first big smelt for me 156 lbs

[arjacobson]

Well I did my first big smelt with the crawfish cooker I have finally gotten set up. Much easier than doing it over a fire.. Basically I have 125 corn cob shaped ingots that fit perfect in my lee pot.. It was a fun time and I learned a few things that will make my next time easier and faster..Gotta build a shield for the cooker-need to make/find more ingot makers...thats about it really... One question though?? How much propane do you guys go through during your smelting?? I have a 20Lb tank and probably used up 1/2 or so.. Is this about right?

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Sounds like you had a good day. I smelt a 6qt Dutch Oven at a time. I get about 6-8 pots out of a 30 # tank if I do them all from cold, more if I do several at a session.

Sam :D

[high standard 40]

I fabricated a wind break to enclose my burner and my propane usage went way down. Last time I smelted was 300 lbs of wheel weights and 800 lbs of range scrap on one cylinder.

[arjacobson]

I think the windbreak idea is a must do. It was kind of cold and windy tonight and I'm sure I lost a bunch of heat from that..

[fredj338]

I think the windbreak idea is a must do. It was kind of cold and windy tonight and I'm sure I lost a bunch of heat from that..
That & you may have the heat cranked too high. I find once the melt starts to go liquid, turn the heat down some. You save quite a bit of fuel & don't lose much if any of the smelting heat. I run mine about 1/2 way, then back it down to 1/3 while I flux & pour ingots.

[Ole]

I have a turkey burner and I never turn the flame up much past 1/2 way. The full flame doesn't seem to melt the lead that much quicker and it sure drains a tank of fuel faster.

[lwknight]

Big 10-4 on the wind break!!
Also running the burner too high just wastes fuel. Too much heat just bypasses the pot entirely.

[HardColt]

Well I did my first big smelt with the crawfish cooker I have finally gotten set up. Much easier than doing it over a fire.. Basically I have 125 corn cob shaped ingots that fit perfect in my lee pot.. It was a fun time and I learned a few things that will make my next time easier and faster..Gotta build a shield for the cooker-need to make/find more ingot makers...thats about it really... One question though?? How much propane do you guys go through during your smelting?? I have a 20Lb tank and probably used up 1/2 or so.. Is this about right?
I usually use about 1/3 of a full BBQ propane tank,low to medium with a lobster pot (1' tall,& diameter 18") I have an 8" diameter single propane burner I've scrounge somewhere overseas.I enclosed the propane burner in a semi-circular shroud made from a strip of GI sheet to prevent the wind from blowing the flames away from the bottom of the pot and loosing heat.When the ww's are all melted and all the garbage are skimmed off the top, I have 5 sets of 8 holed muffin pans and from one full and cleaned pot approximately yield about 10 to 15 muffin pan full of clean lead muffin formed ingots. I haven't scrounge ww's back home(stateside) for about 13 yrs. now but from what I have read in the forums, it is getting harder and scares to get free 5 gal. buckets.I used to get it for free in exchange for 2 six packs of beer or a carton of smokes as an incentive for the person giving it to me.
Working overseas, where I am at, heck, I pickup lead scraps just walking the parking lot at work. I have about 80 lbs plus of ingots sitting here inside my villa just from scrap lead I have found at work. My biggest problem is when it is time to go home permanently back stateside and how much will it cost me to surface freight these much lead. I can't stop on taking scrap lead back to my villa and I'll be damn if I abandon all these nice 1# Lee molded lead bars.

[HardColt]

Yeah! really need to enclose that burner into a shroud to prevent hear loss and save propane consumption.

[EMC45]

I am all about breaking some wind myself!

[arjacobson]

I am all about breaking some wind myself!

I too can relate to that.LOL