Grill side burner

[wb_carpenter]

I am getting into casting I am buying a lee 6 cavity mold and was wondering if anyone has ever used the side burner on there grill for some light duty casting/smelting. I would be concerned about lead contamination but would there be a way to safely clean up afterwords? Seems unsafe to me but my mind was wondering about it. I eventually will purchase a bottom pour pot but just invested in a reloading setup and money is tight. If anything I have a camping grill I could make work although I would rather a more sturdy heat source.

[kelbro]

That should work if it will hold the weight and not tip the grill.

[lylejb]

Funny you should say that tonight.

Earlier today, I had an old BBQ I was getting rid of, and had the thought, hey...the side burner still works. In my case, the rest of the BBQ was trash, so I removed the "side tray" with the burner in it. I used a couple of 2x4's for a base, and made a portable burner.

It works. I smelted about 15 lbs of stick on wheel weights, just to try it out. It is slower than the turkey fryer, of course. But got the job done.

Rather than try to use your good BBQ for casting, take a look in craigslist. You might find an old BBQ, mostly trashed but with a good side burner, for free or very cheep. then do as I did, keep the side burner, trash the rest.

another thought (while looking in craigslist) is a coleman camp stove. Lots of people have / do use them

And welcome to castboolits:bigsmyl2:

[Boondocker]

It should work all right, just add some support under it as it does'nt take long to add weight to a lead pot.:smile: Boon

[Shiloh]

What boondocker said.

Additional support is needed. The Coleman grate gets red hot and soft from the weigh of lead concentrated on one part of the grate. There is also the heat reflected back down on the grate and burner from a heavy vessel containng molten lead at 650+ degrees.

SHiloh

[hoosierlogger]

I use the side burner on my old grill to put the shot dripper on. All it does is keeps the lead in the dripper hot. I ladle lead into it from the turkey fryer set up next to it.

[wb_carpenter]

I made some muffin pan ingots out of some wheelweight I got a hold of using my camping grill(not stove). I wouldnt be quick to do it again but it did work. Now I need to buy some molds and the first time playing with lead I didnt burn the house down.

[pjh421]

That is how I got started smelting (after clogging my Lee casting furnace). I lag-screwed some 4X4 wood together so I could hang the bail of a plumber's 25lb. capacity pot by some stout chain. This just helped take a bit of weight off the side burner. The pot was not super heavy to begin with but nonetheless I didn't want free falling molten lead. A 1/4-20 bolt, washers and nut through a couple of links gave the correct chain length. You get a lot of heat loss with this setup but I cobbled it up with plenty of aluminum foil. It worked fine but I don't miss those days. Make sure you use a casting thermometer (pyrometer) and keep the temp down to around 600F so you don't melt any zinc. That's all I could afford then.

Paul