Best Way to Rduce Large Ingot

[snuffy]

Get one of these. I did.

http://www.harborfreight.com/power-t...dle-65570.html

When you order or are at the store, get a blade pack that has the long wood cutting blades. Coarse tooth configuration, with PLENTY of some sort of oil. It'll take several minutes, but minimal shavings. I cut through one of these machine weights across the width in 5 minutes. it's 2" thick! Weighs 90#.



A circular saw creates a LOT of shavings. AND when/while they're coming off the saw, they're hot and hit with force. Remember you're creating a large lead contaminated area with fine lead shavings.

[Longwood]

I sure would like to see a member report on the Harbor Freight two bladed saw.
I read some of the feedback on Harbor Freights site and not very many were favorable.
I also saw that they went an sale after the bad reviews.
The saws would sure come in handy if they do as they are meant to do.

[Chicken Thief]

A circular saw creates a LOT of shavings. AND when/while they're coming off the saw, they're hot and hit with force. Remember you're creating a large lead contaminated area with fine lead shavings.

Hmmmm, must be doing something wrong as mine only flung swarf 8-10". And they were easy to collect with broom and dustpan, no more than 1/4lb at most.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I have used an old Colman stove for many years, for both casting and smelting.

My cast iron casting pot holds about 40 lbs, and is not very big (8" at the top and maybe 4" deep). So, I also vote for the large pot.

As indicated, in reality this will not even need to be a large pot as lead stacks up real fast!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[D Crockett]

what you need is one of my big melting pots and a try pod holding it so you can let it down till it will not flip the pot over and melt away D Crockett

[Tank56]

I do the same thing as GREENCOUNTYPETE
cut it with an old axe. No dust or chips and no loss due to kerf.

[zxcvbob]

I tried an axe once on a 2.5 inch thick piece of lead. The axe would go in about 1/2" and stop. Repeated hits in the same spot would not go any deeper.

[hyoder]

Geargnasher has it - sawzall with a demolition blade and a tarp or 5 gallon bucket to catch the chips.

[guidogoose]

Methods I've used are MAPP torch or clamped in vise with a sledgehammer.

[H.Callahan]

Best way to reduce it is to send it to me. I would be happy to dispose of it for you. ...and I won't even charge for the service!

[fcvan]

I had a large ingot of pure lead that was 6"x6"x24" I cut 1/3 off and melted that on a propane cook stove with a 3lb metal coffee can. The coffee can had a semi-conical metal shroud placed around it to concentrate the heat around the can. I used a stainless long handle ladle for pouring into ingots. Once I ladled half of the lead out I set the other 2/3 of the ingot into the can. As it melted I would lift it out, ladle back down to half and repeat. It took longer to cut the large ingot than it did to melt it down. Once I had it down to 1lb ingots I was able to mix much of it with other alloys to get my desired hardness. The remainder of the pure lead will be cast for my black powder shooting. Frank

By the way, a 3lb coffee can holds 80+ lbs of lead. Make sure your stove can handle that!

[Hank10]

I have a 85 lb. electric pot which handles most large pieces i get but when i do get a too large piece, I use a Oxy/acetylene torch. Even with a propane torch you can melt off pieces until it fits in your pot.
H10

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

OXY-Acetylene does in fact WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once built a steel box, one foot square, and filled it about 3/4 full of plumbers lead for a counter balance to be used on the light side of a side mounted boom for a tractor mounted mower.

Over a winter or so, with water getting into the box and freezing, it began to force the block of lead up and out of the box.

We took the box an lead to use for another application, so needed to melt it out of the steel box and then fill the box clear to the top with the lead.

It was heavy the first go around, but once redone, it was HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I melted the lead out of that solid block with a torch, and it ran like water it was melting so fast.

Had plenty of fresh air of course, but the Oxy-ace gets er done for sure!!!!!!!!

CDOC

[bowfin]

Get a bigger pot. Really, for 5 bucks at the goodwill my time is worth more than spending too much time cutting things up. 60 lbs is what, 8 inches across? Not that big a pot after all.

The above would be my best suggestion.

[wv109323]

Why not set the lead block up and use it as a target. I would say a 30-06 hole every two inches would reduce it to usable sizes. This would be a lot more fun than using a boring saw,axe heat. Is this a "What gun to use Forum" or a "What tool to use Forum".

[Dale53]

Here's the way I did it - the ingot in the picture weighed 92 lbs.!





My brother did the heavy lifting and together we smelted and put into ingot moulds 650 lbs in three hours.









That is a turkey/fish fryer from Bass pro (it was on sale at $30.00) with a Harbor Freight six Quart cast iron dutch oven.

Dale53

[dsol]

That Bass Pro fryer looks really familiar! Got one just like it and it does a great job with a big cast iron pot I found at a yard sale for $5. I have a big 100lb solid piece, probably too big to do at one time, but I think if I split it in two, it should work just fine.

[Longwood]

Quite a bit of the lead that I scrounge seem to come in long ingots.
Be extremely careful when melting them in smaller pots than they will fit in.
As they melt, they will slowly slide down into the pot until the cold end that is sitting at an angle falls down into the molten lead.
That is when a sheet of molten lead can squirt from under the cold ingot up over the lip of the pot.
It can coat a good sized area a good distance from the pot.
If you look at the photo of the partially molten ingot you can see where it did exactly that.
STAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POT so that sheet of molten lead does not get on you.

[guidogoose]

Quite a bit of the lead that I scrounge seem to come in long ingots.
Be extremely careful when melting them in smaller pots than they will fit in.
As they melt, they will slowly slide down into the pot until the cold end that is sitting at an angle falls down into the molten lead.
That is when a sheet of molten lead can squirt from under the cold ingot up over the lip of the pot.
It can coat a good sized area a good distance from the pot.
If you look at the photo of the partially molten ingot you can see where it did exactly that.
STAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POT so that sheet of molten lead does not get on you.

Been there done that! Not only did I have a big mess to clean but had cold lead to boot!

[Frank V]

If it's just a 60# ingot just use a big ole cold chisel and a 3# hammer to cut chunks off. Easy with soft lead and no "lead dust" from any saw action. I have also built a tripod and hung ingots up and put a pan under them and melt off with a soldering torch. All the stuff mentioned will work, just which you wanna use. 10

I have used a cold chisel before, it works. You might get away with cutting it in half & half may fit into your pot.
Frank