WW question

[GARCIA]

New guy here trying to get an idea if I am screwing up or not.

Got a bunch of WW's that seem to have some type of coating on them. They are not marked with the ZN symbol or anything like that. Just some type of coating.

Will they be safe to smelt down with WW's or should I smelt them seperately?

Tom

[Stick_man]

That coating is probably a paint. One of the easiest ways to check for Zn or Fe is to use some pliars or sidecutters. If the weights are lead, it won't take much effort to mark them. If they are Zn, they will be much harder to mark.

If the coating is just paint, you should be good to go with smelting them, just do it outdoors or with great ventilation. It could get kinda smokey.

Welcome to the clan!

[thegreatdane]

You're good. I second the Stick_man's comments. Use a fan or better yet, melt outside. Fumes stink.

[GARCIA]

Did my first smelt yesterday and needless to say it was interesting. Dug out an old Coleman stove and dutch oven that was covered in dust. Cleaned them up and went to the back yard.No real problems noted. Need to get a decent ingot mold. That cheap muffin tin did not work with a darn!

Can anyone recommend a good muffin tin that won't fall apart?

Tom

[Suo Gan]

Can anyone recommend a good muffin tin that won't fall apart?



Lee and Lyman make pretty decent ones that come with handles.

[44fanatic]

Ive been using the muffin pans you can get at wally world for around $10 appiece. Makes 12 square ingotes. Pretty heavy duty and dosnt warp.

I snagged one of the wifes muffin pans a few months back and it was pretty flimsy, started warping with the molten lead.

[lwknight]

Don,t use the tinned muffin pans.
You can get the heavier non stick pand and best to burn the non stick paint off on the melting burner before casting ingots into it.
The molten lead is hot enough to burn the nan stick paint anyway and your ingots will
have a bad cse of fuglies till the paint is gone and it takes several castings.

[another gsxr 1k]

The 99 cent for four, stainless steel condiment cups work like a champ too. Makes about a 1 lb ingot that nest together reasonably well.

[sagacious]

The 99 cent for four, stainless steel condiment cups work like a champ too. Makes about a 1 lb ingot that nest together reasonably well.
If you're not melting huge quantities, those work fine. Don't fill them up all the way, or ingot removal can be a chore.

[GARCIA]

What about a heavy duty alumminum muffin tin? Think it will hold up or just a waste of time and effort?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I'm a fan of the LEE ingot mold...less than $10 has a nice wooden handle
makes two 1 lb and two 1/2 lb ingots with each pour.
they pop out so nice.
Jon

[Edubya]

What about a heavy duty alumminum muffin tin? Think it will hold up or just a waste of time and effort?

You'd be a lot better off with those stainless condiment cups that are sold in cooking ware in department stores. If you want them held closely together drill some thin wood and mount blocks on the corners. The condiment cups are tapered and empty as easily as they fill. Nice looking and easily handled too.

EW

[sagacious]

What about a heavy duty alumminum muffin tin? Think it will hold up or just a waste of time and effort?
You need steel. Thin aluminum will not hold up well. Once it's heated it loses it's temper, and becomes very soft. A muffin pan full of lead ingots will bend/dent easily when you dump the ingots.

A non-stick steel muffin pan works well.

[Springfield]

I always liked the corn bread pans that look like ears of corn. Cast iron, makes 7 1.5 lbs ingots, dump VERY easy. I have a few I think I am going to sell now that I had some other moulds made up.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Garcia,

Check out these http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=86784 Ray does great work.

Sam :D

[GARCIA]

Guys:

Thanks for all the help. The first muffin tin is history and the wife told me that I could go out and get a new one, which I did.

Going to give it a try tomorrow and hopefully things will work out better.

Again, Thanks to all!

Tom

[sagacious]

Preheat the new pan to about 250*F before you pour ingots. Sometimes there's a bit of moisture/mold-release/oil/etc on there, and preheating burns it off before the lead hits it. Preheating your equipment usually makes for a smoother pouring process anyway. Good luck.

[lwknight]

When I get new bread pans I put then on the propane burner and roast them but good.

[2_Smithereenz]

I bought an old cast iron corn muffin pan at a antique/junk store for $8 bucks. It works like a champ and makes nice pretty corn cob ingots. With pure lead mine weigh about 1.1 pounds.
I tried the muffin tin pan and it didn't last very long at all, they always wanted to stick and after thumping it around a bit trying to knock the last couple of ingots free, it was a wrinkled mess. The corn ingot cast iron pan releases them easily, I just flip it over and they fall out. Besides it's heavy duty enough that your not going to tear that thing up.

[Echo]

I've been using a muffin pan (12-holer) and have had no problems. I really haven't run too much alloy through the pan, maybe 5-600 lbs, but so far, so good. The muffins weigh about 2 lbs... Can probably find one (non-stick and non-tinned!) @ GoodWill for buck, or so...
And I set mine in a cookie sheet with H2O , to speed up the freezing/setting of the molten alloy.

[sargenv]

I had an older steel muffin tin pan, but it got finicky so I stopped using it. I too went the route of corn muffin cast iron, but they are kind of weird to stack, so I went to the next step.. a pair of cast iron small bread baking molds.. they come out to about 1.5-2 pounds.. and are approx 2" x 4" and about an inch thick.. and they stack up really nice and compact. I can pour more or less depending on how heavy I want the ingot to be.

[fredj338]

IF you can weld or know someone that does, scrap angle or channel iron & some small 1/8"-1/4" end plates make great ingot molds. Use angle 2x2 or 2-3" channel, about 4" long. You can wled them together or make separate ones. I bought these, but they are easily made.
http://www.glockpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11329

[DukeInFlorida]

You've got a potential steam burn issue there. Skip the water in the cookie sheets. They'll cool fast enough on the ground.



And I set mine in a cookie sheet with H2O , to speed up the freezing/setting of the molten alloy.

[RP]

If you use the muffin pans the best i have found have been the 6 hole alum ones not pretreatment need. I pour them full let it get solid but still way to hot to pick up and flip them onto a flat surface. If you take some care you wont bend them up if you do bend one they bend back easy. One other thought was to mount them to something that dont bend as easy but have not came up with something to use that makes good sense. I make me some moulds using cannel steel instead of angle iron that work good for me. I still have my alum muffin pans took me so long to find them I just cant put them out as of yet.