dealing with large ingots

[Gunlaker]

Hi,

I'm just getting into casting for BPCR. I've got almost all of my equipment :D.

I've also picked up two 60 lb lead ingots and a handful of tin one pounders. Whats the best way to deal with these big lead ingots? I tried attacking 'em with my sawzall, but it was a pretty slow go.

Any suggestions? I was thinking that maybe I ought to cut them in half, get a big pot, melt them and pour smaller ingots?

thanks,

Chris.

[standles]

axe

circular saw with blade reversed

There are several threads dealing with tearing down large ingots/rolls that had other ideas. A quick search should turn them up

Steven

[runfiverun]

cast iron pot on the cooker and make smaller ones.

[AZ-Stew]

A coarse wood cutting blade in the sawzall will work much better than a metal cutting (hacksaw) blade. Cut slowly with it and let the blade do the work. A coarse bandsaw blade (in a bandsaw, of course) will work, as well.

Don't use a cutting torch. It will heat the lead to the vapor point. You don't want to inhale that.

Some claim that an axe works. If you're cutting pure lead, though, it'll be a lot like cutting bubble gum, regardless of the tool.

Someone mentioned a good cutting fluid for sawing lead a few months ago, but I don't remember who or what the fluid was. Maybe he'll read this post and refresh our memories.

Regards,

Stew

[Dale53]

I've been faced with this problem several times through the years. My "Final" solution is to use a large cast iron Dutch Oven (mine is 12" from Harbor Freight) sitting on my Fish Fryer from Bass Pro. I have melted up to and including a 92 lb ingot on my Fish Fryer Smelter. After it is melted and fluxed it is a piece of cake to "make little ones out of big ones".

Here's my set up while working:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/QWinter2009andleadsmelting-1767.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/QWinter2009andleadsmelting-1771.jpg

Dale53

[snaggdit]

Another popular suggestion was a chain saw, but you will have lead chips flying all over. The suggestion was use over a tarp. Haven't tried it myself, but it should work. The problem is getting the chips out of the teeth, that's why a sawsall has issues. Courser teeth would preform better. Bandsaw or circular saw allows the teeth to fling out the lead removed. If thin enough, an axe will do it easy!

[SciFiJim]

I've used a circular saw. A lesson I learned is to cut them in a large plastic tub to collect the flying lead "sawdust", otherwise it will find every tiny crack and crevice on your floor.

[Johnch]

I use a cheap electric chain saw I got at a yard sale

Go slow and use lots of oil and the lead cuts easy , pure to lino

Then sweep up the chips and dump them in the pot

I cut up a couple of sail boat keels and 60 lb pigs

John

[hammerhead357]

I go with Dale here just put the doggoned thing in the big melting pot and then cast up a lot of smaller ingots.
If its lino you are working with you can break the bars over the edge of an anvil or a piece of rail from the railroad. Don't use a torch what ever you do it creates to much lead vapor and that is not good for you...Wes

[winelover]

HAMMER & CHISEL---sized accordingly! No flying chips to deal with. If you have an air compressor, a phenumatic chisel works well also.

WINELOVER

[redneckdan]

I melted a long 500 lb ingot once by suspending it from a large over head limb with a come along and lowering it into the smelting pot a little at a time. When the pot would fill up I ladled it into molds then keep lowering the ingot. For molds I use 2" steel angle welded like this VVVVVVV When you close up the ends make sure you have some draft otherwise the ingots stay in. I got the idea from KTW, he made his mold about 12" long. I cast them at 24", one will fill up a 10lb lee casting pot.

[zuke]

Has anyone thought of just throwing it all into a wood fire then looking thru the ashes after it's all cooled down?
I did it that way for year's when I was younger and had bigger chunk's to deal with.

[montana_charlie]

I was trying to cut down a large ingot last week. While driving a splitting wedge through with a sledge, it occurred to me that the guy who owns a hydraulic log splitter should have the perfect tool...
CM

[jdgabbard]

I was trying to cut down a large ingot last week. While driving a splitting wedge through with a sledge, it occurred to me that the guy who owns a hydraulic log splitter should have the perfect tool...
CM

I don't know, I've owned a hydraulic log splitter, and while its not problem busting big logs along the grain, I imagine it would be a bit tougher to but up a big thick ingot....

[Gunlaker]

Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions :p.

I think I'll try the melt it down and make smaller ingots technique first. I've got a big propane burner (construction heater) that I can probably convert. I'll just have to dig up a big cast iron pot.

Chris.

[Dale53]

We all have our own ideas how to do things. Frankly, trying to split a large lead ingot with a log splitter gives me the "heeby-jeebies". With all of that pressure on the splitter I would be afraid of breaking it with all of the potential for serious bodily harm (one of my shooting buddies with LOTS of experience with a log splitter had a piece "fly away" at warp speed breaking his arm).

Really, good people, it is SO easy to melt it down using a rig similar to mine (that is really the "cat's meow" for regular smelting) for reducing those large ingots. It is efficient, relatively safe and easy on equipment. It didn't cost a fortune, either. I did 650 lbs in a afternoon including set up and break down.

FWIW
Dale53

[sqlbullet]

I gotta concur with Dale53...Get a decent sized dutch oven or similar pot, and a stove. I have even used a coleman white gas stove with success. My large ingots are 33 lbs, and I generally melt three of them before I start casting 1lb ingots.

[hammerhead357]

Like I said I agree with Dale on just melting the entire ingot and making smaller ones. But I would consider either making a welded pot or getting someone to make me one. I know I am planning on doing so and I have never had a problem with the one I use for smaller melts.

If you read some of Texasflyboys posts about the cast iron dutch ovens cracking or breaking and letting melted lead loose everywhere. This is a disaster we can all do without....Wes

[Greg5278]

I was one to mention the chainsaw, it will cut like tough wood. Just set it up to catch the chips. A 6 by 4" ingot will take less than a minute at 3/4 throttle. The chansaw teeth have enough clearance to clear the swarf out of the cut. Lead isn't hard to cut, just hard to clear out of the way when it's in chip form. Have you ever tried to drill it? What a PITA!
Greg

[Suo Gan]

Splitting lead with a log splitter works just fine, just take it slow...I split over a thousand pounds of foundry lead last summer like this. I have a homemade log splitter with a large ram that I took from an old crawler. I initially had it mounted on a six inch I beam. The first tough wood and I had the beam bent in a C shape. So I mounted it on a ten inch I beam about 15 years ago, and it has been splitting everything no problem since. For particulurly tough wood, I have a 15 foot long rope with a loop that I use to pull the handle and split the "scary" wood. I used this principle when splitting the lead, and figured out the it was not as tough to split as some wood is...I also use it to straighten bent car frames or anything else that needs a bending or straightening.

[243winxb]

Melting 40lb ingot by lowering it into the smelting pot a little at a time. When the pot would fill up I ladled it into molds then keep lowering the ingot. Pot on Coleman camp stove. More than 40lbs would be to heavy for the Coleman.

[Zbench]

How about something like this? It will hold about 400# of range scrap. Conceptually, if you could lift a heavy enough ingot, it will fit in there too. It's about 4' long and a foot wide. Has a convenient bottom pouring valve as well.

<evil grin>

Pete

http://www.leadandbrass.com/smelt2.jpg

[testhop]

how about useing a HARBOR FRIGHT weedburner it makes short work out big ingots.
but watch where you point that flame thrower.

[squid1230]

My "Final" solution is to use a large cast iron Dutch Oven
Dale53

Dale - I'd be careful in choosing your words. Final solution and Oven should never be in the same sentence :-P

[Echo]

A chum was in a similar situation. His solution was to use a weedburner to melt the large chunk, letting it run into a little gully he had scraped out with a hoe in the dirt. Manageable then...

[blackthorn]

Expired 20lb propane tanks are easy to come by. Just screw out the valve, fill the tank with water, cut a 4x4" hole around where the valve used to be, fill with water again, just to be sure there is no gas left in the tank. Lay the tank on its side and cut it off just below the "shoulder". You will wind up with a good sized steel pot for almost no cost!

If you are worried about the combined weight of the pot + lead on whatever you are using for a heat sourse, do this: Take 4 cement building blocks and place them so that the pot will sit solidly, leaving a hole in the center. Take a cast or steel pipe elbow (2"or 3"), prop it up under the pot and stick a tiger torch into the lower end. It will give you all the heat you need and more! Same set up will work under a great big pot to boil corn for your big summer pig roast!