Muffin Trays for Ingot Mold

[30yrcaster]

Found out my buddy has a turkey fryer we can use to smelt ingots. We got 4 RCBS/Lyman ingot molds but our 50# pot could handle more. Looked at Walmart at the 24 cnt muffin trays but all of them are non-stick. Will a non-stick tray contaminate the lead or cause any other problems? Is the 24 cnt trays the ones that produce the 1.1# ingots?

Thanks

[Bohica793]

My experience has been that you want non-stick and that no, it will not contaminate the ingot.

[Walter Laich]

the non-stick coating will burn off after awhile. This is not a problem either before or after the coating is gone.
some folks use corn bread molds (ones that look like corn cobs) but I think they cost more. Might check the cast iron section to see if they have something that would work if you decide not to get the muffin trays

[Old School Big Bore]

Be sure they are one-piece and not the separate cups crimped into a frame.

[Uncle Jimbo]

The only problem I can see is that once you fill the muffin tin it is way to heavy to move. When you try to pick it up to dump it, it will want to fold in the middle. Also it takes longer to cool down.
I have three six hole tins that works well. filling one, one is cooling, and the third getting dumped and will be ready to fill again. This way, when I start to pour the ingots I can just keep going. No wait time.

[dudel]

My problem with the muffin tins is that they didn't hold up to the weight of the lead. Granted they were cheap tins. The coating burned off after a few ingots. They didn't drop easily.

I went to cast iron corn muffin trays. They've worked find for the past couple of years. I added a wire bail to them to make them easier to handle. Theres a big difference in weight from corn muffins to lead ingots!

[Wayne Smith]

Do your first few pours outside with a breeze. The gasses of the burning of some nonstick substances contain a nerve gas.

[30yrcaster]

Thanks for all the info!!
We have 4 buckets of range lead. Each one I could barely lift to get into the car. I'd figure it must be about 100 lbs each, not sure. Looking to get it done the quickest way possible. Never done range lead before so it will be interesting how much good lead we end up with and if it's worth doing in the future. We'll be doing it outside once things warm up a bit.

[rockshooter]

I stuck a piece of 1/2' plywood under the muffin tins to keep them from bending in half when carrying. The heat chars the wood some but not seriously.
Loren

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Be careful with your temperatures. I would recommend something besides the non-stick muffin pans, as lead does have a tendency to get stuck in those and then you'll destroy the pans getting it out. Better to go to a yard sale or a flea market and pick up old, rusty muffins pans that need to be greased. You'll get much better results.

[RogerDat]

Wonder why the suggestion to avoid muffin tins with cups inserted and crimped in. I found a fairly heavy duty 6 cup one at a flea market and picked it up with smelting in mind. Only have done a couple of cups worth of solder in it so far but they worked pretty well.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Wonder why the suggestion to avoid muffin tins with cups inserted and crimped in. I found a fairly heavy duty 6 cup one at a flea market and picked it up with smelting in mind. Only have done a couple of cups worth of solder in it so far but they worked pretty well.

You may have gotten lucky. But if you buy one like that at the store with the non-stick and your "muffins" get stuck, you'll find out why the recommendation to avoid.

[mizzouri1]

well, i just did my first smelt with one rusty and two new nonstick muffin pans and they worked great. dropped ingots right out. they are flimsy and will bend easy. these will do until i come across something better.

[Idz]

A trick I've been using with my aluminum Lee ingot molds is to pour the mold and then just as it starts to harden move it to a tray and set it on a wet cotton rag. The steaming sucks out the heat and cools the mold rapidly without damage. Before I figured that out the mold would get so hot the handle would char and come loose. After several 100 pounds of ingots the molds are still in great shape. I don't know if the steel molds would work as well. There are some who get bent out of shape if you have water anywhere near molten lead but I've had no problem.

[RogerDat]

You may have gotten lucky. But if you buy one like that at the store with the non-stick and your "muffins" get stuck, you'll find out why the recommendation to avoid.

Thanks for the answer. This is an older one, pretty heavy aluminum and plain, not non-stick. I wanted to avoid non-stick, just seemed like that stuff would be a potential problem. Teflon surface not really designed to stand up to 700* lead. I may find that this one won't handle the weight. Did notice the heat really migrated to the rest of the pan fast. Pour two cups in the center and 30 seconds later you would not want to touch the ends without gloves

[freebullet]

Mmm...the smell of burning nonstick goes good with beers i hears.

[dragon813gt]

Non-stick isn't an issue if it's teflon coated. The ones that are shiny are tin coated. Tin and lead.....well it's called a solder joint. I use ones made by Wilton. Each ingot will weight close to 4.5#s if I fill them completely. I have done this and the pan holds up just fine. You guys must be using some junk pans of they're folding up on you. I only pour them to 3.5#s and these pans have done close to a ton at this point.


You want them rusted as it helps the release.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Good smelter setup you got there dragon. Only things I can see you don't have (In the pic) is a thermometer to keep your smelt under zinc melting temperatures and a large sheet of cheap, scrap plywood. Something off a shipping box for a wood working tool or something similar. Keeps the lead "splashes" from trashing your concrete.

Walmart didn't sell Wilton teflon coated stick ten years ago, at least not in this area. Glad to see the teflon aren't the issue, but it's easy to get fooled on what will stick and what will not.

[dragon813gt]

That's an old pic. No thermometer needed. I don't bother w/ wheel weights anymore. To much work for little gain. I bent up a sheet metal pan to go underneath everything. It's also just the carport. A few splashes of lead isn't going to hurt anything.

[Ramslammer]

G'Day
Muffin tins spayed with Lyman Moly spray are the go. We've been using 5 small muffin trays for years. They are probably for cupcakes or something but are approx 1 LB ingots and do 12 at a time.
Juddy