How many ingot molds do you recommend?

[1911KY]

What would you say is a sufficient number of ingot molds to have when smelting? Obviously, it can be done with just one mold, but that would take much more time and would require you to keep your molten lead at constant temp for quite awhile.

Here is what I have so far with $37 invested:


I like the smaller egg skillets as I think the ingots from these will be quicker to melt in the casting furnace.

[dragon813gt]

How much are you processing? This is the determining factor for me. The minimum I will process is 200#s. There have been times where I've processed close to a ton in a day. The pans I have will do 8 3.5#s at once. W/ two pans it makes for a long day when processing a large batch. One day I will buy a few more pans.

[Hardcast416taylor]

3 Lyman ingot molds, 2 LEE ingot molds are my main use molds. I also use a Lyman and an RCBS 10 lb. melt pot that I fill half full for a 5 - 6 lb. ingot. I have 6 angle iron (1 1/2") ingot molds 8" long I use only if I have a very large smelt going on.Robert

[BK7saum]

I made 8, 8lbers out of 3"channel iron. I have a 4 gang 5 lb mold, 3 RCBS ingot molds a couple of lee and a lyman. I use the 8 and 5 lbers for large batch smelting and the smaller 1 lb ingot molds for 100 lb alloy batches of 50/50 coww/lead + tin or other ratio batch.

Last smelt I rotated the 8 lbers under the bottom pour smelter and only ended up using 5 or 6. 8 is more than enough to rotate through with allowance for some cooling between pours.

[1911KY]

Currently, I have 70 lbs of sheeting and pipe, 26 lbs of soft wedge weights, 147 lbs of WW, 10 lbs of Mono/Linotype and 50 lbs of range scrap ingots that I am going to smelt and reflux. I may not do all this in 1 day as I am going to keep some soft lead separate and blend some in with the WW that I have. I am thinking about keeping the Mono/Linotype in the raw form while I get my feet wet casting. I can always smelt it into the small egg ingots and add as needed going forward.

I also have some old angle iron I am going to cut up and make some additional molds with, but it will be a few weeks before I can make it out to my old man's farm to get it welded up.

I doubt I can melt more than 40 to 50 lbs in that cast iron skillet pictured above so I may initially smelt 2 batches depending how much time I have to invest.

[376Steyr]

If you are only doing 40-50 lbs at a time, the ingot moulds you have should be plenty. The first pour into a cold iron mould will cool really quickly, so by the time you have them all filled the first should be ready to flip and dump. The second pass takes a lot longer to solidify. Watch out for muffin tins, as they weren't designed to hold 20 lbs of muffins. They are still usable, but like to try to fold on you as you flip them.

Get a small saucepan or the like to use as a ladle. Don't even think about picking up the smelter skillet when it is full and pouring directly from it. Lead is 10 times denser than water, and pours in ways that people aren't used to. It is way too easy to let a big load get away from you.

Lastly, I see the toe of a nylon running shoe in the photo. Sturdy leather is the thing to have on the tops of your feet when smelting.

[jayjay1]

Have you ever tried to pile your half round egg ingots?

Of all those you have, the egg pan is the worst in my opinion.

I have two muffin trays and that´s all I need.

When I´ve filled the second one, it is time to turn the first one, then fill it again, turn the second one, fill it again,....

[RogerDat]

I like muffin trays, they stack if not as well or space efficient as some other shapes they still work ok for this and that. Have seen more than one picture of people using those wedge shaped cast iron pans. Depending on weight of a full pan those seem like they would be useful for things where one might want to stack "wheels" up in quantity for longer term storage.

While I think having molds that make ingots of good weights and that make efficient use of storage space, I don't think it matters as much getting started. Having enough molds that once the pot is ready to go you can just crank them out rather than standing around waiting for some to cool enough seems way more important. If the ingots will stack (muffin & wedge in picture) then they can go between studs, on a strong shelf or wherever. If they won't stack well then throw them in 5 gallon buckets and stack the buckets. I have close to 1000 lbs. in buckets and it takes up about as much floor space as a small computer desk. 5 stacks 3 buckets high, each bucket between 1/2 and 3/4 full so they nest well.

For now it's garage and thrift store molds with one lee for "special" stuff like pewter, solder and the like. Am working on a batch of angle iron molds so I can do WW's in bigger batches and faster but the muffins tin ingots sure make the sheet lead easier to store in those buckets or on a shelf, and easier to add to a melt so it works fine for the time being.

[JASON4X4]

I picked up some of the Walmart 2 for $3 mini loaf pans I haven't used them yet. I have heard the ingots will be close to 10 lbs if the pans are full. I know they will be easy to stack and the price can't be beat.

[Gun_nut83]

Although I'm new to smelting, l currently only have two ingot molds. One Lyman and one Lee.

[lancem]

I've made a couple of these, easy stacking and easy filling. Made from 1 1/2" angle iron

[D Crockett]

I would not recommend you smelting lead in a cast iron skillet it can get dangerous if picked up and it sloshes around and you spill it on your self moltant lead is very unforgiving and can melt the skin right off of you get your self a melting pot and a ladle to cast ingots with a trip to the hospital is not what you want D Crockett

[lightman]

When smelting, I run 6 of the Lyman type molds. After a few cycles I have to wait on them to cool. Thats about 100# and by then the old back is ready for a break, and the wait is only a few minutes. There are several thoughts on ingot molds. If you go big, you may get finished quicker, but a large ingot cools your casting pot quicker, when added to the melt. I personally like the 1# ingots that the Lyman type mold drops. There are pics of of some nice looking homemade molds here. If I were to make some, I probably would go with small channel, like 1 1/2 inch, maybe 4 to 6 inches long.

I like my ingots to be all the same, so they stack well. Some even use a different shape for different alloys, not really a bad idea.

[bangerjim]

I use 3 Lee, 2 Lyman, and 1 RCBS commercial molds only. No more round or corn cook ware for me. Muffins do not stack as nicely as ingots (hillbilly gold!).

I am in the process of remelting all my early muffins into ingots for easy storage. And to prevent foot injury from mufffins falling over!

And the 1# rectangular ingots are easy to pick up with the antique rivit pliers I use when putting feedstock in my casting pots. The pliers will not grip the muffins.

But use what you can afford. I spend the money for the pro molds. And leave the cookware to the cook.

bangerjim

[1911KY]

Thanks for all the info!

I definitely won't be smelting or casting in running shoes, steel toe boots for me.

I plan to put the small egg ingots in a bucket, so not much worried about how they stack, as I don't intend for them to be my primary ingot form. Being small I thought they would be good to get the pot started and for adding mono/linotype lead as desired.

I have no intentions of pouring from the skillet, it is mainly for smelting. I have a large ladle to pour ingots from. I have zero intentions of setting myself up for a serious burn.


I will be making some of the angle iron ingot molds, those are nice! I may invest in a Lyman mold one of these days, but for now I will use what I have.

[dilly]

I match the shape to the composition. I have wedges for range scrap, muffins for pure, and leave my linotype in the raw. The wedge molds stack quite nicely (better than muffins) when you orient the tips in alternating directions.

The plus side is that you don't have to worry about labeling them, and the down side is you have to find/store that many more ingot molds.

[bangerjim]

The Lee and Lyman molds are usually only around $12. Not bad for quality! The RCBS CI one I have was much more, but I only use it for pure lead so I know it is NOT alloy.

I mark all my ingots with alloy ID with steel stamps, mark weights with Sharpee, and paint the ends with specific colored transparent lacquer to make ID very easy from a distance. Just another reason to use rectangular stackable ingots.

Have fun!

banger