Smelting Pot Score

[SODAPOPMG]

77869

just picked up this smelting pot for $10.00, it is 15in inside dia and 10in high solid steel with pouring spout and handles for tipping the pot even came with 3in of lead still in it best find for a long time
allready heavy as can be i wonder how much lead it can hold?

[500MAG]

Nice score!

[country gent]

Use a quart jar and fill it with water. a quart of lead wieghs 25 lbs Ive been told. If you watch and see how much a quart raises the level each time you can figure the 3" of lead already there.

[Bo1]

Awesome find Soda...
Bo

[dbosman]

If I did the math correctly, and looked up the correct multiplier, about 700 lbs.
It is, how ever, past my bed time.

[Vinne]

A gallon of water weights a little over 18 lbs...so I been told.

[TheGrimReaper]

Awsome find. Worth every penny!!!

[jmort]

"A gallon of water weights a little over 18 lbs...so I been told."

Actually around 8 pounds. As to the O/P, that thing is cool aside from its awesome utility. That is a good looking "thing."

[TenTea]

"A gallon of water weights a little over 18 lbs...so I been told."

Actually around 8 pounds. As to the O/P, that thing is cool aside from its awesome utility. That is a good looking "thing."

I agree with the above post in its entirety.

[Hard_Cast]

700 lbs, lmao. I'd guess around 70 lbs.

[ph4570]

460 pounds brim full.

[Tx reloader72]

Nice score SODAPOPMG. If I did the math right it will hold alittle more that one cubic foot of lead, which weighs 708 lbs.:holysheep I would not want to drop that on my toes.:smile:

[ph4570]

^^^
Right you are. I used 12" vs 15" for ID -- old age strikes again.

[OuchHot!]

That is a gorgeous pot, how do you plan to heat it?

[fivegunner]

nice find! I think it would hold about 325 lb`s. of lead 1 square foot of lead is 440 lbs

[ph4570]

One square foot of lead has zero weight.

One cubic foot of lead weighs 708# -- or so web says.

[fryboy]

a perfect candidate for a jet burner !!! and a great score !!

[shadowcaster]

And the correct answer is.... 726 pounds of molten lead right to the brim!

Great find! :) I wouldn't want to be pouring from it though.. toooo heavy. You need a "Shad Style Bottom Pour Valve"!

Shad

[SODAPOPMG]

a perfect candidate for a jet burner !!! and a great score !!

I have a homemade fish-cooker made out of rebar with 2 jet burners, the pot will fit right on top with both burners hitting the bottom

[bbs428]

WOW!! Great find indeed. I'm jealous! :mrgreen:

[wv109323]

I have not seen your set-up but I would be cautious about filling the pot up with lead. The rebar may loose strength when it becomes hot( esp if it gets red hot) and the weight of the lead may collapse it. After all you will be putting a lot of heat under that pot to melt the lead in a pot that large.

[RoGrrr]

SODAPOPMG
While full to the brim might be an amusing number, I wouldn't fill it much more than halfway with melt, especially if you have no way to swing it from over your heat source to pour.
You will find that filling to the brim with raw wheel weights or raw ore from the range will yield less than half of melt. There's a lot of air space in what you load into the pot. Then you will have to remove the clips and/or jackets, flux and then you will see what you have left.
.
If you're comfortable/uncomfortable handling the weight of a loaded UNsmelted pot, you can gauge how easily you will be able to handle it after it is melted.
OH, WAIT ! DISREGARD THAT LAST SENTENCE !
The reason I say that is bcuz when it is melted, the molten lead sways around and might (read that - it WILL) spill/splash all over the place and you don't want to be spilling any lead. It is dangerous !

I would build a cantilever arm that you can swing from over the heat source to pour your ingot moulds. This is for your own safety. Let the cantilever carry all the weight so you can more easily control the ingot pour. You'll also find that it will be relatively hard to control the pour into your moulds to get a consistent weight in each cavity of the gang mould if you have to carry/hold the pot. I suggest this for consistency in stacking your ingots.

After using a cast iron pot for a while, I built the bottom pour smelter and would not even think about going backwards to the pot again. Mine is so much more safe and easy to use. My furnace is built with a piece of rectangular tubing that is 7" x 9" and it is 9" deep. I added the chimney to speed the melt process, which takes about 45 minutes when I start with it filled halfway full of with range scrap. This makes it easier to scoop out the jackets. If I fill it all the way up with ore, it takes forever to melt everything and be able to scoop out jackets (for what its worth).

My next furnace will be wider and not nearly as deep, somewhat similar to shadowcaster's. It'll make scooping easier without getting burned by the hot pot. Shad uses his threaded valve and I like my lever controlled valve. It's all personal preference. Then I'll sell this one.

The triangle ingots weigh about 3 Lbs and the half-rounds are almost 2 Lbs. There's another course of ingots behind the bottom row. The middle pic is that of my moulds. I plan to make a new set of moulds using channel iron rather than angle iron - more convenient to stack. They might weigh about 5 Lbs each.

I'm still chuckling about that square foot of lead....

I just brought home another 5 gallon bucket of range ore that I will prep to smelt tomorrow, which will add another hundred Lbs to my stash.

792077920879209

[SODAPOPMG]

Finely got to play with my new smelting pot
it was filled just half way up and i got 350#'s of pure lead out of it and it took a long time to heat up
I think that i will have to add another jet burner it my rig as i think that only using 2 burners is right at the minimum heat necessary to melt that much metal and adding a lid will also be a big help
this is a great pot for the smelting of the raw stock but i think the i will use my smaller pots to work up the different alloys with
pick of 348# of pure lead and 144# of 60/40 solder 870408704187042

[dikman]

Nice pot, especially for the price! I wouldn't try pouring from it, however, due to the weight. I presume you are using a ladle?

As for the rebar bending when hot, I'd say that it's fairly unlikely you'll get to that sort of heat. I recently bent some to make handles for my (propane) pot, and I had to get it to yellow heat in the forge in order to bend it. At red heat it didn't want to move much!

[grumman581]

Assuming 708 lbs per cu-ft (=0.709222 lbs per cu-in), a 1" cylinder that is 15" in diameter will weigh 72.4 lbs, thus the 10" depth could hold theoretically 724 lbs. From a practical standpoint though, you would not want to fill it up that high so that you have room to stir your flux of skim the dross without any splashing out. I usually subtract at least an inch or two from the depth of the pot for this. As such, assuming an 8" workable depth, you're still at 579.2 lbs.

The 3" of lead that was already in the pot was worth more than you paid for the pot. That would have resulted in 217.2 lbs of lead already in the pot which at $1 per lb for lead means that you came out REALLY good.

[SODAPOPMG]

yep i used a ladle to empty the pot
when i got near the bottom i placed a lid from a cast iron pot under one side to tilt the pot so i could get almost all the lead out
had just under 1 # left in the pot after that

[SODAPOPMG]

Assuming 708 lbs per cu-ft (=0.709222 lbs per cu-in), a 1" cylinder that is 15" in diameter will weigh 72.4 lbs, thus the 10" depth could hold theoretically 724 lbs. From a practical standpoint though, you would not want to fill it up that high so that you have room to stir your flux of skim the dross without any splashing out. I usually subtract at least an inch or two from the depth of the pot for this. As such, assuming an 8" workable depth, you're still at 579.2 lbs.

The 3" of lead that was already in the pot was worth more than you paid for the pot. That would have resulted in 217.2 lbs of lead already in the pot which at $1 per lb for lead means that you came out REALLY good.
your math is right on i added 1 ingot and some lead shims?ballast? that added about 120# to the lead already their and ended up with 348# of pure lead