Melting a lot of lead down to usable ingots.

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  • Last Post 15 December 2007
CB posted this 30 November 2007

I am amassing approx. 250 pounds of lead, plus tin, and antimony. Some of the lead is pure, some Linotype and some is reclaimed.

I have a decent ladle, but need to come up with ideas for doing quantity of lead and turning them into usable size ingots. My biggest piece is a tow motor counter balance weight.

My thoughts were to make a tripod out of rebar, I have some 1/2 inch, use a cast iron dutch oven (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44705>http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44705) and make some kind of propane burner to heat the dutch oven with. I want to do this in the open air, I have a lot of land along with my shop. Maybe with a tin roof.

For the burner, I thought of using this design

  http://anvilsandinkstudios.com/Burner_Desrciption.pdf>http://anvilsandinkstudios.com/BurnerDesrciption.pdf

http://anvilsandinkstudios.com/burner.html>http://anvilsandinkstudios.com/burner.html

I do have Michael Porter's book Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces & Kilns if I need additional ideals. With my shop, I do precious metal casting, but on a much smaller scale where I can use a electric furnace to melt gold and silver. In the smithy, I have a forge with atmospheric burners. So I have some working knowledge of building burners.

 

How does this sound to everyone? ;}

 

Jerry

 

 

 

 

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454PB posted this 30 November 2007

The turkey deep fryers are very popular for smelting lead, and relatively inexpensive. Another option is one of the propane weed burners. Used out in the open, whatever you choose will need some kind of shielding around it to reduce heat loss from the wind.

I needed to smelt some rather large chunks of pure lead a while back, so I bought a 3000 watt electric element from an appliance repair shop. I have 240 volts in my casting/loading room, so I hooked it up and made a makeshift stand from an empty 3 pound coffee can. I know, I know, it sounds really mickey mouse and unstable. I tested it's strength by standing on it, then put a 10” pot on it and dropped the 40 pound chunks in. Within 90 minutes, I had 150 pounds of ingots cast. The original plan was that it was a temporary throw away, but it worked so well that I continue to use it. So far it's melted down over 400 pounds of various alloy into ingots, and cost me $1 to build.

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CB posted this 02 December 2007

I don't have usable power out to my barn and workshed yet. I want to put up a strap building to do this sort of work. I do have 40 sheets of 4 x 12 roofing steel on hand, open land and a lot of tools.

I figure some 4 x 4 for the up rights , 1 x 8 x 12 for the straps and then have concrete poured for the for flooring.

Propane I do have a 6 of bottle on hand. I use propane in my shop for heat and for my forge.

Jerry

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delmarskid1 posted this 02 December 2007

A GOOD friend gave me 2 blocks of lead like you describe. I tried cutting them with a circular saw and made something from a Disney movie. “Sword In the Stone". My electric chain saw cut the stuff up pretty well. I just needed to squirt a little oil on the cut once in a while. Watch out for kick-backs from the saw. Save the shavings of course. I like my turkey fryer. I put pieces of pipe over the ends of the legs to bring it up to height. I place a wash tub over the pot to keep the heat from blowing away with the wind when outside.

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Tic-Tac posted this 10 December 2007

I am fairly new to the casting game, so take that into consideration with the following. I too use a turkey fryer for my heat source. I bought a large Loge cast iron pot, which may be too small for what you need. With the weight of much lead, it is hard to pour with the single handle, so I made a second handle from flat stock and angle iron which allows me to pour with two hands and much more stability (the pan had a loop opposite the handle which made the attachment easy). The angle iron helps reduce the heat to the handle and stiffens it. For bulk molds, rather than use the Lyman or RCBS small molds, I use a cast iron muffin pan that can be purchased at the same place Loge Dutch ovens are sold. Hope this helps...some. If I knew how to attach pictures with this reply I would show you the pan/handle configuration and the mold.

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CB posted this 10 December 2007

Tic,

I have been thinking of a Turkey Fryer to melt lead with. I need to get my bulk lead down in to smaller ingots. Thanks for the tip Loge Dutch Ovens.

THe Turkey Fryer, which one or what size, here is what Walmart lists:

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=5428&search_query=turkey+tryers&ic=24_0>http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?searchconstraint=5428&searchquery=turkey+tryers&ic=240

Lead melts a little over 600 degrees F. Will these turkey fryers get that hot? :lovecast:

Jerry

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CB posted this 10 December 2007

I use one of the Walmart turket fryers and it gets more than hot enough to melt down large quanities of lead. At least to 700 degrees.

I use an old propane cylinder cut in half as a pot to batch lead up with and then what ever I can find beg or borrow to use as ingot moulds. I regularly use an old muffin tin, some RCBS, SAECO and LEE ingot moulds as well.

The best thing I have found to ladle it out with is an old metal (with metal handle) soup ladle.

If you have the means, Rowell makes a really nice large capacity ladle that has a sleeve on the handle that allows the entire ladle to be turned to make pouring very simple. I picked one of these up at a estate sale for $10 and it is worth it's weight in gold!

The Antimony man sells Rowell ladles and also other casting related items... http://www.theantimonyman.com

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Tic-Tac posted this 10 December 2007

Based on the Wal-Mart pictures the burners all look the same so I would buy the cheapest setup...although I liked a fried turkey the first time I cooked one so you may want to buy one with a large pot.  The turkey fryer burner is more than adequate to melt lead and has a nice broad base.  Jeff's propane pot sounds like the answer to melting a large quantity.  I just like the quality of heavy cast iron which is why I use the heavy muffin pan for bulk molds, and the large sauce pan for melting, but a Dutch oven would handle more quantity.  I also don't ladle to the mold, but pour.  I expect there are more safety concerns with my method, but I don't melt more than about 10 pounds max. at a time, and with the extra handle I described earlier, pouring is easy and faster.

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CB posted this 10 December 2007

Tic,

 

I think the idea of the Walmart burner and a dutch oven is what I will do. :dude:

 

So it's off to Wally World.

Jerry

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CB posted this 10 December 2007

jerry,

I use the fish hot fryer burner that came with a 6qrt cast iron pot. The burner has an adjustable regulator that really puts out the BTUs!. I can clean up WW and range lead easily in the pot and then alloy 100 pounds.

When I pour ingots, I use 3 of the Lyman trays with four 1-pound ingot cavities. I make about 3 casts in the ingots and when the 3rd ingot batch is dumped, I dip the empty hot ingot tray into a bucket of water and immediately pull it out. It is still hot enough to dry back out fast, but cooled enough to solidify the next pour of lead without much wait time. I dip the empty ingot tray each time and make sure it is dry of water before I pour hot lead and I keep the water bucket behind me a safe distance from the lead pot.

Dang you Jeff, you just gotta plug WallyWorld don't you. I go to the local farm store and buy my propane stuff!  :X  Hey Jeff, what happen to the puke face? I wanted to puke on WallyWolrd!..................Dan

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CB posted this 10 December 2007

I took it off, I was adding some of the newer icons and forgot actually how to do it.. I can put it back if you really can't live without it..

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Glenn R. Latham posted this 11 December 2007

Jerry, I had some big chunks of lead that were a machine counter-balance; way too big to put in anything. I tried cutting them but that was too much like work. I borrowed a trick from Veral Smith and pryed a chunk onto an old fireplace grate and melted it down with a weed burner (from the rental place), catching the drippings in an old skillet. Later the “skillet ingots” were melted in the plumbers pot and fluxed and poured into regular 1-lb. ingot moulds. Veral's trick for wheel weights, if you don't have a big pot, was to place a piece of sheet steel on the grate, and a piece of expanded metal on that. Pour WWs onto the expanded metal, melt with a weed burner and catch the molten lead in a pot (bend the sheet steel to form a trough). The clips stay up on the expanded metal. Glenn R. Latham

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CB posted this 12 December 2007

Glenn,

Thanks, good idea.

Jerry

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CB posted this 15 December 2007

My Turkey Fryer and Dutch oven came yesterday, this was too easy. I didn't put the fryer “pot” on the burner, then put the dutch oven on the burner.

for a picture go to:

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/casting101/photos/browse/a63b>http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/casting101/photos/browse/a63b

This does get hot enough to do tin and aluminum.

Now it's having weather that will co-operate so I can do this outside, until I can get a building put up to do this in.

;}

Jerry

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CB posted this 15 December 2007

Jerry I would think about building a shield around the outside and a top with a hole in it large enough for your pot to fit through.

It will help keep the costly heat where you need it!

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CB posted this 15 December 2007

I was thinking of drilling some holes in the lid to help retain heat, but not to cause a build up of vapors.

Plus I have a lot of KAO Wool and ITC 100 for making a heat retention area or a build furnace out of a 20 pound Propane tank.

Any one have a source for small carbon crucibles?

Jerry

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