faster smelting setup idea

[dagamore]

Dont know if this has been tried and thrown out, or what, and since i am in Germany for the next few years it will be a while before i try it.

But i was thinking about building a presmelting pot with a grate on the bottom, that would allow the lead to pass through while keeping the tin/clips/whatevere thats in the WW still in it, and have like a steal spout underneath that would pass the lead down to a second smelting pot (this one with out a hole) to flux/clean/alloy in.


This way you could keep adding in WW to the top/ first pot and the lead will just melt down in to the next pot untill you reach a pre-set level for easy control of how much WW to pure tin to pure lead to get your desired alloy.


Am i on crack or is this a good idea. I think that it would speed up the orginal/first part of smelting by a lot.

[dagamore]

Post script, instead of an edit.

I am not new to casting, but was using a small Lee 5# pot and a RCBS (IIRC) laddel in to 2 or 3 2 gang 45 mold, and 2 2gang 44 molds. Just be for i moved over here i picked up a 6 gang 38/357 SWC mold but never used it.


I have picked up quite a few tricks from just lurking here the past 2 weeks or so.

[Old Ironsights]

Well, IMO, you would be losing the benefit of heat-transfer from the melted lead to the fresh scrap and therefore be relying solely on the effect of direct contact to the heated element(s) or sidewalls.

My guess is that to do what you mention suggest you would have to build less of a pot and more of an oven that would retain/maintain an overall ambient internal smelting temperature.

Let's say you take a top-loading electric-radiant Kiln, add a "loading chute" to the top (to mitigate heat-loss on opening) a lined bottom running to a drain with a steel mesh grid above to catch junk. That just might work, but you are going to pay dearly for the kind of electricity it would take to run it. Warm-up times between grill cleaning will be extensive, as will re-melt time of whatever is in the drain-pan.

All-in-all I don't think it would be all that practical. It would just be easier to add a formed expanded-metal screen with a "lifter" of some tiype to a bottom pour furnace and partially drain it now and again, lifting out the catch-basket to remove junk.

[klausg]

dagamore- interesting idea, though how would you heat it? I think that trying to get the top pot hot enough to melt the lead would be problematic and inefficient. BTW, where in Germany, I did two tours there; Gelnhausen & Schweinfurt. Take care

-Klaus

[ron brooks]

Sounds like George's set up. He heats the bullet trap scrape from an indoor range and the trash stays on top. He uses a couple of weed burners for heat. One to heat the smelting pot and one to melt the stuff on top.

Ron

[dagamore]

i was thinking of something like this

the blue squares are some sort of brick/cinder blocks that will act as a wind shield, and will also help keep the heat in the system, so that the only heat loss will be throught the top, and that should be minimized because the 2 pots will be blocking that route.

the bottom heaters will be from turkey fryers, and the side burners will be from weed burners all of them running off of single propane tank with multi valves on it to controll what burners are on, and how much fuel is going to each burner.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2452/outsidesetupov4.gif

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3387/frontviewnq4.gif

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9364/sideviewbw0.gif

Since this setup will be placed on a concret base (say 8'x8'x.5') and the weight of the pots will be held by the brick, and they will either be filled with sand or Portland Cement it should act as a good heatsink/holder so that once it gets to temp, it should stay at temp with less fuel.

[georgeld]

Thats what I was thinking at first Ron.
But, sure ain't anything like my idea now with all the blue spots etc.

Think it would work a whole lot easier and cheaper to just lay a sand screen over top the pot then melt it with one burner while a second one is keeping the melt hot down below.

Check out my pot set up Ron's talking about and see if that wouldn't be better than all the concrete and bricks etc. You're tryin to make a simple project into a major production and it's not necessary.

Wish you well no matter what you decide,