Time to cast some WW's into ignots

[Ben]

About 70 degrees here in AL, thought it would be a good time to get my propane smelter out and melt some WW's and pour into ignots. About 600 lbs here :

Thanks,

Ben
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/1-3.jpg

[ktw]

Not sure what you are using for an ingot mold, but I really like the way the angle iron mold ingots stack up.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g232/ktwna/lead-3.jpg

-ktw

[357maximum]

ktw

I swiped a copy of that pic...sweet...put it on my screensaver slide show...I named it......POTENTIAL.....

I have got to get around to making myself an angle iron ingot form...muffin blocks falling all over the place.....Nice pic,,thanks
Michael

[steveb]

Ktw, Sweet!!!

[ktw]

I tell my kids their inheritance is going to be in the form of ingots of heavy metal.

I smelted the ingots in the picture last spring. It's probably enough to cover my cast bullet needs for the rest of my life. But I found the WW collection to be almost as much fun as the casting and shooting, and since then another 1500 lbs of wheelweights have followed me home and settled down in my garage. [smilie=1:

I can see that I'm going to be forced to acquire some bigger bore firearms (i.e. a 45-70) in order to go through it faster.

-ktw

[no34570]

Hey ktw
What do you use as a ingot mould?,that's cool the way you stack them mine are from muffin tins and are falling out of the crate.
Can you post a picture of your ingot mould?,is it home made?
Cheers
Dale
no34570

[Ringer]

I like the angle ingots-good idea with the crate storage. Ringer

[ktw]

Can you post a picture of your ingot mould?,is it home made?

They have been discussed by others on this forum in the past - it wasn't my idea. I don't weld, but I have a friend who does and he owed me a favor. I sketched out what I was looking for and this is what he came back with.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g232/ktwna/ingot-molds.jpg


He used 1 1/2" angle iron. The channel is 9" long. They cast an ingot of 2 to 2 1/4 lbs, depending on how full you fill them. They could use a handle. I pick them up, move them around, flip them over with channel locks or a vise grip when smelting.

-ktw

[Marcello Morbin]

Hi there,
Very nice pic and congratulations for the way you find to stock them.

Marcello

[No_1]

A couple of years ago I was preparing to move so I took a lot of my "muffins" and re-smelted them into something a little more handy (or so I thought). I used a commercial bread pan and ended up with 28 of these. There is also about 1000lbs. of pure lead in sheets (1/16" x 6" x 12") and a few 5 gal buckets of muffins. Here are some pics of the "loafs of lead". I sure would feel better if I had about 50 more of these....

[robertbank]

HI

Scored 96lbs smelted down WW today at Canadian Tire for free (Bought $650 worth of truck tires). Two hours later my stash was somewhat bigger. I use the lee ingot molds only because a) I have one and b) the 1lb ingots feed into my little 10# Lee pot well. Like the bread or muffin tin idea as well. Linda would choke me if I scoffed her muffin tins.:mrgreen:

Take Care

Bob

[no34570]

ktw
Thanks for the reply and the pcture of your ingot moulds,cool!
I can't weld to save my own life,so will get the stuff and get a mate to weld it up at work for me,he owes me a favour or two.
Thanks again
Cheers
no34570

[jar-wv]

Two words guys. POP CANS. Make excellant ingots that weigh in at 6 - 8 # each. Very stackable and their virtually FREE.

jar

[georgeld]

When you talk to the guy about welding them up.
Make sure he understands the weld's all have to be very SMOOTH, otherwise
the lead will hang up in the mold and it's a b itch to get 'em out. I used 2" angle and only one piece. It makes about five pound ingots, but, the welds are rough and I'm the weldor so it's hard to kick my butt for the sorry work. So far, have been too lazy to get the dremel grinder out and smooth it up.

Over the years I've bought more cast iron ingot molds of RCBS, Saeco, etc til I have five of them and a buddy has another. When Brooks came up he brought another so we had seven going and it was just about enough for the two of us working when pouring to keep up with.

I've got a bunch of those crates, wish I had about 20 more of them. Anyway, stacking neatly, the one pounders lay in there: 4 rows of 14 long, make's 28 per layer. Flush to the top it's 728 ingots per crate. Have two flush full and a couple hundred in the third one, but, have been using out of them off and on for about six years. Just the top ten layers exchange, the bottom one's have been there since the day they went in. Makes a real neat, small area under the bench out of the way. Sure glad I put rebar in the slab under there so I don't have to worry about it crushing.

I sure like the way those stack in the crates, that's about as neat as I've seen. Only suggestion, is turn those blocks on edge instead of sideways. This is the weak side and when you get enough piled on them this way they just might crush. Sure would hate to hear you got hurt when it happened over something so simple.

Wish you well, happy shootin

[andrew375]

I now use a slight variation for melting down wheel weights. I used to melt the weights into a 5" deep pan made from the cut off bottom of a bulk oil container, looks like a cheap version of a Jerry can. As shortcut I place a tray made of steel mesh over the pan, pile the weights or backstop lead, on the tray and apply the blow lamp. The metal melts and drops through the mesh and most of the crap stays in the tray. I used to then remelt the metal in the pan clean and pour into ingots. Something that took a lot of time and heat to do.

A brain wave hit me last time I did a melt and I 2/3 filled the pan with water. Now the metal solidified into a very rough shot after falling through the mesh and it appears most of the crap that made it through too simply floats on the water surface. Very fast, roughly 60 lbs in half an hour, even with such a small container.

Now the lead is very easy to handle, I simply shovel it into old paint buckets, and it takes up a lot less space.

[454PB]

When I made my angle iron ingot moulds, I did the welding on the outside of the angle iron. That way there is no weld roughness for the lead to stick on.

[largecaliberman]

I now use a slight variation for melting down wheel weights. I used to melt the weights into a 5" deep pan made from the cut off bottom of a bulk oil container, looks like a cheap version of a Jerry can. As shortcut I place a tray made of steel mesh over the pan, pile the weights or backstop lead, on the tray and apply the blow lamp. The metal melts and drops through the mesh and most of the crap stays in the tray. I used to then remelt the metal in the pan clean and pour into ingots. Something that took a lot of time and heat to do.

A brain wave hit me last time I did a melt and I 2/3 filled the pan with water. Now the metal solidified into a very rough shot after falling through the mesh and it appears most of the crap that made it through too simply floats on the water surface. Very fast, roughly 60 lbs in half an hour, even with such a small container.

Now the lead is very easy to handle, I simply shovel it into old paint buckets, and it takes up a lot less space.


Have you by accident melted a zinc ww? I ask this because the torch's flame is over 800F and zinc WW melts at around 787F.

[ktw]

When I made my angle iron ingot moulds, I did the welding on the outside of the angle iron. That way there is no weld roughness for the lead to stick on.

Mine have a weld on both sides. I did knock off some of the inside roughness with a dremel before before using them the first time. I had my welder put a slight angle on the ends, opening up toward the top. I haven't run into any problems with ingots sticking due to the inside weld but I can see where you might if you left it too rough.



Two words guys. POP CANS. Make excellant ingots that weigh in at 6 - 8 # each. Very stackable and their virtually FREE.

Pop cans aren't free everywhere. Here in Michigan they're worth 10c apiece. ;-)

-ktw

[andrew375]

Have you by accident melted a zinc ww? I ask this because the torch's flame is over 800F and zinc WW melts at around 787F.

Not to my knowledge and, having accidentally getting some Mazak (Zinc based die casting alloy) into my pot a few years ago, I know what to look for.

Before smelting the wheel weights I have to go through them to pick out all the tyre valves and valve caps anyway and I have found it easy to id the zinc based weights by mass.

I'm lucky in that one of our club members works in a scrap yard, so instead of having to store several decades worth of ingots I just let him know when I'm running low and a crate full will appear on range. I only get through about 80 lb of WW per year, plus 60 lb of pure lead and the same of backstop lead.