Wal Mart ingot molds

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

I saw someone had posted that Wal Mart had ingot molds disguised as muffin tins for 88 cents a piece. When i was there getting them I saw they also had loaf pans for 88 cents. Picked up six of them also. These cheap molds are plain steel without a non stick coating and have a slightly textured surface. I wanted to dump my master caster pot and clean it out so I stuck one of the loaf pans under it. This is how the lead came out of the pan
164890
Man am I glad I didn't fill all six muffin tins if they stick like this. Does the teflon coating affect casting?

[swamp]

If they are plain steel, let them sit outside and get a bit of rust on them. Will keep the lead from sticking.
swamp

[bangerjim]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

[Dpmsman]

I did the same thing what a pain!! You need to hit up some household sales for the old aluminum muffin pans they work great.

Jon

[RogerDat]

I have had one muffin pan that stuck out of the bunches I have bought at garage, and estate sales or thrift store. I'm thinking I have around 750 lbs. of 11-16 lb. slabs that were cast in bread loaf pans. Around 400 lbs. of pucks from those muffin tins. Steel does work better once rusted, or even smoked like a mold would help.

I can't see spending the amount of money that would be required to buy enough "store bought" molds to do 60 to 120 lb. batches in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time. when inexpensive baking pans do just as well. But then I do most of my casting out of salvation army or garage sale pots. I only use the store bought cast iron dutch oven for smelting. Cheap molds and pots means money for brass!

I saw those same 88 cent bread loaf pans and was tempted, if nothing else they make good containers for holding brass or bullets when reloading. They stack as long as not full to the brim and are sturdy enough for the weight of cast lead bullets. For casting wet the bread loaf pans and leave them outside for a few days to rust. Should release a whole lot better.

[rondog]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

I agree. I use a Lyman, works great. Would be even better with two or more, so they could cool a little between pours. But those 1# bars fit perfectly in .30 cal USGI steel ammo cans for storage, I can get 64 in a can. Yeah, they're heavy, 65lbs/can, but the bars stay clean and dry, and readily accessible and movable.

Great weight for wintertime traction in my 2wd pickup too.

[NavyVet1959]

Some of the pans are tin coated and that just allows you to solder your ingot to the mold. I had that happen with a cookie sheet that I was using as a drip pan underneath my Lee bottom pour pot. It made quite the mess and the cookie sheet was destroyed by the time I got the lead recovered.

Some of the multi-loaf pans are not made out of a single piece of metal. Each of the loaf sections are crimped into the main body. If you fill it all the way to the top with the lead, the crimped section will probably prevent the ingot from dropping out, so you need to leave about 0.25-0.5" between the top of the loaf pan and the top of the ingot.

[lobogunleather]

Started casting bullets before I ever heard of a Wal Mart store. Been using the aluminum muffin pans for making my ingots for at least 40 years, probably made at least 1000 lbs. of lead muffins.

REAL ingot molds? Show me one with as much experience as my old muffin pans.

[bangerjim]

Started casting bullets before I ever heard of a Wal Mart store. Been using the aluminum muffin pans for making my ingots for at least 40 years, probably made at least 1000 lbs. of lead muffins.

REAL ingot molds? Show me one with as much experience as my old muffin pans.

Well.....my Lee, Lyman and RCBS 1# ingot molds have ALSO cast many thousands of them! They work great, have convenient handles and will last me a couple lifetimes. Best money I ever spend. I have 6 of them and use all when casting ingots for storage. And they do fit neatly into ammo cans a said! Unlike those round things that do not stack or store as well. I have melted down all my round muffins (from a previous life) into real ingots.

[ArrowJ]

I did my first ingots two nights ago and used the Lodge cast iron scone pan. It makes nice triangle wedges that stack well and line up nice head to toe, but it is unwieldy to use and sticks. I believe it will stop sticking when it breaks in and gets some rust. Still wish I had bought an ingot mold. I will buy one next year and retire the scone pan.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Several years back I saw these minerature cast iron frying pans that had a candle air freshener in them. They were listed as `Paula Dean` air freshner skillets. Naturally that 25 watt light bulb glowed on over my bald head as an idea for using these skillets formed. I bought the Frau 6 of them for her to burn the candle out of and me to get the iron skillet. To say they make a nifty ingot mold, complete with skillet handle, is an understatement. I hate to admit it, but they were in `Wally World`.Robert

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I picked up some small loaf pans at a garage sale. 2" wide, 4" long, and 1" deep. Make nice ingots that stick nice, and a little faster than the "traditional" Lee/Lyman/Saeco ingot molds. Mine are aluminum, and do not stick. One is non-stick coated. Seems to work fine. Once the alloy is solidified, I flip the pans with a pair of vice grips holding onto the lip.

[Dan Cash]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

Those are nice moulds and work well but are expensive and very low capacity. If you really process lead in quantity, you need bigger moulds like the fabricated angle iron moulds or, I have found, stainless steel mud pans for sheet rock work do a very good job for the large volume processor.

[Scooby]

I use this stuff from tractor supply co, to coat my ingot molds with. Smells first time you put lead in them but I think it works well.
164927

[bangerjim]

Those are nice moulds and work well but are expensive and very low capacity. If you really process lead in quantity, you need bigger moulds like the fabricated angle iron moulds or, I have found, stainless steel mud pans for sheet rock work do a very good job for the large volume processor.

I only cast what will fit in my Lee 4-20 pots. Huge mud pan or bread pan ingots are just a waste of future energy because I either have to cut them up or re-melt them for use later on in casting.

And those commercial ingot molds I have cool down very fast when setting on sopping wet cloth towels! Doesn't take but a minute to be cool enough to dump. And with six 4 cavity molds, I can move darned fast.

Works for me. And money is really no object to enjoying my hobbies. I buy what I need when I need it - and what gets the job done to my needs.

banger

[LUCKYDAWG13]

they need to rust first time i did the same thing as you

[SciFiJim]

I did my first ingots two nights ago and used the Lodge cast iron scone pan. It makes nice triangle wedges that stack well and line up nice head to toe, but it is unwieldy to use and sticks. I believe it will stop sticking when it breaks in and gets some rust. Still wish I had bought an ingot mold. I will buy one next year and retire the scone pan.

When you retire that scone pan, please make sure it does not get back in to the food prep system. My wife has instructions to destroy my muffin pan molds when I pass. The rest of my equipment is obviously for casting and reloading, but if those were sold at a yard sale, no one would know that they were used to process lead.

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

I think i'm just gonna use my angle iron molds and stamp an "A" in them when they are soft for alloyed. They will span across the top of my pot and be more stable up there. Right now I have my alloy in mini muffin size because I was using a 20# lee. When these fall off the pot edge into the pot and splash it scares the living daylights out of me!

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Walmart used to sell condiment cups that were made out of stainless steel. They charged a reasonable sum (a couple of bucks) for a set of 4 or 5. But there was no handle so you needed a pair of pliers to grip the edge and turn them over to dump the ingot. With a couple of sets you could make ingots until the cows came home. Some folks drilled holes for them in a length of board to aid in the dumping. The ingots were a comfortable size that would fit any pot and of course you could vary the weight by how full you poured the cup. LLS

[runfiverun]

I have a pretty good selection of ingot molds from rcbs and lyman.
heck I even have some custom made ones with the cast boolit logo in them.
mostly I use the gang mold I made from angle iron a few years back anymore.
I now wish I would have made three of them 25 years sooner.
the triangle shapes stack tighter and higher and neater than the ingot molds do.
they also slide right into my 10-20 and 40 lb pots without any drama.
and they take just a bit less lead than my stainless soup ladle holds, which allows me to keep the oxidized scum out of the ingots.

[grumman581]

Walmart used to sell condiment cups that were made out of stainless steel. They charged a reasonable sum (a couple of bucks) for a set of 4 or 5. But there was no handle so you needed a pair of pliers to grip the edge and turn them over to dump the ingot. With a couple of sets you could make ingots until the cows came home. Some folks drilled holes for them in a length of board to aid in the dumping. The ingots were a comfortable size that would fit any pot and of course you could vary the weight by how full you poured the cup. LLS

They're a pretty good size. I made a holder for them out of some rebar...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?107444-Homemade&p=2372084&viewfull=1#post2372084

Here's how the condiment cup "ingot mold" sits in the holder:
80784

Here's the two that I made:
80785

[alfloyd]

And with six 4 cavity molds, I can move darned fast.
bangerjim

You only have six of them?

I have managed to acquire 15 of them over the years, 3 Saeco and 12 Lyman.
That way I can make 60 pounds of lead ingots at a time and by the time I refill the "smelting" pot they are cool and ready to dump.

Lafaun

[Rustyleee]

I use cast iron corn stick molds. I picked mine up at a yard sale years ago.

[NavyVet1959]

When you retire that scone pan, please make sure it does not get back in to the food prep system. My wife has instructions to destroy my muffin pan molds when I pass. The rest of my equipment is obviously for casting and reloading, but if those were sold at a yard sale, no one would know that they were used to process lead.

The mere possibility that someone might have used cast iron with lead is the reason that any cast iron cookware that I buy for food is always new and any that I buy used is used for lead. I suspect that if I really wanted to use a used piece for food, I could probably clean it of any residual lead contamination. Maybe start out by pressure washing it and then sandblasting it, followed by another pressure washing.

Up until 1986, drinking water systems used 50:50 lead:tin solder. As such, many of us have drank a lot of water that was exposed to lead in the supply lines.

[lightman]

I'm in the group that uses the Lyman style molds. I run 6 of them at a time. I don't see the wisdom in casting something that won't fit into my casting pot. At $25-$30 each these molds are expensive! If I had not found these at a gun show for $2 each I would make some from channel iron. If you guys that use muffin tins or cornbread molds are happy then thats all that counts.

[rondog]

I found a WWI mess kit in an antique shop for cheap and I was tempted to buy it, but it was obvious that it had been used to melt lead with, so I passed. Bummed me out, it would have been a great addition to my collection. Found another one later though.

[mold maker]

Drinking water has been running through pure lead pipes since city water has been available. Flint Mi is a good example.
It was all perfectly safe till they ran acidic water through them.
Just how much actual lead can cast iron retain, and how hard would it be to get rid of it?
Not being a smart *** , just wondering if anybody has facts instead of hysterical rants.

[ArrowJ]

I would never reuse cast iron for food after melting lead nor would my wife, but I wondered about that too. It seems like there might be a theoretical way to clean it enough to make it safe. I would probably just take a sledge hammer to it if I did not have a forum to give away unwanted cast iron on.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Just recently got some of those NOE ingot molds that use mold handles, just like their molds really nice to work with.Robert

[reddog81]

I'm pretty sure you could easily find better and cheaper ingot molds at a thrift shop. The nice thing about ingot molds is that the condition is irrelevant. I use some old school heavy duty muffin "tins". I have no idea what they are made have but they are pretty heavy duty and the 2.5 Lbs circular ingots fit perfectly into my LEE 20lbs pot.

[dragon813gt]

they need to rust first time i did the same thing as you

Yep :)
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/Reloading/0dcc18ac.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/Firearms/Reloading/0dcc18ac.jpg.html)

They are Wilton MiniLoaf pans. The 1# ingot molds are to small and a waste of time for me. Each ingot is 3.5#s and this was a normal processing batch.

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)

I you stack them one up, one down they will lock into place. There is no wasted space when stacking. The commercially available ingot molds are to expensive and time consuming to use.

[Seeker]

Maybe I'm lucky or something. My wife picked me up a Wally World Teflon coated mini muffin pan a while ago. 24 little ingots to the pour. I figured if it worked for 1 smelting session it'd pay for itself. It's been through 2 sessions and a total of 400 lbs of sorted cowws (weight of ingots after pouring) and 250 lbs of pure lead. It still has the Teflon coating and looks almost new. I just pick it up and fan it a few times between pours to cool it some and then fill it up again.

[Geezer in NH]

I love the mini-muffin trays!!

[NavyVet1959]

Drinking water has been running through pure lead pipes since city water has been available. Flint Mi is a good example.
It was all perfectly safe till they ran acidic water through them.
Just how much actual lead can cast iron retain, and how hard would it be to get rid of it?
Not being a smart *** , just wondering if anybody has facts instead of hysterical rants.

I'm firmly convinced that just living is hazardous to your health...

We used to think that the fish out of our local rivers are lakes were perfectly safe. Not so if you read the notices put out by the TPWD... Limit of two 8-oz portions per month? Hell, both of those combined doesn't equal what we used to call a decent meal at a backyard fish fry. :(

http://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/general-rules-regulations/fish-consumption-bans-and-advisories

[725]

I made an ingot mold out of angle aluminum. Blocked the two ends, put two "feet" on the bottom, voila. Lead mold.

[jrayborn]

I have about 3 tons of ingots I made using 2 Lyman and one Lee ingot molds. No big deal.

[Big Dangle]

Fastest way is next time you have a fire toss it it gets red hot for a while come back a day or so later bang it on a rock a couple time, your in business. Done this with the little cheap steel ones like your talking about, hell I even cut them up to give to friends for aluminum ingots.

[birddog]

Ya I've had the muffin tins and can say they're not worth taking to the house. One year and they're rusted completely through. Have some cast iron pans that are 50 yrs old and still look fine.
Charlie

[Hardcast416taylor]

Went to a Salvation Army thrift store yesterday just to browze. Found quite a few stainless condiment cups besides gravy boats for about a buck apiece, bought 6 of them. All had a base to hold them upright and look to hold about 3 lb. or maybe more depending how liberal I am with the dipping soup ladle. Sorta surprised that nobody here has mentioned looking here for these cups?Robert

[NavyVet1959]

I also use the WalMart stainless steel condiment cups. As previously mentioned, they hold about 1.5 lbs of lead per cup. I haven't seen them at WalMart in awhile though. I stack them on shelves that I built between the exposed 2x4 studs in the walls of my garage. I can usually get 2 high by 2 deep on each shelf. When I smelt down the lead, I originally put the lead into some larger ingot molds that I made out of channel iron, but although they would fit in the Lee pot, they had enough mass that it quickly cooled down the rest of the lead, causing it to solidify. So, I started putting those large ingots in the Lee pot and then pouring out the bottom into the stainless steel condiment cups. Since I normally just use a 50:50 WW:Pb alloy, this makes it easy to measure out when adding to the pot -- just put one WW ingot and one Pb ingot in the pot when it gets slightly low.

[MarkP]

UOTE=dragon813gt;3598518]Yep :)

They are Wilton MiniLoaf pans. The 1# ingot molds are to small and a waste of time for me. Each ingot is 3.5#s and this was a normal processing batch.

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)

I you stack them one up, one down they will lock into place. There is no wasted space when stacking. The commercially available ingot molds are to expensive and time consuming to use.[/QUOTE]

I love the picture!

[imashooter2]

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/serving600.jpg
http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/smelt10-30s.jpg

[zubrato]

Used the muffin tins before too, and another pan for drips. Had to use pliers to pry the lead out.

Right now I'm between getting a Lyman or RCBS ingot mold. I like the handle on the Lyman but I'd be weary of that rat tail breaking or slipping out of the handle.

Plus seems people have trouble with the RCBS ingot molds sticking bad until they rust up.

Should I pony up for the SAECO or just go for RCBS, with their great warranty?

Edit: this will mostly be for emptying a 20 lb pot, rather than mass scale smelting.

[jrayborn]

Lymans work well, Lee works just as well and cheaper. For your use I would get two Lee's and call it a day.

[lightman]

Ingot molds are sort of a personal preference. I started with muffin tins and did not care for the way they stacked. I found some cornbread molds and while they worked well enough, I did not like the way they stacked either. I found a selection of the Lyman type molds at a show for $2 each and have stayed with them. There was a mix of several brands. Anyway, my smelting pot holds around 400# and by the time I have filled the 6th mold the first is ready to dump. I don't have to wait on them to harden until right at the end of the pot. Its pretty much fill and dump right up until the pot is empty.

[RogerDat]

The point made earlier about bread loaf pans being too big for the pot is true. I pretty much only use those to make 12# slabs of raw ingredients, not so much for finished alloy. The batches of finished alloy I tend to pour into the angle iron molds. I just got tired of making big bunches of angle iron ingots for plain and COWW batches, have plenty for smaller amounts so I switched to bread loaf pans. I also had several hundred pounds of print spacers. Those would have taken several sessions as 1.5# angle iron or muffin puck ingots. As bread loaf pans it was just one session. Easier to move around too, 30# of slab is easy to pick up (two pieces) that same 30# as angle iron is a handful.

When I decide I want to make a recipe I can come up with a small batch using pucks and angle iron ingots, or better I can mix up 60# pot of what alloy I desire and pour that material into angle iron ingots.

[ArrowJ]

I just finished smelting all the lead I currently own, about 150lbs. This is how it stacks from the scone pan mold...cottage cheese container gives an idea of scale. They fell out easier this time and I think it will only get better.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160407/d4a9c3a62f149dcd6f1086ff04521a27.jpg

[RogerDat]

Those wedges look like they stack pretty well. Nice looking stash of boolits to be. I do the same thing you do with your Sn, I make it into smaller ingots since it gets used in smaller quantities, and different shape for ease of identification.

These are angle iron ingots. They are the right length to fit SFRB but take longer to cast than the slabs in the picture under them. I have a mix so I can get small angle iron bars (like your wedges) to measure in smaller quantities, for making a big batch I'll use the slabs. Or even just make a few into angle iron ingots for later use.

165604

165606

Bottom line, use what works for you, check out what other people have found works for them. It's all good.

[brettb75]

I use a old cornbread Cast Iron maker I picked up at flea market for a couple bucks aa7nd it Works great

[zubrato]

what do you guys use for tin ingots? been thinking about casting them into bullets, but dont want to shoot them by accident, maybe round balls but there's always sprue to deal with..

whats a good solution?

[RogerDat]

what do you guys use for tin ingots? been thinking about casting them into bullets, but dont want to shoot them by accident, maybe round balls but there's always sprue to deal with..

whats a good solution?

Mini cupcake tin, pour "coins" of roughly 1/4 to 1/8 thick depending on what size your mold is. Also there are little round super mini cupcake or maybe they are candy tins. They make disks around the size of a quarter. Easy to mark with a sharpie what the tin content is and throw into a ziplock baggie for storage. Or just a "P" for pewter, or "Sn" etc. Check at your local salvation army or thrift stores a few times and some of the smaller ones will surely turn up, or buy right at walmart or target. Something like the 24 or 48 ones here. http://www.target.com/c/bakeware-kitchen-home/cupcake-and-muffin-pans/-/N-5xtsbZ5v30r#?lnk=cupcakepan%20&intc=3159609|null

Sort of higher priced but nice is this mold from theburpyfrog on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ingot-mold-Pewter-lead-duck-decoy-keel-weight-mold-made-of-cast-aluminum-/272196316327?hash=item3f602a2ca7:g:YSQAAOSwLVZV5OA Q

That mold casts finger sized ingots with a "P" stamped in each one. You can also look for a Potter brand/company mold which this is an aluminum copy of. I use the mold from theburpyfrog for pewter, can get about 5# of ingots into a ziplock sandwich bag. I still do assorted scrap solder in coins, I collect enough to melt a batch, then get a coin or two xrf gunned so I can label the Sn percentage of all that batch of coins. End up with baggies of different denominations. 26 Sn, 33 Sn, 41 Sn etc. I just use the custom line in the alloy calculator to enter the Sn percentage and feed the coins into a recipe.

[imashooter2]

For pewter, I have a few Potter #107 molds and cast ~2 ounce ingots from a Lyman dipper. The 1/2 pound slots from a Lee mold filled shallow would be similar.

http://www.imashooter2.com/pictures/potter107.jpg

http://www.imashooter2.com/sell/pew6s.jpg