What i did was an old cast iron wood stove, witch i grinded open at the top to put a open grinded propane tank in.
Before you are going to grind that tank open, fill it with water first!!!!
Then i put the pot full and lit the fire, when everything has melted i scoop out the jackets and other stuff.
I dont know the english word for this one, but its a scoop they use for frying pans, to get the fried food out.
So not the one for a normal kitchen, but those big kitchens.
A friend of mine knows how to weld, he made me a big ladle witch was approx 25 inches long and could hold 5 pound with every dip.
For those kind of melts I like sand casting, i use lumberwood for this approx size: 6 inch long x 2 inch x 2,5 inch.
It will give you bars of ~10 pound.
For my other alloys i use different size and shape wood.
I am not a welder so this works for me perfect, as a Carpenter by trade.
You can make every ingot size you would like. And a lot of the same size.
The only expense you will have is two or three bags of playing sand.
Again this works perfect for me, I hope this will give you some food for your thoughts.
Just my 2 cents
I really must find out how to get pics on this forum!
Good luck on melting
@ trigger happy, its easy and very good to do, to melt copper.
But if there is some messing, lead, tin, zinc or other contamination, you probably cant sell it for pure copper, but for messing.
Your burner must be way hotter then for lead, and you have to buy a crucible.
Or buy/make a complete melting oven, those ones on gas,they work better, but thats IMO.
And its fun
Easist way to purge a propane tank is also fun, SHOOT IT! Just set it out at whatever range you feel safe at and take aim and fire. With the newer style OPD tanks (they have three pointed handle valve) will NOT let gas out even when opened without a hose hooked up to it! So hook the tank to your grill or whatever and try to light it when it's empty then shoot it and let it sit for a while, the propane smell will linger for weeks, that is an oil that is added to the gas for safety.
It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years (Abe Lincoln)
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington
I recently cut a propane tank, the quick and easy way.
I made sure it was empty by draining out any residual pressure with a burner, then removed the valve. I left it outside and forgot about it for a couple weeks in bad weather. What with the rain and wind I figured it was plenty purged, but poured some more water in for good measure.
Then I just took it to work and used a portable bandsaw. I ran some tape around where I wanted to cut, for a straight line, then set it on the ground and rolled it slowly as the bandsaw rode around the outside cutting through it like butter. It couldn't have turned out nicer if I'd have used a laser. After the first one I could have cut a dozen.
Can you tell that this has been cut in half?
Can't wait to see pics of that much lead! Would be cool for you to document the whole process (loading, transport, smelt, final product) in its own thread.
It takes about 1 #20 tank to do about 700-800 pounds so it is a relatively small cost. Especially when you own a propane company ]If I had to smelt that much lead, I would probably use a natural gas burner, not propane, because natural gas is a lot cheaper than propane. One thing that you need to factor into the cost of smelting it though is the amount of beer that you are going to be drinking during the process. I figure probably 6-12 beers per 100 lbs, depending upon whether it is the winter or summer.
I might also mention that you get about 20 pounds if you have the tank filled where most of the exchanges only puts 15 pounds in them.
Last edited by lwknight; 01-01-2018 at 10:01 PM.
Melting Stuff is FUN!Sent from my PC with a keyboard and camera on it with internet too.
Shooting stuff is even funner
L W Knight
Well I went and got 50 -5 gallon buckets and 50 “bricks” of rubber back stop today I have 57 more buckets and 17
More bricks to get, they told me they get about 6-7 buckets of range scrap a month and about every 6 months they replace 10-11 Bricks
I think for that much weight and scrap I would make an inclined smelter to melt the alloy away and leave the trash behind
I was wondering, to improve a thing or two.
Some of us had the trouble(luxury) to do a mostermelt.
Regardless off how you melt it, getting the wrong stuff out is a real pain somewhere below.
Like runfiverun said, make a big water proof box and fill it with salt water ~15%.
In that box, before you put your thrash in, you have some sort of filter screen, to lift the good stuff out.
After you get rid of most of the wood and rubber. As last the sand.
Perfect hint from runfiverun!, I give it a go when we are going to do our range(again) in april this year.
Then you dunk al the wet stuff in your melting pot and crank it up, it will be dry before its going to melt.
For safety Always use a lit/cover up your pot, in case you overlooked a live piece of ammo(worst case).
After everything has melted you need to get the jackets and other stuff out, i Always take a ?fryer?ladle and scoop it out.
Why are we not figuring out a system to make it faster, like a big inox fine mash bucket into our big melting pots?
Just to get the most jackets out, just like those deep fryers.
Or, less practical, and maybe even dangerous, adapt your pot with handles so you can lift it with a friend.
Drill two big hols to fit an iron rod, 1,5 inch in dia, like the ones they use in the concrete construction.
Dunk the whole stuff into a fine mash metal sheet on top of a other melting pot?
Or tilt your pot to drain into your ingots.
If you have neighbores close by, only melt when its windy, also for your own safety, and......when you dunk that stuff in your yard or where ever, dont let the water with its contamination run into the ground, keep the stuff moist not wet, and store it dry.
The remainders of sand, I take back to the shooting alley, in Holland its a chemical stuff, you must dispose of it on a propper way.
Let us please know your solution, and of course i will post my experiment in may or so
Pictures of the bricks please!
Melting Stuff is FUN!Sent from my PC with a keyboard and camera on it with internet too.
Shooting stuff is even funner
L W Knight
Please be safe!!!! lead poising is no fun, I was a stupid ****, now i know better.
Wear gloves, a mask(p3), good protective clothes, dont drink smoke or eat while melting!!
Try to, no succeed in avoiding inhaling fumes or dust, or onto your skin.
Lead will find its way into your body, easy, and it takes long to get out.
If you got headache, upset stomach, dizzy or flu like symptoms......GET OUT into fresh air.
Even I!!! I do mine casting with a 360m2 hour ventilator, with gloves.
Melting I do outside in the wind, with a duskmask and gloves.
If you expose your self to long to lead fumes or dust, it will result in cancer, and reproductive harm.
Cancer? Yes cancer, lead will settle in your bones and preventing the making of red blood cells, ect.
Before you get back into the house, change your clothes and take a shower.
I need of a break? or smoke? wash you're hands and get away from your melt.
Have fun and be safe
Between lead poisoning, cancer, bad back, tinsel fairy, mob of college students, getting blown up and overall general grumpiness. Sheesh, the poor guy will be lucky to get through this in one piece
Oh great, another thread that makes me spend money.
43 PU is facing a lot of work, for sure. But, there is no reason that this can't be done safely. Theres no getting around the fact that there will be a lot of manual labor involved. A sore back is a real possibility. I'm hoping that he will post some pictures as he begins to work on this project.
All said and suggestions said, you will have a huge amount of your time(Maybe Friends too) invested in this project. Not to mention the amount of cash and equipment involved to prepare this to the point of casting bullets. It would be fun for a few days but 6 months in you will say what have I gotten myself(and old friends) in to.
My suggestion would be contact a commercial smelter maybe Rotometal. Try to work a deal out with them to trade scrap for clean number one lead that you want to cast with or sell. You will never have to deal with it. This is going to be a major undertaking and a big decision to make a commitment to get done.
I would rather be casting some bullets and spending my spare time shooting instead of tending this monster for literally years.
I have to agree with what lakeparkv8 says. I've been smelting clean indoor range scrap 5 gallons (110 lbs) at a time and it is about as much work as I care to do. When I get about a ton of ingots I'll stop and have a lifetime supply. Your project is many times larger. It takes effort to stay safe from any number of injuries, poisoning, polluting your home or groundwater and so on. Let the people who are knowledgeable and set up for this kind of work do it and get back to what is fun!
Just my opinion and all the best to you,
Scott
I had the same sort of thing last year only the deal fell through, was supposed to receive about 4000 lbs per month of indoor range scrap. I came to the conclusion after a fairly good amount of research that the Satan's little smelter was the best tool out there for large production that is not in the realm of thousands of dollars. I ran some basic math and figured with the 2nd largest model I could do around 400 pounds per hour depending on the setup of the ingot molds. The issue is getting one. I managed to get a call back about 4 months after I originally tried to speak with them about ordering one. They said lead time is about 4 weeks. That was I believe January of last year. With 28k pounds plus more coming I would go straight for the largest one they build. Assuming your paying for the scrap, I would think the cost associated with purchase of the melter would be a fairly small % and be well worth the time savings
Isn't P3 filter is just for particles... I would use combined filter for particles and fumes. Something like this one....
This kind of filter You can do almost anything with chemicals and gases. More those A2B2E2K2..etc more acids,gases chemicals and poisons can be filtered. And P3 for particles of course.It is small amount of money for Your healt.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |