Doby45
05-08-2010, 09:28 PM
I decided to take the plunge today and melt my first batch of WW. All I did today was a 3gal bucket 2/3 full of stick ons. I have decided that the wind is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes from blowing that God awful stank smoke away and the curse is when it gusts so hard it blows the fire out of your turkey fryer.
First I got together all my tools and set them up out in the backyard. My daughter said it looked like a redneck meth lab. Well, what does she know? I got my slotted spoon, my solid spoon, a couple of ladles, thermometer, muffin pans (they sucked), my smelting pot and the turkey fryer.
http://i40.tinypic.com/es0swj.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/hte2bq.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/vzc1gx.jpg
It was like watching a pot of water boil, took forever to get my temperature adjusted. It stayed at 550 for a while and the pot was large enough that one part would be melted and the edge here or there would solidify. So, I decided to turn it up a bit and see if I could get it to sit around 650. That seemed to work much better and allowed me to keep the pot liquid from side to side. I stirred the pot with my Homer Depot 5gal paint stick and fluxed with beeswax from my hives. Worked great and smelled good too.
http://i39.tinypic.com/9prsk8.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/wlsls0.jpg
I ended up using the top portion of the propane tank that I cut in half as my "slag/dross" pot. Worked like a champ and there was a cool little trick I will tell you about when I get to the clean up.
http://i44.tinypic.com/8vfm.jpg
I ended up destroying my muffin pans because I bought the el cheapos at Wal-Mart and the cups like to separate from the pan. I did not get pics of the busted up pans because I got mad about it and threw them away. For the record the silver pan in the picture was WAY worse than the darker ones. At least the dark pan's cups released after a solid whack on the bottom with a rubber mallet. I had to literally remove the silver cups with a pair of side cutters.
All in all I got about 70lbs of muffins from the bucket of stick ons. I got 46 muffins that weighted approximately 1.5lb each. I also have a plug of lead that was left in the bottom of the pot to use as a "starter" next time I melt stick ons. I figure that I had read enough about it helping to get a melt started. I would say it weights at least 6lbs by itself.
http://i44.tinypic.com/s3m4px.jpg
Now when it came to clean up, I put all my stuff in the original bucket that the stick ons were in. All my ladles, spoons, thermometer, gloves and so forth. Then I took the now empty pot and the empty "slag/dross" pot and put them back together with a strip of duct tape. So it looks like a normal propane tank with a band of tape around it. Clever huh? :wink:
Well, it was more work than I thought but it was a ton of fun and I still have a full 5gal bucket of clip ons that I will process after I get some proper ingot molds.
But most of all, thanks to each of you and this forum. I would not have even attepmted this if I had not studied up on it here. Hopefully I will be making them into straight shooting boolits soon. :Fire:
First I got together all my tools and set them up out in the backyard. My daughter said it looked like a redneck meth lab. Well, what does she know? I got my slotted spoon, my solid spoon, a couple of ladles, thermometer, muffin pans (they sucked), my smelting pot and the turkey fryer.
http://i40.tinypic.com/es0swj.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/hte2bq.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/vzc1gx.jpg
It was like watching a pot of water boil, took forever to get my temperature adjusted. It stayed at 550 for a while and the pot was large enough that one part would be melted and the edge here or there would solidify. So, I decided to turn it up a bit and see if I could get it to sit around 650. That seemed to work much better and allowed me to keep the pot liquid from side to side. I stirred the pot with my Homer Depot 5gal paint stick and fluxed with beeswax from my hives. Worked great and smelled good too.
http://i39.tinypic.com/9prsk8.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/wlsls0.jpg
I ended up using the top portion of the propane tank that I cut in half as my "slag/dross" pot. Worked like a champ and there was a cool little trick I will tell you about when I get to the clean up.
http://i44.tinypic.com/8vfm.jpg
I ended up destroying my muffin pans because I bought the el cheapos at Wal-Mart and the cups like to separate from the pan. I did not get pics of the busted up pans because I got mad about it and threw them away. For the record the silver pan in the picture was WAY worse than the darker ones. At least the dark pan's cups released after a solid whack on the bottom with a rubber mallet. I had to literally remove the silver cups with a pair of side cutters.
All in all I got about 70lbs of muffins from the bucket of stick ons. I got 46 muffins that weighted approximately 1.5lb each. I also have a plug of lead that was left in the bottom of the pot to use as a "starter" next time I melt stick ons. I figure that I had read enough about it helping to get a melt started. I would say it weights at least 6lbs by itself.
http://i44.tinypic.com/s3m4px.jpg
Now when it came to clean up, I put all my stuff in the original bucket that the stick ons were in. All my ladles, spoons, thermometer, gloves and so forth. Then I took the now empty pot and the empty "slag/dross" pot and put them back together with a strip of duct tape. So it looks like a normal propane tank with a band of tape around it. Clever huh? :wink:
Well, it was more work than I thought but it was a ton of fun and I still have a full 5gal bucket of clip ons that I will process after I get some proper ingot molds.
But most of all, thanks to each of you and this forum. I would not have even attepmted this if I had not studied up on it here. Hopefully I will be making them into straight shooting boolits soon. :Fire: