Newbie question-Smelting ladle

[quietmike]

Hi everyone, have been lurking for a while and decided it was time for a first post.

I've been reloading and casting for a while but had never seen or thought of using a turkey fryer for smelting the WWs. I've been doing them in my casting pot and thought the clogging and cleanup was part of the game.

Going the fryer route now, and going to make some of the angle iron ingot moulds (another great idea btw), but what to use for a ladle?

looked at the larger Rowell ladles on the antimony man's site but don't know the capacities for the larger sizes. Or should I just adapt a SS soup ladle?

Thanks in advance for your help.-Mike

[Morgan Astorbilt]

A soup ladle will break. Get yourself a #4 or #5 ladle. Steel is lighter than cast iron. Since buildings no longer use cast iron waste pipe, plumbers are no longer running joints, and these things are going cheap on e-bay.
Morgan

[FISH4BUGS]

Get your ingot moulds ready and then see what they hold. The size your ladle to the ingot moulds. For instance, if you get ingot moulds that hold a pound and a half, a ladle with three pounds or a bit more works fine. You will get two ingots per ladle full.
Production is everything in this fun hobby. Lots of ingot moulds and a good ladle are great ways to up the output. I bought a bunch of hand made ingot moulds from 44man and it upped my output considerably.

[alamogunr]

I've got a #5 Rowell that I use for smelting WW. According to Bill Ferguson's web site, the #5 has a working capacity of 8.5 lbs. I will admit that for a long session cleaning up 500-1000 lbs or more, hefting that thing around gets tiresome. But then again at 65, I'm not the man I thought I was. It will empty a large smelting pot fairly quickly if you have several ingot molds.

John

[quietmike]

Looks like a #5 Rowell is the winner!

Thanks guys.

[fourarmed]

I took a small cast iron sauce pan that holds about two cups and welded an old branding iron handle onto it. That 3 ft. of shaft with the loop handle makes it a whole lot easier to handle.

[mtgrs737]

I got a ladle off of ebay that has a pouring lip on both sides and holds five pounds of lead that will fill all of the cavities of my Lyman four ingot moulds. This really speeded up casting ingots as my old ladle only held about 3 1/2 pounds. I have five of the Lyman ingot moulds and one Lee mould, the new ladle is all that I want to heft though.

[mooman76]

Man you guys are hi-tec! I use a sloted laddle from the doller store to clean out the crud and WW clips and for a ingot ladle I took a 6oz juice can and attached it to a cut off broom handle and been using it for years!

[Ghugly]

Be careful with the turkey frier. Most of the ones I've seen come with aluminum pots (not a good idea). Get a steel or cast iron pot for it.

[Yance]

Be careful with the turkey frier. Most of the ones I've seen come with aluminum pots (not a good idea). Get a steel or cast iron pot for it.

The burners are great and you can usually find a 5 or so quart Ti-wan made cast iron "Dutch oven" at the flea market of yard sales for around $10.00. I think I paid $6.00 for mine and it's handled a ton or so to date.

[mtgrs737]

Harbor Freight also has dutch ovens and they put them on sale from time to time. I got a deep fat fryer dipping thing at Sportsmans Warehouse to remove the clips and other junk from the smelting pot. It is made of welded wire, the spoon part is about 5 inches across the the handle is made of heavy wire, it is really tough and for around $7 it works great. I can remove hundreds of clips in no time at all. The big box stores also have the dutch ovens and as long as you don't buy a Lodge brand one you can get them reasonable. Good luck!

[TAWILDCATT]

Agri-Supply.com has a turkey furnace and 12 qt cast iron pot for $79 was on sale for $59.also there are corn bread cast moulds and cast muffin pans for around $6.00. the #53292 for burner/pot combo corn pattern mould is #63530.
:coffee: :coffee:[smilie=1::Fire:

[toecutter]

For skimming all those clips. Take some 1/4" aluminum rod, bend the end into a circle about 3-6" in diameter (kinda like the friendly end of a steel BBQ skewer). Then take some 1/4" hardware cloth, cut to size and lash some cheap steel wire through it.

As far as a ladle, I'm strictly ghetto, I bought a set of stainless camp cups at a garage sale a while ago. I went to the hardware store and bought some hanger rod. I then drilled a pair of holes in one of the cups, one near the top, one about 3/4-1" below, and then stuck some drywall screws that go through the holes and into the end of the dowel rod. Boom, instant ladle. I usually cast in 15# ingots, so it usually takes 1-2 dips to fill one of my bread pans up. I figure if this thing ever wears out, I will just make another with the leftover stuff. To me the most important thing when dealing with casting tools is to have big long handles. I about burned a hole in my hand earlier this year when a small steam explosion dropped a goodly puddle of lead into the palm of my hand. Ever since then the average handle length on all of my tools is at least 3'.

Also, +1 on the dutch ovens. Right now I'm using a 20qt one. I don't know what the actual capacity of this is in lead, but it's rediculous, I would guestimate it to be over 200LBS. Doing a quick search I found this:

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2030001

Perhaps more than some people would be willing to pay, but that's still 3 gallons of liquid lead...

[Scott_In_OKC]

Are there any issues with using a heavy one piece stainless steel ladle? My local restaurant supply has them on the cheap.

[Mk42gunner]

Are there any issues with using a heavy one piece stainless steel ladle? My local restaurant supply has them on the cheap.

As long as there is no way for the ladle to detach from the handle you will be okay. I use an old stainless soup ladle that is rivetted to the handle; sometimes the welds break.

Robert

[wills]

Rowell ladles, from the maker

http://www.advancecarmover.com/listing.php?line=Ladles

[jawjaboy]

I had a friend make this one for me. Built to pour a ~8 pound ingot, but it will hold more than that.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000495.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000498.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000496.jpg

[MGySgt]

Jawboy - NICE bottom pour!

[bobthewelder]

I like it, but what is that can of swill next to it? Kudo's on that ladle though, even if you have reached rock bottom on your choice of beer!

[Bret4207]

Man had to save some $$ to afford that ladle so, swill it is!

[jawjaboy]

Cost me nothing Bret. It's just stuff I run across along and along! :wink:

I love "American Style" beer, Bob. MB just happens to be the best out there in my book. What styles of beer do you prefer? I've been in the brewing industry for 28 years, tried all types from all over the world, so I kinda know what kind I like! :mrgreen:

[bobthewelder]

I used to brew my own for many years, led to drinking myself into an early type II diabetes, so I gave that hobby up for shooting and reloading. I prefer Fuller's ESB, or if it is taken care of on it's way here Newcastle Brown Ale. The clear bottles leave it suspect to skunking as I am sure you are aware of. If I'm broke I go for New Belgium Brewing Co. Fat Tire, good stuff, not overly hopped like every other micro brewer in this country seems to do. I like to taste the malt without having it masked by an overly dry hopping happy brew master. I like hops, my back yard used to be filled with three diffrent varieties, but when your beer tastes like your eating hops right off the vine, it just ain't right. Balance is the key! Don't take my comments persoally, I just like to clown around, makes things more interesting , at least for me.