Pouring/Smelting Ingots with Lee 4 20? - Fresh Lino/Mono

[psychbiker]

Just got my Lee 4 20. Got my mold too BUT don't have my lead yet. I do have lino I plan on mixing in with lead and have some lino in the mail, it's the small letter pieces.

Can I just add the lino to the lee pot and pour into ingots or mix with softer lead? Do I need to melt the lino down first in something else other than the lee? I don't know how clean the lino will be.

I only have the lee 4 20 and haven't made/found a turkey fryer to smelt.

[JSnover]

You will need another pot for ingots. You can use your 4-20 but it's a bad idea, gets a lot of crud in there and causes major headaches when you try to cast boolits.

[lightman]

I agree, you can do that in your casting pot if your lead is clean. Dirty lead will cause you problems, sooner or later. Get a turkey fryer and smelting pot when you can. A ladle and some ingot molds too!

Most of us started small, we did not get everything that we have now all at the same time. Shop around, keep your eyes open, and grab a piece of gear here, another piece there. Its a fun hobby!

[dikman]

If you've only got relatively small amounts of lead to blend then buy a cheap stainless pot (or big saucepan) from a thrift shop and use a gas burner (camping stove) to melt it in. Should be good enough to get you started.

As pointed out, it's not a good idea to put anything except clean stuff into the bottom pour as it will create problems.

Have fun.:drinks:

[Yodogsandman]

That crud will cause a bottom pour spout to repeatedly plug up. That'll slow you down!

I started smelting with a small 7" cast iron fry pan, leather gloves with long cuffs, safety glasses, ingot mold and an old Coleman camp stove. Do not use anything for cooking food ever again that's been used for lead.

[too many things]

and the lee is the worst for dirty lead. electric hot plate from wally world will work if you take some foil and make a ring to keep heat close to the pot . best to use cast iron as it retains the heat
good luck

[bangerjim]

FIrst, if you have "small letter pieces" it is NOT linotype. Linotpe is literally "type in a line"....whole words and sentences cast in one continuous line.

What you have is either foundry type of monotype....single individual letters used in an old handset letter press. Much harder than linotype. Many do not even know the difference, even though they are selling it! Check out the charts B4 using! www/lasc.us

Do not mix those bits with other lead in your 4-20. It is only intended for CLEAN ingots! As said, you are only looking for plugging problems. Melting dirty unfluxed lead and alloys should be done in a separte pot. For melting small batches, I use a Lee standard electric 10# pot. For big melts, I use an 80# cast iron pot over a plumber's gas furnace to melt lead. About like the aforementioned turkey fryer only hotter.

(notice I do not call it "smelting"........smelting is actually the act of refining raw mineral ores into metal. What we do here is merely re-melting lead from one form to another.)

Good luck.

bangerjim