I need a bigger melter/smelter... cheap options?

[xsquidgator]

I have a 20# lee "magnum melter" I bought to get into casting with a ladle, and I like it fine so far. Not perfect but can't complain for $45; I've made a couple thousand bullets with it by now. I've also done I guess some smelting with it, melted/fluxed down at least one bucket of wheel weights and other dirty **** with it too.

The only problem I have is that some of my raw melting alloy is in the form of some bricks of about 25# or so that are too large to fit into the mouth of my melter. I already tried sticking a corner into the top and trying to melt away a corner at a time; that didn't work at all really. I need to get something to melt with that will accept a brick-sized thing or bigger. (I mean about as large as the kind of real brick you'd find on a construction site.)

Could I make another melter/smelter out of a hot plate and a cast iron pot of some kind, I believe I've heard people mention dutch ovens? If a hot plate could work, how many watts or kwatts of heating power should it have as a minimum to git'r done? I see this pot as being an infrequent use item for melting some of my big bricks (and I have a cool, big, cylindrical block to melt of about 30+ pounds that used to be radiation shielding for an old radiation therapy source), to break them down into manageable ingots.

I don't think I want a turkey frier, because this is just to get my too-large items melted it's ok if it's something not as convenient. I just want cheap and electric probably.

[454PB]

You might want to take a look at this old post:

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=10127&highlight=dollar+smelter

[xsquidgator]

You might want to take a look at this old post:

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...dollar+smelter

Very informative thread, thanks for the information. Are you still using that setup?

Also, would most any cast iron pot do for melting lead? I'm thinking now of some kind of electric heater under an old pot maybe from a thrift shop, at least 1kW. The more power the better but this only has to be good enough to melt my bricks into ingots and then I'm good.

[454PB]

Yes, it's still going strong.

I shy away from cast iron pots unless they are designed for melting lead. I once broke a cast iron cooking pot trying to knock some slag out of it. I prefer steel, and one of my pots is made from a piece of 4" pipe with a piece of 1/4" plate welded to the bottom. 6" or 8" pipe is even better.

You will have trouble melting large chunks of lead with a 1000 watt hotplate. I'd guess any chunk over about 15 pounds would take a long, long time.

[smokemjoe]

Okey: whats the bestway run a cooker to boil water in the amount of 3 gallons at a time. The hot plate or the gas turkey cooker. Thanks

[454PB]

A 1000 watt hotplate won't boil 3 gallons of water.

[rmb721]

Hold the brick of lead over your magnum melter and use a propane torch to melt the lead and run into your pot.

[xsquidgator]

Hold the brick of lead over your magnum melter and use a propane torch to melt the lead and run into your pot.

I don't think that'll work. I tried a "science experiment" in a shop a month ago with one of these bricks and a borrowed propane torch. I gave it a good five minutes or more on the side with the torch, and got nothin', nada. My thought was to use the torch as a cutting torch and cut the bricks into manageable pieces.

Maybe if I had access to an oxy-acetylene torch again I could, but the little propane brazing torch just didn't seem to have the horsepower to do it. I thought about getting a sawz-all until I saw what they cost. Even took a stab at trying to mutilate one of these bricks into smaller pieces with a hacksaw and also with hammer/chisel. If I were stuck on a desert island eventually I could get one of these apart with those tools, but short of that... i realized I was going to get a lot more bang for the buck by getting a larger pot of some kind for these bricks.

[wiljen]

Try a sawz-all and cut the bricks down or a hammer and chisel and bust em up?

[454PB]

I have a Sawzall and tried to cut up one of those tractor counter weights mentioned in my original dollar smelter post. What a waste of time and energy! I had it clamped in my big bench vice, and the vibration of the saw shook everything off the shelves. After 20 minutes of frustration, I gave up.

That's what inspired the dollar smelter.

[DLCTEX]

I use an axe and a tree stump cutting lead pipe and flashing. I have cut some cut some 3X2 lead bars to a manageable size when all I had to melt with wasa Lee 10 lb. pot. DALE

[HeavyMetal]

Once upon a time I had a problem much the same as yours. I managed to rent a weed burner from my local rental yard!

This is one of this 50,000 btu things designed to burn the weeds out of the cracks in the sidewalks and drive ways.

I set it up on my little 5 gallon bar b q tank set my bars of lead in a dutch and started melting.

It wasn't fast but I did melt about 150 lbs of lead that had been cast into big ingots by being poured into ice cube trays minus the cube makers. That made then 5 x10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick as I recall.

Check your rental yards you might find one with the "weed burner" or better yet a plumbers furnace!

[mroliver77]

Circular saw with carbide blade will do the trick! Really.
J

[JIMinPHX]

You can do it with a small burner, even a 750-watt hotplate from Walmart, but you need to insulate the pot real well & it will take a long time. A more powerful burner is the way to go. Think 30,000 BTUs or something in that range. Is there some sort of burner that you could buy that might serve you well later in another capacity? Perhaps a camping stove that you might actually use for camping afterwards? Is there a turkey fryer or camp stove that you can borrow from a neighbor? Does someone in the neighborhood have an oxy-acetylene torch? Those things throw off a whole lot more heat than a regular blow torch does, especially if it has a rosebud tip. If all else fails, build a big, hot wood fire & use that. My brother & I built a fire in a 55-gallon drum & hung a 50-pound pot over the center of it with a piece of 1-1/2 pipe. The lead was liquid in about 20 minutes.

[dakotashooter2]

Cabela's has 15,000 btu cast iron gas burners for about $25 that take up less room than a turkey frier and would probably work nearly as good.

[WyrTwister]

I have a 20# lee "magnum melter" I bought to get into casting with a ladle, and I like it fine so far. Not perfect but can't complain for $45; I've made a couple thousand bullets with it by now. I've also done I guess some smelting with it, melted/fluxed down at least one bucket of wheel weights and other dirty **** with it too.

The only problem I have is that some of my raw melting alloy is in the form of some bricks of about 25# or so that are too large to fit into the mouth of my melter. I already tried sticking a corner into the top and trying to melt away a corner at a time; that didn't work at all really. I need to get something to melt with that will accept a brick-sized thing or bigger. (I mean about as large as the kind of real brick you'd find on a construction site.)

Could I make another melter/smelter out of a hot plate and a cast iron pot of some kind, I believe I've heard people mention dutch ovens? If a hot plate could work, how many watts or kwatts of heating power should it have as a minimum to git'r done? I see this pot as being an infrequent use item for melting some of my big bricks (and I have a cool, big, cylindrical block to melt of about 30+ pounds that used to be radiation shielding for an old radiation therapy source), to break them down into manageable ingots.

I don't think I want a turkey frier, because this is just to get my too-large items melted it's ok if it's something not as convenient. I just want cheap and electric probably.




I use a " Fry Daddy " my wife found for me at a garage sale . Bypass the thermostat & fuseable link so it runs 100% power 100% of the time .

I only use it outside on the concrete patio .

God bless
Wyr

[pjh421]

I don't think that'll work. I tried a "science experiment" in a shop a month ago with one of these bricks and a borrowed propane torch. I gave it a good five minutes or more on the side with the torch, and got nothin', nada.

Mapp gas. Just like a propane torch only WAY hotter. Used mine about 2 weeks ago & it worked like a charm on an ingot that was about 20* F.

Paul

[Y2K]

Send the big pieces to me, I'll shear them into smaller pieces for a NOMINAL fee. I just use a hyd press with a "T" on the ram. Cuts like butter.

[JSnover]

I don't have a press but last month I used an air chisel to cut up a pile of 1" thick lead plates into 4"x4" blocks.

[Sundogg1911]

i've used a torch, zip saw, Sawzall, you name it. Now I just use a big cast dutch oven on a propane turkey fryer. I have some 30# bricks that fit right in.

[Southern Son]

I had the same problem, the place I bought lead only sold it in ingots about 2 foot long and 5 inches square, they weighed about 50 pounds. I used a brickies bolster and a 2 pound club hammer. Give the blade on the bolster a good rub with some bee's wax, it helps it pass through the lead without sticking. Use a good solid anvil or sit on a good solid cement floor like I did. You really need something silid to work against otherwise the energy from the blow gets wasted moving the lead.

Ron.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Make things easy on yourself and just get a turkey cooker with a big enough pot.

Dave

[Boerrancher]

I use a home-made propane burner with a stainless steel pot. The burner assembly also doubles as a my fish fryer when combined with a dutch oven and a gravel bar along side my favorite river. I can melt a 30 lb block of lead in about 30 min. In most instances I won't own something that doesn't have multiple uses.

Best Wishes,

CPT T.

[dakotashooter2]

Do you know anybody with a powered log splitter. I would thing that would do the job.