How/where do you store your ingots?

[imashooter2]

I put the ingots into the same buckets the ore came out of. About 100 pounds, move to its long term resting place, fill to the top with more ingots and snap on a lid to keep the dust off. Sharpie on the lid identifies what’s inside. I have buckets in the garage, in the shed and in the basement.

[Baltimoreed]

I’ve never messed with ingots, seemed like a lot of extra work. I have my range lead, ww’s and assorted lead on a couple deep reenforced shelves on my shop work bench. When I’m ready to cast i grab a coffee can of them and start making boolits. Why handle and expose yourself to the nasty stuff twice.

[Land Owner]

Steel ammo cans of no more than about 55 pounds or the 3/4-inch handle cuts through the palm like a knife.

[georgerkahn]

I store mine in 5-gallon sheet-rock compound buckets. Sadly when I opened shed last (2021) Spring, they had toppled over! Much to my disappointment, whatever the total weight of four fully-loaded buckets was -- it actually caused the floor to fail and -- part of bucket bottom going through it -- fell over. It was not an enjoyable task to remove all ingots, wheel weights, etc.; I put a piece of steel plate over failed area -- and then return and refill buckets. But -- that's how I store 'em.
geo

[deltaenterprizes]

This is the odd fixture I am referring to. As you can see it wasn't “cast” from a liquid. It’s laid down in sheets basically. This whole piece weighed around 70-80lbs. I cut it up with a metabo into smaller pieces to melt.
There was some aluminum on some of the bottom which I threw in the recycle bin. But it was really clean and is really hard

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That could be 50/50 solder! It looks like a wiped joint.

[pworley1]

labeled 5 gallon buckets

[makeurownfun]

That could be 50/50 solder! It looks like a wiped joint.

Today after work I will be pulling a couple of my WW ingots and the ingots from that piece, taking a picture of them side by side and also doing the pencil test again on them. Just looking to utilize whatever it is to the fullest.

I thought of trying to get some of the plastic soda crates that gas stations/fast food joints use to store ingots on, then I could stack them. But I could also grab a few pallets and stack them on pallets one day. Lots of similar ways of storing them. I may also start spray painting the ends of them to mark rather than Sharpie. The Sharpie is starting to fade even in the garage and stenciling them individually is time consuming.

[Rickf1985]

Pallets, buckets, ammo cans. Whatever I can find basically. All marked. The pallet in the pics is all wheel weights, 1,400lbs. of them. Not shown is the 2500 lbs. of buckets, cans, boxes and large lino ingots stacked on top of that pallet. Someday I will actually get it all separated and organized.

[Winger Ed.]

That floor reminds me of going to a guy's shop one time with a buddy for something.
We were in there, and I asked him where the ash tray was.
He told me, "You're standing in it".

[Rickf1985]

Yea, That is one of those heavy duty fabric shelters I used to have a car in. That thing is 20 plus years old and has been through a couple of hurricanes and had a tree fall on it and it is still standing! I just bought a new cover and ends for it this past year. I leave the one end open to get ventilation since the ground is always wet in there. It is next to my garage with no gutters so the water just runs into the ground right there. I plan to put gutters on the garage this summer. It is surprising but even with the wet floor metal does not rust in there with that end open and air blowing through.
And drop butts on my ground and you better pick them up! LOL.

[sukivel]

Slim, I agree.

I can use a few ammo cans for transport.

I need to build a small pallet system and keep the bulk of them in the barn.


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[Daver7]

I keep mine in plastic coffee cans. Light enough so they are easy to move when needed.
On a side note, Wife came out to talk when I was casting awhile back and noticed that I would use the ingots that are not as nice looking as the rest and set the "pretty" ones to the side, Busted. Not sure why I do that.

[Rich/WIS]

Smelt my scrap into muffin tins and store in plastic coffee cans. A can will hold 30# +, enough for an easy 1000 or more bullets. Stack well and I mark the lid with what is in it as well as a note inside as well. Some odd sized ingots are in SFRB, some in ammo cans and a small amount in 5 gal plastic pails. Don't like the plastic buckets, they can get brittle with age and bust open, learned that the hard way. Issue for me is weight so storing in smaller quantities is necessary.

[fredj338]

Ingots & scrap in buckets in the garage. Best to keep the buckets under 100# if trying to move them. 4000#, a lot of buckets. If stacking them on a wooden floor, lay down some 2x12 perp to the joists to spread the weight. Your floor design is only good for 1bout 120# per sq ft!

[makeurownfun]

Ingots & scrap in buckets in the garage. Best to keep the buckets under 100# if trying to move them. 4000#, a lot of buckets. If stacking them on a wooden floor, lay down some 2x12 perp to the joists to spread the weight. Your floor design is only good for 1bout 120# per sq ft!

A 4” thick reinforced concrete slab? I thought concrete was 3,000 pounds per square inch? It’s spaced out over probably 14’ and only 6” wide. I don’t think I’d have a problem, unless I stacked it all up to the ceiling in a few spots

[Rickf1985]

It's not the strength of the concrete so much as it is the sub base. If you put a couple tons on one side of a slab and the base is not very, VERY firm it will settle and you will get substantial cracks.
And the 3,000 PSI is compression strength of the concrete, that is what it will hold before it blows apart. A lot of the total strength of a concrete slab also has to do with if it is reinforced with rebar or wire. Most garages are where a house floor from the 60's will usually not be. I am not so sure about a basement floor even nowadays since they generally are not designed to hold tons of weight unless it is in the build specs.

[Huskerguy]

Had a lead melting buddy make some wooden boxes about 15" long, 4" tall and 7" wide. The Lyman ingots fit well into the boxes and is about as much as I want to lift. I put a piece on the ends to use as handles and they are easy to lift and move. He used 3/4 wood on the sides, 1/4" bottom and screwed them. They work well, stack nice and about the right size/weight.

I have some in buckets but they don't store well and a full bucket is way too heavy. I also have some stored in crates in my storage shed and last summer I noticed one broke and dumped into the one below it. Nothing plastic for storage is dependable. I also have used ammo cans but they get costly.

[alamogunr]

When I was working(retired 16 years ago), I salvaged boxes that we received parts shipped from a sister plant in Sweden. They were too deep to fill with lead ingots, so I sawed them in half horizontally and put a new bottom on the upper half. A handle on each end made lifting easier. Each resulting box held approx. 100 lbs of my ingots. I only identified them as COWW or SOWW, less often as salvaged solder, etc.

By the time I realized that I would never use all the lead I had accumulated, I had over 2 tons left. Some is stored outside, stacked in those wooden boxes. The rest is in the shop or garage.

[barnabus]

i cast muffin ingots and store them in the short metal trashcans with lids.

[nannyhammer]

I use a mix of buckets and 20MM ammo cans. On the ammo cans I weld a pice of 1/2" rebar on the bottom of each end so I can move them with a hand truck if needed. A smaller ammo can would be better but I already had the 20MM cans.