time I smelted.

[bangerjim]

Cast Iron or "no stick" pans work perfectly. I even go so far as to dust with mica powder every couple of sessions. That stuff is realy slick and makes an excellent release agent. Was lucky to find a 1# can of it at a junk store a few years ago for a dollar! A pound of that stuff is a LOT!

You can find mica-based products at craft and hobby stores. Look for the colored metallic powders. A little goes a long way. And they are " reel perrrrrdy"!

Graphite would probably work, but have never tried it....messy....and I don't know what it would do on the remelt side....probably more mess!

I find a wealth of old "good" pans at used/junk stores for about a buck a piece. NO "SHINNEY" TIN! Even have some "mini muffin" pans for batches of hardening alloy to dump in the casting pot. No need to cut the big ones up.

[Travtastik]

My first "muffins" did the same thing. I just heated the pan up till it came out.

[SlowSmokeN]

I just used a little propane torch heating the back side and they fell right out.

[383]

I just used a little propane torch heating the back side and they fell right out.

Mine must have really been soldered in the time it happened to me, as that trick didn't work.

[Mitch]

Glad to see I am not the only one this happened to.I have the problem solved smelted the rest of the lead today and tossed them in the pot for the last batch.13lbs stuck lol not anymore.

I was not suppose to smelt this weekend had what was a good idea.Went to worthlessmart and got a 5QT cast iron dutch oven it worked great for a while.i got the lead all cleaned up cast 5 ingots.Then the pot fell over made 40 lbs of pipe into sheet the hard way.The base on my burner is not big enough.It all balanced just fine when it was empty but not full.thegood news it I did not get any molten lead on me.

Mitch

[383]

What type of burner are you using? Glad you weren't injured.

[Inkman]

Mine must have really been soldered in the time it happened to me, as that trick didn't work.

Bought a couple of those shiny ones when i started. Nothing would get em out. Ended up using needle nose pliers to peel away the muffin pan sides. Darn things were welded in. Dummy me never even thought of tossing em back in the pot [smilie=b:

Al

[383]

Bought a couple of those shiny ones when i started. Nothing would get em out. Ended up using needle nose pliers to peel away the muffin pan sides. Darn things were welded in. Dummy me never even thought of tossing em back in the pot [smilie=b:

Al

Even though putting them in the pot the next time I smelted got the ingots out, it still didn't take the shiny material off the cups like I thought it would. Since they were a thrift store buy, I just pitched them.

[Mitch]

What type of burner are you using? Glad you weren't injured.

I have an old Ransome Co.Model P5 pot.My Dad had it and used it for leading soil pipe.It has made many fishin sinkers and now ingots for boolits.Stellar Tech still makes something simaler called the p-5-0 it is riged for heating solder irons. It has the same burner as mine but mine has a pot with a shroud.
I thru what is left of the muffin pan out in the yard to weather a bit before I try it again,

[Mr. Farknocker]

I think you'll have to destroy the pan to get the ingots out now that they are stuck.

I bought cupcake pans with the teflon coating and dumped the ingots out while they were hot but solid. Never had one stuck. From what I've seen/read, the ingots will stick to the pan if they are allowed to cool. BTW, the teflon will eventually burn off with several pourings. They will create craters in the lead as a result of gassing but this diminishes and disappears altogether by the 3 or 4th pour. It makes for some knarly looking ingots. The vapors emitted from the teflon are toxic so beware and pour your ingots outside or in a well-ventilated place.

[MaryB]

I screwed 4 walmart stainless condiment cups to a hunk of aluminum tube (rectangular). Screwed a scrap of 1x2 pine to the bottom and it works great

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Gun%20engraving/2013-06-26_17-43-16_104_zps77060fcc.jpg

[jmort]

^ That makes a lot of sense. Nice

[detox]

IMO the best shaped ingot moulds are the 1 lb type that Lyman and RCBS sells.

[ACrowe25]

^^

I have some nice 3lb that I picked up from walmart as a "mini loaf" pan. Sand blasted and used it first try all fell out by just inverting. Very nice....

[SeabeeMan]

The thing I like is how well the mini muffin ingots stack in the thin, 7.62 ammo cans. I can pack it much more densely than the Lyman molds when alternating the way the face ingot in a row and column.

[mold maker]

The current prices on ammo cans make them awfully expensive ingot storage medium.
Went to a gun show Sunday and the 30 cal cans were $12. The 50 cal and the SAW cans were $18. and $19.
I've a bloody fortune tied up with ammo, dies, molds, and boolits. Thank goodness I bought lots while the were still cheap.($3.-$8.) I once bought a whole pallet, picked the better, and sold the rest to pay for all of them.
All my ingots are in standard ingot shapes, and stored in milk crates, which were free.

[popper]

I have a steel one the wife gifted me. The one that stuck was the first I poured. Poured too hot. Steel expands, then contracts when cooling, locking the lead in real well. pour cooler and dump when solid but not cold.

[fredj338]

If you know a welder, best ingot molds are made from scrap channel iron. Get a 3" wide section, as lojng as you like, pay by the #. Then cut it in 3"-4" lengths, weld as many together as you want to handle, weld end pieces on, a handle if you want, done.

[badbob454]

Glad to see I am not the only one this happened to.I have the problem solved smelted the rest of the lead today and tossed them in the pot for the last batch.13lbs stuck lol not anymore.

I was not suppose to smelt this weekend had what was a good idea.Went to worthlessmart and got a 5QT cast iron dutch oven it worked great for a while.i got the lead all cleaned up cast 5 ingots.Then the pot fell over made 40 lbs of pipe into sheet the hard way.The base on my burner is not big enough.It all balanced just fine when it was empty but not full.thegood news it I did not get any molten lead on me.

Mitch

mine didnt fit quite right got the burner good and hot and beat in the ring so the 3 legs fit down flush
now it is exellent

[Lights]

Bought a couple of those shiny ones when i started. Nothing would get em out. Ended up using needle nose pliers to peel away the muffin pan sides. Darn things were welded in. Dummy me never even thought of tossing em back in the pot [smilie=b:

Al

I do not feel so bad now. I did the same thing.:lol:

[GLL]

Someone emailed about the size my channel-iron ingot molds. They cast 5 pounders !
I have seven of them so it makes quick work of a 100 pound pot of alloy ! :)

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/FAFCDABCB7A382A/orig.jpg

[Mitch]

i Left the muffin pan outdoors to rust a bit it works great now

[JohnFM]

It's the cheap teflon coating used on some of them that causes ingots to stick.
If you get it all burned off with a torch they work fine.
You just about have to get them cherry red to get the stuff burned off, the fumes are supposed to be bad, I dunno, I did mine outside.
If it all isn't removed there will be divots left on the ingots from the gasses coming off, ugly, but doesn't hurt anything and finally will go away.
Best ones are the old ones with none of the funky "non-stick" coatings if you can find them.

[MaryB]

Condiment cup ingots stack nice

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/2013-07-23_02-45-30_845_zps56fee234.jpg

[finstr]

I bought two non-stick muffin pans for $1 at the dollar store. Poured in molten lead and waited for my ingots.....THEY WERE WELDED SOLID TO THE PANS! LOL, anyways I set the pans on the burner and melted the lead back out after I destroyed the one pan completely peeling the tin from the ingot. Learning curve is fairly steep in the beginning.....

[ACrowe25]

I bought a shiny one I think? Idk. Either way I had it sand blasted at my shop, and they all dropped pretty.

[Dale53]

Here's what I use - a bunch of regular ingot moulds but my angle iron "made up" moulds will make up to 5.0 lb. ingots. You can empty a 120# pot pretty fast:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/QWinter2009andleadsmelting-1769.jpg (http://s269.photobucket.com/user/Dale53/media/QWinter2009andleadsmelting-1769.jpg.html)

Dale53

[Markbo]

I guess you didn't try using Pam, huh? :razz:

[glockky]

So the dollar general non stick muffin pans wont work? I just bought on this evening for my first smelting this weekend. I picked up a bucket of wheel weights today.

[ACrowe25]

If you have access to a sand blaster, IME, that can get any pan to worl