I took many of your advice tidbits to heart, but still ended up going against some of them...

First, I went out and scoured the town for a STEEL or CAST pot to melt my bulk lead in...No go! So I decided I'll start with my bucket of pure lead and ingot that up first in an ALUMINUM turkey fryer pot. I knew many of you had the bottoms literally fall out, so I was watching carefully. Sure enough, a little over halfway through I noticed the bottom was starting to dent inward. The whole bottom was softening up enough to totally deform. I ingoted up the remainder of the lead in the pot without incident and tossed the pot in the garbage can before it even finished cooling!

Second lesson, I had one muffin pan of the multipiece design which performed decently enough, until I left a batch of lead in it too long to cool. When I got around to knocking the ingots out, the whole pan disintegrated! I now have twelve ingots inside their own muffin cups! :( I finished the remainder of my pure lead with an old pot lid and enamelized bowl, the ingots are bigger than I'd like, but the lead is now a more convenient form to work with.

Third lesson, if a suitable pot isn't available, get yourself an AMMO CAN! :) I had an old beat up .50 cal ammo can with the side opening lid, probably pre-Vietnam war era. I removed the lid from the hinges and used it as a pot and lid. Talk about working WELL! I'm kind of glad I didn't spend money on a pot in the end!

Fourth lesson, DIRT in your lead! Actually MUD in your lead can be a BAAAAD thing! I know all about water hitting molten lead can cause an explosion, but I didn't know what would happen if you put lead with dirt in it in the pot. I know NOW! I had a few pieces of dirty lead that I knocked most of the dirt out of, they are lead containers from a hospital, but I had one with a little in the bottom that was actually more like a small dab of MUD. I thought it should 'heat' the water out of it as it heats up as I set it in the pot before noticing and backed away 'just in case.' I'm glad I was cautious! The small container had one side melt away faster and it tipped over. There was a small "BANG" which was mostly contained in the pot, but it still blew! Now I now just how LITTLE it takes to cause the explosion. I also know that I sweat like a pig if I get hot and WILL NOT be doing this if it isn't cool enough out to keep ME cool! I don't want any sweat hitting the pot with me around!

Lastly, I'll be looking for better ingot molds tonight. I'll probably see about getting the oversize muffin tins or small loaf tins, if I can't find a one-piece muffin pan.

BTW, the turkey fryer burner works well and is very stable! I tried the Coleman stove bit and this is much better, not to mention I can use my BBQ propane bottle for it!

Tomorrow I will start on about 750 lbs. of WW which will need to be turned into manageable INGOTS! :)

I'm glad the internet exists so that I at least was WARNED prior to ALL of these things! Thanks to you guys nothing was damaged and most importantly NO BODY WAS HURT when these things did happen to me!

Thank you!

Try Walmart. They have cast iron pots/skillets and cast iron muffin/corn bread tins.

To be frugal is OK, but to do this job safely is going to take a little outlay for the proper equipment.

You can usually pick up great cast iron ingot pans to make round, rectangle and strip bars with at old time plumbing shops. I don't a single plumber anymore who does any CI lead joints and these old time shops usually will be more than happy to give them to you usually at 1950's pricing.

To be frugal is OK, but to do this job safely is going to take a little outlay for the proper equipment.I'd like to second that piece of good advice! It doesn't necessarily have to be expensive, just purchase the right equipment at a second hand or discount store. An accident with molten lead can have serious consequences.

One additonal warning. When you dump out the ingots, they often are not fully colled (becasue we are in a hurry to cast more ingots) and they tend to crack. Usually leave them in a pile someplace while they cool...but these cracks can wick in mositure if given a chance and will hold onto that moisture for a lot longer than the outside of the ingot.

Think that's what happened in my worst casting accident. Slipping in an ingot during a casting session (and the ingots were stored out in the shed...were at least dry on the outside). Slides in and there is just enough time for me to sit back down but not enopugh time for me to put the sheet metal "hat" on the pot. (like to use a sheet metal cover to (1) keep out dive bombing bugs (2) gives me a flat place to pre-heat a mold (3) retains heat and lets me turn the pot temp. down).

Next think I know, I'm 20feet away up against a red wood fence. No real memory of getting there, but I'm standing there coated in lead alloy and I'm blind. Turns out it just coated my glasses, no damage to my eyes...but some good blisters on my face, lead in my beard, and my clothes look like something from Elton John's closet. Shave...burn cream...and was very thankful for the glasses and cotton clothing.

What I think happened, from looking over the rest of that pile of ingots, is that I got one with a crack...and ion that crack was water. Took a second for the water to flash vaproize.

Becasue of this, will pre-heat the ingots for a day's casting. Will use that sheet tin "hat" on toip of the pot to set teh ingot on while I'm casting; by the time I need to add lead, even the ones with a crack have been baked dry.

Ouch! That was a close one. :eek: I set the extra ingots on the back of the Coleman grill and let them preheat.

Bye
Jack

May as well add in my buddy Larry. He kept his box of wheelweights under his loading bench and would just toss in a pot full of weights, flux, flux, flux (get the idea..them things were dirty) then cast ingots.

Evidently a "lost" .22LR round found it's way into the box..and from there into the pot. He saw the glint of brass as it went in, thought "That can't be good", and got away from the pot in time. Not that big an eruption...proably a 4 pounder...more than enough to ruin your day.

He learned to sort and clean his junk lead...not to store it under the bench...and topay attention to what you are doing.

May as well add in my buddy Larry. He kept his box of wheelweights under his loading bench and would just toss in a pot full of weights, flux, flux, flux (get the idea..them things were dirty) then cast ingots.

Evidently a "lost" .22LR round found it's way into the box..and from there into the pot. He saw the glint of brass as it went in, thought "That can't be good", and got away from the pot in time. Not that big an eruption...proably a 4 pounder...more than enough to ruin your day.

He learned to sort and clean his junk lead...not to store it under the bench...and topay attention to what you are doing.

Dean Grennell related a similar story in one of his books, I forget exactly which one.

I've tried every place I could think of in this town and can NOT find anything suitable for ingot molds. I wish I had realized this a week ago when I put an order to Midway...Looks like I might be starting another order just to get a decent ingot mold...

MIke:
I've doen almost as stupid a trick with a live primer, but lucky it floated on top before detonating rahter tahn being stuck to an ingot and sinking.

Palinsman:
Know any welders who'll work cheap? Angle iron cut to 4" lengths with flat sheets welded to the ends. Square sheets will let it rest on the botton of the square ends, "v" down.

That is another use of the weed burner. Heat the pile of WW's or ingots before you put them into the molten metal. Preheats them and disapates any moisture. My pot holds 200lbs, so I load it once to the top and by the time all is cast into ingots I'm done for the day.

Plainsman, I have had very good luck with a cast iron conbread pan which makes the bread that looks like ears of corn. They weigh about 2 lbs and fit nicely into the lead pot. Ask the wife where they are sold. Or, if she has one, and isn't home........

Lyman ingot molds are pretty cheap. I have been toying with the idea of drilling and tapping the bottom of a SS pot and putting an elbow and valve in, then once the lead in the pot is clean, I can bottom pour from the big pot into the ingot mold

I saw an excellent idea on the shooter board when it was going. One guy made a few big moulds from the angle iron from old bed frames. Then weld the ends up with a bit of strap (you could use part of the frame, he probably did). This blocks off the end and provides a set of 'legs' to stop it tipping over. One fancy guy welded spacers in to divide the ingots. The original writer had a more basic approach, he tipped the big (about 5' long I suppose) ingots out, then turned it sharp side up and used an axe to cut it into useable length ingots.

I haven't used this approach yet, but I call in to every opportunity shop/charity/church store I see and buy the cake tins and muffin tins for ingot moulds. I called into the St Vincents store (Aussie religous charity) in a little country town I was posted to many times over a year or so and bought a few tins. One day an old lady who was a volunteer worker there asked me if I could cook some cakes for their fundraiser stall. She mumbled something about the fact that I made a lot of cakes. I got my wife to cook up a few for her. She probably thinks we eat cake all day long.
Mick. :)

Mick, I know you keep your ingot tins separated from your wife's baking tins.

I've tried every place I could think of in this town and can NOT find anything suitable for ingot molds. I wish I had realized this a week ago when I put an order to Midway...Looks like I might be starting another order just to get a decent ingot mold...

Every grocery store I've been in has a section where they sell cheap bakeware. Buy a few of the aluminum muffin tins. They'll get all bent up when you tip them to remove the ingots, but step on it and it's flat enough to use again. That should get you through your 750 pounds and let you search for better options at your leisure.

I got one for you. I use mostly reclaimed range lead. It gets pretty dirty with the cardboard from the backer boards, wood from the bowling pins, and of course the sand from the pit, but there is a lot of free lead there when we do a clean out.

Anyway, one day I was adding some of the above mix to my lead pot when I looked down and saw a live 45 ACP round sitting on top of the mix. Luckly, there was so much C#*& in their that it was sitting on top of it, and the heat hadn't hit it. I scooped it out real quick, then I sat down and let my heart pound for a while.

What kinda $%&*@# puts a live round in the sand pit? ... Anyway, now I watch very carefully as I add reclaim to the pot.

JB12string, I have thought about doing the same thing on a big pot, but I keep wondering if the gravity (weight) of all the lead in a big pot, something like 18" diameter, and 10" sides. will force the melted lead to splash all over the place instead of inside the ingot mold? I was thinking about a piece of angle iron with 3"x3"x 8"long, made up in a gang mold style, probably about 6 of them side by side. along with about a 2' handle.
Halfbreed

Plainsman, what did you use for mold release on these muffin tins? midway mold release works real good so does other equivelants of mold release. Also, if you have an acetylene torch, a real sooty residue works great so I am told. I have never used it, But hear it works great. Glad to hear you were able to get some work done without getting hurt, You were lucky, hopefully you will remember that.
Ribbonstone was very lucky, and smart to wear the safety glasses, we all know what would have happened if he had not been wearing them.
Halfbreed

I took many of your advice tidbits to heart, but still ended up going against some of them...

First, I went out and scoured the town for a STEEL or CAST pot to melt my bulk lead in...No go! So I decided I'll start with my bucket of pure lead and ingot that up first in an ALUMINUM turkey fryer pot. I knew many of you had the bottoms literally fall out, so I was watching carefully. Sure enough, a little over halfway through I noticed the bottom was starting to dent inward. The whole bottom was softening up enough to totally deform. I ingoted up the remainder of the lead in the pot without incident and tossed the pot in the garbage can before it even finished cooling!

Second lesson, I had one muffin pan of the multipiece design which performed decently enough, until I left a batch of lead in it too long to cool. When I got around to knocking the ingots out, the whole pan disintegrated! I now have twelve ingots inside their own muffin cups! :( I finished the remainder of my pure lead with an old pot lid and enamelized bowl, the ingots are bigger than I'd like, but the lead is now a more convenient form to work with.

Third lesson, if a suitable pot isn't available, get yourself an AMMO CAN! :) I had an old beat up .50 cal ammo can with the side opening lid, probably pre-Vietnam war era. I removed the lid from the hinges and used it as a pot and lid. Talk about working WELL! I'm kind of glad I didn't spend money on a pot in the end!

Fourth lesson, DIRT in your lead! Actually MUD in your lead can be a BAAAAD thing! I know all about water hitting molten lead can cause an explosion, but I didn't know what would happen if you put lead with dirt in it in the pot. I know NOW! I had a few pieces of dirty lead that I knocked most of the dirt out of, they are lead containers from a hospital, but I had one with a little in the bottom that was actually more like a small dab of MUD. I thought it should 'heat' the water out of it as it heats up as I set it in the pot before noticing and backed away 'just in case.' I'm glad I was cautious! The small container had one side melt away faster and it tipped over. There was a small "BANG" which was mostly contained in the pot, but it still blew! Now I now just how LITTLE it takes to cause the explosion. I also know that I sweat like a pig if I get hot and WILL NOT be doing this if it isn't cool enough out to keep ME cool! I don't want any sweat hitting the pot with me around!

Lastly, I'll be looking for better ingot molds tonight. I'll probably see about getting the oversize muffin tins or small loaf tins, if I can't find a one-piece muffin pan.

BTW, the turkey fryer burner works well and is very stable! I tried the Coleman stove bit and this is much better, not to mention I can use my BBQ propane bottle for it!

Tomorrow I will start on about 750 lbs. of WW which will need to be turned into manageable INGOTS! :)

I'm glad the internet exists so that I at least was WARNED prior to ALL of these things! Thanks to you guys nothing was damaged and most importantly NO BODY WAS HURT when these things did happen to me!

Thank you!

If you want ingot moulds, you can try an old bed frame. Cut the angle iron from the frame into lengths to suit yourself and cut smaller bits from it to weld over the ends to seal it off and stop it tipping over. I'd cut and weld them at a slight angle so that the ends of the ingot slope and fall out easily. Make short ones or long ones and cut them with an axe. Cheers, Mick.

PS try ringing around plumbers supply firms. they may have a plumber's pot sitting in a corner somewhere. I have three new ones which I bought in a rush of blood. Using big pots and saving money sounds good when you say it fast as my old grandfather always said, but electric pots are worth the money, beleive me. The quality and usefullness will be appreciated long after the rpice is forgotten.
Mick.