I purchased a turkey fryer to reduce my mountain of WW down to ingots. What do you guys use for a pot? I was thinking of just using the aluminum pot that came with the fryer as we don't plan on using it as a fryer anyhow!

Secondly, how much do you melt down at one time in order to continue melting and pouring ingots? I can see overfilling and not getting the WW's to melt in a timely manner.

I'd like to melt my WW's down as efficiently as possible.

Thanks for any input.

Plainsman hello,
The turkey fryer is a good piece for melting down a bunch of ww"s quick, but DO NOT USE ANYTHING ALUMINUM to melt the lead in! All due seriousness. The NRA did several reports on this. Somehow the lead leaches out the aluminum, it may take a long time but suddenly the bottom will just fall out, dissolve to a very weak point, then splash hot lead all over the place. I use to use a 2gal. pressure cooker pot. then I noticed the bottom getting weak and stopped using it. I know of a couple of guys on this forum who has had this happen.
Use steel or stainless steel or cast iron. I now use an old flea market heavy steel pot, works great, A bunch of steel muffin tins work good for ingots, just be sure to spray with mold release or smoke them up real good first, I just fill the pot over full with ww's, then continue to add them as they melt down.
always remember safety first,
Halfbreed

I purchased a turkey fryer to reduce my mountain of WW down to ingots. What do you guys use for a pot? I was thinking of just using the aluminum pot that came with the fryer as we don't plan on using it as a fryer anyhow!

Secondly, how much do you melt down at one time in order to continue melting and pouring ingots? I can see overfilling and not getting the WW's to melt in a timely manner.

I'd like to melt my WW's down as efficiently as possible.

Thanks for any input. Just to let you know what HalfBreed said is true I was melting dowm some wheel weights some years back in a aul. pot just hapend to take a break and go inside to get a drink I was doing it on a Colman stove and when I came back out the bottom had given away the stove was full of lead there was lead all the place and if I had been standing there I would of ended up in the hospital the best thing that I think you can use is stanless steel pot I have used the same one seience that happened :cool: Forest Punch

Never tried a turkey fryer. Use a coleman camping stove to do mine. That fryer should work dandy. I use a stainless pot I got at the goodwill and a regular stainless dipper with a wood handle. Like halfbreed says stay away from the aluminum.

Once your lead starts melting just fill ingot molds with the dipper till it is half gone then add enough lead to keep it as full as you want. The lead melts fast with little wait time in a half full pot.

If your doing large pieces of lead like linotype or big blocks I drill a hole in one end of them and hang them over the pot from the edge of my gerage with a come-along. Just let them down in half filled pot a little at a time. They really melt pretty fast this way.

I do this outside on the cement driveway and use a pair of vice grips on the ingot mold. Just turn it over and tap it on the cement to empty the hot ingots. Can put out a lot of lead this way. Be sure and have plenty of ventilation.

That turkey fryer idea is great, think I will get one when Wally world has them on sale.

Thanks

You've got excellent advise on NOT using an aluminum pot. Get a stainless steel or cast iron pot or you can even use the bottom of a 5 gallon steel pail, cut off 4" high. The clips take up a lot of space, so heap up the wheelweights high before up fire up. Don't add cold wheelweights to a hot pot, or you could have a steam explosion if even one is damp. Not fun. Once they're melted, flux with candle wax or paraffin. Let it burn off, then skim off the clips and dirt. A large slotted spoon gets them off fast. Scrape the sides and bottom of the pot to loosen up everything that's stuck down and skim it off.

Once everything is melted, turn down the heat so you don't burn off the tin. Just keep it warm enough to stay fluid and pour a nice ingot. When you've poured most of your lead, turn off the heat and wait for the remaining lead to solidify before you add more cold wheelweights. A 1/4" of lead in the bottom speeds up the next melt.

I use 2 very old (ancient?) Coleman stoves, so I'm pouring off one while the other is melting the next batch. Keeps me busy.

Bye
Jack

I have used a turkey fryer for several years with good results. Started with a flea market cast iron pot and ended up with a 200 lb capacity pot from the antimony man. I speed up the heating process with one of those weed burners that attach to the lp tank. Fill the pot heaping full , light the cooker and give it a 1 minute blast with the burner and it is ready to flux and pour. I like to mix the alloy in it so I get 200 lbs of consistent alloy. Made 12 ingot molds from heavy 2" x 2" channel.

Some VERY GOOD advice given about not using aluminum pots! I too, use a turkey fryer with a Webber charcoal grate bolted on top to support my cast iron 3 quart caserole pot. Works great! I melt enough ww's to about a couple inches below the top of the pot after skimming off the clips. Flux and stir thoroughly then skim. Pour ingots until the pot is about an inch full then add more ww's. I NEVER cast ingots in damp or cold weather and my ww's are always stored in covered plastic buckets in my garage. My 3 ingot moulds rest on a concrete garden slab on top of an old solid coffee table close to the turkey fryer. It's amazing how many ingots can be cast on a warm summer day if one starts early in the morning.

I purchased a turkey fryer to reduce my mountain of WW down to ingots. What do you guys use for a pot? I was thinking of just using the aluminum pot that came with the fryer as we don't plan on using it as a fryer anyhow!

Secondly, how much do you melt down at one time in order to continue melting and pouring ingots? I can see overfilling and not getting the WW's to melt in a timely manner.

I'd like to melt my WW's down as efficiently as possible.

Thanks for any input.


I think that you all are workiing too hard and spending too much money. Last year I bought my entire WW foundry outfit from "Harborfreighttools.com." I bought a one butrner gas burner stove made in china for $9.95, qnd a ten inch dutch oven made in China for $9.95. I think that the UPS charge was another ten bucks. Cut the legs off of the dutch oven with a cut-off wheel on a grinder and them grind them flat. Had to go to my Sears Hardware store and buy a regulator and 6 foot of hose to put on it. I use the same gas bottle I use on my gas grill. Check the web site. They also have retail stores. My local retail store had two burner gas hot plates for something like $20.00 and twelve iinch dutch ovens for something like $15.00. I just didn't want to have that much junk around.

In my best Crockadile Dundee imitation, "That's not a pot, this is a POT!"

http://www.castpics.net/RandD/moas/moas.htm

This baby is NOT for the faint of heart, for sure. That's me in the black tee shirt and the other feller is Felix. Since those pics were taken I have upgraded the burner to a double rig. Biggest problem is that the pot itself is a heat sink and you really gotta pour the gas to the burners. BUT, you can do a alot at one time. We did the BIG MELT of Felix lube in the pot by leaving an inch or so of lead in the bottom (frozen but heated - burners running) and made the lube on top of it. sundog

I think that you all are workiing too hard and spending too much money. We turkey fryers can deep fry a turkey as well as cast ww ingots with our rig. Can you do that with yours?

Using a bigger pot to melt down your lead and alloy is good to melt it all together and have it the same. But, I'm seeing you need a big ladle to fill your ingot moulds with and it helps to have several ingot moulds to let one cool off while filling others. It doesn't take a very big pot to get very heavy when it's filled with lead. I had a medium sized cast iron camping pot with a long handle that I retired to use with lead melting. Also a bigger dutch oven type pot for more volume but I don't try to lift that thing when it's real hot and half full of molten lead.

Bill

Well, I see I'll be putting the aluminum pot aside and checking out the SA boutique tomorrow for an old steel/cast pot! :eek:

Thanks much for the input and 'save'!!! Much appreciated!

Check out your local Walmart, K-mart, etc. in their camping department. They sometimes carry cast iron pots made in China at reasonable prices. I found mine, a 3 quart cast iron casserole pot, at a Macy's clearance sale. Another good source may be your local second hand stores. Just be sure you don't buy a cast aluminum pot! They're thick like cast iron and they sometimes look like polished steel.

I picked up a large stainless steel mixing bowl and was able to do 6 three pound coffee cans of wheel weights at one time. I used a muffin pan, caste iron, as my ingot mold. Works great and bought it used at a second hand store so it does not leave my reloading supply shelf unless I am pouring. Not to worry about contaminates that way.

I used the pot that came with the turkey fryer a few times and the bottom has conformed to the grates at the bottom. Harber freight carries some good pots for melting ( remember to burn off all of the wax on the pots outside, they come coated with alot of this wax)
Going to get a better pot before I melt scrap again.

LOL, just a few weeks back I found and bought a really nice heavy cast aluminum pot, was going to use it for melting my bucketfuls of lead, guess it is a good thing it has been raining for weeks and I never got a chance to set it up.

I guess it will get to be used in the kitchen instead.

Will those Stainless steel pots work ok? They are the ones you get 4 in a set, 8, 12, 16, and 20 Quart in size for around $15.00 to $20.00 a set. I thought they were a little thin but maybe not, they are about 3/32 of an inch thick.
How thick are some of the ones everyone else is using?

Michael Grace



Sundog, would the MOAS maybe melt faster and hold the heat better if you could make some kind of box around the pot part of it and insulate it?

Another aluminum pot failure here! I too use a coleman stove but was lucky enough that the side facing the back of the stove gave way and only splashed about 30 pounds of lead around the bottom and up the back...could have been a real disaster. Granted, this pot had probably melted over 1000 pounds of lead in its lifetime, but still, get a good cast iron pot. Hit up your local flee markets and goodwills, they have them all the time for a couple bucks and will save you heartache!!

I use a turkey frier, and an 8-quart cast iron dutch oven.
I have only managed to melt 1800 pounds of lead,
but I ran out for now.

Cast Iron pots from Harbor Freight are CHEAP and they work great!!!!!

I use a turkey fryer and a cast iron pot to melt my lead.One thing I did was beef up the stand by welding support brackets on the legs and also reinforced the grate.Lots of weight on these on these parts.

Bought my dutch oven for 12.00 at Sportsmans wharehouse. They have cheap (compared to other outlets) single and double burners, and the pot is 9-10" across and 4" deep. If the legs get in the way, cut them off.

My fryer is round and I bolted a heat shield approx 8" high all the way around it. It greatly increases the heat held to the pot. Look at the atimonyman's website, he sells them and there are pictures.

I just bought me a turky fryer at a Cummins truckload tool sale ($39.99) going to keep the big aluminum pot that came with it for cooking turkys/chickens/etc, and going to use my 20 Quart stainless steel stock pot for lead melting.

I might need to add a few more supports to the 3 legs it has, and probably will add a bit more of a solid area for the pot to sit on.

Just wondering, any of you that are using the turky fryer setup, about how much lead can you melt with a 5 gal. propane tank? Also what are you getting charged per Gal. of propane when you have to fill it back up?

Michael Grace

mgrace,

I've been melting in a dutch oven type pot and have not tried much over 50lbs per melt. I have two sizes of propane tanks, one for the turkey fryer-20lb-4.5 gallons and a 100lb tank for heating a building-22.5 gallons. I noticed a difference in price when I filled both up. $2.30 a gallon for the 100lb and $2.55 a gallon for the 20lb tank.

Bill

I set up my turky fryer and did 2 melts today, it now takes less time to melt 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket full of lead then it does to flux/skim/pour in molds. I think I also need to make or buy much longer stiring/dipping tools, fingers got a little toasty even with leather gloves on.

I think the price of propane here is $1.79 or $1.89 a gallon, I really liked the price where we use to live 2 1/2 years ago, it was $0.99 all the time and on sale very often for $0.69.

4 or so years ago we traded in all our old tanks at one of the Prefilled Propane Exchange places, some of the tanks are starting to get pretty rusty again so I think it is time to trade them in again, it costs us $14.99 I think at WalMart for a full tank when you trade in the old tank.

About how long will the small tank last you when doing 50 lbs or so per melt?

Michael Grace

About how long will the small tank last you when doing 50 lbs or so per melt? Michael GraceDon't hold me to this but the last time I cast ingots, I cast a little over a hundred pounds and I guesstimate I used up almost half a full tank of propane.

I think MK's guesstimate is pretty close. I have my own new propane bottles and just take them to fill up. It would be nice to have bathroom scales under the tank to tell how much propane is left in them before a melting session. The weight of the empty bottle is stamped on it and add for the regulator's weight which isn't much.

When I took my empty 20lb bottle to have it filled it cost $12.28 tax and all.

Bill

Don't hold me to this but the last time I cast ingots, I cast a little over a hundred pounds and I guesstimate I used up almost half a full tank of propane.


WOW, I think yours is using way more then mine, I have a 5 Gallon tank that started out maybe 1/4th full, so far I have melted 81 pounds of WheelWeights and 42 pounds of some kind of printrs type in 2 seperate batches and the tank still feels the same weight to me.

Michael Grace