Aluminum is fine for ingot molds and bullet molds. It not fine for the sustained heat and the weight when smelting.
Aluminum is fine for ingot molds and bullet molds. It not fine for the sustained heat and the weight when smelting.
I gotta say, I really like your mold pre-heating setup on the left there. I need to go find a coffee can now...
So many ideas! I love this place.
I want to thank everyone for chiming in. I'd searched the 6 or 8 thrift and second hand stores near me for gear (and pewter but someone else here must be buying it up) found a couple of .50 cent muffin tins but no cast iron anywhere.
I'm tempted by the way those small muffin tin ingots look, but I'm thinking the longer triangular ones make more sense for stacking.
Might have to bum some welder time from a friend and build my own angle iron molds. Not sure I have the spare $ laying around to buy pre-mades, might have to sell a few things I don't use as I need to get some smelting gear together anyway.
And I guess I need to go look up the mold group buy mentioned somewhere in here. I have this amusing thought that knowing this board the molds will be inset with sexy, scantily clad, silver boolits in various calibers.
ST
Amazon offers a cast iron 6-cav muffin pan for $11.71. Lead "muffins" measure 2-1/2" round x 1-1/2" tall.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L5P3-Co...ron+muffin+pan
I've got 6 of those muffin pans that I bought many years ago at a Cabela's outlet somewhere in Nebraska. We stopped on our way to Yellowstone and I recognized that they would be ideal ingot molds. I think that I paid about $5 or $6 each. My wife was not happy to haul around several pounds of cast iron for the next thousand or so miles until we got back home.
John
W.TN
a local Good Will had a stack of 4 4cavity muffin tins, the ones that resemble an ear of corn without the kernels. I passed them by for 2-3 $. Keep looking. There are deals.
Micah 6:8
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
"I don't have hobbies - I'm developing a robust post-apocalyptic skill set"
I may be discharged and retired but I'm sure I did not renounce the oath that I solemnly swore!
On Ebay I bought an aluminum bread stick mold that is about 9'' long. It makes ingots that weigh about 2# each. I keep about 4 on top of my RCBS to warm the up before using them in the pot. This way I can drop one or two into the pot with very little heat loss. They also stack nicely on my home made shelving unit.
Or you can get in on this:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ty-Ingot-molds
"Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it."
~Pericles~
I signed up for 2 of those. But I'm still searching 2nd hand stores as I'm looking for a new smelting setup to replace the garbage I use now. And if I happen upon some pewter or a nice cast iron mold, well...
edit: grammer-o ? hmm
Used aluminum muffin tins from Goodwill are fantastic 2 lb chunks.
I use a plethora, but none were designed as ingot molds! I'm too cheap.
All aluminum mini muffin tins (can't remember for the life of me where I got them. All 1 piece, never seen those again anywhere.) Cast iron cornbread molds from flea markets (the ones shaped like ears of corn!!) Also some home made ones. Best ones were made from Walmart condiment cups (little stainless cups made for holding ketchup, etc.) affixed to a handle.
I'm not home now, I'll try to remember to post a few pics tonight
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...old&highlight=
Actually just searched the archives, found my old thread from when I made them. Not sure if pics will worked since that was back when I used photobucket
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lds&highlight=
I also made these before I made the cup type ones. These were very involved, but I had the time and wanted to see if it would work. It did, splendidly! And they stack very well.
Pictures seem to still work.
Omega, that's not the final design. At least the ones I got don't look like that.
Mine the boolits on each side of the logo are more of a flat round nose boolit and the tips point at the logo.
The lettering underneath is different. The letters start on the B in boolits side with PB, then LN, WW, OT.
I know that's nit picking. Just like to see thing said right.
Had mine for a few days, just need to fire up the pot and make some ingots, just to see how they look.
I also have a Lyman and Lee ingot molds.
I have thought about making some molds but I think I would rather make them with channel iron or weld two strips of angle together to make channel. Use something with about 2 inch wide, an inch deep and 8 inches long.
Maybe make some smaller ones for tin. So they weight about 1 lb.
Leo
I have:
Angle Iron molds such as pictured above. Have 4 at 3 cavity each. Length to fit in SFRB long way. Box well, only stack so-so. Stack has to taper toward the center on each layer. In a box I can turn one flat side out to fill the box square.
Muffin tins - assorted from candy size to large muffins. All thrift, garage or estate sale. I use the pucks these produce for finished mixed alloy OR tin rich sources which I pour thinner than pucks as thick "coins" which get the Sn percentage marked on them after testing.
Regular Bread Loaf pans - these are great for making 10 - 12 pound "slabs" from scrap for later mixing into proper sized ingots. Stack really well and not that many to label even in a really large batch. These work well for bulk storage. For really large multiple pot batches I can cross mix by taking one slab from batch "A" and one from batch "B" etc. Matters for print spacers or other scrap items that may look alike but can vary as to alloy content. Since each batch may be a little different using a slab from each batch to mix final alloy keeps the final product consistent. I have been told that ISO containers can be different and would think range lead would also fall into this category of large batches that can vary. These were also all purchased used.
Small loaf pans - These stack nice and are good for premium alloys. Run about 2 lbs. each so easy to mix with plain or COWW's into a pot for casting. Have some near linotype alloy from spacers in these ingots. Some ready to cast alloys too. Also all purchased used.
A small duck decoy body weight mold. Copy of a "Potter" mold so each ingot has a "P" in it. This mold is exclusively used for pewter. Ingots run 4 or 5 to the pound in pewter.
Some of the cast boolit molds from the group buy shown above. So dang sweet they hurt your teeth to hold them. Going forward I expect almost all of my ready to cast alloys will be in these ingots. I'm also figuring the Pb and COWW lead will be in this form in the future. Running about 2.5 lb ingots, stack well and designed to exactly fill a SFRB so the amount of lead that will fit for given shipping is maximized.
Not yet decided on the tin alloys that are currently cast into the muffin tin coins. Those run around .6 pounds each down to less than .25 pound for the smaller diameter ones from candy molds. Those might be worth combining into larger batch done as cast boolit ingots that I sweeten with pewter or cut with lead to get a good tin percentage such as 40 or 50 percent for the entire batch. Coins run 23 to 63 percent with a range of percentages in between.
I have thought about using small channel to make up my own solder bar mold. Something that would be the right length for USPS flat rate shipping but hold about 1 lb. of solder with about 40% tin. My thinking is having consistent size would make storage easier, a large batch would provide a consistent tin alloy. Shipping sized would allow for better value if/when I sell some. I could probably do this with my existing angle iron molds and a 1# ladle but a squared shape would stack better.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
I like the squared shape. makes nice stack.
When stacking in a milk crate, criss cross them. One layer east-west, next north-south. This way you get less push out sideways. Won't damage the crates.
Would be nice to find some of the old steel milk crates. I used to have some. Both square for 4 gallon jugs, and rectangular for 6 gallons.
Built a cart out of one of the 6 gallon crates to pull behind my bicycle. I hauled quite a few wheels weights home with that rig.
Leo
Mine don't make as long an ingot as OS OK they are sized to fit the width of an SFRB
they are similar to what crocket makes
Wow. I’m really impressed with ingot molds in this thread. I just have a couple Lee molds. They serve me well since I don’t get a whole lot of “smelting “ time. I would have liked a few more so I don’t have to wait for my lead to solidify before pouring more. I usually only get a couple hours after work to do what I need to do, so waiting for lead to cool sucks.
For home use and to provide a good amount of capacity for little money I think the muffin tin "pucks" are a good choice. The muffin tins are often to be had for $1 at garage sales, salvation army, or estate sales. Stack ok, they having curved sides do waste some space but that really only matters if you have a lot of lead and a little space for it.
From the standpoint of casting a batch with not much time I think 2 pucks are equal to a whole Lee mold. So a 6 muffin tin is three Lee molds, a 12 is like having 6 Lee molds. Lot more production in that little bit of evening free time.
The ones with non-stick surface will work but at first the non-stick stuff will boil off and make bubbles all along the surface of the puck ingots. Stops doing it in time. Then these work really well. Especially if the metal is heavy enough to remain stiff when being flipped over full of lead.
6 cavity tend to be stronger than 12 cavity but there are some pretty solid 12 cavity out there.
One important caution. Always try the new muffin tin with just a couple of cavities filled to make sure the lead won't stick. Some of the tin coated steel ones the lead just solders itself to the pan. Pounding a couple out and throwing away the pan is a disappointment, pounding 12 of them out and throwing the mangled pan away after is a lot of work and a PITA so test a couple first. Don't really want to talk about how I know this, just take my word for it.
The other caution would be these thinner metal molds deliver the full temperature of the lead to the table they sit on. They will burn the snot out of anything wood they sit on. The thicker aluminum molds transfer heat too but I think the steel muffin tins do it more.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
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 |