The stove in the basement is not a good idea. The fumes will stink you out and it's not healthy.
Get yourself a propane turkey frier/fish frier and a 20# tank. You can probably find one on craigslist used. Get a cast iron dutch oven or skillet and set it up on the turkey frier gas jet base. Then you'll need one of those 1 lb ingot molds or an old muffin pan.
You can smelt all those wheel weights pretty quickly with this setup.
I found a turkey frier kit that was opened & incomplete at a local retail store I got for 20 bucks. The gas jet base was all there and that's all I cared about anyway. Then I bought a cheap cast iron skillet at Wally World. I had a couple of extra 20# propane tanks. I bought a Lyman 1# ingot mold from Midway. I was probably into the whole thing for under $50.00