Any problems smelting WW in your cast pot?

[atl5029]

Hi Everyone,

Just getting into casting bullets for my 45's and I was wondering if there were any real problems associated with smelting your scrap lead in the same pot from which you cast ? I was going to go with a 20 lb Lee bottom pour pot, and I will be casting mostly from WW and whatever clean scrap lead I can get my hands on. If your source of scrap lead isn't too dirty, would smelting the lead in my cast pot present any real problems? Since the lead pours from the bottom and all the crud floats to the top of the molten lead, I wouldn't think any of the contaminants would clog up the pour spout or go into my bullets. Also it seems that smelting in a temp controlled pot than over a cast iron pot over a flame would make it easier to pick out zinc WW and not melt them if I miss any while sorting.

Thanks!

[merlin101]

YES! Lots of problems, mostly crud build up in the pot and that ends up being a clogged spout.
I don't want to have to pour out 20# of melted lead every 30 min. or so, do you?

[Retumbo]

Wheel weights are dirty. Use a used pot and a single burner either electric or gas. I manage 30 lbs at a time using this method.

134904

[bangerjim]

That is considerd blasphemy 'round these parts!

Will muck up your pot real fast. That "stuff" WILL plug up your spout. It just WILL. You will find that out very fast!

Get a turkey frier and a CI or STEEL pot and melt your dirty filty cruddy WW's in that. Never in your clean bottom pour casting pot.

Unless you enjoy spending a lot of time cleaning up your pot and spout and NOT shooting at the range.

DO NOT rely on your melt temp to sort zinkers! Do it with pliers/acid/sound/common sense B4 ever even starting to melt them down. An open flame frier is perfectly fine for re-melting scrap and WW's.

banger-j

[borg]

Not everything floats on lead.
If the crud is stirred, fluxed, put on the bottom, the pressure of the lead will keep the crud from floating.
Clogs the bottom spout and gets in your bullets. Can scratch/wear your bore.
Clean your lead in something else, don't have to be much, stainless pot from Goodwill and a Coleman stove works just fine.
I also think that is held in suspension, but may be debatable, fluxing will help.

ETA I went to Academy and for $30, got a turkey fryer that works fine.

[Wilson]

My brother-in-law did it that way for years. When he learned that I was smelting first, then putting clean ingots in my pour pot he got set up to smelt. Smelting is far more efficient to me, but it can all be done in the cast pot.

[country gent]

I perfer to clean and alloy first when not working with purchased alloies. Wheel wieghts, sheet lead, almost all scrap lead has alot of impurities you want to get out before putting in a bottom pour pot. ANother issue is when skimming from a bottom pour the control rod is in the way ussually hampering getting it completly clean. On a ladle pot the entire pot is open to flux skim and clean. getting clips and crud out much easier. Another plus is a pig pot for smelting allows for bigger batches of alloy to be blended at one time adding to consistency. Also with the bigger batches a little off on one ingrediant is less of a issue than on a smaller batch. You can blend a couple hundred pounds and have ingots all the same for a while or with the 20 lb pot blend and have one pot of alloy the same.

[BNE]

The general opinion has been clearly stated above. While I agree it is better to smelt in a separate pot, a separate pot is not always available.

I smelted led hundreds of pounds in my casting pot before I had a smelter. You just need to clean the pot and the pour spout afterwards.

I fully agree it is better to separate zink out before just throwing everything into the pot. You will get a feel for sorting zink once you "pliered" a few zink ww s.

[62chevy]

I do it all in one pot but then I also use a ladle so clean up isn't a big deal.

[borg]

I do it all in one pot but then I also use a ladle so clean up isn't a big deal.

You still have crud on the sides and the bottom, regardless of how many times you flux and scrape.

[62chevy]

You still have crud on the sides and the bottom, regardless of how many times you flux and scrape.

True but doest seam to bother the pour at all and have never seen anything that shouldn't be there. That was with a Lee dipper and now a Lyman dipper.

[bangerjim]

The OP was asking about his Lee 4-20 bottom pour, not dipping. I would still advise him to never re-melt garbage scrap lead in a good bottom pour. Dipping ihas been around forever (my grandpa did it) and does minimize the inclusions of garbage in your pour, but is very slow.....at least for my needs. I preffer 6 cav molds cranking out hundreds of boolits/hour with a CLEAN bottom pour pot.

If the OP does not want to invest in a propane fryer, get a 20# standard Lee electric pot to re-melt in. Much easier to clean out and will not plug!

Just avoid your clean bottom pour for re-melting scrap and WW's.

[RogerDat]

I can't imagine the buckets of crud I pull out when smelting in the same pot as casting from. Doing a bucket of WW's I pull 4 - 6 bread loaf pans of garbage out for disposal. And that is after sorting all the zinc and steel WW's out. If the propane turkey or fish fryer and cast iron dutch oven is not in your immediate future then consider a hot plate and Salvation Army stainless steel cook pot. You can always use the hot plate to pre-heat your mold when casting.

Soon it will be garage sale season, I have seen those fryers for $10 during the summer at garage sales. Just don't use the aluminum pan that comes with the fryer. Too thin and alum. is not up to the heat and weight.

[fredj338]

Your BP pot will leak if you continuously smelt in it. I put nothing but clean alloy into my BP pots, never empty them, they never leak.