yeh,another nube question

[shootinxd]

I have been reloading for the last 2yrs.Now its time to start casting.
My question is can an electric hot plate be used for melting and making ingots?I am sure to have many more questions,Thanks in advance for your help.

[Catshooter]

shootinxd,

As I've never tried it, I can't answer your question, but welcome to the site.

And good on you for your learning and advancing.


Cat

[docone31]

Yes, you can.
When I first started casting, in ingoted with a small frying pan on an hot plate. The pan was just large enough to fit on the coils, and no higher than an inch. I melted to half way up the pan. I think I got both the hotplate, and pan at a tag sale. Maybe a buck for both.
It worked real well for me. I folded the "cookies" in half after letting them cool in the pan.
Back then I had a 10lb Lee Pot. Just fit in.
Good luck.

[No_1]

I really don't think you will be able to get it up to the temperature required to melt the lead.

EDIT: But I have been wrong before

Robert

[1874Sharps]

I started casting back in high school in the mid 70s using a 10 pound lead pot on the stove. I soon started using an electical hot plate, as my mom did not take me using the stove too well. It certainly will work. If you do go down that path make sure you take precautions to protect the heating element from lead splashes (such as a piece of tin over the burner), as a puddle of lead will cause the element to burn out in a fairly short time.

Welcome to the world of casting. You will find it is a great hobby that allows one to shoot much more for much less.

[chris in va]

Right now I use a hot plate and a small iron skillet. It doesn't work all that great though, the sides don't melt the lead hot enough and I'm constantly scraping the semisoft alloy back into the molten wheelweights. I can verify it is NOT hot enough to melt pure lead. But until I can afford something more powerful, it'll do.

[Recluse]

You can do it, so far as smelting goes. But for casting good boolits, it will be extremely challenging--especially larger boolits. Hard to get your alloy up to a good temp and keep it at that temp.

EDIT:

I re-read your question and saw this: electric hot plate

If you're referring to one of those single/dual burner (electrical coil) things you can get at Walmart or Walgreens, you might be able to get your WW/lead melted enough to make ingots. They won't be great ingots and fluxing will be tough. Good news is that you dang sure won't get any zinc contamination.

But if you're referring to the kind of hot plate I call a "griddle" or in which you cook pancakes or sausage or whatever on, the answer is a resounding NO.

[joeb33050]

3.2 WHEELWEIGHT SMELTING ALLOY MELTING EQUIPMENT

Before moving to this Florida condo, I had a "plumbers bomb", a propane-fired scary lead melting apparatus. It is a terrifying item and I was glad to give it to a friend.
I smelted a couple of pails of wheelweights down here with my 20 pound Lee pot; but this takes a lot of time.
Searching for an alternative, I went to the Salvation Army store, for a couple of weeks, and bought all the equipment shown for well under $20. This rig is small, light, not scary, and works great.

The hot plate is 1000 watt, 110/120 volt.
The stainless pot is 6 5/8" diameter by 4 1/4" deep, holding about 135 cubic inches. Wheelweights weigh about .4 pounds per cubic inch, so the pot holds about 54 pounds full to the top, maybe 40 pounds of wheelweights when 3" deep in the pot. It takes about two pots full to hold the US Standard sheetrock joint compound pail, (5 gal.) full of wheelweights.
The dipper fills up the muffin tins quickly, the skimmer thing gets rid of the wheelweight clips and miscellaneous trash easily.
This equipment does the job for me, easily and quickly.

[Bret4207]

Oddly enough, for once, Joe and I agree on something. You can use a hot plate. I have been using an 1100 watt Walmart hot plate and a stainless measuring cup (6 cup IIRC) that holds a good 30 lbs of alloy for casting with complete satisfaction for years. If it works for that it'll work for rendering raw material down. But- it will be rather slow compared to a propane fryer or plumbers furnace. Once you get a little melted in the bottom it moves right along.

[shootinxd]

I can see that when the weather warms up here in SW Colorado it will be time to start yard sale hunting.I would like to find a inexpensive propane unit just to smelt ingots.Hope to order my 20lb lee pro this week.

[44man]

The safe hot plate has a thermal fuse inside the base. When it gets too hot the fuse will blow. When mine went I removed the fuse and clamped the wires back together. Not the safest thing to do but I don't wander far when I preheat molds.
I don't think this one will get hot enough for smelting because it is a Wally World special. It takes a long time to get a mold to 500* in my little mold furnace.
I can see where a higher wattage plate would work but I have had a plumbers stove for 60 years and it works great. Best piece of equipment I ever came up with. I found it sitting alongside a RR track when I was hunting. Now don't ask why it was there, I have no idea.
I really think propane is the way to go.

[Willbird]

Whether or not you can achieve melt will depend on ambient temperature, I have found things that work at 85+ degrees often do not work at 50 degrees, insulating the sides of your melting pot would probably help a great deal with that, as will floating oil dry on the melt (another form of insulation)

[lylejb]

Yeah, it will work, but slowly and just barely. I would recommend using a Stainless ( NEVER ALUMINIUM ) pot slightly larger diameter than the heating coils, to minimize the heat lost around the sides.

look in goodwill / thrift stores before you consider buying new.

Another thought, Look in craigslist for someone giving away an old BBQ, with a side burner. You can cut off the tray containing the side burner, then remove the valves / hose/ ect from the rest of the BBQ and make it into a propane single burner hot plate. I did this with an old BBQ I was throwing away. The rest of the BBQ was trash, but that's OK. It's the side burner you want.

In my case, I had to use a couple of 2x4 blocks under it to allow room for the valve and air pipe. It was plenty east to run a couple of deck screws to the blocks to hold it all together.

It works, It's faster than the electric hot plate would be, and it doesn't use as much propane as a turkey fryer.

Cold weather does slow it down some, but not nearly as bad as I think the electric would be.

Last weekend, I smelted a full 5 gallon bucket of WW with this in 35-40 degree temps, in about 3.5 hours. A turkey fryer would have been faster, but this is a lot faster that I expect you'll see with a hot plate.

[DLCTEX]

Think about it guys, the Lee 10 lb. pot is 750 watts. You may have to invent a way to trap the heat to the pot, such as a metal shield, possibly even insulation added, to prevent air flow cooling the pot, but it can definately be done.

[geargnasher]

Hint, get one of the LARGE galvanized steel coffee cans and cut it down to fit just around the hot plate heating element, notch it for the pot handle if necessary. Also, leave tabs on the bottom of the can like castle turrets and attach the can to the metal hot plate top with self-tapping sheet metal screws (you will need to be able to remove it for cleaning lead splashes). If you can't find a can the correct size, make a similar heat containing shield out of flashing metal and screws or rivets.

Containing the heat up the sides of the melting pot this way maximizes your 1K-1100 watts of heat energy. You could also make a steel lid to fully enclose your "Kiln" and that ought to really help with smelting. As for casting, it's hard to beat the cost and effectiveness of a Lee pot, even if you ladle pour.

Gear

[StarMetal]

Hint, get one of the LARGE galvanized steel coffee cans and cut it down to fit just around the hot plate heating element, notch it for the pot handle if necessary. Also, leave tabs on the bottom of the can like castle turrets and attach the can to the metal hot plate top with self-tapping sheet metal screws (you will need to be able to remove it for cleaning lead splashes). If you can't find a can the correct size, make a similar heat containing shield out of flashing metal and screws or rivets.

Containing the heat up the sides of the melting pot this way maximizes your 1K-1100 watts of heat energy. You could also make a steel lid to fully enclose your "Kiln" and that ought to really help with smelting. As for casting, it's hard to beat the cost and effectiveness of a Lee pot, even if you ladle pour.

Gear

Gear,

What galvanized coffee cans are you talking about?

Joe

[44man]

Think about it guys, the Lee 10 lb. pot is 750 watts. You may have to invent a way to trap the heat to the pot, such as a metal shield, possibly even insulation added, to prevent air flow cooling the pot, but it can definately be done.

The element is around the sides though.

[stubshaft]

Gear,

What galvanized coffee cans are you talking about?

Joe

Hills Brother coffee of course.

[brad925]

The other day i bought a 2 qaurt cast iron pot with wooden handle and lid for about 20 bucks. I have been wondering about the hot plate thing aswell and figure the cast iron pot might be the way to go because it holds the heat so well. I think i will get another so i do my smelting with one and casting with another.