Lead Muffins Fresh Out of the Oven

[hawkenhunter50]

Poured some lead ingots into some new muffin pans. They are the cheap aluminum ( i think ) ones from Wally World, less than a buck each. They are now stuck in the pan, beat and banged and they do not come loose. Seems like the sides are loose but they are stuck to the bottom. What muffin pans are you guys using or do you treat these cheap ones with something? Luckily only did 2 ingots so far.

[rancher1913]

Stainless steel. You will probably destroy those getting the ingots out, good luck

[2011redrider]

197671I started with those and had to cut strips at the top and take some needle noes plier to peel the strips off and destroyed the 88 cent pan. Sprayed the next one with graphite from pb blaster and they worked like a charm. Done 300 muffins since with two pans.

[turtlezx]

sand them down and leave them out side wet. Let them rust up then they wont stick

about the only thing rust is good for

[OptimusPanda]

I did that once by mistake, the muffin ingots pretty much soldered themselves in place. It took many four letter words and prying implements to free them. Remedied by picking up some dollar aluminum muffin pans from the thrift shop. You'll find all kinds of amusing shapes. My favorite is a smiling ghost and easter bunny faces.

[Grmps]

I think lead stuck in muffin tins is an initiation rite for new smelters. When I happened to me I ended up popping out all the "cups" with lead in them and putting them in a pot of lead to melt out. Now I usually use 1 1/2 angle iron 5 cavity ingot molds, they average 2 # of lead , stack / ship and fit nicely in all my casting pots.
I used to invert muffin tins/ingot molds over the pot when I burned off the sawdust for fluxing, kinda smoked them like a bullet mold

[gwpercle]

There is only one maker of all aluminum uncoated muffin pans that I know of....WILTON.
I have used Wilton one piece and two piece mini-muffin pans for decades and they will not stick.
You can find them at Wally World but they are in the special birthday cake baking section....not with the regular baking pans. You can order directly from Wilton also. They make three sizes of muffin pans and a line of mini loaf pans for rectangular bars....this one I have never found in Wally World but it would make a nice ingot .
Search Wilton Mini Muffin Pan and check out their stuff. I got on their email list and they have sales and such all the time. Remember Wilton is the secrete word .
Gary

[hawkenhunter50]

Well I will try the rusting method and the graphite method if the rust doesnt pan out. So whats the deal, lead sticks to SS but not Aluminum then?

[renegade99]

Check your pans with a magnet, you said you used aluminum muffin pans, are you sure? Lead should not stick to aluminum. If they are magnetic, and therefor steel you can try a propane torch across the bottom with the pan inverted and over a container to catch the lead, then if you can get them clean enough get them rusty, other wise cut them apart and remelt them.

[nvbirdman]

Somebody once suggested stainless steel condiment cups from Walmart and I tried some. Fantastic! Cheap, and I think better than a muffin pan.

[Chill Wills]

Used cast iron works best if thought of as a long term tool you will be using the rest of your life.
Here are two examples from ebay that don't break the bank. Also, the stick shape can be good. I pour a mix of both muffins and stick, for what ever that is worth.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wagner-1164-Non-Stick-Cast-Iron-Bread-Sausage-Pan-New-Gift-/111861178618?hash=item1a0b7220fa:g:MIsAAOSwSdZWgiD L

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Cast-Iron-11-Cup-Muffin-Popover-Pan-1-/332241549320?hash=item4d5b23b808:g:PVgAAOSwaEhZK3R j

[alamogunr]

Cast iron does work best. Can get spendy though. Several years ago I ran across a deal on ebay for several iron ingot molds. These were Lyman, RCBS and SAECO. My bid was reasonable except I forgot to look at the shipping cost. They were coming from California. Cast iron is heavy! Almost double the cost. Still got'em though.

Also found some cast iron muffin ware at a Cabela's outlet in Nebraska while on our way to Yellowstone one year. I think there are 4 or 5 of them out in the shop. I won't use anything but rusty cast iron.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Surely most of you folk must weld or have a friend that does.

Just get some channel iron and a couple pieces of flat bar and make your own molds and be done with it.

Make em big or small depending on the channel iron used, the ingots all stack tightly taking up little storage room.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Chill Wills]

Cast iron does work best. Can get spendy though. Several years ago I ran across a deal on ebay for several iron ingot molds. These were Lyman, RCBS and SAECO. My bid was reasonable except I forgot to look at the shipping cost. They were coming from California. Cast iron is heavy! Almost double the cost. Still got'em though.

Yes, some of it is collectable to some people, plus ebay is just a high priced source for anything, but ebay has a lot of options to look at. I have seen many a good deal, but for the over priced shipping. The high, over priced shipping Stops me cold. Keep an eye out, fairly priced cast iron is out there.
I have all I need and slowly acquired it for not much money by just keeping my eyes open.

A good set of steel channel ingot pans, made to the size you want, is first class.
Welding up some is great, but if you don't have access to metal fabrication, a simple cast iron purchase gets a ingot mold fast without turning into yet, another project. All depends on how much extra time you have at this point in your life.

[alamogunr]

I agree that ingot molds fabricated from angle iron are probably best. I don't weld and when I said that I got my ingot molds several years ago, it was probably over 20 years ago. I've got 2 buckets of sorted COWW and one bucket of SOWW that have been sitting behind the shop for at least 5 years to clean up and that is it for me. I'm too old to add to my stash of at least 2 tons and WW are too contaminated with zinc and steel to mess with. You would be lucky to get 75 lbs of lead from a full 5 gal. bucket in this area now.

[Grmps]

Try thrift stores, goodwill, salvation army ... I've gotten several cast iron molds suitable for ingots (1/2 corn cob, pie sections etc, small loaf pans and muffin pans (I use the mini muffin pans for pewter/tin, easy to make/store 1 - 2 oz ingots)

[Chill Wills]

Wow! Those look nice! I have not asked for WW in years. I guess I should. Could get lucky!

[Grmps]

You can get WAGNER 1164 NON-STICK CAST IRON BREAD AND SAUSAGE PAN NEW for
Price: $15.95 Free Shipping for Prime Members on Amazon
I've never tried this but it looks interesting and the ingot should load nicely in your casting pot.

[alamogunr]

To add to my earlier post where I said I had 2 buckets of sorted COWW. Well, I got started on them Saturday. Kind of slow going since I don't have some of the paraphernalia that I had used in the past. I still have my big pot though. I managed to get the two buckets of COWW melted down and some cast into ingots. Apparently, I had sorted out the SOWW but not the zinc. Quite a few unmelted weights that had to be zinc. I ran out of steam(mine) before I got all the melt cast into ingots. I was also running out of propane since I started out with less than half a tank. That worked out to this old man's advantage. I've got 120 ingots that may average 1 lbs each and almost that much lead still in the pot. It is raining cats and dogs outside right now so I may not get back to it before the middle of next week.

I might mention a problem that I will have to work out with my pot. It is a piece of straight side 12" steel pipe. Whatever is left in the pot stays there. I am open to suggestions how to get the last bit out. If I can't figure it out, it may have to stay right where it is since it is HEAVY!. I may dig a hole and tip it in and cover it up.

Mostly I'm looking forward to working up the SOWW since I don't have a lot of soft lead. I hope to get about 100 lbs of ingots from it.

[Chill Wills]

I might mention a problem that I will have to work out with my pot. It is a piece of straight side 12" steel pipe. Whatever is left in the pot stays there. I am open to suggestions how to get the last bit out. If I can't figure it out, it may have to stay right where it is since it is HEAVY!. I may dig a hole and tip it in and cover it up.

John, Do you have a bail on your large pot? If not, can you make and install one from hardware?
I used to use a 10 inch cast iron dutch to clean my lead. Some years ago I went to a larger pot after the dutch showed signs a failing.

As you can see in the third picture, I too started without the means to pour out the last of it and did not like it.
So, I added the bail and a tab to put a vice grip on and regardless the weight, to a point, I can tip the pot over while still resting on the burner and empty it into a mold.

This way I do not have to lift it - just pour it. Just set a mold next to it and keeping one side of the pot resting on the burner, fill the last of the lead into the ingot molds.

[lwknight]

You need the steel muffin pans. Do not get the ones that are tinned. Do get the non stick.
You have to burn the pans in fire to burn off all the non sticky stuff. Get them red hot then your ingots will never stick again.

[alamogunr]

John, Do you have a bail on your large pot? If not, can you make and install one from hardware?
I used to use a 10 inch cast iron dutch to clean my lead. Some years ago I went to a larger pot after the dutch showed signs a failing.

As you can see in the third picture, I too started without the means to pour out the last of it and did not like it.
So, I added the bail and a tab to put a vice grip on and regardless the weight, to a point, I can tip the pot over while still resting on the burner and empty it into a mold.

This way I do not have to lift it - just pour it. Just set a mold next to it and keeping one side of the pot resting on the burner, fill the last of the lead into the ingot molds.

Yes, CW, my pot has a bail that was put on by the welder that made it for me. He went sort of overboard and the bail has such a large arc that it extends more than a foot above the top of the pot. Makes it kind of unwieldy to handle. I might mention that my 12" pipe pot has 3/8" wall and the bottom is 1/2" plate. Takes awhile just to heat up the pot. I would guess it weighs 60 or 70 lbs.

I think that when I get toward the bottom and the #5 Rowell won't work any more that I will just tilt the pot and use a #2 Rowell to dip as much as I can and not leave a huge disc of lead in the bottom. What little lead is left should just drop out. That will go into a dutch oven that I can pour the last ingots from or make just one big ingot and add it to the bottom of my safe.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[David2011]

Your aluminum pan was probably tin plated steel. Molten lead adheres to it easily and instantly. I made the same mistake once trying to dump all of the alloy in my pot into what I thought was a small galvanized bucket - SWMBO's little decorative bucket, of course. Lead would not had stuck if I had been correct but several pounds of lead became part of the bucket. :oops:

[MOA]

I agree that ingot molds fabricated from angle iron are probably best. I don't weld and when I said that I got my ingot molds several years ago, it was probably over 20 years ago. I've got 2 buckets of sorted COWW and one bucket of SOWW that have been sitting behind the shop for at least 5 years to clean up and that is it for me. I'm too old to add to my stash of at least 2 tons and WW are too contaminated with zinc and steel to mess with. You would be lucky to get 75 lbs of lead from a full 5 gal. bucket in this area now.

Have to agree with you alamogunr, hard to find anyone who will even sell WW to you anymore. I was lucky a week or so ago to get two five gallons of WW, about four hundred pounds, got about 325 pounds out of it, here are 64 square muffin tin ingots that are about five pounds each. Took about three to four hours to get-r-done.


https://s19.postimg.org/at6qzb9mr/new_images_June_10_2017_001.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/t8r7wpnr3/)

[Chill Wills]

Something odd is posting here. I am having deja vu....:mrgreen: