Smelting pot setup and large ladle pics

[Oklahoma Rebel]

i am getting to the point where i want to alloy a large amount of lead and ww's at once. About 100lbs at a time. Can everybody that has such a setup share pics of your heat source, pot, and also your ingot molds. And if you have made a large ladle for filling the ingots i would appreciate pics of those, too. Right now i do everything with a ?3? Gallon stainless pot. It is to thin and i am not comfortable filling it over halfway. I only have a kitchen size ladle, and i make round ingots by pouring 3-4 ladle fulls of lead into a cast iron pan, resulting in a 3/4ths by 8 inch ingot. So any advice and photos would be greaatly helpful. Thank you,
travis

[jmort]

A cut propane tank is the best simple solution. I just got another cut tank from ncbearman member here which is really nice. I have a large #7 Rowell ladle and a small #1 Rowell. This is the burner I use
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[country gent]

A simple cut propane tank works great for a pot. cut off just above the bottom radious 3"-4" it will hold about 150 lbs or a little better. Cut just below the upper radious it will hold around 300 lbs. I had a couple house trailer rims (with out centers) I tack welded onto a truck rim seyt this up on 4 footer blocks and the tank inside it. Fired it with stoker coal around sides and bottom. for the big tank. With a blower going to help fire the coal it would melt the pot of range scrape in an hour or so. For a ladle I used a 4" weld on pipe cap for the bowl welded a 3/4" nipple to it and 4' of 3/4 black iron pipe for a handle. The skimmer was a small spade with slots milled in it. Ingot moulds were made from 2x2x8 angle iron had 6 5 ingot moulds. These filled and dumped well stacked well and would fit into most pots. For my 100 lb pot I cast out of a heavy turkey frier stand and harbor frieght weed burner for a heat source works great. I am up to casting temp in 20-30 minutes and with 2 valves ( one ball valve to adjust temp, one lever valve for on and off) its easy to maintain temps.

[triggerhappy243]

My smelting pot is a 10 inch cast iron dutch oven. 4 inches deep. fired by a burner just like jmort's. I gave $30.00 at acadamy sports in lubbock tx. My ingot molds are made from c-channel with the ends capped of with steel plate. each ingot weighs 20 pounds. I melt all my lead to this size ingot and flux the carpola out of it before I test with the xrf gun. then I will add what alloy i need so all ingots are the same out of that batch and pour into smaller ingots to fit whatever pot i use to cast boolits.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

you can use an XRF gun on molten metal? huh, didn't know that. the pot I am using is called a stock pot I think. I am going to make one out of a propane tank if I can ever find one that someone will part with

[retread]

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Picked up a smelter that someone had build years ago. The burner it had on it was set up for acetylene so I removed it and adapted a Harbor Freight weed burner to use as a heat source. The 8" pipe is ideal in that the bottom support ring of a propane tank slips inside nicely and makes it real stable. Kinda rusty but is still very sturdy, mostly just surface rust and a bit of scale. Should last a long time. I anyone has access to an 8" weld flange and a chunk of 8" Sch. 40 pipe you would be almost there. Weed burner was on sale at HF for $18.95 less 10% with a coupon.

[retread]

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Here is another one I built a few years ago. Just a couple of pieces of steel plate and some cleaned up form stakes I had laying around. Couple of dollar store cookie sheets in the back for a wind shield, and again a HF weed burner for heat source. Between the two wait time should be greatly reduced when doing a couple of thousand pounds.

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Here is a picture of the first smelter when I brought it home. Now that ladle needs a bigger man than me to wield it when if is full!

[triggerhappy243]

[QUOTE=The O.K. KIDD;3590816]you can use an XRF gun on molten metal? huh, didn't know that.

NEVER SAID TO USE IT ON MOLTEN METAL.

[rancher1913]

the way you typed it did make it sound like you were using it on molten lead, had to read it several times as I did not think that was possible. don't get to upset, sometimes I try and be funny in a post and it gets lost along the way, nature of this beast.

[triggerhappy243]

HEH HEH, No I am not upset. I saw a little sarcastic snarle in the tone. no worries. It was not worded well enough to make the point I wanted.

[Hardcast416taylor]

My smelter is a 10" high piece of heavy wall 10" steel pipe with an equally thick square bottom welded on. Electric heat coils are wrapped on this pot and insulation in packed in. I then took a 12" piece of thick wall and fit it over the 10" pipe then welded this piece to the base piece of the 10". I do not over fill this pot to smelt, I usually stop several inches from the top. This yields about 70 - 75 lbs. of lead smelt.Robert

[Mitch]

I use a 5 quart cast iron pot.and a burner like above.I use muffin tins for ingots they make about 2 lb or a bit more ingots.just for the info 23lbs of pure lead per quart.as for a ladle mine holds a bit over 2lbs just right for one muffin ingot.that said I think a square ingot would be better for stacking and storage and what ever size suits your needs.another thing you need is something to mark you ingots the HF stams do I fine job as they don't rub off like marker ink.

[lightman]

Here are a few pictures of my setup.

This is my pot sitting on my burner. Its an older picture and the stand now has a base welded on it.


http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/smelting/038.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/smelting/038.jpg.html)

I use several of the Lyman type molds. Also an older picture, but now my landing zone is a 1/2 x 6inch steel plate.

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/PTheodo/smelting/040.jpg (http://s788.photobucket.com/user/PTheodo/media/smelting/040.jpg.html)

This is a 2ft x 4ft box that I built to sort wheelweights in.

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

The pot was the valve cover from a railroad tank car and holds about 400 pounds. The burner is a homemade device and will melt said 400 pounds in around 20 minutes. The ladle came from a newspaper company where I also scored several hundred pounds of various type. It has since been replaced with a 4 pound Rowell bottom pour ladle.

[OS OK]

You didn't search the forum…did you?..New Casters…Lets Blend Pb & make INGOTS (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?301055-New-Casters%85Lets-Blend-Pb-amp-make-INGOTS)

[Oklahoma Rebel]

no sarcasm was intended, I didn't even know about xrf? technology until I joined here. I think its awesome. no harm, no foul.

[Pipefitter]

I guess I am the lucky one here, my Dad was a plumber and I have his lead pouring ladles. I bought a cast iron pot on fleabay that had a handle as well as a heavy wire bail. (Think a 6" deep by 8" diameter frying pan with a wire bail). I use a turkey fryer burner to melt around 50-60 pounds at a time.

[Pardini]

Mines a Camp Chef propane burner. 120,000 BTU IIRC. I've got 16" X 6" deep cast iron pot. I've melted close to two hundred pounds in it at a time. It would probably hold twice that, but don't think the burner would hold the weight. I do have Jack stands that fit under the grate the pot sits on, but haven't had the need to try that setup yet. I use muffin moulds and a kitchen ladle.

Also have an electric plumbers pot that holds about 50 pounds I mix small batches of alloy in.

[RogerDat]

$40 fish fryer from Wally Mart. Cast Iron Dutch oven from Harbor Freight ~$25 angle iron ingot molds made from 2" x 2" x 7.9" angle iron (just under the 8 inch dimension of Small and Medium Flat Rate boxes) Started with large soup ladle from Salvation Army, switched to a 3# ladle, hope to eventually get a Rowell Bottom Pour in 3# since it will help keep the pour cleaner.

Can do around 125# - 145# at a time, only issue I have is how much I can pack in to start with, as the bottom melts I add material to the top. NEVER dropping material into molten lead but setting it on yet to melt material as it settles. Works really well with COWW's but pieces of sheet lead I generally end up stacking them really high and letting them settle as the melt. Might only get 100# that way.

I also use muffin tins and bread loaf pans as ingot molds. The muffins come out like pucks of lead, easy to add to a pot. The bread loaf pans I only fill a couple of inches (if that) and they come out as 12# slabs that are easy to store. Won't fit in a small pot for casting however. I melt those into bars or pucks when I mix them into an actual casting alloy. Adding tin, linotype or plain or what have you.


#1 you can see the angle iron ingots, molds are stacked in the back left corner. Bars are ~1.5 pounds and stack well. Row point up, row point down on top. Repeat. Can pack around 20# into a USPS SFRB.
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#2 Pucks from muffin tins used as molds, with ingots from a Lee 3# mold for comparison. Also hot plate in back right gives some idea of size. Notice the Soup ladle with handle bent on the right, located between hot plate and pucks.
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#3 Bread loaf pan slabs with coffee can for size comparison. Back right corner you can see some USPS Small Flat Rate boxes loaded with angle iron ingots. And some of those ingots are stacked on the slabs right behind the coffee can. Think that pile was around 700#
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Fish Fryer ($40) and the dutch oven, with loaf pans and one angle iron mold (on left side) getting pre-warmed. That sheet lead had glue on it and it burned, or that could have been sawdust flux but I'm pretty sure that was the glue.
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In case you did not know. Clicking the pictures makes them larger.

[OS OK]

RogerDat
…Your lead supply makes my mouth water and my eyes 'but out'! Good work!
I like using the muffin tins as my ladle fills each muffin with a dab left over so I can pour them uniformly in weight and in a 'level' pan so they stack vertical and don't look like the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. These muffins stack in my 20# Lee pot flat on the bottom and they melt very well/quickly that way. They also are uniform in weight at aprox. 2.2# and blending becomes much more accurate when trying to increase the tin component using the lead alloy calculator provided for us here on the forum.

You've impressed me with your post…OS OK

[Digger]

RogerDat
…Your lead supply makes my mouth water and my eyes 'but out'! Good work!
I like using the muffin tins as my ladle fills each muffin with a dab left over so I can pour them uniformly in weight and in a 'level' pan so they stack vertical and don't look like the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. These muffins stack in my 20# Lee pot flat on the bottom and they melt very well/quickly that way. They also are uniform in weight at aprox. 2.2# and blending becomes much more accurate when trying to increase the tin component using the lead alloy calculator provided for us here on the forum.

You've impressed me with your post…OS OK

10-4 on the muffin tins as you describe .. works for me to ..
165755
and the pot i use is very similar to what another gentleman describes he uses , a section of 10 inch pipe with handles so to speak , works very well.

165757
and bigger muffin tins if you like ... as in my previous thread here , "darn boat keels !"
burner is a King Kooker brand single burner from wally world .
as I stated in the other thread , cut the legs in half for the workable situation I wanted.
Has worked out very well for me, very stable ,strong.
Highly recommend the rowel brand dippers .
You have many excellent suggestions from the gentlemen here .....

[Frank46]

I used to use a plumbers pot with burner that screwed on to the top of a big propane bottle to do my smelting. Local scrap yard always had a bunch of lead or lino to keep me busy. Movers wouldn't take the propane bottle but do have the burner and heavy cast iron pot. Since the move stole my wifes crawfish burnerand a big cast iron dutch oven has worked well. Use Lee ingot molds without the handles and grab them with the gizmo they use to take wheel weights off tire rims. Splicers ladle to do the pouring. Frank

[OS OK]

10-4 on the muffin tins as you describe .. works for me to ..
165755
and the pot i use is very similar to what another gentleman describes he uses , a section of 10 inch pipe with handles so to speak , works very well.

165757
and bigger muffin tins if you like ... as in my previous thread here , "darn boat keels !"
burner is a King Kooker brand single burner from wally world .
as I stated in the other thread , cut the legs in half for the workable situation I wanted.
Has worked out very well for me, very stable ,strong.
Highly recommend the rowel brand dippers .
You have many excellent suggestions from the gentlemen here .....

You guys are killing me with the stock you've accumulated…if a tornado comes through at least that corner of your garage will still be sitting there...

[Digger]

By the way ....
"spread the load" ... the pic of those 21/2 pounders in milk crates does not show the crack in the concrete slab ...:shock:[smilie=1:

[RogerDat]

I ended up buying a heavy duty shelf from Home Depot. Supposed to be rated to 2,000 lbs. per shelf. I stayed well under the 2k weight limit since setting ingots on the shelf the force of them in motion was greater than the static weight. I also added a couple of foot long pieces of wood under the feet to spread the load out. Hopefully the garage floor won't suffer ill effects from it.

Pucks are my preferred shape for feeding a pot, well at least now that I finally have a Lee electric pot they are becoming my favorite. With the big pot over the burner size really didn't matter :razz:

Most of my stash has been built up over time. I make it a point to regularly visit every place I scrounge for lead. Each tire store, scrap yard and thrift market pewter source. Sometimes it is a wasted trip, other than saying "howdy" to the guys that work there. Or they may only have a few pounds of something I want. Other times I get lucky. Quit smoking which left a bit more money to go into the hobby, a lot of that ended up as lead. Over a few years of collecting more than I use it adds up.

[BattleRife]

I built a self contained melter. Pot, stand and burner are integral. It is insulated and packs down into a nice compact form. It is bottom tapping, so no ladles to worry about, just turn the bolt and watch the angle-iron ingot moulds fill up. I have never counted how much it holds when full, but I designed it for 100kg. Since my ingots were intended to be 1kg each and ended up being within 5% of that, I'm pretty confident the 100kg number is fairly close.

The burner is based on one of Ron Reil's designs. These are home-built propane burners made using very common hardware store parts, popular with the blacksmithing and backyard casting crowds.

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