A Tool Question

[bangerjim]

I tried the marker route but found the ink fades after a short time here in the desert heat.

2 whacks of a 1.5# hammer on my HF steel stamps and the ingots are permanently marked until I melt them down.

I do use a tinted lacquer (from my antique finishing hobby) to spray the ends of the ingots by type for easy visual recognition. That stuff lasts a long time also.

I used to write the weight in oz on each ingot with a marker but do not waste my time anymore. Too many of the darned things and they are all around the same weight for the alloy they are made of.

bangerjim

ps How about RF? RF = roof flashing lead
Or XL = x-ray shielding lead
Or RL = range lead

2 letters (taped together with black electrical tape) are extremely easy to stamp with just 1 or 2 good whacks.

The combinations are only limited by your imagination. Just as long as YOU remember what the blasted letters stand for!!!!!!

[country gent]

I have taped 4 - 5 letters together with heavy duct tape with very good results. If the stamps get wider than hammer face then a piece of key stock accross the top helps alot. Also taped in place. I use a 4lb cross peen on a very solid block of wood ( Piece of red maple tree trunk 30+" in dia and 2 ft tall) One good solid hit marks most leads right off. Takes longer to move ingots around than stamp them.

[lightman]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. To be honest, I did not try very many things before posting this thread, as I was looking for ideas. I have used a sharpie and found that they fade pretty fast. I have used 5 gallon buckets with a note card inside and found that the plastic bucket splits open and the note card gets lost. My milk crates seem to be holding up ok, and I use one of those material tags made of heavy brown paper with a wire tie to mark them with. A milk crate full of lead is pretty heavy, though!

I have a heavy steel work table to use as a work surface and will try taping a few stamps together. And I'm pretty good with a hammer! I'm also going to look into making a holder that will work with 3 or maybe 4 stamps. I want something permanent like a stamped letter and I want the letters to be logical enough that another caster will know what they are.

This little job would have been easier if I had started stamping this stuff much sooner! I'll try a few things and post up some pics in a few days. Thanks for the ideas.

[D Crockett]

seeing how I make a lot of my casting things from melting pots to ingot molds I just use different molds for different lead my lino goes into a lee 1/2 ingot ww go into a v shaped ingot mold soft goes into a lyman 4 lb mold the whole idea is different shape different kind of lead I have been doing this for over 30 years now and it work good for me D Crockett

[RogerDat]

I also use something of the same approach as D Crockett. Raw materials are in angle iron ingots about 1.5 lbs. each, individually marked PB or WW. These go in SFRB's also labeled in small print as to coww or pb. Assorted solder goes into muffin tins to make thin "coins" that get gunned and the whole batch is individually labeled with percent & "Sn". These are then put together in zip lock baggies with a label slip. Which are in coffee cans or my plastic bin solder containers.

The odd stuff goes in muffin tin ingots if it has a decent Sn or Sb content, labeled individually with sharpie and kept together until use. This handles the 15 lbs. of 4% Sn or 24 lbs. of 3.5/3.8/92.7 batches of scrap. I have both regular sized muffin tins, mini muffin, and candy size. All garage sale or thrift store.

Bigger batches such as bunch of "soft" or "harder" unknown ingots get dumped in bread loaf pan ingots of about 16 lbs. labeled with a letter to identify batch and "?" until they are gunned and labeled with actual alloy which may warrant melting into some other mold. Or they may stay that way. Have about 100 - 175 lbs. in these flat slabs that are 0.3 and 0.5 percent Sn. Not plain but nothing much. Will use as plain with COWW mixes. Or plug them into the alloy calculator as custom item.

Small mold with "P" cast in it for pewter. Those are in zip lock baggies of 5# each with label slip in baggie, stored in labeled coffee can. Printers lead stays in raw form. As do stick on WW's. Form identifies them.

So between shape - angle iron, loaf pan, large and small muffin tins filled full depth or coin, Lee mold, and "P" mold. Sharpie on items, label on and or in container I'm pretty sure I'm good short of a fire or flood. If even a few ingots in a box have a readable label the contents are known.

If I was going to use a stamping set up it would be for the mixed ready to cast alloys. Not the raw materials. Might have hundreds or thousands of pounds of raw material, only a fraction of which is mixed into ready to cast alloy (Lym #2, Hardball, 2/3/95 or a tin binary) Might also consider it for the solder coins. But thousands of WW or plain lead ingots? Seems over kill to my uses.

BTW - A SFRB of lead weighs around 20# so I can easily move it, finish taping and ship for swapping and selling purposes. For the record even back when I could move a milk crate of lead I was too smart to try And the bottoms will blow out if stacked.... don't ask.

[NavyVet1959]

I only have 3 choices when I'm stamping:

WW -- Wheelweight
PB -- Pure lead
50 -- 50:50 Wheelweight:Pure Lead

Linotype, I leave in the original type castings.

[Horseman1]

The only (meager amount) lead I have is scrap from my own range and I used the HF punches to mark them RS (Range Scrap).
Looking forward to someday being able to use the other letters!

[skeet1]

I just write on them with a magic marker.

Ken

[Reddirt204]

Where I was working at one stage we made aluminium fishing gauges and had to stamp the size in them, the boss bought a couple of sets of the cheap number/letter punch sets (harbour freight style) and once we had the correct stamp sorted we simply tack welded them together, ok we used a press to do the stamping...
But this might be a simple way sort out the problem, as others have said how many times do you hear of unknown ingots and either nobody wanting them or picking up a bargain....

I know some here have literally tons of lead stashed away, personally I would try to make it identifiable as if at some stage it needs to be sold off ( illness, or passing away and so the family can use the proceeds etc) or easy to swap and sell on here��

cheers

Reddirt204

[bigjake]

I cant believe someone hasn't suggested it. I don't think so anyway.
How about welding any stamp configuration you want together? just clamp together and run a few beads across the stamps. if the stamps are too hard, heat the area of the stamp you want to weld bright red and let cool naturally, this will anneal the steal enough to weld.

[lightman]

Jake, tacking them together was mentioned in the post above. I never thought of it, myself. I"m probably going to try taping a few together, then making a clamp that will hold 3 or 4 and then the welding route. If I was a new caster vs an old caster I would pay the $50 for some custom stamps, but I'm not.

[NavyVet1959]

Considering how soft lead is, I suspect that you could make your own stamp out of brass or zinc without too much difficulty. Start with piece of it the size of the stamp you need, draw whatever you want the stamp to say in mirror image with a Sharpie permanent marker, and then use a Dremel-type tool to remove everything on the face other than the marker image.

It might even be possible to make a mold out of clay with the design that you want and then pour molten zinc into the mold.

[borg]

How do I post pics from my computer? Or do I have to use a pic host?

[62chevy]

How do I post pics from my computer? Or do I have to use a pic host?

Either way works.

See that little picture frame that looks like a tree in it. Click it and all will be explained.

[borg]

I was on the quick reply, won't work with pics
This is the way I do the stamps, cheep and sleazy

[kentuckyshooter]

Just my 2cents but i use a sharpy or paint marker i pick up from work. Both have worked great for my little stock pile of range scrap. Anouther idea would be to make ur identifing marks out of a peice of steek or something similar and weld it into the bottom of your mold. This would be a little time consuming and u would have to make a difrent mold for each type of raw material but once done the ingots would fall out premarked and u only have to set up to do it once.

[jeepyj]

Lightman, this is what I use, only big enough to fit the stamps
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...rds=turnbuckle
You can find them at most hardware stores.

Ingenious, That would make a perfect holder.
Jeepyj

[louism]

https://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/...t/4909-00.aspx

Why not this

[borg]

https://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/...t/4909-00.aspx

Why not this

One at a time?

[spokeshave]

you could use an electric engraver,then you could write a whole story on the ingot if needed. it would look like a CAI imported rifle reciver.