Yard Sale Goodies

[Fugowii]

Today was a pretty good day locally for picking up a couple of items for my casting tools.

First, I have been looking for a scale to weigh my ingots that would weigh up to 50
pounds and I came across this beauty for $10. Not a precision scale but it is a vintage
scale built like a tank.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/05_22_2010002a.jpg

Then I hit another and came away with a five quart Wagner 1891 model five quart
dutch oven for $2. I'm not sure I'm going to use this smelting lead though as I have
been looking for one to cook. Only problem is no lid. For $2 I'm not going to complain!

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/05_22_2010003a.jpg

Also picked up a couple of small pieces of pewter for $1 apiece.

[imashooter2]

Great find on the scale. I've been looking for something like that at a good price for years.

[Johnch]

The duch oven is a great find at that price and should work great for smelting

I have a Dutch oven almost exactly like that , that I use for cooking while hunting

Please do not try and lift a pot full of moltem lead with the handle

As I almost pulled mine out , but I only had it full of steaming hot camp fire chile

John

[a.squibload]

I saw a RCBS Reloader Special kit with everything in the box today, they wanted $200.
Did get a free raincoat, and a Dietz lantern for $4.
Nobody had pewter.

[Old Goat Keeper]

DON'T smelt lead in that Wagner Dutch Oven my friend. That one is old and worth way more as a cooking pot or to a collector than for smelting lead.

Tom

[WILCO]

DON'T smelt lead in that Wagner Dutch Oven my friend. That one is old and worth way more as a cooking pot or to a collector than for smelting lead.



+1! Use it for cooking. You never know, we all might be cooking over a wood fire someday........[smilie=s:

[Mk42gunner]

I have a 25 lb capacity Hanson model 2000, (same basic design as yours) that I use. I have no idea how old it is, but I know it is older than I am.

Be assured it will still be working when the current crop of plastic chinese made scales are all recycled.

Robert

[Fugowii]

I have a 25 lb capacity Hanson model 2000, (same basic design as yours) that I use. I have no idea how old it is, but I know it is older than I am.

Be assured it will still be working when the current crop of plastic chinese made scales are all recycled.

Robert

I found this tidbit on the web (written in 2008):

Hanson Scale Company was established in Chicago in 1886 by Marius Hansen. it was
later run by his son Stan L. Hanssen and by Stan's son Stan B. Hanssen. The
company was later bought out by Sunbeam.

The 1935 Hanson Scale catalog describes your number 2060 model Hanson scale as
follows: Hanson utility or rechecking scales. For use in factories, warehouses, or
wherever an accurate heavy-duty scale is required. Made in extra heavy steel.
Equipped with a heavy cast iron upper link, Swedish steel spring and milled gravity
rack, insuring sensitiveness and hairline accuracy. Accurate machined parts, hand
assembled and tested with standard weights. Adjusted by set screw at the top so the
pointer may be set at zero to balance scoop or container. Finely finished and baked
green enamel. No. 2060 Capacity 60 pounds graduated by 2 ounces. Top, 7" square
reinforced steel. overall dimensions, 10 1/2" high x 7 1/4" x 8". 8" enameled dial. Black
figures on white. Packed one to a corrugated carton. Shipping weight 8 1/2 pounds.

The list price in 1935 was four dollars. You're scale should retail for $25-$75
depending on condition and amount of rust.

[jlchucker]

I had a Wagner dutch oven once--gave it to one of my brothers and he's still cooking with it. We were discussing various dutch ovens one day, when the subject of lids came up. It turns out, after checking, that a lid from one of my newer Lodge ovens fits just fine. Lodge sells lids for their pots. Measure yours and you probably can get one that would fit, either directly from Lodge or maybe from Amazon.com. I agree with everyone who says use it for cooking--especially if nobody ever smelted lead in it.

[Fugowii]

I had a Wagner dutch oven once--gave it to one of my brothers and he's still cooking with it. We were discussing various dutch ovens one day, when the subject of lids came up. It turns out, after checking, that a lid from one of my newer Lodge ovens fits just fine. Lodge sells lids for their pots. Measure yours and you probably can get one that would fit, either directly from Lodge or maybe from Amazon.com. I agree with everyone who says use it for cooking--especially if nobody ever smelted lead in it.

I picked up another Wagner dutch oven, complete with cover and grate, this past
weekend. It needed some cleaning up and so I cleaned and re-seasoned it. It cost
me $3! Where I buy them usually tells me a lot about what the use was. (I got
almost three pounds of pewter at the same yard sale for $3.) I'm going to keep both
pots for cooking as I used the covered one for making my marinara sauce and I thought
it was great.

[squirrellnuttz]

I found a next to brand new turkey cooker, really sturdy looking for $25. Good deal, those are usually $100 or better 'round here. And an awesome deep fryer sieve type pan with big drain holes and a good handle (new) for $2. Great for tumbler media separating.

[357maximum]

Good deal on the scale ...congrats


Whats the lip I.D measurement on your dutch oven? I may have a lid to fit.


the only "find" I came up with today was two old large steel coffee cans full of very hard as yet to be determined lead alloy with eyebolts sticking out of em......I paid $1 apiece for them boat anchors, and felt darn good about it.

I also saw a tang safety ruger in 7mag, but it had two very serious issues........ #1 the guy wanted what some think it is worth and #2 it was a 7mag.

[Mk42gunner]

Good deal on the scale ...congrats


Whats the lip I.D measurement on your dutch oven? I may have a lid to fit.


the only "find" I came up with today was two old large steel coffee cans full of very hard as yet to be determined lead alloy with eyebolts sticking out of em......I paid $1 apiece for them boat anchors, and felt darn good about it.

I also saw a tang safety ruger in 7mag, but it had two very serious issues........ #1 the guy wanted what some think it is worthYikes and #2 it was a 7mag.Double Yikes

The hardest kicking .30-06 I ever shot was a tang safety Ruger 77. The short eye relief scope that kept hitting me on the bridge of my nose could have had something to do with that perception though:holysheep. The rifle was accurate when I didn't flinch.

Robert

[Fugowii]

Whats the lip I.D measurement on your dutch oven? I may have a lid to fit.


It looks like the ID is around eleven inches and the OD is around 11 3/8.

[357maximum]

It looks like the ID is around eleven inches and the OD is around 11 3/8.

I am about 40 minutes from the lid, but I will check for you later this week and if it is even close to a maybe fit you can have it. I had a hot smelt going and the pot let loose, but the lid never saw any melt so it is still good for food.

IMHO smelting with cast iron or aluminum pots is real close to a nice game of russian roulette. Use the cast iron for eating out of and keep the aluminum pots for making lube in..........then get a good steel smelting pot built out of steel pipe...........I trust my steel pots even when I am the welder on such 100 times farther than cast or aluminum.

[357maximum]

Sorry but the lid has been taken in with a load of scrap according to my F.I.L. I finally remembered to ask about it's location.:roll:

[Fugowii]

Sorry but the lid has been taken in with a load of scrap according to my F.I.L. I finally remembered to ask about it's location.:roll:

Thanks for trying!

Regards,

F

[smokemjoe]

I got a older turkey burner for $5.00 at a flea market, When I lite it up I about burned my head off, it put out so much heat, I was cooking liquids with a S. steel 5 gallon milk bucket and looks like I have cracked it with so much heat. Cant wait to cook down 3- 5 gallon buckets of WWs now, sure will faster then my Gross lead cooker,

[Jech]

I'm trying to put together a cost effective smelting setup and have heard all this good stuff about turkey burners...doesn't the cost of propane add up?

[Artful]

Jech if you want cheap fuel use a coleman camp stove - look for a used two burner at a garage sale / swap meet's. Propane at least around in AZ is way more than it used to be.
Now my Cousin in MT has gas well on his place can can use as much as he wants and sell the rest to the gas company. Too bad we can't get stable fuel from all the gas bags in Washington DC.

[imashooter2]

I'm trying to put together a cost effective smelting setup and have heard all this good stuff about turkey burners...doesn't the cost of propane add up?


As would the price of any energy you have to buy. Negligible in the long run. A standard "20 pound" tank should net you around 1,000 pounds of ingots. These two tables came from the same tank and there's still gas in it...

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/done600.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/smelt1.jpg

[Jech]

Wow...that's a lot more than I expected! Today, I picked up a 60,000btu fish fryer from a yard sale for $40. I've seen 40k btu models at the local stores for $70 so I felt pretty good about the purchase.

I leave a ~1" deep chunk of lead in the bottom of my 6qt dutch oven from Harbor Freight and the burner had it molten in less than 5 minutes. I was impressed! The pot was full and being fluxed another 20 minutes later. It was a bummer when I had to shut everything down due to an unexpected rain :(

[imashooter2]

That is nearly identical to my set up and practice. The first smelt I did, I burned through a tank of gas in about 300 pounds of ingots. Tips to long tank life:

Build a simple heat shield / wind screen so that the wind doesn't blow heat away from the pot.
Turning the burner "wide open" just wastes gas. Too little makes for a longer melt time. Experiment to find the optimal setting. Mine was between 1/3 and 1/2 open.
Turn the fryer down real low when pouring ingots to conserve gas.

[a.squibload]

I'm still looking for a tank to cut, to make a pot from.
Only one I saw so far was real low on propane and they wanted $20.
Maybe I'll cook out tonight and empty one. Hate to cut up a good tank though.

[Fugowii]

I finally got motivated to build one of those propane tank smelting pots. Pictures and a description
of my experience are in order so here goes:

1) Obtained 'empty' 20 Lb propane tank. To make sure it was empty I opened the bleeder on the side
of the valve. It was close to empty, but there was still a minute amount of propane left. Enough to make
a bang.

2) I left the tank overnight with the bleeder valve open and the next day I removed the valve assembly with
a wrench and a hammer. They are on tight, probably with a thread tightening compound. When you get
the valve assembly off, save it for the junkie as it is mostly brass.

3) I turned the tank upside down as propane is heavier than air. With no valve I was pretty sure I would
be OK if I left it a few days. I actually left it for two weeks this way. Not for concern over any propane,
just that was when I got around to working on it again. BTW, you will never get rid of the odor until
you actually fire up the pot to smelt lead.

4) I was concerned about the stability of the tank on my burner so I decided to use the tank remnants
to solve my stability concerns. I measured my cut locations 1" above the weld seam and then 3" above
that cut location. Those measurements will keep the cuts on the flat side of the tank. I made these cuts
with a sawzall and the first cut I made wasn't anything to write home about. Not bad, but not great
either. The second cut (because I wanted one good even cut to use for the base on the burner) I made
a preliminary cut, not all the way through, but just enough to help guide the blade for the final cut
and that seemed to work better. Either that or I was getting better at it.

Here are the pieces after the cut:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_12_2010002a.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_12_2010001a.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_12_2010003a.jpg

5) Being concerned with a solid piece of metal smothering the burner I added holes to the stabilizer ring
every 2.5" and they are located in the middle of the ring, 1.5" from either edge. I'm not sure how big
the holes have to be but these are almost 3/8" and if I need to make them bigger later on it wouldn't
be difficult. There are 15 holes in the ring so that gives me 1.66 sq inches of venting as well as the
open part of the seams along the weld. If I increase the hole size to 1/2 inch I could improve the
hole venting to almost three sq inches if needed.

6) You ask why I made the stabilizer ring three inches? Well that is what I estimated it would take to have
the tank sit on the ring and still have the existing ring engage the burner as well. I don't think I was far
off.

7) Now all I had to do is get the stabilizer ring welded to the tank. A member welded it for me.

Here is the result of the welding. He apologized for the fact that he didn't grind down the welds. This was
taken after I had put it to the fire so a lot of the dark ring around the welds is from the paint burning off
on the bottom of the tank.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_14_2010002a.jpg

Even though it was raining a bit I couldn't just turn this beauty on and not melt a little lead so I tossed a
bit of range scrap in it.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_14_2010003a.jpg

I wanted to see how it held some of my smelting tools so here is a picture of the pot with my Rowell
bottom pour ladle and a skimming spoon. At last, a little pool of lead!
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_14_2010004a.jpg

I also took a picture of my four quart cast iron dutch oven sitting inside of it to give you an idea of how
much my capacity increased.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/07_14_2010005a.jpg

Finally, the results exceeded my expectations.

1) The pot is rock solid on the burner, better than the cast iron pot.
2) The heat seems to be concentrated on the entire area under the stabilizer ring. If you notice on the
internals of the pot you will see the discoloration of the pot where the heat is concentrated.
3) The pot heats up fast and cools down fast.
4) My only problem is that I will need some sort of tool holder on the pot as I have to keep the bowl of
my Rowell ladle hot when smelting. Interestingly enough, in the picture where you see the ladle in the
pot, the handle was still cool after around ten minutes. The heat is very concentrated on the bottom of
the pot. I expect with a longer casting session it would warm up pretty good though.
5) Finally I do need to put a handle on the pot. That is the reason I made the cut on the pot above the
seam. I figured that if I do get a wire handle on the pot the seam will add strength to the locations where
I drill the holes.

Anyways, I hope this helps. The only part you have to be very, very sure of is that the tank is empty.
Once you do that, you are home free.

[wiersy111]

Very nice pot.

[a.squibload]

Fugowii, nice pot, thanks for the pics.

I read someone's idea here that filling the tank with water will displace all the propane.
I guess the 2-weeks in the sun method works pretty good too!
Maybe some rebar for handles. Heavy wire for tool holder, easy to change.

[hoosierlogger]

Today at a flea market I picked up a Mec 600 JR in .410 for $10 it came with 1/2 and 3/4 OZ charge bars. It was missing the handle that goes on the bars and the bottles, but I have extras on another press I have. I also got a white gas coleman camp stove for $1 Not a bad day

[Bret4207]

Anymore all I see at garage sales is clothes, NASCAR memorabilia, NASCAR toys and really awful paintings of The Sainted Dale Sr.

I think NASCAR fans must hold all the yard sales....

[imashooter2]

Around here it's baby clothes and glassware. I always ask about "firearms, reloading equipment, lead or pewter." You should see the looks I get...

[mold maker]

When I ask, I usually get a toothless grin saying, "Naw we don't got none of that stuff fer sale".
I never have decided if that meant they didn't have any, or didn't want to sell it.
You did good. Keep on looking.

[Jal5]

Picked up two items at a community yard sale today:

6qt. dutch oven minus the lid for $5
cast iron muffin pan for $8

How did I do?
Joe

[a.squibload]

Not bad but the sheet metal muffin pans are usually a buck or less.
I found a mini-muffin pan too.

I posted in another thread, found a pile of used tanks at a propane business,
bought one without valve for $1, he was gonna give it to me but he gets a dollar for 'em
as scrap.
And a freind gave me 3 pieces of 6' rebar to make a stand. Or two!