Melted my first pot today

[PHATINJUN]

I have been in the process of putting togeather casting gear and today I took my first batch of wheel weights 25# and melted them to ingots. 1st thing I found out was my pot is way to small to melt down WW but after making a run around town and finding a couple of cast iron sauce pans and setting up my camp cook stove all went well and I ended up with 20# of fairly clean ingots. Now it's back to my new Lyman cast Bullet Handbook for some more education and thoughts on what bullets I want to start buying molds for. Thanks for any help so far. Kurt

[Graybeard]

Sorry to hear about your pot melting.  I think Lloyd melted all his when the barn he kept his reloading stuff in burned down. 

[PHATINJUN]

You funny man GB Another thing I found is if I get the chance to pick my own ww out of the pile I'll try and get more of the big ones rather than the smaller ones as I got 5# of scrap out of 25# of ww. I went to over 25 tire shops looking for ww and came up empty handed . But finally found a recycle center that would sell me ww I paid 46 cents a # which is probly high but wanted to get my dipper dipped . Gonna go back today and get some of the stuff that they call pure lead certainly is not as pure as store bought pure but should work fine it's 56 cents a #. Are those prices to far out of alignment if it's all you can find with out buying thru the internet? Kurt

[sirgknight]

First of all, congratulations on your first melting.  Casting is a lot of fun.  It gives me a real since of accomplishment to see my own bullets fall out of the mold too.  Around south Georgia a five gallon bucket full of ww's sells for $30-50, depending on the dealer.  A bucket holds about 175 lbs of weights.  Out of that 175 lbs you'll get about 150 lbs of usable lead ingots.  That's anywhere from .20-.50 cents per lb, so you are in the ballpark of the cost of lead.  Good luck on your new endeavor........

[AtlLaw]

I have been in the process of putting togeather casting gear

   Me to!  I got 2 moulds on the way!   

today I took my first batch of wheel weights 25# and melted them to ingots.

   Me to!  sheeesh!  what a job...

1st thing I found out was my pot is way to small to melt down WW

   Me to!  My little Lee production will have to do though. 

[D Crockett]

gentlemen if anyone needs a steel pot to melt ww in over a turkey fryer I will be more than happy to make you one out of a 20 pound lp gas tank all I ask or them is $7.00 for the blades that I use to cut the tank with and actual shipping cost I can get all the tanks I need pm me if you want one D Crockett

[PHATINJUN]

ATlLAW, I found 2 cast iron with wooden handle sauce pans one is 1 1/2qt and the other is 2qt the 2 qt worked great paid $2 for the pair at a junk store. Kurt

[beerbelly]

            When I first started, I really did melt my pot. I put a bunch of WW in an aluminum pot on a turkey fryer. Just as the WW got melted and I was about to skim the trash, the bottom of the pot melted out. Dam what a mess!
  My friend never loaned me his turkey fryer again1
 Make sure your pot is stainless not aluminum.
                              Beerbelly

[PHATINJUN]

I have never used a aluminum pot on a turkey fryer since one saturday many yrs ago when deep fried turkey became all the rage .There were 2 guys from down south on an outdoor show showing how they did 30# turkeys on an open fire .Well they had the pot gettin hot and already to put the bird in and they put it in a little fast and some of the oil went over the side into the fire causing a raging inferno with in 1 minute the very large pot melted and there was a huge fire ball.Made me think twice about cooking in my garage again and I went out ant bought a SS pot that I still use this day.Kurt

[AtlLaw]

I will be more than happy to make you one out of a 20 pound lp gas tank all I ask or them is $7.00 for the blades that I use to cut the tank with and actual shipping cost

Forest, don't you ever get tired of wanting to and doing things for other people?     You, my friend, are one generous to a fault, a darn sure economic fault, person!   

[AtlLaw]

I found 2 cast iron with wooden handle sauce pans...paid $2 for the pair at a junk store.

Ya know Kurt, I'm reminded of all these good ideas after I've already spent money for something else!     I buy this cast melting pot and then think of all those (bigger, better and cheaper) cast iron pots I've seen for sale here and there.  Or handywork like Forest offered... 

Oh well, since the pot I bought isn't much bigger then my Lee production pot, I will use it for other tasks on my newly set up casting bench.     And that will give me the excuse I need to look around for one big enough to fit my cast iron ladel in.