Do I need more than 1 ingot mold?

[icor1031]

Would it benefit me, to use more than 1 ingot mold?
i.e., do I need to wait for one to cool off before I eject the molds, and I can use a second one while I wait? Or, for any other reason?


Thanks.

[labradigger1]

I have 1 4 gang 2 lb'er and 2 4 gang 1 lb'ers
Seems like i am always waiting for them to cool.
I am always wishing for about 4x more ingot molds.
It would depend on how much you smelt also.

[dragon813gt]

How many pounds are you smelting at once? I use a Dutch oven and w/ 2 pans that each make 8 3.5# ingots it's enough to keep me constantly moving. If I was using the one pound molds I would need five or six.

[rnelson11]

You'll need more.

[icor1031]

Ouch, thanks!

[kevmc]

How about a wet towel....., fill ingot mold, touch bottom to towel
May keep mold from over heating....

[sidecarmike]

Pick up some cast cornbread pans from the local thrift stores. The aluminum ones work best.
I picked these two up for $1 each at Goodwill Industries. Between the two of these, a Lyman four hole and a Lee 4 spot, I still sometimes have to take a break to let things harden.
99761
99762

[JimA]

You will definitely need more than 1.

[Boyscout]

I'm up to 3 Lees and one Lyman. I prefer the Lees because they cool faster. I'm not sure if the Lyman cast iron will crack if I cool it on a wet towel. I also have a shallow cup cake pan that does a great job too. I use a cast iron pot to smelt that holds about 30 lbs.

[Mal Paso]

I do 50-75 pounds at a time and make full use of 3 molds that make 5, 5 pound ingots. I welded these using 2" angle iron. It was easier than finding the mythical Walmart Stainless Steel Condiment Cups which don't seem to be native to California or Arizona.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I use 3 Lyman and 1 LEE ingot molds. I also use 2 cast iron 10 lb. RCBS and a 10 lb. Lyman pot that I fill half full for a heavier ingot.Robert

[imashooter2]

By the time I fill the last, the first is ready to dump and refill...

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/lastww10-12-600.jpg

[country gent]

Ideally filling ingot molds you should have enough so that when you fill the last one the first is solid then +1 more to be sure. I made mine from angle iron 2 to a ingot mold 4-5 lbs each and have 8 of them. Not a big deal to make saw cut angle v point to opening at 10* ( this allows ends to release quickly and easily) I used 1/8"x2"x2" and cut to a length that fit my pots. A 1/8" X 2" flat plate long enough to cover te vees plus an inch or two on each end. Set angle face down on 1/4" flat stock and sides in tight to angle ends and weld together. Remember each ingots wieght and figure that times number of cavities. ( on mine 5 lbs per ingot so 2 is 10 lbs plus ingot molds wieght). You can get by with 1 or2 but will spend more time waiting on cooling than pouring.

[375RUGER]

I run from 140 to 350 lbs at a time. I have a 24 banger mini muffin, a 4 banger 1#er, and a home made 4 banger 6# angle iron job. I can run non-stop now, but I end up with more mini muffins than I care for. I need another angle iron mould.

[bobthenailer]

i have 5x4 one pounders =20 lbs and a 3 cavity 8 pounder=24 lbs

[alamogunr]

I have 5 six cavity cast iron muffin pans and 6 SAECO/RCBS ingot molds. The muffin pans turn out 1.5-1.75 muffins. Also a 10 lb Magma retangular mold. I seldom use this mold as the ingots are too big. I should have used it more often for ingots to make special alloys from WW, pure and various Sn/Sb rich alloys. I could make fairly large batches in my clean-up pot(after cleaning it, of course).

There are sources here for ingot molds, usually fabricated from angle iron or channel iron. Both would work well.

[Old School Big Bore]

I had four Lyman 4X1 but they have disappeared in a move. I now have two Lees; I like the handles but wish they were all 1# instead of two each half & whole pound. I keep production up by resting them in a shallow pan of water. You have to be on your game to do this safely, though.

[bangerjim]

Do not stop at just one of anything!

I have 7 commercial ingot molds (Lee,Lyman, RCBS) and love them. Easy stacking, no falling over on your toes. When I melt, I use all of them at the same time.

Leave the kitchenware to the cook!

banger

[Bigslug]

The smelt pot holds about 25#, and the three Lyman molds I have aren't really getting it done. Probably going to need two more to be at "adequate"

[FISH4BUGS]

I have about 24 individual 1lb or so home made (bought from guys here over the years) or gang (Lyman/RCBS) ingot moulds. My smelting pot holds easily over 100 lbs. When I smelt, I line up the ingot moulds, pour each one, then while they cool, add more WW's to the mix, let them melt, flux and skim. By that time they are cooled enough to dump out and start it all over again.
Like garlic, money and something we shouldn't refer to on a family site, you can never get enough....ingot moulds that is.

[NavyVet1959]

Is this for smelting or just as a drip pan under a bottom pour casting pot?

For smelting, you *could* do it with one mold, but you're going to spend a LOT more time doing it that way. Of course, the longer it takes, the more fuel you use to keep the lead molten. Do you know how to weld and have a welder? If so, you can easily make some molds fairly cheaply out of angle or channel iron. Most of us prefer to have enough molds that the first ones we use will have cooled enough for the lead to solidify by the time we fill the last mold. If there is enough that the last one is also cool by the time we finish dumping all the molds prior to it, that's even better.

It's all going to depend upon your smelting rate though. If you are slow and drink a lot of beer during each round of filling the molds, you might be able to get by with less molds. :)

I prefer to drink my beer as the pot is heating up with the next batch of wheelweights.

[Smoke4320]

seems like you never have enough .. like guns the more the merrier

I went so far as to have 2 different style mold so I can quickly Id the alloy as well
pure lead is one style and COWW +tin is a different style

[TXGunNut]

First session with my big pot and propane burner I had two 4-cav Lyman moulds. Wasted lots of propane (and time) waiting for the moulds to cool. Four works better but I'm working up to six.

[country gent]

Another plus to smelting is a ladle that is big enough to fill each cavity with one pour. If your making 5lb ingots a ladle that will hold 5-6 lbs is a big time saver.

[btroj]

I don't know if others need more than one ingot mould but I know I do

[NavyVet1959]

Another plus to smelting is a ladle that is big enough to fill each cavity with one pour. If your making 5lb ingots a ladle that will hold 5-6 lbs is a big time saver.

Plus, you can always make lighter ingots by just not filling it as full. You just have to ensure that the ingot mold that you create will *fit* in your casting pot. I made that mistake with the first ingot mold that I made. Ooops...

A ladle with a long handle is also nice. I welded up my own ladle and the handle is around 36" long. Not that I intentionally tried to make it that long -- it just happened to be the length of 1/2" solid square stock that I had handy when I was doing it.

One of my neighbors decided he was going to make a ladle out of a piece of 2" square tubing by welding a bottom on it. He had a MIG welder, but he wasn't very good with it. He worked on it quite a few evenings, but it always leaked on him. I offered to stick weld it for him, but he was determined to make it work on his own.

[Walter Laich]

one thing not mentioned is if you try to dump the molds too soon the ingots will break and crumble. Even if the top is hard it takes quite a bit of time for them to cool

[Mal Paso]

Another plus to smelting is a ladle that is big enough to fill each cavity with one pour. If your making 5lb ingots a ladle that will hold 5-6 lbs is a big time saver.

A 7 oz portion ladle from a restaurant supply might work. I am using a 4 1/2 oz. It's 14" long, heavy stainless, and the cup is almost right angle to the handle to get to the bottom of the pot. Works well but it takes 2 dips per ingot.

[ACrowe25]

Go to walmart and buy a miniloaf pan. The make perfect 3% ingots that fit well into any bottom pour (and laddle I'm sure). Was about 6-8$ but allows me to drain my Dutch oven in a single dump.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Cutting off the bottoms of beverage cans which are thin skinned aluminum can make good ingots, but they have to be peeled when cool. If you cut them at big lengths then you get a bigger cylindrical ingot. Problem with that and all the way up to using the full can is that you wind up with a cylinder ingot that either won't fit into a smaller pot or if it does it will drop the temp of the alloy for quite a while until it comes back up to proper casting temperature. LLS

[TXGunNut]

RotoMetals has nice ladles...I'm a lot handier with a credit card than a welder. Explains that stack of Lyman ingot moulds as well. ;-)

[Frank46]

I have 4 lee 4ingot molds. Sometime the handles aren't the best so I keep a pair of old vise grips to flip them over when cool. They fill up fast with the rowell ladle I have and once you get a rythm set you can fill the ingots very quickly. Frank

[NavyVet1959]

If I was building some ingot molds now, I would go with ones make from angle iron instead of the channel iron that I used. They would be narrower, so easier to put in the casting pot. I might even make them long enough that they would stick well out of the casting pot so that they could just sink down as they melted. The channel iron ones that I made definitely decrease the temperature of the melt when I add them to it.

[ubetcha]

Has anyone calculated the size and dimensions of angle iron to make a 1lb ingot? This is, if using 2" angle iron, how long should the piece be? It's easier for me to work with 1lb ingots for both storage and mixing an alloy. Also fits in the pot better for melting down to cast with.

[Mal Paso]

About 1 1/2 inches. Remember to angle the sides so you can get them out. Weld from the back. Unless the molds get really hot they don't need to be water tight, as long as the metal fits well the welds don't need to be continuous.

In practice by the time the ingots are cool enough that they won't break the ingot molds are fairly cool when you use them again.

[fredj338]

I would have as many as I could afford & have space for. When you get smelting, the molds get pretty hot & take awhile to setup. So having several means you keep going, just makes things easier.