Ultimate home shotmaker.

[heathydee]

Been working on a new shotmaker which uses hot water as a coolant.
Here is the link to a video .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV9gyj9nL-w&feature=youtu.be

[DCM]

looks nice!
How many Lbs. shot/hour??
What size holes & shot?

[heathydee]

Hole size is 0.6mm or .024" which yields 9 shot . I cannot melt lead quick enough to feed it , so the process is sporadic . A full cauldron takes about an hour to melt and get up to temperature . Sixty five holes in the dripper trough process about 5 to 6 pounds a minute .

[jmort]

Incredible device. Barrel making craftsmanship alone is praiseworthy. Everything is beyond nice. You are to be admired. Using H2O is an imporvement in my book.

[heathydee]

It is not a barrel jmortimer . The tank is an old propane cylinder with the top cut off heated from below with a large gas burner . The barrel like look is because of the fence palings used to thermally insulate the aparatus . The water takes nearly three hours to get up to 90 degrees celcius and then shotmaking can commence .The cauldron empties in about 15 minutes and a wooden lid is placed over the tank to conserve heat while more lead melts . Only a few degrees are lost in the hour or so it takes to melt a new batch of lead and that is easily raised in a few minutes to the 90 degree minimum temperature that is required . Lower temperatures cause the shot to develop tails .
I might mention that the whole aparatus is bolted to the concrete floor of my garage .

[cpileri]

did you add dishwashing soap or something to the water to reduce the surface tension? or just plain water?

C-

[garandsrus]

Pretty cool... How round is the shot? A picture of the shot would be great.

Thanks...

[Springfield]

Seems to me there are either too many holes or you need a bigger lead pot.

[crawfobj]

VERY impressive.

How big is the lead pot? What alloy are you using?

I'm also interested in seeing the finished product.

[SpotHound]

Your not getting away without pictures of the nozzles. never seen em go straight down before.

[heathydee]

I will get a few pictures uploaded in the next day or so .
I have not experimented with additives in the water ; it comes straight from the tap . Having said that - The shot is so clean that I am having trouble with the finished product oxidizing unless it is dried immediately . I think that adding a small amount of soluble oil to the tank will both prevent the oxidization of the shot and raise the boiling point of the water .
The lead pot holds about 40 kilos but I only drain out about 30 so as to leave some molten metal in the bottom of the pot to assist the next batch melting . Stacking ingots around the pot also helps speed the subsequent melt .
The lead alloy is mainly soft roofing lead with no additives and I have found that this is perfectly addequate for skeet shooting.
The sphericity of the shot produced is the best I have seen and rivals factory shot in this regard. There are a percentage of rejects , as in all processes , which can be screened out for the most part.
There are no drippers , only a drilled hole. The trough is made out of 2.5mm stainless with the holes 4mm apart . The holes were drilled nearly all the way through with a 4mm drill and then all the way through with a 0.6mm drill . I broke 8 or 9 of the small drills before all of the holes were drilled .

[heathydee]

Here are a couple of pictures .7805878059
The first shows the aparatus . The ramp is set at an angle of about 35 degrees .
The second picture shows the finished product after screening and rumbling . The odd misshaped pellet can be seen but as far as I am concerned it is good enough to use as is .

[Versalius]

This makes me really want to invest in building one myself....Is the ramp wood?

[khmer6]

That trough looks so bad ****

[jmort]

"It is not a barrel jmortimer"

Still, like everything else, really nice execution. Now that I see the picture it is clear it is not a barrel, but again, everything so well made.

[heathydee]

[QUOTE=....Is the ramp wood?[/QUOTE]

Yes the ramp is a piece of dressed softwood I picked up from the local hardware store . It had to be sanded smooth several times because wetting it raised the grain - resulting in a rough surface that caused the droplets to hang up and run into one another .

[nanuk]

do you have any issues with the lead cooling in the drip trough?

[heathydee]

do you have any issues with the lead cooling in the drip trough?

The trough has to be pre-heated. I do that with an oxy-acetylene torch although a hand held propane torch would work just as well . There is a tendency for the drippers at the end of the trough to freeze - they being farthest from the hot lead supply .
If the lead level is kept as high as in the video , once all the drippers are flowing they will keep going by themselves . A lower lead level needs constant attention ; applying heat as needed to the far end of the trough and giving the trough a rap occasionally to re-start drippers .
The process can be improved . A small gas burner made out of a piece of hollow tube the length of the dripper trough would solve the pre-heating and freezing problems . Also , a means of regulating and maintaining the lead level in the dripper trough would result in a more uniform product.

[Vinne]

Great shotmaker!!! What did you use for the valve on the feed pot??

[heathydee]

Great shotmaker!!! What did you use for the valve on the feed pot??

I cannot really remember Vinne . I made it over twenty years ago . I think it is based on a bolt drilled out for most of its length . The bottoming (solid) end being tapered to fit a matching seat . I think a couple of radial holes - half inch back from the solid end - allow the melt to flow around the outside of the bolt to the centre passage and then out once the valve is cracked .

[tomaso]

excellent work!! it reminds me the bliemeister patent from 70's. i believe that with electric burners and some pid's you will have better control of the temperatures and more automatic function of the machine. Anyway congatulations!!!!

[heathydee]

Yes tomaso , I read the patent before commencing . Here is a copy .

[gutthooked]

Thats a neat shotmaker. Reminds me to get working on mine.

[beezapilot]

That is hugely awesome- using water as a coolant! Simplicity is always a better thing.

[Scooby]

I watched this video on youtube a couple days ago when I was looking for a new coolant to try. Looks like a good set up and seeing that you are using roof lead is nice because the better shot maker is very very finicky with your alloy mix. hand sorted coww work the best and it is hard to get a good mix of scrap material because of too much tin or zinc contamination.

[shadowcaster]

Wow.. nice work! Using hot water is a big plus in the cooling dept. The fact that the ramp is below the water line amazes me. How far below? The shot must stay soft/hot enough to roll down the ramp to become round? I would love to see some more video of it in action. Close ups from all sides, slow motion maybe?

Thanks for the great info..
Shad

[heathydee]

I would love to see some more video of it in action. Close ups from all sides, slow motion maybe?

Shad

I could do that next time Shadowcaster but it will not be anytime soon . I have half a ton of shot to work my way through before I set up again .

Heath

[too many things]

well if you call that good shot ??? have at it that would be trash remelt to me