2nd large smelt-thanks for the tips!!

[arjacobson]

I did my second large smelt today(90lbs-WW) Just wanted to thank forum members for the tips on making the crawdad cooker work better. I made a shield around the smelting pot and saved a BUNCH of propane..Seemed to melt much faster even with the temps in the lower 40's.. I do NEED more ingot makers though.. Maybe I will weld up 2 or 3 more this week.. Thanks again

[mckutzy]

good on the smelt.. :)

The first big melt I did, about a year ago, I used a propane camp stove and I had to use a large coffee for a shield to get enough heat to the crucible.
I also made a ingot mold out of angle iron scraps in a VVVVVV, with iron on the end to cap it off and it lays flat. The ingots are triangles about 6 in. long. They are just big enough to cut with my large cable cutters for right size chunks in the electric melter when needed.

[Von Gruff]

I am a bit different in how I get my ingots, I have one ss bowel (6in dia at top, 3in dia in base, and 3 1/2 in deep)that I put four spoons of smelted alloy into and it is about an inch in the bottom. I can pick up the bowel iwith bare hands so heat travel is not quick enough to bother me. I hold the base of the bowel in a bucket of water which bubbles arround the base of the bowel but never violently enough to go over the top (I know--- tinsel fairy cautions) and it cools in seconds so I can flick the ingot out of the bowel onto the concrete. Then I can put another 4 spoons in and go again. I ocassionally give the bucket of water a stir with a stick to pull cool water from the bottom up to the top, and on smelts of 100lb or so I may change the water 2 or 3 times. The ingots weigh about 4 b a piece and stack in a nailbox very well.

Von Gruff.