What heat source for smelting?

[creature]

My Walmart has 4 different turkey and fish friers (5 psi regulators) to choose from. These will put out enough heat to melt 100lbs of lead guaranteed. If not just return it no questions asked.

I like their King Kooker version. Comes with shallow fish fry pan and strainer, thermometer $49.00 They also have cheaper version that cost $29.00.

Sounds nice! I wonder if that thermometer would work for measuring lead temperature? Also do I need to keep the lead under 850 when I smelt or does it matter? I'm real new to this guys, i appreciate the help.

Oh also, I snagged some cup cake pans today at a thrift store. I've seen people use them for ingot molds. A couple of them seem a little lighter. Will lighter metal work or do I need to worry about it burning through them?

[detox]

NO that thermometer will not work for testing lead temperature.

I would keep the lead temp under 800 for pure lead. Under 750 for Wheel Weights.

[Sasquatch-1]

Sounds nice! I wonder if that thermometer would work for measuring lead temperature? Also do I need to keep the lead under 850 when I smelt or does it matter? I'm real new to this guys, i appreciate the help.

Oh also, I snagged some cup cake pans today at a thrift store. I've seen people use them for ingot molds. A couple of them seem a little lighter. Will lighter metal work or do I need to worry about it burning through them?

The thermometers that come with these are made for cooking and usually do not reach temperatures over 700 degrees. You may be dealing with temps in the 800 to 900 degree range.

Make sure none of the pans are aluminum. As stated many times on this board aluminum melts at a temp close to lead and will weaken a pouring temps. Avoid a possible disaster.

[country gent]

I bought a weed burner at Harbor frieght put 2 valves on it one on off one to regulate temperature. On the other end I welded a peice of key stock to an elbow and now it stands up right under my turkey frier stand. about 40-45 mins and my duth oven is full of moltern lead and ready to go. Years ago I had a set made from a couple truck rims and a 25 Lb propane tank. Used coal and a shop vav for a blower. 300+ lbs in a couple hours.But was a mess in the driveway. tack welded 3 truck rims together cut the centers out of the top 2. Cut the top of an old 25 lb propane tank ( one they would fill do to its age) and started a coal fire in the bottom rim set pot in and turned on the blower. Coal is probably the most economical for melting lead. Propane is cleaner, no ash clinkers or real mess. But with the propane tank set up I cleaned up 4000 lbs of range lead in 3 week ends or so. I use my set up now to smelt alloy and cast from.Dutch oven full will go about 150 lbs so be carefull.

[km101]

I use a turkey fryer. I added pipe legs to it to bring the top surface up to 30" in height so I don't have to squat or stoop all the time that I am smelting. I have found that the regulator that came with it works well for smelting. I have a high-pressure regulator, but found that it is not necessary. I found that a dutch oven is a little too heavy to use easily and does not have a pour spout. I found a cheap stainless steel pot that has a sturdy handle, and I use locking pliers for additional handling. I was able to make a pour spout to simplify pouring into molds. DO NOT use aluminum muffin tins or anything that has a non-stick coating on it!! Don't ask me how I know.

[acguy45]

I use a 1,000 watt open coil hotplate ($10.00 or less) and a large coffee can or #6 industrial vegetable etc can it fits the coils perfectly I cover the top with the lid and it melts 15-20 lbs in about 20 minutes or less. I use a burn barrel for larger batches of range scrap. I use cans for ignot molds, not a pro by any means but it works for me.

[John Boy]

and am wondering what sort of heat source I should use

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html

Heats-up to over 3000° F

[Sasquatch-1]

I use a 1,000 watt open coil hotplate ($10.00 or less) and a large coffee can or #6 industrial vegetable etc can it fits the coils perfectly I cover the top with the lid and it melts 15-20 lbs in about 20 minutes or less. I use a burn barrel for larger batches of range scrap. I use cans for ignot molds, not a pro by any means but it works for me.

I use to use an old tin can when they were made of heavier metal, some 35+ years ago. A friendly WARNING, the soldier joint on the side will fail. Maybe not catastrophically, but it will fail.

[BubbaJon]

The thermometers that come with these are made for cooking and usually do not reach temperatures over 700 degrees. You may be dealing with temps in the 800 to 900 degree range.
Make sure none of the pans are aluminum. As stated many times on this board aluminum melts at a temp close to lead and will weaken a pouring temps. Avoid a possible disaster.

For just melting the only reason you'd care about temp would be if you suspect some zinc weights floating around in there - then you don't want to get too hot. I fire up the gas until i see it start to melt then back off. You can get BBQ thermometers for about $15 but they aren't all that accurate.
As far as aluminum muffin tins - near as i can tell that's not true in normal use - I used mine for many many cycles and not a sign of anything happening. Pure lead melts around 620F. Aluminum melts somewhere around 900 degrees - no need to get the temp that dang high - all you're doing is possibly cooking out the good stuff, possibly cooking IN the bad stuff and/or oxidizing the lead.

[badbob454]

http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html

Heats-up to over 3000° F

i wonder if this will melt berdan brass so i can pour into ingots?

[country gent]

There was an old pattern maker at our shooting club in his spare time he melted down aluminum cans ( almost everybody saved them for him) and made copies of the old freeland scope stand and other items. He made his patterns and had several pots of green sand. He claimed the heat wasnt an issue but the fluxes needed to get good castings were. We played around a little with "investment casting brass at work in the tool room but never got consistent results.
I used an old propane cylinder witht he top cut of and stoker coal with a shop vac for a blower. worked great as long as it was full of lead when started to get empty you had to turn the blower of or it would have melted thru. Now if you know what stoker coal is your showing your age some.

[41 mag fan]

Now if you know what stoker coal is your showing your age some.

Transferred from an underground Peabody mine, 3 1/2 yrs ago that, that was their main product......stoker coal.

[Bzcraig]

Turkey fryer and Dutch oven and if I'm worried about zinc in my WW cause I didn't check them well, thermometer. Then ladle into ingot molds. It's a little slow that way but I don't worry too much about volume and try to enjoy the process.

[Dale53]

Here's my Bass Pro Turkey/Fish fryer and a Harbor Freight Dutch oven;



The Dutch oven has a capacity of well over 100 lbs. I have done 650 lbs in an afternoon with a bit of help.

Watch for sales...

Dale53

[country gent]

I use basically the same set up only I replaced the turkey burner with a weed burner from harbor frieght and an 1/8 thk sheet ring around the dutch oven to hold heat in.

[Spokerider]

A dutch oven like the one pictured above, tiger torch or weed burner torch....same thing, a few fireproof bricks and a couple pieces of 3" square tubing to rest the pot on. All stuff I had on hand.

[TheGrimReaper]

Propane fish fryer and a Flea Market Dutch oven. Best part-Fish fryer was FREE and the huge Dutch Oven cost me $10.00!!!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Your generic Turkey Fryer burner and a 20 lb cast iron plumbers pot will melt down in 20 minutes from stone cold. Refills are about 10 min and if you don't empty the pot all the way each time you can move lead every 3-5 minutes

These are readily available from all of the big box stores for $30-70. The only critical thing to look for is how strong the stand is. Mine was on sale for $29.95 at Lowes.

A smaller dutch oven would work well as a pot if you can't find a plumbers pot. The bigger the pot the longer it takes to melt it down.

As far as cast iron not being up to the task, it has been for hundreds of years, so why not just follow along with the trend.

Associated tools for processing lead can be had at any restaurant supply. Heavy aluminum buscuit pans and large SS spoons, strainers, and gravy ladels are all you need to be smelting wheel weights.

I have done 9ea 5 gallon buckets of WW in 5 hours with this setup. Prior to the turkey burner my record was 1 5gallon bucket in 8 hours using Coleman stoves!

You can see the ingots laying on the floor behind the single one I'm holding. There was 411 ingots total and they average 1.95 lbs each, that's right at 800lbs in 5 hours. Haven't had to do it for a while.

Randy

[Dannmann801]

For what it's worth I just started melting lead and after reading/listening/talking this is the setup I came up with -
20130420_113500_zpsc4dc89d8.jpg

Seemed to work just fine - used a skillet because that's what I had layin' around the garage, got the muffin tins at discount store and really like the thicker metal tin better, but both worked. Whatever stuff was on the inside of the muffin tins caused voids on the first batch of ingots, but then they smoothed out. Burner was $34 on sale at Menard's and I got propane already...

I'm thinking that I'm going to look for a deeper cast iron pot....skillet works fine but it would be better if it weren't so shallow

20130420_154856_zpsc139142b.jpg

[1hole]

I cast for years from a Lyman cast iron pot on a Coleman gas camp stove, worked fine but less than ideal. Some years ago I happened upon an old plumbers gas blow torch at a yard sale. It works great and the fuel is still cheap even at today's prices. A piece of sheet metal around the pot keeps the flame's heat in, mostly, and protects my hands from the radiant heat.

IMHO, it is NOT a good idea to melt more than maybe 20-30# at once no matter what pot you have. Molten lead is quite hot, it's an awkward to handle liquid and it can be a disaster if it's spilled.