First day ever Smelting

[35Whelen]

Well today was a perfect day for smelting. A buddy of mine who owned a roofing company gave me 6 five gallon pails of lead flashing and vent stacks...so soft you could fold it with your hands. So I set up my newly acquired equipment that I have been getting together for the last year. Fired it all up and began the smelting process. Wore the carhart coveralls, baseball hat on backwards, nomex fire resistant shirt, and gloves. Also wore a full face mask shield...thank you whoever it was that suggested that, boy talk about feeling safe with that over your face. It all went very well and once I got going it was hard to stop...LOL 4 hours later I had about 250 lbs in near pure lead ingots. I have a new found respect for those who cast. This is hot work. Now I have to get started on the 12 five gallon buckets of wheel weights before the weather changes.

Thank you everyone who answered all the neophytes questions, it was a big help. I can hardly wait to start casting some boolits for the 35's and the 45-70.

Phew......time to sit back and enjoy something cold. I can see why you all love this sport.....thanks.

Here is the fruits of my labours today. I am pleased.

81581

[Spruce]

Looks good, a job well done. I bet it fills good to have that done.

[shadowcaster]

Nice!! :) You are on your way!

Shad

[BNE]

I think you are comfortably addicted now!

[Huskerguy]

How about a picture of your smelting equipment?

[35Whelen]

I can do a pic in the morning. Basically a turkey fryer from Wally world on sale at the end of the season, with a 10 qt cast iron dutch oven I got from Cabelas in the bargain cave. Set up some saw horses with a 3/4" 1/4 sheet of plywood for a table top. Used a lyman ingot mold and a cast iron Lodge pan for the two pounds ingots. Cast iron ladle to pour, some tea light candles for fluxing

[OuchHot!]

Wish I had friends like that! That is a real nice haul.

[35Whelen]

Got it all put away this morning and stored it in 5 gallon pails with tight fitting lids. Got each pail loaded about 1/3 the way up to the top. It was all I could do to just barely lift it 8" and onto a hand truck to move it. I have no idea what the exact weight is , but I am guessing 300 lbs for the two buckets at 1/3 full each. Happy Happy Happy.....

[el34]

Way, way, way, way cool.

[detox]

Now you need a good S&W 686 357 Magnum revolver to cast for. Fun Fun Fun

[detox]

Now find some linotype alloy to harden them boolits up a bit. Easy to find in for sale section.

[olereb]

Makes me drool looking at all that lead,have fun shooting all that !!!

[35Whelen]

Now find some linotype alloy to harden them boolits up a bit. Easy to find in for sale section.

probably going to mix it 50/50 for shooting in my 45-70.

[detox]

probably going to mix it 50/50 for shooting in my 45-70.

1-1 will give you a BHN of 14-16. That is very close to Lyman#2 or Hardball. You can experiment with ratios, but you will need hardness tester. I like my Saeco tester for testing "flat nose" boolits.

This Linotype boolit in picture measures Saeco 10 or 22bhn

[35Whelen]

Detox...that is one piece of kit that is on the wish list for sure.

[detox]

Detox...that is one piece of kit that is on the wish list for sure.

For testing just boolits it is probably the easiest tester to use and very accurate...and expensive. I really like it.

[glockky]

Aren't you limited to certain size bullets in that tester?

[35Whelen]

Detox...so is that scale on the Saeco read like a micrometer....as in where the opposing lines meet perfectly is your reading?

[detox]

Aren't you limited to certain size bullets in that tester?

It has recesses for .30, .35, .45 caliber. Boolit nose must have flat point atleast 3/16 wide, if not you must file flat.

The two marks (top and bottom) that lines up closest is your Saeco reading. You convert the Saeco number (0-10 Saeco) to BHN using the chart in instructions. Readings higher or lower than scale are a little more difficult to figure, but none of my alloy is harder than Saeco 10 (linotype) or softer than Saeco 0 (pure lead)

Some prefer the Cabin Tree over the Saeco, but i guarantee the Saeco to be faster and easier when checking described above boolits. It is also more compact.

My Lee tester is WAY more difficult to use and reads about the same bhn.

[meeesterpaul]

Nice. I haven't smelted my first batch yet. Looking forward to it and looking forward to fun results like you.
I have spare(?)linotype and foundry type to sell. I'll go find that For Sale section and get some listed.
Do you experienced smelters have a preference for ingots or loose pieces? I have XRay scans of various samples but there are different alloys in the different fonts of type (i.e. monotype and foundry type). I figured I could reduce the guesswork on the alloy mix by casting ingots of the various letterpress type altogether and then get the ingots scanned. I'll keep the linotype separate since it's easy to sort and has all tested out pretty much the same.

[dikman]

Nice job, Whelen. I find there is something strangely addictive in melting lead and pouring into ingots. And then re-melting to pour into bullet molds (in my case ye olde round balls).