First Casting/Smelting session

[Fortkevin2]

I spent a few hours today making some ingots and casting a few bullets out of about 100ish lbs of wheel weights. I got 84lbs of ingots out of it. I have about 500lbs more but since this was the first time ever I took my time.

I wasn't planning on getting the bullet molds out but I couldn't resist. For about 20 bullets I didn't realize it but I didn't have the mold completely closed. You can see this in my 50 cal bullets(the reject pile).

I learned a lot and the most important thing was that I need to get a Lee Furnace. It was a big PITA to ladle all the lead into the molds. It slowed me down quite a lot. Neither of the two ladle's I had had a spout on it so it was a pain to pour. Another thing was that I only had one ignot mold. I'm going to pick up several muffin pans to speed things up. I spent the majority of the time waiting for the lead to cool so I could dump it on the concrete.

Enjoy the pictures!

http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv350/Fortkevin2/DSCF1118-Copy.jpg
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Below are some 50 cal 440 Grain bullets I casted using a 2 cavity lee mold. There are a few 9mm 115 gain that I casted using a 6 cavity mold but gave up on this after not having a good ladle and not enough patience.
http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv350/Fortkevin2/DSCF1157-Copy.jpg

[mooman76]

Not bad at all for a first time. Good enough to shoot!

[ghh3rd]

I spent the majority of the time waiting for the lead to cool so I could dump it on the concrete. Next time, try cooling the ingots off a bit while still inside of the mold. Thouroughly wet a couple of old towels, and wring them out enough so they aren't sopping wet. Fold them into a nice thick square pad next to where you are pouring ingots.

Lay the ingot tray on the moist towel and pour the lead. The towel begins to steam, immediately releasing a large amount of heat from the ingots. The lead solidifies quickly, and you can slide the mold a few inches to a more moist spot and get more steam for a few seconds.

The ingots are now ready to dump out and cool off while you are busy pouring more. No more long waits for ingots to cool off before removing them from the mold.

You may be surprised at how much water will be removed from the wet towels and find yourself having to re-wet them.

Randy

[chris in va]

Yeah, I just use a WalMart el cheapo mini muffin pan. Considering your pot is a lot larger than mine, looks like you'd need 3-4 of them.

Where/what type of burner is that? Right now I'm using a hotplate and skillet, that setup would really speed things up.

[Fortkevin2]

Thanks for the info guys!

I'll have to pick up some of those muffin pans. Chris, It's my grandpa's turkey fryer. He has a big one and little and this was the big one. I'll have to figure out the BTU's etc for you.

[Steel185]

chris in VA:
Check this out, http://www.homedepot.com/Bayou-Classic/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5Z8e/R-100164633/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I did some testing on these (with 5 gallons of water, a timer, and a thermostate) Jet burners and the same items on the cast iron burners. Don't believe any BTUs on any cooker's box, they all state more than they acutaly are. Usually say 50,000 or 100,000 BTUs, they tested to be 40,000 for the jet w/20psi regulator, and 20,000 for the cast iron with 10psi regulator. They both will work great for smelting, the extra power could be usefull in other things like...fry turkeys, fish, boil crab, boil crawfish. The more power means the less time you have to wait for the huge tank of water to get to a boil, and when you have 40-50 gallons of water it takes a while. But for smelting, they will both get 50lbs of lead melted in a hurry. good luck

[Dollar Bill]

One thing about smelting WW, it's a dirty business. One lesson I learned was to never smelt them in the same pot I cast from. I could never get all the junk out of my Lee when I smelted WW in it, so, consequently, I always had some small amout of dirt in my bullets. Use the turkey fryer to smelt and blend alloys, save the Lee pot just for casting boolits. Good luck, you've got a good start.

[John Guedry]

Looks first class to me. Wish I could have don that good when I started.

[Trey45]

Welcome to the addiction. That's an excellent start. You have a great rendering set up there.

[Rock]

The only problem that I see is that the pot is too empty......

[Fortkevin2]

Thanks everyone for the comments/encouragement etc. It's a blast and I hope to melt down the rest of the ww's tomorrow. :) should be 400ish lbs.

[Bob J]

Nice job and great looking boolits...;)