Gas Fired Melting Pot

[Reverend Recoil]

Has anyone designed and built a natural gas or propane fired bottom pour melting pot?

[dragonrider]

I have.

[Reverend Recoil]

Thanks for the pictures. Is it used to fill molds or to only clean up scrap lead? Have you condidered insulating it?

[dragonrider]

I use it just for smelting. Yes I have considerred insulation but haven't as yet. I am collecting stuff to make another and that one will be insulated and a change in bottom pour design.

[deltaenterprizes]

I had one that was a piece of pipe slightly smaller than a 55 gallon drum in diameter and used a 55 gallon drum for a windshield. It held 20 gallons of range scrap from an indoor range and when melted and cleaned it would weigh 500 lbs. I copied the lead spout from an RCBS ProMelt and used bread loaf pans for ingot molds, they weighed 25 lbs each. One inch of melted lead was 100 lbs. It took about an hour to melt when full. It was fired with propane.

[Moonie]

I had one that was a piece of pipe slightly smaller than a 55 gallon drum in diameter and used a 55 gallon drum for a windshield. It held 20 gallons of range scrap from an indoor range and when melted and cleaned it would weigh 500 lbs. I copied the lead spout from an RCBS ProMelt and used bread loaf pans for ingot molds, they weighed 25 lbs each. One inch of melted lead was 100 lbs. It took about an hour to melt when full. It was fired with propane.

[quack1]

I have. It's been in use for over 30 years. I used the burner from an old hot water heater. It holds about 20 lbs of lead.

[scrapcan]

quack1,

can you post some additional pictures of info on the pot? Especially the spout mechanism.

[quack1]

manleyjt- Here are some pictures of the spout and stopper. I planned to cast some bullets yesterday, so when I was done I emptied the pot and took the pics.
I made 3 modifications to the pot over the years. First was a weight on the end of the handle, a full pot of lead would float the handle and stopper enough to cause leaking. Second was making the spout and valve stopper out of stainless. Rust on the steel stopper and spout caused lead leakage. I just bored out the original spout and welded in a stainless one. Third was adding an adjustable handle stop for more consistant filling of all sizes of molds- I cast from 22cal to 45 cal.
If I were to do it again, the only thing I would change would be to make the whole pot out of stainless. At the time I made the pot, all I had access to was steel pipe.
Hope the pics are what you want.
The handle and stopper linkage



The spout, from the bottom

The spout and stopper from inside the pot

Side view of the whole pot(it ain't pretty, but it works)

[songdog53]

Beauty is eyes of beholder and if it works good then to me would be thing of beauty, besides looks like good bottom pourer and wouldn't have to fill very often. Good job Quack1

[Beagler]

Will be going through my local scrap/tractor grave yard as soon as the mud dries up. Have an extra burner in the shed. I have an elec. job but rather use gas. Also thank you for posting the detail pics. Will be fabing my own version.

[cavalrymedic]

My goodness quack! she's beautiful.

[jmsj]

Reverend,
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=84710

[Beagler]

Quack1 you inspired me to build my own Gas fired Bottom Pour Pot. Its ugly but it was made from scrap I had. It works Great should of made one long time ago. Date on pics are wrong stupid camera defaults every time batts. are changed

[thx997303]

quack 1

Do you run the burner on natural gas or propane?

Also, was it propane or natrual gas at first, and if you converted it from one to the other, how did you do it?

[MT Gianni]

THX PM me if you have questions on converting a burner. Basically you need to change orifice size and pressure but there are a few visuals that you need to watch and listen for.

[quack1]

thx997303- I run it on natural gas, and the burner was from a natural gas water heater.

[Beagler]

I installed a colman LP burner and a Ceramic Wool Insulation Jacket. Made a big diff. while I was casting in cooler weather didn;t have to max out the burner to keep it at casting temp.