Ok, after spending some time with Rich and his set up, I've got back home and pulled out some of my stuff. I can see I originally planned to set up for production ingot making and bullet casting, based on the items I have.
My turkey cooker has a 7 quart cast iron Dutch oven with a handle built in and a lid, which I'm thinking is a good thing to help hold in heat. The base is welded half inch rod and seems pretty sturdy, I can remove the burner from the setup, but there's no convenient way to keep the shield and "pot rest" without cutting the steel rod base out. I'm thinking I'd probably be better off to set it up on a couple 8" hollow concrete blocks (I can get these or pavers for free.) rather than try to put it on a table.
So the bottom line is I'm going to have two setups. One for medium volume smelting operations and another (Based on a 4-20 Lee bottom pour and copying Rich's set up.) for casting bullets.
My questions are on the smelting operation:
I already have enough 1.5" angle iron (on hand and paid for) to make three 11.5" long, four gang ingot molds with handles based on BruceB's model. This will allow me to produce 4 molds of three pounds each = 12 pounds of lead per mold times three molds - 36 pounds each time all three are filled. Fill them three times and you have 108 pounds, likely about what will fill up a 50 caliber ammo can.(100 pounds, I"ve read.) So I'll need on the third run to not fill three gangs of the the last mold to get right at 100 pounds.
My concern is not overloading my turkey cooker. I can calculate how much weight it is designed for based on the fill volume of the 7 quart dutch oven with cooking oil. I figure I'd be best off to melt down only that much lead.
Does anyone know how much weight lead creates in a quart volume? Having this value, I can easily calculate how much lead to put in my turkey cooker to not over weight it.
Also, does the type of mold described above need some mold release sprayed into it? I know about the Frankford Arsenal mold release. Is there something locally available I might can substitue with good effect?
Thank you for your assistance,
Dave