first muffin pan ingots stuck

[Mitch]

What type of burner are you using? Glad you weren't injured.

I have an old Ransome Co.Model P5 pot.My Dad had it and used it for leading soil pipe.It has made many fishin sinkers and now ingots for boolits.Stellar Tech still makes something simaler called the p-5-0 it is riged for heating solder irons. It has the same burner as mine but mine has a pot with a shroud.
I thru what is left of the muffin pan out in the yard to weather a bit before I try it again,

[Mr. Farknocker]

I think you'll have to destroy the pan to get the ingots out now that they are stuck.

I bought cupcake pans with the teflon coating and dumped the ingots out while they were hot but solid. Never had one stuck. From what I've seen/read, the ingots will stick to the pan if they are allowed to cool. BTW, the teflon will eventually burn off with several pourings. They will create craters in the lead as a result of gassing but this diminishes and disappears altogether by the 3 or 4th pour. It makes for some knarly looking ingots. The vapors emitted from the teflon are toxic so beware and pour your ingots outside or in a well-ventilated place.

[MaryB]

I screwed 4 walmart stainless condiment cups to a hunk of aluminum tube (rectangular). Screwed a scrap of 1x2 pine to the bottom and it works great

[jmort]

^ That makes a lot of sense. Nice

[detox]

IMO the best shaped ingot moulds are the 1 lb type that Lyman and RCBS sells.

[ACrowe25]

^^

I have some nice 3lb that I picked up from walmart as a "mini loaf" pan. Sand blasted and used it first try all fell out by just inverting. Very nice....

[SeabeeMan]

The thing I like is how well the mini muffin ingots stack in the thin, 7.62 ammo cans. I can pack it much more densely than the Lyman molds when alternating the way the face ingot in a row and column.

[mold maker]

The current prices on ammo cans make them awfully expensive ingot storage medium.
Went to a gun show Sunday and the 30 cal cans were $12. The 50 cal and the SAW cans were $18. and $19.
I've a bloody fortune tied up with ammo, dies, molds, and boolits. Thank goodness I bought lots while the were still cheap.($3.-$8.) I once bought a whole pallet, picked the better, and sold the rest to pay for all of them.
All my ingots are in standard ingot shapes, and stored in milk crates, which were free.

[popper]

I have a steel one the wife gifted me. The one that stuck was the first I poured. Poured too hot. Steel expands, then contracts when cooling, locking the lead in real well. pour cooler and dump when solid but not cold.

[fredj338]

If you know a welder, best ingot molds are made from scrap channel iron. Get a 3" wide section, as lojng as you like, pay by the #. Then cut it in 3"-4" lengths, weld as many together as you want to handle, weld end pieces on, a handle if you want, done.

[badbob454]

Glad to see I am not the only one this happened to.I have the problem solved smelted the rest of the lead today and tossed them in the pot for the last batch.13lbs stuck lol not anymore.

I was not suppose to smelt this weekend had what was a good idea.Went to worthlessmart and got a 5QT cast iron dutch oven it worked great for a while.i got the lead all cleaned up cast 5 ingots.Then the pot fell over made 40 lbs of pipe into sheet the hard way.The base on my burner is not big enough.It all balanced just fine when it was empty but not full.thegood news it I did not get any molten lead on me.

Mitch

mine didnt fit quite right got the burner good and hot and beat in the ring so the 3 legs fit down flush
now it is exellent

[Lights]

Bought a couple of those shiny ones when i started. Nothing would get em out. Ended up using needle nose pliers to peel away the muffin pan sides. Darn things were welded in. Dummy me never even thought of tossing em back in the pot

Al

I do not feel so bad now. I did the same thing.

[GLL]

Someone emailed about the size my channel-iron ingot molds. They cast 5 pounders !
I have seven of them so it makes quick work of a 100 pound pot of alloy !

Jerry

[Mitch]

i Left the muffin pan outdoors to rust a bit it works great now

[JohnFM]

It's the cheap teflon coating used on some of them that causes ingots to stick.
If you get it all burned off with a torch they work fine.
You just about have to get them cherry red to get the stuff burned off, the fumes are supposed to be bad, I dunno, I did mine outside.
If it all isn't removed there will be divots left on the ingots from the gasses coming off, ugly, but doesn't hurt anything and finally will go away.
Best ones are the old ones with none of the funky "non-stick" coatings if you can find them.

[MaryB]

Condiment cup ingots stack nice

[finstr]

I bought two non-stick muffin pans for $1 at the dollar store. Poured in molten lead and waited for my ingots.....THEY WERE WELDED SOLID TO THE PANS! LOL, anyways I set the pans on the burner and melted the lead back out after I destroyed the one pan completely peeling the tin from the ingot. Learning curve is fairly steep in the beginning.....

[ACrowe25]

I bought a shiny one I think? Idk. Either way I had it sand blasted at my shop, and they all dropped pretty.

[Dale53]

Here's what I use - a bunch of regular ingot moulds but my angle iron "made up" moulds will make up to 5.0 lb. ingots. You can empty a 120# pot pretty fast:



Dale53

[Markbo]

I guess you didn't try using Pam, huh?