Ingot molds too hot

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  • Last Post 21 May 2017
vmwilson posted this 01 May 2016

How's the best way to cool down ingot molds?  4 Lyman molds and they can't keep up with a couple hundred pounds of lead.

Mike

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OU812 posted this 01 May 2016

Rest your ingot molds on a soaking wet towel. The wet towel will draw the heat out faster. Fold towel so that it is thick.

...

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RicinYakima posted this 01 May 2016

I do like OU812, but put the towel about 3 feet away so the splatters don't reach the lead pot. The real solution is to buy six more ingot moulds! Smile!

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vmwilson posted this 01 May 2016

Well I'm 73 and at the price of those things I'm not buying more.

Thanks for the tips!!!!

Mike

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Brodie posted this 01 May 2016

If you know a welder or are one make some out of1.5"to 2"  angle iron.

B.E.Brickey

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rmrix posted this 01 May 2016

Over the years, I found cast iron muffin pans and the round stick corn bread pans for next to free. Just ask your friends who go to yard and estate sales to keep an eye peeled for you. Like you, I am not going to put a lot of $ into them and I have four Lyman, RCBS, Rapine molds to go with them so I'm good and stopped looking. If we all lived closer to each other we would share....

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corerf posted this 01 May 2016

Third on wet towels, use them for moulds too.

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vmwilson posted this 01 May 2016

Seems to be only 1 of the 4 molds doesn't like to drop the ingots. Set it on a 1/2” aluminum heat sink with legs today and they still wouldn't drop. Think I'll wire brush that one before next session and see if that makes a difference. Looking like too hot isn't the problem.

Here's my setup.  Just added the windshield the other day but had to work in the garage today due to rain.  No stooping involved.  Not pretty but functional.

 

Mike

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Wineman posted this 01 May 2016

Even the non cast muffin pans will work. You just can't pick them up to flip them from one end or they bend. I just slide a thin sheet of plywood under and use it to flip them. Eventually, they start to crack as they were never made for this use. I got 50 or so uses out of a $1 pan from a garage sale. It was a 12 pan and made ~2 lb ingots.

Dave

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beltfed posted this 02 May 2016

Pick up muffin tins from local rummage sales.I line up 6-8 of them on the (clean) garage floor along with my one Lyman ingot mold  and not worry about cooling and refilling them from my usual 60 pound master batch of alloyOne fill across does it.beltfed/arnie

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Westhoff posted this 02 May 2016

Cast iron muffin pans work best; Aluminum muffin “tins” are next best (when hot they tend to get floppy and bend); but BEWARE real muffin TINS! You can never get the lead muffins out of 'em!

If in doubt between tin-plated and aluminum, a little magnet will never lie.

Wes

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beltfed posted this 02 May 2016

I have been using “tin” iron muffin tins as well as aluminum ones for years. No problem getting out the muffins so far from either type.the tin ones release better and better as they get some “tarnish” on them while on the shelf in my garage.beltfed/arnie

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onondaga posted this 02 May 2016

vmwilson wrote: How's the best way to cool down ingot molds?  4 Lyman molds and they can't keep up with a couple hundred pounds of lead.

Take a WARNING from something I have learned about cooling down ingots.  Hardness test results will be different between air cooling and chilling.  I noticed this major false reading problem from chill cooling ingots and testing them with my Lee Hardness Test Kit. Chill cooled ingots test 2-5 BHN harder than air cooled ingots.

The alloy I tested this on is Pistol Hardball Alloy that I mix precisely and pour to ingots. My air cooled ingots test BHN15. My wet towel chill cooled ingots in the same lot test BHN18.

This is only relative to your testing, the alloy doesn't change. However if you are testing unknown ingots, you can make a big mistake.

Gary

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358156hp posted this 02 May 2016

If you accelerate the cooling of antimonial alloys you will likely increase the hardness of your sample a bit. Just like air cooled cast bullets will be slightly harder than their parent air cooled ingots because the smaller sample cools faster.

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beltfed posted this 03 May 2016

And I can figure  greater hardnes of  my bullets cast in cold weather,say 40degrees,vs warm weather casting. beltfed/arnie

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6pt-sika posted this 26 May 2016

I set my ingot molds on the cool concrete floor and it seems to draw the heat right out of them , but then again I'm in an air conditioned shop .>

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BigMan54 posted this 29 April 2017

Cruising through some old posts I happened on this one. Some of the answers interested me. I found some of the solutions I've tried and some have worked and some have been disasters. For starters I only use the manufactures 4cav I lb ingot molds. I've been lucky over the years to collect a good number from most all of the old and current manufactures. I separate alloys by using the different brands.

The molds are cast iron and suffer from rust. I live close to the ocean so that is always a problem for me. I hate rust. I tried using a wet towel. The molds are rusting on the first fill.

My solution. I've taken to "seasoning" my cast iron ingot molds in the following fashion. I coat the sides, bottoms, tab & top edges with cooking oil. I then fill the molds with alloy and set then on cold concrete. By the time I've filled the 4th mold, the 1st is ready to dump. After about 5-6 "seasonings" the molds have enough "seasoning residue" to resist rust. I coat the molds with cooking oil for storage as previously described & put a thin coat of machine oil on the inside of the cavities with a swab. Then store them in A dehumidifier-equipped gunsafe.  When I'm ready to use the molds again I put just enough acetone into each ingot cavity to cover the bottom & after about 10min I scrub a little on the inside of the cavity & set the molds on my hotplate on max for about 10min  to burn off the excess acetone. Then I set them on the concrete to cool. I keep an old washtub on the other end of the patio filled with ice&water. I switch the towels back & forth between fills. This takes a lot longer to describe than do. But "seasoning" the ingot molds in this fashion works for me. And I never have to worry about RUST.

Like I said, I'm wordy & have an opinion on just about everything.

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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onondaga posted this 29 April 2017

Cooking oil acts as a flux and it also readily carbonizes and rusts steel/iron with heat.

Wire brush and clean your ingot molds and very lightly coat them with clear silicone grease like Automotive Dielectric Grease, Use no water or petroleum products at all. Any artificial cooling of ingots with hot metal in them also causes chill hardening of alloys with Antimony and will give FALSE high BHN readings. The best way to cool ingots in molds is to let them air cool of their own accord, undisturbed. If you are lined up to keep pouring and rushed, as soon as  you can safely tip the mold over with a pliers or handle if the mold has one, dump the solid hot ingots out to continue air cooling, you can re-use the mold immediately.

Gary

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BigMan54 posted this 30 April 2017

Well d**m. Just another thing I've been doing wrong for 40yrs.

Thanks, I'll try that way in the future. Although I've not been using the wet towels much anymore because I've slowed down so much in the past few years.  And I've the time to slow down.

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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cbshtr posted this 30 April 2017

I work on our Township trash truck. Any time I see cupcake trays I grab them. I cleaned about 65 pounds of wheel weights a couple weeks ago and took me about 5 minutes to pour it all. I did other things while they cooled down. I was expecting the tins to twist into weird shapes but after the ingots were dumped the trays were just as good as when I started. I poured to about 3/8" to the top and they even fit in my Lee 10 pounder. Best of all you can't beat the price and you can still stack them.

Robert Homan

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Rich/WIS posted this 30 April 2017

I use the yard sale aluminum cupcake pans, a cast iron cupcake pan, and 3 SAECO/Lyman cast iron ingot molds.  Only caveat on the cupcake pans I can add is DO NOT USE the pans that have the cupcake portion that is separate from the pan body, Tried that once and the cups fall out due to the weight of the lead and the heat altering the mechanical bond between the cup and the pan.  I have found that if you let the ingots cool completely the pan is less likely to deform as the heat seems to soften the aluminum.  At some point they do crap out but for an average of a buck apiece I consider it an acceptable loss.

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