Looking For Large Smelter Ideas

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  • Last Post 24 October 2011
King Mud posted this 27 May 2011

I currently have a 50 gallon barrel of wheel weights saved up, anyone have any plans for a large smelter? I'm currently using a turkey fryer and while it works, I would like to do larger batches at once to keep the heats uniform. Thanks

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Brodie posted this 27 May 2011

I use a cut off propane cylinder f(barbeque grill size).  Just be careful that there is NO PROPANE IN THE TANK when you cut it off.

B.E.Brickey

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6pt-sika posted this 27 May 2011

Shoot I've melted down about two tons of wheel weights in a Lee Pro 10-4 and later used a Lee Pro 20-4 .

 

I did maybe 400 pounds a month or so ago and ran both the Lee pots at the same time . Keeps you a little busy and probably takes a little longer but it works for me !

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Fred_Dwyer posted this 28 May 2011

Just be careful that there is NO PROPANE IN THE TANK when you cut it off. To that end, loosen the valve assembly, take the tank to a remote creek, finish removing the valve and fill the tank with water. If you do that in a populated area you might get a visit from the kindly VFD, who will cease to be so kind when they find out they don't really get to deal with a gas line rupture.  The odor lingers in the tank well after the gas is gone, float it out with water, but somewhere it won't get the neighbors excited.

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1kshooter posted this 07 June 2011

6pt-sika wrote: Shoot I've melted down about two tons of wheel weights in a Lee Pro 10-4 and later used a Lee Pro 20-4 .

 

I did maybe 400 pounds a month or so ago and ran both the Lee pots at the same time . Keeps you a little busy and probably takes a little longer but it works for me !

you must have a hard time keeping the pots clean?...I get crap build up everytime

I use my pot latley...I don't wnow what I got going on ..i think that it has something to do with my ingots got wet and perhaps oxidized???

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Wayne S posted this 08 June 2011

Check your metal salavage yards, being in OK, there might be some “oilfield” casing available. I made one out of a piece of 20” ID casing. The inside heigth was 10". Just be sure you set it up on a solid surface.

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DonH posted this 09 June 2011

6pt-sika wrote: Shoot I've melted down about two tons of wheel weights in a Lee Pro 10-4 and later used a Lee Pro 20-4 .

 

I did maybe 400 pounds a month or so ago and ran both the Lee pots at the same time . Keeps you a little busy and probably takes a little longer but it works for me !

I melted em down that way 30 years ago when I first started also. Problem is that you have as many alloy variations as the number of melts it takes to process all the WW. If that doesn't matter, keep doing what your doing. I had a weld shop make a cylindrical pot 16” dia x 8” h. Wish I had them make it bigger.

I bought some casting items once from a gent who used a for real fire-breathing lino- type smelter supplied by a black iron gas pipe. He said it would hold 600lb at once. At the time I was very envious.

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gnoahhh posted this 09 June 2011

Shoot, you guys haven't lived until you've melted 2400 pounds of lead at once, in an old cast iron bathtub. I did three years ago, using four oil furnace burners for heat. Purpose: the lead keel for the 35' wooden sail boat my buddy and I built. Since I had about 40 years experience casting bullets, I was the de facto lead melting expert! The molten lead was fed out the tub's drain into a 2” pipe with an in-line ball valve. The “mould” was a big pit in the ground into which we used about a ton of casting sand to make a form around a wooden pattern of the keel. I kept the drain pipe hot with an oxy-acetylene torch so the lead wouldn't coagulate in it. When I opened that valve, that whole bathtub full of lead emptied in about 20 seconds. Pretty exciting! ( 2400 pounds of molten lead exerts one HELL of a lot of hydraulic pressure!!)

No, I don't know the casting temperature that day. No, I didn't flux. Yes, I pulled all the type metal that turned up in the scrap lead we bought. No, I don't know the bhn hardness of the alloy, nor do I know the alloy.  Correct lube wasn't an issue either. Final velocity: depends how fast the wind's blowing.

Getting that bugger out of the ground was a harrowing task also, requiring a lot of shovel work and the services of a 5-ton fork lift. What was really sweet was that the 6 big bronze threaded rods I positioned in the mold beforehand mated up to the drilled holes in the boat's keel timber when we finally wheeled it into position.

I hope to never have to do it again!

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1kshooter posted this 09 June 2011

holy crap gnoahh, thats a big cast pot!

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gnoahhh posted this 10 June 2011

Still got it if you want to borrow it!

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paulfrehley posted this 23 June 2011

King Mud wrote: I currently have a 50 gallon barrel of wheel weights saved up, anyone have any plans for a large smelter? I'm currently using a turkey fryer and while it works, I would like to do larger batches at once to keep the heats uniform. Thanks

Wow, I feel like a dwarf! I am just starting out in the world of casting & for smelting I am using a portable camping stove & a 12” cast iron pot!:shock:

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bandmiller2 posted this 30 June 2011

I have a big outdoor furnace I built to heat the homested, theirs a ledge just inside the door for a dutch oven.Fill with wheel weights waite 20 mins and skim clips and pour in cupcake tins.Furnace is going all winter anyhow no gas to buy,smelly trap lead is no hassel either. Frank C.

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kidwalli posted this 24 September 2011

I use a Lee Magnum Melter 20 pounder to melt my wheel weights and scrap lead. Then use a Lee 10 pound bottom pour. Lee modified the valve rod and nozzle years ago. I retrofitted mine and it works much better. Use your bottom pour for casting CLEAN metal only and the Magnum for making ingots. I haven't had to do a major cleanup on my bottom pour for a couple of years now.

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Iowa Fox posted this 23 October 2011

Holy Smokes gnoahhh thats a big melter. Kind of reminds me of the one Paul Jones had that did 2000#s at a crack.

I have 8- 5gal buckets stacked up waiting for the cast iron pot on the turkey burner. The wife and daughter have been picking up muffin tins at the yard sales so I'm really set, must have 20 to 30 of them.

I really need to get busy and get more buckets out to the honey holes.

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CB posted this 23 October 2011

I realize this is a really old thread, but the bronze casters use similar equipment, and some may find this helpful

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html

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parkerhale1200 posted this 24 October 2011

i had two old home heating systems, get the burners out place them under a solid iron box aprrox 10 x 20 inch and 30 inch high.with easy 100-150 pounds with lead and other stuff i made a littel hole in the side aprox 0.25 inch. about 0.5 inch high of the bottom and it all come out very nice i had 4 ?oven mould for bread? when full it was 30-35 pound also i had some empty beer cans the small ones when there were full there were about 6.5 pound.

the big ones are going to the old scrap man the little ones i sold them on the range

metal of choise: ww and shooting range alloy

all where round 12 to 14 bhn im abel to do a 600-800 pound in 6-8 ouhrs. but youll have to work!!!! and move your can away, replace a new one(there hot) take the trash out and fill her up dont wait to the last drop, make it continuing

tis is my big melt pot for the cleaning job

my littel one is a old oven pan for max of 10 pound

greets from the netherland, with regards parkerhale

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Wayne S posted this 24 October 2011

 Take a small magnet and check put the “good Will", thrift shops” ect. looking for large metal cooking pots,  use the magnet to check any of the “stew pots” with the black or dark blue coatings.

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