Survived the first smelting try (so far)

[wyrmzr]

I picked up 21 lbs of lead this afternoon from a local place; it was solder from cast iron pipes, and they had a 5 gallon bucket overflowing with the stuff. $.68/lb to get started.
After that, I hit a local antique place that had a couple of cast iron skillets. $14 out the door for those.
I already had welding gloves and safety glasses, so that part of the gear was set, but I do need to get a new apron and a face mask before I get much further into this....
I have a grill with a side burner setup, which I may have used once in 5 years. The side burner is now my smelting location.
So, I went for it this afternoon, melted down somewhere between 5 and 10 lbs of lead. It took quite a while, and I may need to fill the tank on the grill again, but so far, so good.
No big surprises to note. The was igniting is a bit of a surprise, even though I expected it to happen. I just didn't expect the sudden "woof" that went along with it. It's a slower process than I expected, waiting for that lead to melt down, but I need to learn some patience anyway.
I may post some pics later; so far the lead I've smelted does separate out from the smaller pan I poured it into, but I do need to put out an APB locally for some bread/muffin pans that don't have nonstick coating on them. I think I can find those without too much trouble, as I know some of the people who run consignment shops in the area.

[CastingFool]

I would recommend you use a deeper vessel as your melting pot and a ladle. Picking up a cast iron skillet half full of molten lead can be disastrous. I use a helium tank cut in half to melt my lead, on a grill with a sideburner, then ladle the clean lead into my ingot mold. I have melted a lot of pipe joints that way.

[wyrmzr]

That's a good point; this skillet is actually deeper than most, but still only about 3 inches deep. Since it's also a little smaller than what I had hoped to start with, it will likely wind up relegated to some other duty down the road.
I'm hoping to get a bottom pour oven once I start to actually transfer the lead to the bullet moulds anyway, and I think I have someone local who wants to sell his.

[RogerDat]

The non-stick surface will burn off. First few times I poured molten lead into muffin tins the off gassing made ingots with bubbles, by about the third time things were coming out smooth. Some folks have said they just put them on a fire and burn them to get rid of the non-stick surface.

If your contacts can get you ones that are either non-stick or plain metal either type will do the job.

[62chevy]

I just didn't expect the sudden "woof" that went along with it.

LOL the first time I smelted and the woof struck lead landed all over my boot and pant legs. Now I let it catch fire then stir the pot.

[el34]

I use the grill sideburner also and have smelted over a ton on it. Suggestion- support the end of it with a 2x3 or 2x4 leg.

My pot is still my first one, a $6.79 6qt soup pot from Walmart. It has a lid to help heat up what's inside. And I still use the non-stick coated mini-muffin pans from Walmart placed on the grill grate. The only issue I ever saw with the coating was little pock marks on the ingot bottoms, no biggie. It does eventually wear off.

Walmart has stainless condiment cups that make great molds, I use 1 or 2 to make shallow sample ingots for hardness testing. They're packaged as 4-packs on the kitchen gadgets shelves, 99c for the 4. I bought a bunch of them and for a while sat them in the muffin pans to get nice smooth ingots about 1lb each.

Harbor Freight has inexpensive welder's aprons.

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