My first ingots from wheel weights

[WolfSpring]

I'd like to thank everyone here that has ever contributed to casting there own bullet discussions. I spent many hours reading and reading and watching youtube videos on this subject and asking tons of questions to people I know who did this. This week I went to the tire store and bought 20+ lbs of wheel weights and lucked out. Most of them were lead. It cost me 13 bucks, 63 cents a pound.

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The first pile is known steel/iron (FE) whatever. The second is known to be zinc, marked ZN. The last is the "good" weights.

I later pulled three other Steel ones out, I think my 3 year old was trying to help and put them in my tub when I turned my back, if not I made a mistake and was not thorough enough, but I crimped each one with a pair of pliers and the three had no plier marks. Anyway this was my first attempt and I learned a lot. I need a bigger ladle, a good strainer and some more play time experience. I have already casted 50 .375 36 cal bullets from some other bullets so I had a little experience with the pot and tools, which helped. Here was my experience, I know my ingots look like ****, but pouring from that small ladle did not do well. These are not perfect and not perfectly clean but they will work for what I had to work with and I will turn them into bullets.

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This was my set up.

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My last ingot, not enough lead to get it complete.

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These are not pretty at all. This was my first attempt and only had the pouring ladle so they are layered ingots and still a little dirty, it was my first run will melt them down again later.

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Scraping the flux and trash out

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The trash pile after I was done

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Ugly ingots, need to get a bigger spoon or ladle to make a single pour

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Pouring the ingots.

[Down South]

Welcome to the forum. If you were trying to post pictures, they didn't make it. Ingots don't have to be pretty to make pretty Boolits.
What did you use for flux? Most anything carbon based can be used. Lot's of folks have their preferences.

[leeggen]

Welcome to one of the bad habits that is really fun and rewarding. There is not any pics so they must of not came thru. You will learn much by doing and you will get better. Hey doesn't have to be pretty to work, just clean lead works better that is why we smelt to ingots then melt to boolits.
CD

[WolfSpring]

I used sawdust, bunny bedding lol. I tried to fix the pictures hopefully it worked.

[AlaskanGuy]

I see the pics, and you did great..... Nice job... Get a much bigger ladle... You can also use a food service stainless soup ladle. You can also bend it a bit to make it easier to get as much possible from your small pot...

AG

[bangerjim]

Got the pix on this end. Guys above......be sure you wind up your PC before viewing!! HA....ha!


If you are using that little electric pot to smelt in, loose the ladle and just pick up the whole pot with heave leather gloves and pour fast. I do it all the time on small batches I do not want to fire up the plumber's furnace for. You will get MUCH smoother ingots because you can pour FAST.

But ugly ingots have no reflection on the quality of boolits you cast!

HEADS....UP......
If you are using that same little pot to cast from........be sure it is CLEAN!!!!! Most of us do NOT use the same pot to smelt and pour. Too much crapola can carry over.

Welcome to the "fun"!?!?!?!?!?

bangerjim

[CastingFool]

I'm surprised you were able to buy wheel weights from a tire shop. Most tire shops around here won't sell them to you. They'll say something like "Corporate office mandates we ship the ww to them"

[C. Latch]

That little pot of yours is all I have. I smelt and cast from it. I wish I had 2 pots but when I started it never occurred to me that I needed separate pots for each step. I just try to keep it clean and so far it has worked fine.

I also pick mine up (like mentioned above) and pour directly from the pot to the ingot mold. Much simpler than using the ladle. Just don't drop it!

[WolfSpring]

It's a local shop might be one or two in the whole city area/state even. They are cool guys too, they'd have let me pick through it if I really wanted to but it was cold so I got a quick 20 lbs for my first try.

[btroj]

Good start. I would prefer to not use that small a pot for smelting but sometimes ya gotta use what ya got.

Now go make little bullet shaped ingots and shoot em

[Driver man]

I think youve done well for a first effort. A soup ladle works well and pours about 1lb.

[jeepyj]

very nice Wolf! I use a cheap pot for smelting everything down over a gas turkey frier base. only thing is a cheap pot and too much lead bends the handles, (that's fun to learn when you pick up molten lead). I'm still looking at garage sales for a nice 20-30# pot/kettle that's cast. Happy Casting!

First off your ingots look very nice as I read All the folks have given you some good, sound advice. If your ingots look that good I imagine you'll have no problem getting started with your Boolits.
Nise.. I also use a turkey cooker. I cut off a 20 lb propaine cylinder at the seam. It is the absolute best pot I could askk for. (anybody reading do not try this unless you have some knowledge of these tanks. Don't try simply start cutting).
Jeepyj

[Boyscout]

I use a cast iron pot that holds about 30lbs of lead and a turkey fryer. Melt it, scoop out the clips, layer of saw dust and flux it a couple of times. A large open ladle that holds about 3lbs of molten lead works well. I prefer the Lee ingot molds because they cool a little faster. I'm not sure if the Lyman mold I have is safe to set on a wet towel to speed up the cooling. Although I'm not a big fan of the 1/2 lb ingots in the middle but they do come in handy for smaller batches alloying.

[Randy C]

WolfSpring Looks great for your first try and what you have to work with. I'm going to get the bug again, I better stop looking at these kind of post. I bought some 6 cavity moulds from{Phoenix}with wood handles I need to get a large ladle for them, my cousin is going to make me a larger smelting pot. Oh well I'm going to go surfing for a ladle now I need to use some of my gift cards I received for Christmas.
Randy C

[Wag]

Looks good to me!

--Wag--

[Wag]

Looks good to me!

--Wag--

[WolfSpring]

Thank you all for the comments. Questions 1. What can I do, what do most of you do with the clips from the weights? I imagine over time doing this a lot I will come into a lot of these clips, are they recyclable? Also what about the non lead weights, the zinc and the FE/Steel ones? I thought about using them for some random projects, keeping them around, but also I imagine over time many will build up. I imagine I can dabble with turning the steel ones into electromagnets or file them down for some fun learning stuff for the kids, but that would be maybe a handful of them I'd ever need not buckets of them.

[Down South]

I trash the clips, steel WW's and I've got a collection of Zinc. Some people haul it to the scrap yard to recycle. You got the pics fixed and they look good.

[propwashp47]

you are off to a great start. a good way to manage all the nasty's you do not want is to get a 1 gal steal paint can with lid and a plastic 5 gal paint can plastic with a lid. use the 1 gal can to drop the hot clips and gray power and your chared saw dust flux in. when cool move to the 5 gal can and cap with the lid. and you and the kids or pets , wont get this stuff on you

[62chevy]

Good looking setup. all I use is a hot plate and 10# pot from RCBS for ingots and casting just got to keep it clean. may never up grade to a larger setup because I just don't have the room.

[supv26]

I've smelted in a little put like that. I just hooked a pair of vise grips to the bottom plate and left it. When I was ready to pour I just picked the entire pot up and poured it out.

[C. Latch]

I put my clips in a 5-gallon bucket. It usually has some water in it so they are slowly rusting away to nothing. I save my steel stick-on weights for slingshot ammo. Yeah, they're square and fly funny, but I can't hit anything with it anyway, so no great loss.

[Eagle66]

I'd like to add my 2c worth about starting on the cheap. Maybe that's all my advice is worth, but here it is.

Like the others said, save your good electric pot only for boolits. For smelting; Go to the thrift store and get a 2-3 qt ( 2 qt will hold 30 lb of WW's) stainless steel/copper bottom/etc pot, pretty much anything NOT Aluminum. (~$2 - $3). While you're there see if they've got a 1000W hot plate. (~$5), or a new one @ Wally's. (~$15) Stop at the dollar store an get a ladle & a slotted spoon, 1$ ea. With some pliers, crimp a "spout" into the side of the pot. and you're good to go. Use this pot only for smelting or alloy mixing. There's plenty of time for you to get the cast Iron kettle/turkey fryer , etc. setup later. For now, go simple & cheap while you're learning.

As for the trash leftover; I go two ways. The clips & dross go into my scrap iron bucket for sale with my other iron junk. For the Fe/Zn weights, save them in another bucket. There is a scrap dealer here that won't sell ANY metal to individuals. I buy my Pb/WW's/ scrap from another dealer who treats me right. They both pay 25-30 cents/lb for WW's and so I sell the sorted out Fe/Zn WW's to the one who doesn't.

[Foto Joe]

You "could" save the trash like clips, zincs and steels and haul it to the recycle place but it would probably cost you more in gas than you got for it unless you saved up a truck load.

Eventually you'll get a separate pot for smelting but in the meantime don't be afraid to put water into your empty pot, heat it up to boiling and then scrub the snot out of it with a steel brush before you use it for casting boolits.

[Eagle66]

$25 for a bucket full. Then I go to the good guy and spend it on more lead, tin, or whatever he has that I need.

[tbj555]

Great job, We all were newbies at one time. The sawdust works great but I also use a little candle wax, It seems to flux out any oil in the lead that the sawdust don't.

[mistermog]

One thing I noticed, it looks like you have the sticky wheel weights and clip on weights in the same pile. The stick ones are much purer lead than the clip ones. Most people take those out and only use the clip ons.

[WolfSpring]

One thing I noticed, it looks like you have the sticky wheel weights and clip on weights in the same pile. The stick ones are much purer lead than the clip ones. Most people take those out and only use the clip ons.

Yeah I didn't know that at the time, someone else had pointed that out to me as well. I know better now, thank you very much.

[Foto Joe]

If you know somebody or you yourself shoot Black Powder, those stick on wheel weights are great for casting round balls although you'll definitely need to add tin to it to get a decent fill-out.

[45-70 Chevroner]

The large slotted spoon works great for skimming clips and the nasty bulk. I use a soup spoon with a lot of 1/16" holes to get the fine nasty stuff out. I probably drilled 40 holes in the soup spoon and the lead drains through nicely and the nasty stuff stays in the spoon, you might have some real fine stuff go through but not much.

[MOA]

WolfSpring, be sure that any of the clips, or tools used for lead smelting or bullet casting are not available for your kids to play with. Lead dust and handling of equiptment should be kept away from children, and adults need to be washing their hands with appropriate hand cleaners after a casting or smelting session.


Amazon had a sale just before Christmas, on a King Kooker model 1644 Turkey fryer. It was being sold for around $50.00, normally it runs $147.00 it came with a cast iron pot and regulator, stand, and I think the burner was also cast iron.

Your ingots look fine. The purpose of ingots is just to facilitate easier handling of the lead for when you are preparing to cast bullets, and is the result of the cleaning process of the bulk resource used for casting. More important is how clean the alloy is, and to have the proper alloy content for your cast boolit performance.

Your off on a good start. Good luck on all your future endeavors in the world of casting.

[Cadillo]

Like MOA said, watch Amazon. I caught mine on sale for $39.50 delivered, and it has a braided stainless hose, regulator and cast iron burner. I built a small bench and bolted the burner frame to bring it to the correct height and for stability.

If you have an Academy Sports store nearby, they have a nice cast iron Dutch oven that goes for about $17.00 plus tax. I have three of them, one for smelting and two for casting. If you intend to do any more rendering of wheel weights or other lead sources, you will be very happy once you are set up to smelt/render and cast with different equipment, as it's a lot cleaner and thus faster.

I suggest you find a way to preheat your ingot moulds. It will make the tops flatter, which will make stacking for storage a lot easier. If you really get into this, you will be on the hunt for more PB, and will need to render, stack, and store more than you currently are doing.

Casting and loading are very satisfying as you are finding out.