New Smelter

[roundgunner]

The wind storm last night knocked out my power for most of the day so I fired up the new smelter again.



It speeds things up, but best of all, it uses waste wood and pine so it’s free! No more propane for me. I did about 300 pounds today, about 3-4 hours and spent a lot of time doing other things like picking up the garage. The pot is a propane tank cut in half, the top half is the vented lid.

[ScottJ]

Very nice.

My smelting days may be drawing to a close. A friend and I are working toward 2,000 .45 Auto and he's been seeking wheel weights to replenish the bite we're taking out of my stash.

Most of the shops he's been to claim to have long term commitments to others. The one shop who would sell wanted $60 for a 5 gallon bucket. I was paying $25 a bucket back in 2011.

At that price I'll just buy the already ingotized stuff for $1 a pound off eBay. Don't have to smelt those they can go straight into the pour pot.

[Titegroups]

Expansionary inflation, the more people read stuff like this and want to try it will raise the cost for all else involved. No different than the price of guns anymore. Time to findthings less trendy.

[Cdog]

I'm impressed!

Who says American innovation is dead? Outstanding Work!

[Ivan the Butcher]

In the first photo, the piglet looks good for this fall (unless he is a pet). In the winter months, on warm days, I use a 10 pound plumbers pot inside the wood stove. Can do 100 to 120 ingots a day, read a book and best of all... Play with fire. The ingots from recovered lead alloys are seperated and marked by alloy, eg LEAD, WW, TYPE, 30/1 or 20/1. Then when casting, I use electric furnaces for uniform heat. Mostly these days, I only cast big soft bullets for black powder cartridge rifles like 45-70 (45 2.1" sharps). I'm looking for a mould that will work on 43 Reformado (400ish grain 3 or 4 maybe 5 ogive radius nose, big wax grooves and a hollow base and can be sized to .454"). I've been thinking of casting up something for 303 Brit and 7.62x54R Russian. I can't find my old mould so I looking for one of the following 150, 180, 200, 220 RN or Spitzer w/GC and can be sized .313" I also have a Martini in 303 so the heavy bullets would need to be RN,GC which would work with 30 Gov't, 30-03 and 30-06, when sized .309"

[Skip Sackett]

Good deal!

[novalty]

Very nice set up. I am starting to have second thoughts about getting into casting. I' ve gotten a Lee 10lb pot, some 38 molds, RCBS LAM2, with sizing dies and top punches, thermometer, welding gloves, and a couple hundred pounds of lead wheel weights. My father-in-law, who has been casting for 20 years or so, has shown me some to get started. He just melts down the weights skims off the dross and pours his boolits. I've been told that I should be smelting in a dutch oven or other pot, fluxing, and pouring into ingots, then running through my pot. Starting to feel overwhelmed.

[roundgunner]

[QUOTE=Ivan the Butcher;136982939]In the first photo, the piglet looks good for this fall (unless he is a pet).


That is my good friend Kobi. He is an "American Dingo" or a "Carolina Dog" rescued from a shelter.




He's pretty sure he's a lap dog!

[rwsmith]

...but it looks like you could smelt enough lead to start a bullet factory.

[roundgunner]

I do go thru thousands and thousands of bullet's a year. I use my cast bullets for the NRA class.



50 rounds for each student and all my bowling pin ammo and all but the WinterNationals for IDPA matches and practice. Lots of bullets.