450LBs WW.......how long...

[spurgon]

I've accumulated approx 450 # of wheel weights. I've got a turkey cooker for heat and a dutch oven about 10" accross. What's the best approach for melting these down. How long would it take to do them all at one sitting?
spurgon

[Andy_P]

Too many unknowns e.g. BTUs of your burner, the capacity of the dutch oven, how clean the WW's are, your process and how efficient it is, etc.

Approach/process? Melt, skim, flux, pour, repeat. There are threads here that showcase smelting setups that can provide ideas.

I'd say it'll take 4-8 hours, maybe more, doubtful less based on what you described and that you are inexperienced. You'll get faster as you go along.

[Lee]

My turkey frier, Lee ingot mold, homemade ingotr mold, 12 cup muffin tin,
and 1-1/2 gallon cast iron pot. Add 2 heaping full 5 gallon buckets of WW.
It took me 8+ hours, not going fast, just taking my time and working steady.
Melting, skimming, fluxing goes fairly well. MY bottleneck is ingot molds. Yours probably will be also.................Lee:wink:

[mooman76]

It takes me roughly 4 hrs to do a 5 gallon bucket ow WW's coming out with about 120-140 # but that is including set up and clean up also with a 3qt pot. As some said there are allot of variables and getting started takes allot of time but I would guesstimate 8-10 hrs 8 minimum and maybe a little longer if you have problems!

[HeavyMetal]

I believe my dutch oven is about the same as your 10 or 12 inches in diameter and about 8 inches deep. I do know I can get it to melt 90 lbs of lead using a commercial plumber furnace I purchased years ago. A melt usually takes 30 min. and then flux and pour. I don't use those wimpy ingot molds pushed by Lee and RCBS. I went out and got a cast iron "corn bread" mold. I have 3 of these and you can get them at any cast iron specialty shop. These will make ingots that weigh about two pounds apiece and, I think, about six ingots per mold.

Then it's just a matter of how much time you can dedicate to the project at hand. I would think At least an 8 hour day. I would usually send the family to visit other family or to one of the great parks here in L.A. This way I didn't have to worry about anyone doing anything stupid at 800 degrees!

[S.B.]

I've got a question, shouldn't it be melt flux, skim / not melt, skim, flux? Wouldn't you loose a lot of the aloys if the wrong way?

[Calamity Jake]

Skim the clips and most of the dirt first, then flux and skim 3 or more times.

[hotwheelz]

Its not often I outpace anyone but I get a 5 gallon bucket done in about 2-3 hrs. I usually have help but like others have said the choke point is the ingots.

[blysmelter]

Cooling the ingot/ingotmolds by thouching a wet towel speeds things up.

[Springfield]

Using a turkey fryer and a melting pot that holds 200 lbs, and enough ingot moulds to hold 75 lbs at one filling, I can do 125 lbs and hour. The limiting factors are the melting pot and ingot moulds. You should have enough moulds to hold at least half the pot, otherwise you spend too much time waiting for ingots to cool.

[38 Super Auto]

I've got a question, shouldn't it be melt flux, skim / not melt, skim, flux? Wouldn't you loose a lot of the aloys if the wrong way?

I prefer to flux after the alloy is 100% molten. After that, I skim out the debris, and flux again and then pour into ingots.

I flux before I skim. I figure it can't hurt, and if I reduce some of the oxides of tin and lead back to usable metal before I skim, I'm ahead of the game. Paraffin is cheap.