What is the most lead you have melted down at one time and how did you do it?
I have a collection of lead I have accumulated over the last year, getting some here and there. I started out with a bag of corroded birdshot I melted down to salvage the lead. I also got a few wheel weights, then I bought some lead (about 50 pounds) from a member on another site. It was a mix of unknown in muffin tin ingots and lee ingots, plus some with some type of company logo with a mix of PB and lino stampings, and lastly a few random bullets.
Most of what I got from another forum had some oxide/corrosion on it from poor storage. So I took and melted it all down to clean it up and re cast. All I had was a old frying pan and a turkey fryer base, so I threw in just whatever I grabbed till the pan got full, cleaned it and then re cast into new ingots, then added more ingots till it got full again.
Well all this was when I still knew nothing about different lead alloys, so I had no idea what linotype, pure, etc... was. It was just all "lead" to me. I know now, but back then I did not.
Here is my issue. When I go to cast, I just grab some from my pile of ingots. One casting session, my slugs will come out one weight. Then next time I cast, I grab a few more ingots and the slugs will come out another weight. I have had a variation of 5-10 grains between casting sessions (casting shotgun slugs mainly) because each ingot might have a little more of this and a little less of that in it (or vice versa). It seems each ingot can be a little different.
I am wanting to just take everything I have, melt it all down at once to blend it all to a smooth consistent amalgamation so I will get the same weights each time I cast.
I know it will be a "unknown" alloy. But I figure I can send a ingot off to be tested if I really want to know. But I am only casting 12ga slugs and buckshot as of now, so a specific hardness I am not too worried about. I just want it all "even".
I bought a 12 inch 6 quart dutch oven at harbor freight on clearance for cheap thinking this would be plenty big enough to melt it all down.
I fire up my propane turkey fryer base and started cooking. It took a long time, but it did eventually get it hot enough to start melting it. When it was about 1/4 full, I had a issue of the lead not melting at the outer edge. I think it was losing too much heat out the sides. Once it got closer to full, it stopped doing that. However as it got full, it started taking longer and longer for ingots to melt when I added them. I just do not think the turkey fryer I have, has enough heat/power to melt down and keep hot this much lead. Also, when it was a couple inches from the top of the pot, I still had like half left still un melted. So I went ahead and cast all of what I did have melted into ingots while I set back to try and come out with another plan.
So back to my question. What is the most you have melted down at one time and how did you do it?
While I have not weighed what I have, I would have to guess 200 pounds or less.
A large cauldron? But heated by what?