Smelting day

[imashooter2]

Finally going to turn that 5 buckets of range scrap into ingots. A 3 quart pot on a Coleman stove is all I have for the task. This could be a long day what with the in between chores waiting for the next pot to melt... Ah well, you want to play, you have to pay!:)

[Dale53]

I had a rather large pot on a Coleman stove (two burner) some years ago. The stove got so hot that the grill (which is light weight) collapsed while red hot and nearly dumped the pot of hot metal. I know the Coleman is a popular tool for melting lead, but watch out if you use a large pot...

That is when I went to the turkey cooker and a "made for the task" 80 lb pot.

Dale53

[imashooter2]

I've used this one for years and with a 3 quart pot you only get 2 quarts or a little more metal in it. So I'm not worried about collapse. Is nice that you were thinking of me though!:)

What I need is more BTUs. I just burned a tank of gas and 5 hours and all I have done are 2 buckets. I'm thinking I'm probably not getting the job done today.:(

On the bright side, the yard is looking good...

[imashooter2]

Time to finish off the last 2 buckets. It's going to be hot today. Maybe I'll buy that turkey fryer for the next haul...

[John Boy]

May want to consider a single gas burner like this ... http://www2.northerntool.com/product/15490_15490.htm
It puts out 35,000 BTU's. With a cast iron pot ... it makes short order melting them WW's![smilie=1:

Also, a little trick for WW's ... put a magnet on the end of a stick. It will grab all the WW's, don't have to get dirty gloves and leaves all the valve stems, cigarette butts and other non-ferrous junk in the bucket. Of course, the nails will be picked up - which can be picked off

[imashooter2]

Dang! Got a surprise rain storm and had to button everything up. Got one bucket done. That leaves one to go...

That burner looks like a fine piece of equipment. I have a bunch of gift certificates for Cabela's though. I think a free turkey fryer will be the upgrade.

[wcshooter]

Have some one weld you a 3-sided box for you stove. Find a pot the size you want. Cut a hole in the top of the box a bit larger than the pot. Find the height of the flame on high and drill 3 holes around the pot that corresponds to that. Use small bolts and nuts for the 3 holes and secure them to the pot. The bolts need to be long enough to sit on the top of the box to keep the pot where you want it. I used a 6-inch pipe cap for the pot and 5/16 inch bolts. You can really load this up with what ever you are smelting with out fear of the grill collapsing. You can also remove the grill as it is not needed.

[Goatlips]

IM2, when I used your setup I got tired of waiting so I added heat from the top with a propane torch; the clips carry the heat to the center of the WW so they sorta melt from inside out. Uses lots of propane though.

Goatlips

[Quality NUt]

Greetings and Salutations to all, but especially those from Shooters.com. I feel like I found lost treasure. Since Shooters closed, I had to "go on the road" as a millwright, so I haven't taken the time to do any searching. (or shooting or reloading or casting or hunting...) Thus the change in my handle to "Quality IN YOU TEA". Anyhooo... I really like this discussion. I put together a set up for smelting wheelweights that has yet to be proven. (time thing again) It consists of a Tinius Olsen upper "cabinet" from a retrofitted mechanical testing unit. Composition steel. Dimensions: ~ 3ft sq and 10" deep. I cut a 12" hole in the "face" of the cabinet and put legs w/ runners on it to elevate it about 2 ft. (Back side is open.) The pot is ~ 10" of 12" pipe w/ the bottom of a 20 lb propane tank welded to it. I plan on supplying the necessary BTU's with either a good wood fire or a 500,000 BTU propane torch. I checked capacity on the pot and 5 gal of luscious WW fit easily. Now to convert those 10 gal of "stankin' " WW into nice shiney ingots. (good thing they don't spoil. They've been sitting outside my "workshop" over a year now.) I'll try to get some photos of this monstrosity (sp) posted later.
Good to be Home
Quality NUt

[357maximum]

Quality NUT

Welcome, I have learned a ton, and have had a ton of fun since my "being committed to the asylum".. It is great when you finally find a home....
Michael

[Boz330]

If you look around at yard sales or flea markets you might slip up on an old plumers pot. These things are great for melting bulk lead, sounds like a jet engine when running but makes short work of a pot of wheel weights. I don't think that they are used much anymore since PVC sewage pipe came into existance. I bought mine 15 or 20 years ago and I think I gave $10 or $15 for it with a 35 lb cast iron pot.

Bob

[Cherokee]

The problem with the plumbers pot now may be getting it refilled with the change in fittings dictated by our wonderful govt. Mine has been retired because it was not putting out the btu's and I could not see why.

[Boz330]

I am lucky in that regard as I fill my own. Some suppliers will still fill the old bottles even though they are not suppose to. Another option would be pull the valve and rig a stand with some reducion fittings to hook to the new bottles. As far as the output there might be some spilled lead in the burner restricking the air flow or LP flow. I had this happen to mine and just cleaned it out and it was back to normal.

Bob

[grumpy one]

Hopefully everyone knows how dangerous it can be to get into amateur gasfitting with propane equipment. I needed a special adaptor a few years ago to put an adjustable regulator onto a 20 pound propane bottle. Had to lathe cut the left hand thread. It fit pretty well, so I lit it up, and immediately the top of the gas bottle around the regulator turned into a foot-diameter fireball. No big deal except the gas tap was right in the middle of the fireball, and since the fire was in contact with the gas bottle, pressure was rising pretty fast. I grabbed a blanket from inside the house, pretty much fending off my wife who didn't want her blanket ruined, and dropped it over the whole mess. It didn't put the fire out, but I could then push the blanket down over the valve handle and shut off the gas, at the cost of a slightly scorched hand. I remained tight-lipped in the face of spousal outrage, spent nearly an hour making a replacement fitting, and did some careful leak-testing before I lit it up. The first fitting had just a few thousandths of clearance in the thread, which allowed the metal-on-metal gas seal to be misaligned, though it felt and looked good.

My advice is be awfully careful or use only store-bought parts that fit without alteration.

Geoff

[ron brooks]

Geoff,

Sounds like you didn't use teflon tape. Wouldn't that have taken care of the slight size difference?

Ron

[Boz330]

Geoff,
I work on LP equipment in my job, but you make a good point. The proper fittings are pretty easy to come by in this country so that should not be an issue. Having said that one should always check junctions with a soapy water mixture for leaks. I use compressed air before LP to check for leaks. Windex Is a really good leak detector and readily available.

Bob

[grumpy one]

Geoff,

Sounds like you didn't use teflon tape. Wouldn't that have taken care of the slight size difference?

Ron

Ron, I don't know whether Teflon is chemically compatible with propane or not, so I don't use it with gas fittings. Aside from that the Teflon flows like water under clamping pressure, so I don't think you could rely on it to center the internal and external threads after clamping. What you really need is a good fit between the metal parts, or a design that doesn't require a good fit. The usual kind of propane fitting does require a good fit, but I've seen types that use O-rings, and that type might be much more forgiving.

Geoff

[grumpy one]

Geoff,
I work on LP equipment in my job, but you make a good point. The proper fittings are pretty easy to come by in this country so that should not be an issue. Having said that one should always check junctions with a soapy water mixture for leaks. I use compressed air before LP to check for leaks. Windex Is a really good leak detector and readily available.

Bob

I didn't mean to accuse you of not having your own situation under control, Bob, I was concerned about other people on the board.

In this case I wanted to use an adjustable propane regulator that I'd bought at an auction, and it had a strange input fitting, so I couldn't buy an adaptor. A wiser man would have regarded that as a good enough reason to toss the bargain-basement regulator and buy a new one with standard fittings, but I'm way too smart for that.

When I'm in my right mind and not carried away by a wave of self-confidence, I use soapy water. That's what I did the second time.

Incidentally the reason I was so concerned about blowing the gas bottle was that it was connected to the barbeque on the back porch, and was only 18 inches away from the house, under the eaves and close to a window. Letting it blow wasn't an option.

Geoff

[Quality NUt]

Well, here goes nuttin'.... I hope this works (picture and melter) Still need to weld some "handles" on the pot so it doesn't fall through the hole and trim the top of the pot a bit.
Quality NUt

[Quality NUt]

Glory be and thanks to the SEARCH function....
Here is a side view...

[floodgate]

Geoff:

"...but I've seen types that use O-rings, and that type might be much more forgiving."

I use a 10-gallon bottle to feed the kitchen stove cooktop, our only propane application. I connect it with a short "pigtail" withg the ball-end fittings to the new-style bottle valve and to the fixed regulator. I found I can't get a reliable seal with the all-metal fittings, but it is easy - and reliable - when I got a pigtail with the o-ring grooves on both male fittings.

Incidentally, after several blow-outs of the stove pilot and other problems, we shut off the pilot system completely and went to a hand-held spark-striker. Time between bottle fills went from 45-50 days to 80-90 days. There's a clear message there!

floodgate

[Boz330]

Geoff,
No offence taken. Since most of these parts are readily available here I didn't think about problems elsewere. The fitting that you were trying to make is called a POL here and they can be the machined tapered nose or the ones that I prefer are the ones with the rubber o-ring. The metal to metal are a pain since any type of nick or scratch can produce a leak. If you tighten them to much you distort the threads on the bottle. I work on mostly high preassure liquid stuff and we do use Teflon tape but there is also a special tape for gas that is available at any hardware store.

Bob

[georgeld]

One of my hunting buddies has had a long hose with proper fittings to transfer gas from the 100# tanks to the 20#'s. Since he lived several miles away it was very unhandy to keep borrowing his, and he loaned it to others at times so I'd make trips out after it and it would be somewhere else.

To cure that problem I paid $11 to have one made up by the local propane dealer. Now I just fill my 100#'s and then refill the smaller bottles as needed. It takes awhile, but, is plumb safe and the fittings and hose are the correct one's for propane.

That's a slick looking melter there! How you going to work it? Dip the lead out? Kinda deep for that with a regular ladle isn't it? By the time you empty it out a couple batche's you'll have a lot more experience at it. I've found 6-8" deep is about as deep as is handy to work with.

Wish you the best with it,

[largecaliberman]

To speed things up, i use a blowtorch to head the top of my WW's etc.