What was your biggest melt in one sitting???

[montanamike]

I've had a few 5 gallon buckets and a 30 gallon drum of wheel weights for a few years now and yesterday I finally decided to melt them down. I thought I had about 8-900 pounds turns out it was around 1050! My plan was to add 2% TIN in with everything so I divided it all into equal weight buckets. then I pre-weighed out my tin and started cooking.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/mtmike/Mobile%20Uploads/20150721_172214.jpg (http://s1142.photobucket.com/user/mtmike/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150721_172214.jpg.html)

At this point things were going pretty smooth. Then it started to get dark... Luckily I was almost done and we had a few headlights to light up the area. I was thinking I would end up with about 600-650 pounds.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/mtmike/Mobile%20Uploads/20150721_213740.jpg (http://s1142.photobucket.com/user/mtmike/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150721_213740.jpg.html)

Loaded everything up, went home and weighed it out.

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/mtmike/Mobile%20Uploads/20150722_075300.jpg (http://s1142.photobucket.com/user/mtmike/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150722_075300.jpg.html)

Ended up with about 758 pounds! Minus the tin I added thats about a 70% recovery. All in all a pretty good day. I can't say the same for my hands and back today, haha but it was worth it. from start to finish it took 8.5 hours.

[Yodogsandman]

Wow! That's a lot for one day! The most I've done is about 600 lbs in ingots from WW's in about the same amount of time. Good job!

[Went2kck]

WOW that's a lot for one day. Did you figure how many boolits that will make.
That would be a lifetime supply for me.

[dragon813gt]

This was one of the larger ones I did. Each ingot is 3.5#s so this is 770#s.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg.html)

The most I did at once was a full 35 gallon drum of wheel weights. They were all old so no sorting besides clip on from stick on. I forget how many pounds it was but it was more than the one I posted.

[montanamike]

This was one of the larger ones I did. Each ingot is 3.5#s so this is 770#s.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/17E85211-EB90-485D-BCE4-01B51A655109-16208-00000AF9069C08BF_zps3d29d554.jpg.html)

The most I did at once was a full 35 gallon drum of wheel weights. They were all old so no sorting besides clip on from stick on. I forget how many pounds it was but it was more than the one I posted.


Those muffins look pretty good!

[dragon813gt]

Those muffins look pretty good!

To bad they were all stolen by a family member and scrapped for pennies on the dollar. That was 96/3/1 alloy which makes it even worse :(

I've thought about melting this all into smaller ingots, 1500#s. They don't fit in the pot.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/2B898030-C223-405C-AA68-91BD95F0E35C.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/2B898030-C223-405C-AA68-91BD95F0E35C.jpg.html)

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/TimeToMakeAmmo/0954FA75-06EB-403B-A671-CA855310026A.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/TimeToMakeAmmo/0954FA75-06EB-403B-A671-CA855310026A.jpg.html)

[montanamike]

Time for a bigger pot....

[Uncle Jimbo]

Time for a bigger pot....

That is what I was thinking.:bigsmyl2:

[lightman]

My smelting pot will hold 400-450 pounds and I have done 2 pots in a day. I know what you mean about the hands and back!

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/IMG_0821.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/IMG_0821.jpg.html)

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/IMG_0847.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/IMG_0847.jpg.html)

This was a load of cable sheathing that just showed up in my driveway one day. I have done as many wheelweights a few other times. Those are the Lyman style ingots that weigh about 1 pound. I think that was a 3 Aleve night!

I run six and sometimes seven of the Lyman type molds. I had one and found several more at a gun show for like $2 each. If I were starting over I would make several like yours, probably out of 1-1/2 or 2 inch channel.

[xr650]

I don't know my one day total.

One weekend I started with this.
http://www.fototime.com/1D98106E3BBF94E/standard.jpg

I preheated the wheel weights as they were a little damp.
http://www.fototime.com/A1E527E94434B79/standard.jpg

400 pound pot.
http://www.fototime.com/94B4EAC1010CBFF/standard.jpg

1800 lbs. for the weekend.
http://www.fototime.com/2647A6C2D56E486/standard.jpg

I had about nine hrs. Saturday and seven hrs. Sunday.

[dragon813gt]

Time for a bigger pot....

No money at the moment for one. I'd love to have a 40# pot. Don't have the place to store one either. The Lee pot fits perfectly in the cabinet. I just have to baby sit the rounds and slowly push them into the pot.

[Beagle333]

Why, I did almost 100 pounds one day. [smilie=1:

I'm a small time'r. :oops:

[anotherred]

Beagle, I'd be happy with 100#. 30# is a decent day for me.

[novalty]

Think the most I ever melted down in a day was about 200#. Somewhere in the ballpark of 160# in clean ingots.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m11/novalty1970/Reloading/Casting/DSCN0873_zps8b376f5e.jpg (http://s100.photobucket.com/user/novalty1970/media/Reloading/Casting/DSCN0873_zps8b376f5e.jpg.html)

[Ihsarah]

I'm still working pretty small scale in my melting and casting with about 50# in my stockpile. Melting down dirty lead into ingots is one of my favorite parts of the process so seeing these has my lead hunting itch acting up again!

[DaveyDug]

I've never done more than about 130 pounds in one day. That's basically my ingot yield from two smelting pots full of wheel weights.

[Digger]

Does using a forklift count also ? ..
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=135535&d=1427767769&thumb=1

Had a bit of a project a while back processing a boat keel .... forgot how much ended up with but here is the link to the earlier thread ..
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?273894-A-little-easier-this-time

The ingots in the one picture in that thread are 3 pounders and the four at the end are 10 pounds each.

[imashooter2]

My biggest one day take... all indoor range scrap.

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/smelt10-30s.jpg

[lightman]

[QUOTE=Digger;3322590]Does using a forklift count also ? ..

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=135535&d=1427767769&thumb=1

I would say so. I'm thinking you may be the Winner!

xr650, thats a nice looking set-up. Its also a nice pile of pretty large weights.

Lots of you Guys have had some pretty good sized smelts. But you Guys that are working on the ground make my back hurt. Do yourselves a favor and get your operation raised up. Thanks me later!:?

[jsizemore]

120 lbs of pewter in the 10qt dutch oven at 1 time. Then ladled into 1-3 oz ingots. That was a long afternoon. I ate supper and then started weighing and marking. By 11:30 I had finished about 70 lbs.

[imashooter2]

LOL! I don't even want to think about 120 pounds into 2 ounce ingots all in one sitting. That's a lot of pours. I generally do pewter 10 - 20 pounds at a shot.

[Bzcraig]

Why, I did almost 100 pounds one day. [smilie=1:

I'm a small time'r. :oops:

I'm with you Beagle! I gave up huge projects like that in my 40's cause I wouldn't have been able to work on Monday!

[lightman]

I'm with you Beagle! I gave up huge projects like that in my 40's cause I wouldn't have been able to work on Monday!

When doing large batches, Aleve is your friend! This is going to be my next project.

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/IMG_0274.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/IMG_0274.jpg.html)


They are all sorted and probably weigh about 1200 pounds. I have a few hundred more pounds of scrap (odds and ends harder than pure) that I'll mix it with the weights. The milk crates in the background are full of ingots and the five gallon buckets are stick on weights. I'll smelt them separately. Just waiting for a break in the hot weather.