A different ingot mold

[Ron]

I bought this mold in an antique shop in the Western District of Victoria between the towns of Warnambool and Portland. They were used to make "gem scones" in the old days. It is made of cast iron. Each cavity measures 2 inches in diam by 3/4 inch in depth. It might not make a large ingot but a bucket will hold a lot of them.

[gcollins]

Ron,
I like that!! I the other day I bought a cast iron pan like the corn butter molds, but the guy tpld me it was for making small loafs of bread, it hold 6 compartments 2"wide 2" deep and 12" long, I bought it to make ignots for my master caster, they would be way to big for a little pot, but the best of it was it cost $2.00, thats in my price range! I would like to find one like the one you got!
Thanks for showing it!
Greg

[MT Gianni]

Gcollins, if the pan edges have some taper they shouod make great ingots. Gianni

[xr650]

I like it.
I'm not much for yard sales, but you folks are going to force me to start going to them.

[HeavyMetal]

I hunt the yard sales for just such "treasures" I don't have anything that looks like yours but have found a couple of the "cornbread" type molds and 2 "pie" wedge type molds. Cool part about the "pie" wedge pans is they have handles like a frying pan! This makes it real easy to flip them over and get the ingots out!

I have also found press's, both shotgun and metallic, at yard sales as well as dies, scales, measures etc.

My classic find was a big box of "stuff" at a yard sale in Nevada! $50.00 netted me a box with a lyman press, lyman 55 powder measure, 6 sets of dies, 6 1 lb. cans of powder and 4000 large rifle primers! It also contained several small bags of brass and bullets and one single cavity 358156 lyman bullet mold.

This was about 2 years ago! So if you haven't been "Yard Sailing" so you can find this stuff shame on you!

[xtimberman]

Years ago, I found a rusted cast iron cornbread mould - one that bakes corn sticks into an "ear-of-corn" shape - under an out-building at the old family farm. Having found it out there, I wasn't sure of its past toxic history, so I didn't want to cook with it. They make nice lead ingots.

If I don't overfill the sections, it casts 1 lb. "ears". I use these ears of lead to identify the alloy for my black powder rifles from everything else.

The only problem is that they don't stack as well as the little Lyman ingots.

xtm

[Le Loup Solitaire]

The mold shown for making "gem scones" is also commonly known as a gem pan. It looks a lot like the ones made by Griswold and Wagner (referred to by collectors of cast iron as a "golf-ball pan"); suggest that you check the back for markings. If its one of those you have something that may be worth a lot of $$. Gris and Wag marked their products with pattern numbers and some of these gem pans are rare. If there are no markings on the back and just a pattern number its still in the ballpark. If its marked "made in USA' or "Taiwan" then its a good ingot mold. Those gem pans came in all sorts of shapes and models. The other types with the corn cob or Wheat designs were/are cornbread (stick) makers. Again check the markings on the backs. There are also the bread stick pans and muffin pans and some of them are worth a fortune on the cast iron market. If you turn up something that is appropriately marked you can get some idea of possible value by checking E-Pay auctions under Griswold or Wagner or thumb thru some of the soft back books that are usually sold in antique shops. You might be surprised.

[xtimberman]

Loup,

Thanks for reminding us not to ruin something that might be valuable! I never thought about that possibility. I just looked and my cornbread ingot mold is marked "Wagner Ware Sydney O" and I probably shouldn't have used it for lead. Too late, now!

xtm

[gcollins]

Ron, I saw one exactly like that today at a flea market, i was going to buy it, untill i seen the price. I am use to paying $3-6 bucks, this one was $22.95, so that go to show me, that you are way to cool for a county boy like me!
HA Ha, I would of liked to have it, but i have bought way to much here lately.
Greg

[montana_charlie]

If it wasn't for the cost of shipping cast iron, eBay would be a great source for these pans.
Do a search for iron muffin and see some of the wide variety of types out there.
CM

[gcollins]

CM, your right! i saw at least 5 different styles yesterday, but they want big bucks for them.`

[TAWILDCATT]

there are muffin pans/corn bread pans /weggies/and other shapes in most hardware stores.I think the brand is "lodge"but not shure.about $6.00:coffee:
--[smilie=1:

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Hi,If by chance you have used a a valuable cast iron baking mold for an ingot mold, do not give it up as ruined. If you want to use it again for baking, it has to be well scrubbed with soapy hot water using steel wool/SOS at least a couple of times. Lead won't stick to the cast iron even in the pores. As a backup you can also use 320 or 400 grit black paper and then rescrub and wash. When the pan is dry, coat it back and front with veggie oil, or peanut oil, or canola oil-- NOT MINERAL OIL...brand of your choice and then place it in the oven on one of the racks--upside down so that the excess oil drains (be sure and put some aluminum foil underneath beforehand so that you don't get in trouble with the war department). Then set the oven to 350-400 degress and let it bake for an hour...more isn't necessary. The process is called by a few names such as curing, priming,sealing etc. When it cools it will appear to have a brownish lightly glazed or satin skin on the surface and this prevents whatever is baked in it, from then on, from sticking (or rusting). The repeated use of the pan even though washed after use continues to maintain that coating and supposedly adds to the flavor of whatever is baked. If someone uses steel wool to clean the iron it messes up the coating, but the oil treatment and baking again for an hour at the above temp puts it back and renews it. If it sounds like I've been down this road before, its because I have a cast iron collection. Loup

[xtimberman]

Thanks for the information on that proceedure, Loup!

I'm saving your post for my own personal "sticky" file.

xtm

[Ron]

LLS, thanks for the info re possible maker of the mould. I checked it, no sign of any makers name or numbers.

My sister in law paid us a visit last week and she saw it and knew what it was right away. She has one and still uses it and they are apparently well known and used by the female types in society.

The antique shop I bought this one in also had aluminium ones of the same design but they were going for AU$22.00 each, my cast iron one was ONLY AU$16.00, maybe because it was a tad rusted.

I make a habit of checking out most antique dealers when I am in the country one can usually find something of interest. I once picked up two really old books on Freemasonry for next to nothing and they are now worth a wee bit more that I paid for them.

[mech481]

Good one Ron that's exactly what I,ve been using over the last few years got mine at the Campbellwell sunday market in melbourne it works great.

[cbrick]

There are almost as many ingot moulds as there are people making ingots, some are pretty ingenious. Its always interesting to see what different ideas people have.

I use the RCBS 10 pound cast iron casting pot. Filled half full they make flat top, flat bottom 5 pound ingots that stack very well. The tops are flat and smooth enough to make writing the alloy with a magic marker easy. The 5 pound size of these ingots is quite handy in my 40 pound Magma pot.

A word of caution should anyone decide to make these ingots. Filled full it will make 10 pound ingots BUT . . . and its kinda a big BUT, the 10 pound ingots WILL NOT fit back into an RCBS 22 pound pot. The 5 pounders do, 10 pounders do not.

http://www.lasc.us/5lbingots.jpg

Rick

[Springfield]

CBrick: So you make ingots one at a time? No way for me, I tend to save up my wheelweights and do 6 buckets at a time, about 750 lbs. I have 14 cornbread moulds for my BP mix and 14 regular 1 lb ingot moulds for the straight WW mix, but I fill it up and make 5 lb ingots. And another mould that cast half round ingots for the pure lead. And my linotype I use the regular moulds but make them only 1 lb ingots to tell them from the wheelweights. I have a chart with my casting paperwork that explains all this so when I kick off the kids will know what is what, assuming they will care.

[cbrick]

CBrick: So you make ingots one at a time?

Not hardly, I've done as much as 500 pounds of wheel weights at a time. Over the years I've accumulated 5 of the RCBS pots. Fill'em all up and by that time the first one is ready to dump, then just keep going.

I bought a couple of them retail, they were about $12.00 at the time. The others have come from garage sales, gun shows etc for a few bucks apiece. If I find more that way I'll buy them too.

Rick

[TheCounty]

Hi All.
I just use an aluminum muffin tin that I picked up at a yard sale for a dime to make nice size ingots. A new one might cost upwards of 2 -3 dollars. Check for 0% financin' if you go the new route:-D
Also salvaged an aluminum vegetable bin from the bottom of an old fridge at the dump. About 3 gal size. I just set it on a few irons out back over the fire pit and fill it with wheel weights or whatever. Melts up quick over a small wood fire & just skim the slag, & dip with an aluminum measuring cup & fill the muffin tins to desired depth. Cool, dump, & repeat.... think that the measuring cup came from the dump too.:roll: The muffin tins are tapered nicely and nothing sticks to it.
No cooking hotdogs while this is goin' on, use good leather gloves, and other safety garb (esp the glasses) & stay upwind. Put the slag in an old paint can & recycle.
Cheers
The County

[mingol]

That 'different' ingot mold reminds me of the kind of implements used by street vendors in Korea. They have a small cart kinda like a primitive hot dog vendor's cart. It has a small charcoal fire, and the vendor puts a small dollop of 'pancake mix' in each of the several cavities of his mold, covers them with a complementary mold, and when the small treats are finished cooking, he sells them for a few small coins. If he puts a dab of jam in the middle, the price goes up.
John