They work well enough and fit most casting pots but they really don't stack that well. If you can live with that they make an ok ingot.
Printable View
I have been using some stainless steel muffin pans that my wife bought new and didn't like. There are 6 muffins to a pan and I have 4 pans. They work really well. I don't know what she paid for them, and rather expect that I don't want to know.
I have a set of older Lyman molds and the N is backwards. I'm just sayin'...
I needed an ingot mold for a bunch of scrap lead pipe. I grabbed my wife's mini muffin pan. It is a fairly heavy steel construction with a no stick coating that looks like new after over 150 pounds of melted lead went through it. I like it because the 1/2 pound ingots are perfect for my 10 pound dripolator.
Attachment 254625Attachment 254626
I have used dollar store coated steal pans, lyman steel moulds and now the Redneck gold/cast boolits aluminum molds that Lakehouse now sells. A little more expensive then Dollar store pans but worth it. It depends on what size I'm looking for.
Heres the Lighthouse link.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-now-in-stock!
Just to be clear, I don't have an interest in Lighthouse's venture. It's just a good product offered by a Cast Boolit member.
You forgot to put in the paper muffin liners to keep them form sticking! Just kidding, of course. I’m a big fan of molds made from angle iron. If you or a friend can weld, they are cheap and work well. They don’t need to be thick thinner stock cools faster. Mine usually come out a little over two pounds.
I like the the triangle shape. You can add them to a cold pot vertically and they fit efficiently into the circle of the pot. When you add to molten lead, they slip in instead a big plop.
I just looked at this threads start date, you do all realize we are responding to a 2007 thread right.:happy dance:
Oh well we did impart some good information for future member searching this topic. LOL
To quote Bill and Ted "Party on Dudes."
And in keeping with this spirit, I'll add...
I'm using some cast iron muffin pans that I got from Sportsman's Warehouse. The ingots don't have much taper to them, so they stack nicely. They also are a perfect diameter to fit the Lee 20 pound pot nicely.
I've had them for years now, but noticed that our local Sportsman's still carried them as of last week.
Downside: They're pricey. Like thirty bucks each.
Cast iron skillets, pans for scones, muffins and corn bread (ear of corn version) show up at GW on occasion, often at reasonable prices for such durable items. Better if they're rusty: lower price, better mold release. Of course, if they're TOO rusty sometimes to price jumps because now they're "antiques" or "heirlooms".
Now I'm confused. Much of my smelting and casting stuff comes from the local thrift store. My ingot mold is one of those things you poach eggs in. It's aluminum but the ingots never stick.
That's because it is rounded so the ingots can't get stuck, going by the pans I have seen.
The first time I smelted wheel weights (35+ years ago,) I started by going to the thrift store for a stainless 4 quart pot to melt them in and a couple aluminum 6 pot muffin pans. The pans were not coated and dirt cheap and while they never failed to dump the ingot, it took too long for them too cool enough not to break up when dumped. I had recalled some one once saying they use inverted pop or beer cans to make ingots and it really worked but I had to dip them in a bucket of water to get them to release (after a few minutes.) The best part about using the bottoms of cans is the cans are free and afterwards you can recycle them. I still have a few of the pop can ingots since they were the ones I added some Linotype to the alloy.
I use a Lee ingot mold these days and I wish they'd make one that cast 6 1/2 pound ingots rather than 2 1-pound and 2 1/2-pound ones... I like using the 1/2 pound ingots to top up the pot when I'm casting.
Tony
Teflon melts at almost exactly the melting point of lead