How do you label your ingots?

[WGSNewnan]

Ive been smelting up a bunch of different alloys lately using the same ingot mold and was wondering what you guys do to identify them. I had thoughts of making some custom molds with identifying letters and numbers in the bottoms to cast into the mold itself.

What are your thoughts?

[LUCKYDAWG13]

i just use a marker

[possom813]

I use a sharpie on each ingot, and then they get segregated into different boxes until I need them.

[imashooter2]

I store the vast majority of my ingots in the 5 gallon buckets that the raw ore came in. Specialty / small batch alloys go in Tidy Cat buckets. Both get the lids labeled with magic marker to identify contents. Marking each ingot is too tedious for me.

[trapper9260]

I use a metal stamp that you can get to stamp letters and number with and just stamp the ingots and then it will always be there and you will always know what you haev and when you mix your alloys and have left over just stamp what it is . They come in 1/8 to 1/4 " stamps .I got my from a welding supplie shop years ago to stamp out my own trap tags at the time for tag my traps.

[WGSNewnan]

I was thinking about the sharpie idea but was concerned with how it would hold up. Also considered stamping. Just wanted something quick and easy so as to not mix things up. Now that Im casting for several calibers and firearms I'm realizing just how easy it is to confuse things on the same bench.
I was even having a hard time remembering what alloy was in what pot the other day. Guess Ill be marking them also.

[boltaction308]

I use metal stamp. I put type and year. For example R L 2013 for range lead

[BBQJOE]

I just scratch them with something like a nail.
L for lead, ww for wheel weights. I recently bought some super hard, marked them SH, and so on.

[GlocksareGood]

Buy a metal stamp set from Harbor freight. I stamp them before they come out of the ingot mold.
COWW - Clip On Wheel Weight
SOWW - Stick On Wheel Weight
RL - Roofing Lead
SL - Sheet Lead
IL - Isotope Lead Large Cores
HB - Hard Ball
LT - Linotype
......

[Orochimaru]

I use a sharpie, but I've noticed that over time it does tend to wear off. I'm probably going to get the metal stamp set like was mentioned above.

For larger quantities, I just toss the ingots into a plastic cat-litter container and label it. If it is a raw component (i.e. pure soft lead, lino, mono), I label it accordingly. If it is a custom casting alloy, I have an overly-complex labeling scheme that relays the ratio of components and the bhn of the resulting alloy.

[HATCH]

I don't mark my ingots.
All my ingots are foundry lead. I bought 3K pounds of it.
Once I got it in hand I got rid of all my wheel weight lead.
I do have TIN in bars but they are marked clearly

[MattOrgan]

Stamp them with metal stamps, my codes are 'P' for pure lead, 'L' for linotype, 'W' for wheel weights, 'R' for range scrap, '2' for Lyman #2. by the largest stamp set you can find, helps old eyes. Mine is a set of US Navy stamps from a yard sale, possibly the best $3 I ever spent. As much as it bothers me to suggest this, the cheap Harbor Freight stamps work great, stamping lead ingots does not challenge them. Sharpie markings eventually disappear in the surface oxidation, this caused me much confusion.

[bassnbuck]

I just use an awl to mark mine, fast and easy.

[btroj]

Mine are in large Rubbermaid totes with lids. Each tote is a different alloy.

[lka]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/26/erugarun.jpg

I put the BHN on each muffin, That I separate out the pure lead and the wheel weights into different heavy duty 5 gallon buckets, Anyone ever try to move a 5 gallon bucket full of lead muffins? Lol I had to move a couple yesterday to make room for a new drawer and man I Could barely slide them across the concrete floor :o

[Beagle333]

I use condiment cup sized ingots, mark em with a magic marker, and keep em sorted into gallon metal coffee cans. (that's about all I care to pick up at once) 8-)

[fecmech]

I use an electric engraver i have, just write on the ingot like a pencil.

[coblake]

I use a stamp set too. WW, PB, RL (Range Lead), LT, ect. Works well.

[Defcon-One]

I use a metal stamp set from Harbor freight. I stamp them with the following, but you can make up your own codes:

CW - Clip-On Wheel Weight
SW - Stick-On Wheel Weight
I - Isotope Lead
L - Linotype

I stamp them when cooled. Just line them all up in a row and go for it!

The less I need to put on each one the better. Hence, the shorter codes, no more than two letters. I'm not writing a book, just making notes! The date is a good idea, but I do not have time for that and lead does not go bad.

CUSTOM MOLDS would be even better. Maybe some day!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use a center punch to make one punchmark by the appropriate letters, the one shown here is Lino.

If it's an alloy not listed on that mold, I use letter stamps, A, B, C, D, and such and document what that alloy is.

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/submittedcastpic.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/submittedcastpic.jpg.html)

[izzyjoe]

A friend give me this idea, i went to a yard sale and bought some old metal muffin pans, and used my stamps to mark them on the bottom. that way there in the casting, i stamped them WW, PL, and 50/50. you can use the alumium pans too. i tried a marker, but it will rub off easily, the stamp will last until 700 degree's!

[OpenNRG]

I use a sharpie on 1 ingot and store the ingots in Sterlite containers from WalMart. They hold about 30lbs and can be double stacked without collapsing. Was using left over food containers but these save a lot of space.
71613

http://www.my2ndright.com/

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use a sharpie on 1 ingot and store the ingots in Sterlite containers from WalMart. They hold about 30lbs and can be double stacked without collapsing. Was using left over food containers but these save a lot of space.
71613

http://www.my2ndright.com/

WOW, your stuff sure is clean !!!

btw, nice job modifying the Lee pot,
could we see some better photos of the mods on your lee pot ?
JOn

[1Shirt]

Metal Stamp
L=Lead
R=Range Scrap
W=Wheel weights
H=Hard Alloys
1Shirt!

[OpenNRG]

WOW, your stuff sure is clean !!!

btw, nice job modifying the Lee pot,
could we see some better photos of the mods on your lee pot ?
JOn

Thanks, it's all still new. Only done a few thousand 9mm so far. Don't think I should post a lot of unrelated pics on this thread so I'll just add one. Have contacted admin and once I know how to proceed I'll start a new thread.

71627

[WGSNewnan]

Thanks, it's all still new. Only done a few thousand 9mm so far. Don't think I should post a lot of unrelated pics on this thread so I'll just add one. Have contacted admin and once I know how to proceed I'll start a new thread.

71627since its my thread after all - would you please follow up. i too would be interested in your mods.

[OpenNRG]

since its my thread after all - would you please follow up. i too would be interested in your mods.

Here's the Assembly PDF link. It pretty much explains everything. Have two more upgrades planned. A heating coil for under the shelf to heat molds and a stainless 32-36 lb pot wrapped in insulating ceramic. Right now I'm working on my PID.

[retread]

Metal stamps. I identify the alloy and add BHN for later mixing.

[WILCO]

I use a sharpie on each ingot, and then they get segregated into different boxes until I need them.

Same here.

[hickfu]

I use a sharpie to mark mine, would like to have the metal stamps...

OpenNRG, WOW... I sure wish I had the extra 60 + shipping!! I want one of those upgrades as that would help me more then you can imagine. Its getting real hard to hold the molds now because of my hands and joints and your shelf would take the pressure off my hands and wrists. If I ever come up with the money your upgrade to the 4 20 pot is the first on my list.


Doc

[nwellons]

I only have two types of lead, COWW and SOWW. I cast ingots in muffin pans for the COWW and in Lee ingot molds for the SOWW. It only takes a glance.

[zomby woof]

i keep my ingots in 5 gallon pails. I keep the pails marked WW, RL MISC etc,,,

[gtgeorge]

I use an air powered engraver and mark the date as well as type. Then store separately in 5 gal pales.

[D Crockett]

I use different ingot moulds ww= ingot moulds that I make soft lead are the 4 1lb cavity moulds by lyman seco etc lino are in 1/2 ingots out of a lee ingot mould so with a glance I know which one to pick up and use D Crockett

[glicerin]

I had a flood in my basement, lost the paper ID on 500 lb of various alloys. Now I use a short code scratched onto 2 or 3 ingots in each pail, with a knife, nail etc.

[mold maker]

Luckily over the years I have aquired over 30 ingot molds of 7 dif designs. Each design is for a different type of lead. The ingots are stored in milk crates with perminate labels. The crates are stored beneath the basement steps and I only have to read the crate to know what it contains. The crates stack so I know at a glance aprox how much of each, I have left.
Oh, and I keep one of the proper molds in each top crate.

[Bigslug]

I've been trying to smelt in batches of similar hardness items - range scrap gets its own melt; wheel weight metal goes with birdshot; free boolits that I can't use as is get hardness tested and melted down by themselves or in whatever group is appropriate. After that's done, I'll hardness test a few ingots out of the batch (if needed) and label the container they go into. If I need to label individual ingots for some reason, they get their BHN stamped in the corner of the logo face.

[thomashoward]

I just scratch them with something like a nail.
L for lead, ww for wheel weights. I recently bought some super hard, marked them SH, and so on.

I also have A for alloyed

[Gtek]

Black Sharpie has worked for years, CO, SO, RS, RL, etc. with date. Have many stamps and just seems to take a lot of time on 1 lb. ingots. And just for fun I have a 3' 1"x12" which is used as the official TALLY BOARD for count. Gtek

[762 shooter]

Screwdriver and hammer.


+ = SOWW
L = Pure lead
Z = Range scrap
4 = COWW plus 1.5% tin alloy
No mark corncob = COWW

All marks can be made with 2 or 3 whacks with a screwdriver and hammer.

762

[fredj338]

I used to use a SHarpie, but then started pouring ingots into diff molds instead. I have a Lyman 1# for pure, an alum 2# for range scrape & a home made channel iron up to 5# for clip WW. SO I now at a glance what I am reaching for.

[max range]

Sharpie. I have a master list on paper of dates. My Linotype came to me in a plastic trash can. I leave it in there and use it as needed. My solder bars stay in bars until needed. I have some plumbers lead too. It stays in the original ingots as I have a fair amount of pure lead I melted into my Saeco ingot molds. I have 1/4 stamps from my locksmith days, but its too time consuming. More so than the sharpie.
When the lead poured into ingots cools a bit, I dump them onto the concrete floor. While they are bottom side up and cool, I sharpie mark them. They stack better with the wide side down anyway. It just takes a few moments to mark a dozen of them. Then I write the date & data on a spriral bound notepad attached to the side of one of my wall cabinets. So far it works well for me.

[Kull]

Sharpie.

[country gent]

I stamp mine with metal stamps I mark with alloy and date on 2 sides. ( my ingot molds are made out of 2" angle iron 8-10" long. 4 to a tray 1/4" by 2" for the ends at 10* angle. If you can find one of the stamp holders it makes it very fast and easy. I made my stamp holder to hold 3/8" stamps I can put in the date alloy and one smak and its there. Mine is normally set-up for 20-1 and month / year.

[louism]

I only have 2 types. WW and soft. the soft gets painted with a red and green stripe of spray paint. Easy to see with my bad eyes. With so many color combinations there is almost no limit to the coding. Now that I think about it for you electronics techs out there you could color code it by hardness using the standard color codes used for components.