Smaller propane stove?

I smelt with a Dutch oven over a propane turkey cooker. This works fine for smelling but it's overkill for casting - too much furnace even when turned down low. Also I find it difficult to control temps in the 20-pound iron casting pot.

I'd like to stick with propane and feel a smaller stove might be more convenient to work with. Is anyone using such a stove, and where do I buy one? I've looked at propane camp stoves but have my doubts as to how they would hold up under a full 20-pound pot of lead.

My propane source is a standard 20-pound tank with the usual plumbing.

Look forward to your replies.

My first melting and casting was done with a cast iron 20 pound pot heated with a Coleman two burner camp stove. I only used the pot over one burner and fueled it with 93 octane unleaded gas instead of the Coleman White gas. They make these stoves in propane. I have no experience with the propane version but they should produce the heat needed to get the job done. I've had my stove since about 1981 and with a little oil to the leather seal on the pump and it's ready to go.

I used a Coleman 2 burner gas stove for meltng lead years ago before upgrading equipment GW.

Attachment 308707
Here is a picture of the newer propane stoves. The back and sides help to shield the pot and flames from the wind.

If you have some fabrication skills. Go to a local scrap yard and get a side burner off of an old propane grill. Should be easy to plumb up some hoses to fit your tank. Could be as simple as putting the burner inside a structure made up of some fire bricks with a metal grate on the open top.

spend your money on a lee bottom pour pot

You just made the case to get yourself an electric pot.

Cost wise-- most pull around 800 watts per hour if they were to run non-stop (which they don't)
If you're paying 14 cents per kilowatt hour, which is about average, it'll cost you 10-11 cents (maybe less) an hour to run it.

If you must use a propane or gas stove, it's pretty common to see support racks built to fit over the stove & burner.
The rack supports the weight of the pot.

Something else that might work is wind screens around the base of the cooker, and a collar like they have for
setting a wok over a gas stove burner. That will direct the heat up and not let as much go around the pot.
You should use a lot less propane that way.

A million years ago when I first started casting, my equipment consisted of a small cast iron skillet and a Coleman 502 single burner white gas stove. Though I used that set up for years and cast thousands of bullets with it, the moment that I started using a Lee bottom pour pot I stepped out of the stone age and never looked back. The convenience and ease of use of a bottom pour, coupled with the higher rate of production, higher quality of bullets, and the huge decrease in alloy oxidation that I was getting from scooping with a ladle, made this an enormous game changer. The 20 pound Lee bottom pour pots aren't too expensive, and there's a lot less mess from splatter like I was getting using the gas stove. Using a bottom pour casting furnace is all around better for making bullets for me.

I started my casting career by using a two burner Coleman stove with one of Walmart's propane adapters and a one pint cast iron sauce pan.

Finally buying a Lee 4-20 was the best upgrade I have made in casting comfort. If you still want to use your ladle, you can or you can buy the Magnum melter for $66.49 from Titan Reloading.

With prices of anything these days, I think it would cost a lot less to just buy the dedicated electric pot than finding a stove and buying propane.

Robert

I use a 100# plumbers cast iron pot. I bought a welded 1/2" rod fish cooker burner from Walmart, with a regulator, it will get real, real hot to alloy the hard to mix metals like antimony and arsenic. Plus it will hold up the weight of the full pot when heated. Do not forget that weight with heat. Lead is one metal that you can mix with two or three soft metals and create an alloy harder than each individual component.

call me a dinosaur but I still use an old 2-burner coleman stove with white gas. I bought the stove for $5.00 at a garage sale, and I like how quickly it melts the casting metal. I do have an older electric bottom pour, but never took to it.
best and have a great New Year all

I can still sit down with the Coleman stove, pot, and ladle and run higher volumes of certain boolits than I can with my Lyman bottom pour melter. The added bonus to the Coleman set up is that I do it outside on the driveway versus in the garage with the electric pot. Cant see any deer in the alfalfa field next to the house sitting in the garage.

I have used a Coleman propane camp stove for casting and smelting, just didn't use a 20 lb.pot

Here’s what you want.

https://www.amazon.com/Boshen-Portab...jaz10cnVl&th=1

Here's a couple. I have a single burner with 3 heat settings but I can't find it.
https://www.amazon.com/Boshen-Portab...jaz10cnVl&th=1

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...7038_200317038

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Originally Posted by Kylongrifle32

I can still sit down with the Coleman stove, pot, and ladle and run higher volumes of certain boolits than I can with my Lyman bottom pour melter. The added bonus to the Coleman set up is that I do it outside on the driveway versus in the garage with the electric pot. Cant see any deer in the alfalfa field next to the house sitting in the garage.

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So extension cords are illegal where you live???

as has been stated previously used Coleman stoves can be found very cheap if you keep your eyes open and look around at yard sales and flea markets. the best ones are the ones that can be run with regular unleaded the same gas you put in your car. but with propane adapter there is no need to constantly pump the tank up. long ago I got one of those propane adapters at Walmart for Coleman stove. if not rusted out they are pretty solid and support at least 50lb pots of lead. at least I never had a problem with it.
but a Coleman stove pales in comparison to a crab pot/turkey fryer burner made out or 1/2" or 5/8" steel rod.
but overall a Coleman stove even a single burner is an easy way to get your pot of lead melted.

I’m a +1 on the Coleman stoves for small batch work when you don’t want to break out the Turkey fryer.

Had a post a while back about using a commercial camp stove and another about an old military stove with a Lyman 10 lb pot (link below). Though I still have them I upgraded to a Coleman stove along with a cast iron 2qt pot and a Dutch oven sized cast iron 6qt or so pot. I gathered the stoves up cheaply from the secondary market and with some replacement valve parts I was off to the races, in most cases they also came with mostly full gallon cans of fuel.

Somewhere out there I saw a guy pouring Babbitt bearings in a band saw restoration, he was using one of the standup type Coleman bottle/single burner combinations but he heated the lead directly in the ladle which rested on some sort of welded frame around the burner for support and stability.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...4-Proven-right

This comment aimed at the original poster. What you need is an adjustable regulator. When I spliced copper in the Bell system we had a furnace used for both melting lead or heating our tents. The regulator had a pressure gauge on it and a valve to control the pressure. I'm guessing but the right supplier for LP things might have them for sale. You could turn the output down to a whisper. Honest now, I actually pulled a complete rig out of the dumpster one day and carted it home pronto!!! In truth I "liberated" a pot that was never used sometime later that holds about 40-45 lbs of lead and that setup does my melting of lead real quick. Nowadays when I get larger chunks my cutoff LP tank holds more and larger pieces but that same furnace heats it pretty fast. But I can turn the regulator so low you could light a smoke off the burner and not burn your face. FWIW

Mike

I use a coleman propane camp stove. works well for casting and smelting.

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Originally Posted by atr

call me a dinosaur but I still use an old 2-burner coleman stove with white gas. I bought the stove for $5.00 at a garage sale, and I like how quickly it melts the casting metal. I do have an older electric bottom pour, but never took to it.
best and have a great New Year all

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Can you still find white gas today or are you using Coleman fuel?

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Originally Posted by GregLaROCHE

Can you still find white gas today or are you using Coleman fuel?

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The cheapest non alcohol unleaded you can find is real real close to the old white gas/Coleman fuel.
I've used it in my Coleman stuff since the 70s.

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Originally Posted by 17nut

So extension cords are illegal where you live???

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Not illegal just don't like dragging it all outside versus using the stove, pot and ladle. Plus once I'm outside and finished casting boolits I usually will switch over to doing fishing sinker or lures. This allows me to switch pots for unknown lead sources and alloys that I use for making the fishing gear.