First (successful) solo smelting session!

[bcr]

Used my 1000W hotplate and a 2 qt pot.

Fluxed with shredded paper, which seemed to work, but I'm not quite sure how to tell if it worked or not (the lead looked clean enough to me).

I smelted 50 muffin tin ingots out of clip-on WWs, a total of 92 pounds.

My first attempt failed, on Thursday. It turns out my 10.5" cast iron dutch oven is too big for my hotplate. Also, my 4.5 lb. Rowell ladel is too big. Now I have a dutch oven and a 4.5 lb. ladel both 2/3 full of frozen lead. Oh well. Probably a little common sense would have gone a long way, but live and learn.

Now I've got 136 pounds of ingots from WWs I've scrounged; 255 pounds of linotype ingots and 53 pounds of WW ingots from a friend who's out of the business; a little less than half a bucket of clean WWs, and a full bucket of crappy looking WWs with lots of stick-ons. Also, I have the dutch oven and ladel mostly full, which I'll have to melt later on a bigger setup.

Getting there!

[zomby woof]

Nice!!!!

[Az Rick]

Good Job!, the 20lbs. I did this afternoon pales by comparison. I must admit it wasn't too difficult, I kinda play at it. It's enjoyable really.

Best, Rick

[WILCO]

Glad to see it went well.

[imashooter2]

Congrats on getting into the game!

But speaking of a little common sense...

The crappy spot welded handle on that pot is not made for the weight you are trying to lift. Get a ladle or it's going to let go one of these days and make you a very sad man.

[fryboy]

congrats !
you should be able to turn the dutch oven over and have a large ingot fall out , but agreed a lil more heat to remelt it later , i've used a stainless pan much like that before albeit a lil smaller , i was lucky - the handle was already gone , once dipped about empty a pair of channel locks helped me finish emptying it

[Casting Timmy]

Looks awesome and thanks for sharing. My first smelting session didn't go that well either, neither did my first casting session. It does get a lot easier each time you do it.

[RobS]

bcr:

Not to worry on the dutch oven and ladel as they will be there is you ever decide to get yourself a turkey frier and work with the flame. Anyway, it looks like it's working well for you and you'll have to be putting those nice ingots to work real soon. BOOLITS are in the near future I imagine.

[Dale53]

Bass Pro has a fish/turkey fryer on sale for about $30.00. That will solve your problem regarding heat (I use a 12" Dutch oven that holds well over 100 lbs). I normally run a couple of pots full at a time but have done 650 lbs in an afternoon with that set up. A thermometer is a REALLY good idea to avoid melting zinc weights into your mix.

FWIW
Dale53

[a.squibload]

I saw one on sale at Wally World for $25, has an aluminum pot that could be useful in the kitchen.
Didn't read how hot the burner is.
I started making a burner before I priced turkey fryers!

[Jailer]

I saw one on sale at Wally World for $25, has an aluminum pot that could be useful in the kitchen.
Didn't read how hot the burner is.
I started making a burner before I priced turkey fryers!

Sounds like the same one I picked up. Mine also came with an aluminum basket that works great for sifting range scrap.

[bcr]

But speaking of a little common sense...

The crappy spot welded handle on that pot is not made for the weight you are trying to lift. Get a ladle or it's going to let go one of these days and make you a very sad man.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that and maybe have to find an alternative.

$25-$30 for a fryer may be the way to go. I kind of liked the hot plate approach once I got going, because I had the feeling it was not hot enough to melt zinc. I only found a couple of zincs in the whole bucket though.

[Jal5]

I picked up a pretty decent heavy duty burner on craigslist last month, even came with a variety of aluminum pots for use in the kitchen and the setup for turkey frying. $20 was a good deal.

Joe

[468]

Looks good. I like to use a ladle to pour into the muffin pan. Also I don't fill the "muffins" to the top. The smaller ones fit into my smaller casting pot better...