Finally got to try the pot!

[Mike W1]

Finally got to do some alloying with my propane tank pot. Really did make things simpler than before as I could do it all in one batch. About 153 pounds in there and still a couple inches of room on top for splash! My regulator has a gauge and is variable so with the TC in the pot it was easy to watch the temperature of the melt. Used my VOM but the PID would have done it as well far as reading temperature. Got it up to 700° and fluxed, added the SuperHard and fluxed, then back up to 700° and fluxed again. Did a lot of stirring so hopefully I got things adequately mixed. Did a couple casts of test slugs midway through filling ingots so we'll see how it turned out. An enjoyable couple hours this afternoon. Gear and some results pictured.
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u310/Mike4245/12-4-1_zps2a930e28.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u310/Mike4245/12-4-2_zpse34582c8.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u310/Mike4245/12-4-3_zps391650ba.jpg

[dikman]

Someone's been a busy little beaver! Nice setup (although I'd have to have it on a bench, my back wouldn't like working at ground level!!).

I can see lots of (s)melting in your future ;-).

[JASON4X4]

Congratulations makes life a lot easier with the right equipment

[georgerkahn]

You have, indeed, a wonderful set-up! I have a question, simply out of idle curiosity, in what you used for fluxing? Your alloy really looks gorgeous! I've used pine sawdust, beeswax, candle wax, Lyman bullet lub, and Brownell's Marvelux. My last batch, I used sawdust and then refluxed with Marvelux... Again, really curious what you use?
BEST!
georgerkahn

[Mike W1]

You have, indeed, a wonderful set-up! I have a question, simply out of idle curiosity, in what you used for fluxing? Your alloy really looks gorgeous! I've used pine sawdust, beeswax, candle wax, Lyman bullet lub, and Brownell's Marvelux. My last batch, I used sawdust and then refluxed with Marvelux... Again, really curious what you use?
BEST!
georgerkahn

I have an adequate supply of stearine which we used to use in the telephone cable splicing process. Came in sticks so I used an old food grater and made flakes out of it. Seemed to work pretty well, nice shiny alloy. Probably should try sawdust sometime but this stash will outlast me. Didn't care for Marvelux but I suspect I used too much and didn't wait long enough for it to turn to powder.

[Mike W1]

Someone's been a busy little beaver! Nice setup (although I'd have to have it on a bench, my back wouldn't like working at ground level!!).

I can see lots of (s)melting in your future ;-).

I have pondered the thought of some bench type thing to make life easier but it haven't come up with an easier way to empty the ingot moulds other than tapping them on the concrete. Plus the floor is usually cold so I think it helps cool the moulds. Generally they're cool enough to dump by the time I fill the 4th mould. I do have an old tool box that I used when splicing cable to sit on and it gets me about a foot off the floor. Doable if not great.