Wheelweight smelting alloy melting equipment

[joeb33050]

WHEELWEIGHT SMELTING ALLOY MELTING EQUIPMENT

Before moving to this Florida condo, I had a "plumbers bomb", a propane-fired scary lead melting apparatus. It is a terrifying item and I was glad to give it to a friend.
I smelted a couple of pails of wheelweights down here with my 20 pound Lee pot; but this takes a lot of time.
Searching for an alternative, I went to the Salvation Army store, for a couple of weeks, and bought all the equipment shown for well under $20. This rig is small, light, not scary, and works great.

The hot plate is 1000 watt, 110/120 volt.
The stainless pot is 6 5/8" diameter by 4 1/4" deep, holding about 135 cubic inches. Wheelweights weigh about .4 pounds per cubic inch, so the pot holds about 54 pounds full to the top, maybe 40 pounds of wheelweights when 3" deep in the pot. It takes about two pots full to hold the US Standard sheetrock joint compound pail, (5 gal.) full of wheelweights.
The dipper fills up the muffin tins quickly, the skimmer thing gets rid of the wheelweight clips and miscellaneous trash easily.
This equipment does the job for me, easily and quickly.

[Castnshoot]

Man, and here I was looking at expensive stuff to do all my smelting. What an idiot! I'm going to have to go your route as well.

[Pepe Ray]

Hey Joe;
Do me/us a favor and confirm that the pot is SS. It sure looks like a HD Aluminum one that I have (not for lead).
Thanks, Pepe Ray

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

I wouldn't have thought the hotplate got it hot enough..Is there different watt hot plates? Paying attention to the wattage is the key?

[Fleataxi]

GB: The OP said it was a 1000 watt plate - that should be plenty hot enough for that size pot - you're melting the lead, not cooking it! :D

Fleataxi

[Castnshoot]

Is 500 watts good enough for 10 to 20 lb pots?

[joeb33050]

[QUOTE=Pepe Ray;432306]Hey Joe;
Do me/us a favor and confirm that the pot is SS. It sure looks like a HD Aluminum one that I have (not for lead).
Thanks, Pepe Ray[/QUOTE
It's stainless, as is the ladle/dipper item.
joe b.

[joeb33050]

Is 500 watts good enough for 10 to 20 lb pots?

I don't know, the 1000 watt melts pretty quick. Paid $5 for it, nib. Like all veterans, I support the Salvation Army before any other org.
joe b.

[Castnshoot]

I don't know, the 1000 watt melts pretty quick. Paid $5 for it, nib. Like all veterans, I support the Salvation Army before any other org.
joe b.

I hear that. See, I was looking at 500 watts but I wasn't sure how well/fast it melted, so I'm heading on to the Salvation Army myself to see how nice they can be to me. I have my 10lb RCBS cast pot and Lyman ingot mould coming in tomorrow, so I want to go ahead and get the rest of my smelting equipment together. I have about 150# of gray love waiting for me to melt it.

[Leadforbrains]

That out fit that Joeb is using is pretty much the same that I started out with. It worked for me fine. I am now using a gas cooker and cast iron pot just to speed things up, but the hot plate and SS pot got me in the game earlier on.

[John Boy]

Joe, pick yourself up a magnet and then put it on the end of a stick to pick the clip-on's out of the bucket and into the pot. Saves a lot of time

PS: Excellent job on the book

[GLOCKENNBOOMER]

How can you tell the difference in pots? I guess a magnet for SS would work....I'm looking to get setup in smelting operations...currently being a good little leadwhore.

[weakhand luke]

Might be good to remember that the hotplate was not designed to support #50, nor the handle on the pan to lift #50, just to be safe.

[jdgabbard]

Better setup then what I have for that atm. Currently I'm using the small Lee pot and a modified soup ladle for casting. Who would have thought casting on the patio at an Apartment building was possible...

[Hardcast416taylor]

I still have, and use my first homemade melt pot..I got the heating coil out of 2 electric frying pans. One piece of 8" steel pipe and a piece of 12" steel pipe both 12" long. After I welded a bottom in the smaller pipe I welded clips on the pipe to hold the heating coils. After getting the coils thru the side of the 12" I welded the whole thing to a set of 3/4" pipe legs on a flat base. I plug in both coils to melt a full pot. I unplug 1 to cool the temp. as I have no controls for that. I packed non-asbestos insulation around the coils and topped it off on top with plaster. Never figured the capacity out, must be over 100 lbs.:castmine:

[Castnshoot]

I still have, and use my first homemade melt pot..I got the heating coil out of 2 electric frying pans. One piece of 8" steel pipe and a piece of 12" steel pipe both 12" long. After I welded a bottom in the smaller pipe I welded clips on the pipe to hold the heating coils. After getting the coils thru the side of the 12" I welded the whole thing to a set of 3/4" pipe legs on a flat base. I plug in both coils to melt a full pot. I unplug 1 to cool the temp. as I have no controls for that. I packed non-asbestos insulation around the coils and topped it off on top with plaster. Never figured the capacity out, must be over 100 lbs.:castmine:

Now, THAT we must see pics for! :D

[shooterg]

Why not use the adjustable control thingy that came with the electric fry pans ?