My adventures in melting lead

[novalty]

Well my father-in-law was down to visit, and decided to kill a few hours and try out my new equipment for my first smelt. My father-in-law was the one that got me into reloading, and into casting, but he had only used a Lee 10lb pot for smelting down his wheel weights, so he was curious to see how my 6qt dutch oven and Camp Chef Fryer would work. So we get all set up, and he places the first 20lbs, into the dutch oven, and looks on disapprovingly of me as I add another 20lbs. We fired up the dutch oven and got the lead melted down cleaned off and fluxed twice with pine sawdust. After we started ladling (Thanks to RayinNH's awesome ladle), and my father-in-law really likes the setup and tells me to go get the rest of my wheel weights. While we didn't get through all 200lbs, we were both amazed that we did get through 100lbs of the wheel weights in a couple hours just taking our time and being careful. Will try to get a pictures of the ingots we cast posted soon. We left about 3/4" in the bottom of the dutch oven for the next smelt. Overall it was a great time, and everything went smoothly. Next will be getting the RCBS Pro-melt broken in

 

[wrench]

I thought this was going to be about little silver fishes. Mmmmm, tasty!

(Congratulations on your other 'smelt')

 

[gm272gs]

I hope you were doing this outside and stayed away from the smoke. You'll grow a third eye, if you don't.

 

[novalty]

We actually did it in the entrance of my father's barn on concrete floor with at least 8 feet clearance from anything--fire extinguisher at the ready. We set up a box fan to help blow the smoke away. Once the smoke start billowing out of the pot we just gave it plenty of distance and would periodically check on the melt. Was amazed at how much came off in metal clips, think we only had 3 zinc wheel weights that had missed the double inspection. We used a 5 gallon pail half-filled with water to drop the dross/slag into.

 

[Nframecollector]

I do all mine inside my shop with exhaust fans going. As far as growing a third eye.......that's how people end up with a bad opinion of cast bullets. All I shoot are cast bullets and I have been casting my own for 43 years and I only have two eyes!

 

[Engineer1911]

And lead in your pencil . Cast bullets are always available and in season.

What bullet shortage?

 

[novalty]

May having something to stop the cast bullets in the near future. Thinking 200lbs of wheel weights, might not be as much as I once thought.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

The EPA has gone after home casters in some places for throwing the dross into the trash. I save mine and sell it as Tin ore to a local alloy dealer. Ivan

 

[novalty]

The EPA has gone after home casters in some places for throwing the dross into the trash. I save mine and sell it as Tin ore to a local alloy dealer. Ivan

I put the dross in a pail for my father to take back with his scrap metal to the salvage yard.

Got a few pics tonight. Got 70 bars from the melt, along with what was left in the dutch oven (about 3/4"), guessing I had about 20-25% waste.

 

[JimM_PA]

Dutch ovens bring peach cobbler to mind...especially from a well-seasoned DO...

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Looks like a job well done! Now you have to turn them into shiny boolits. I just got my ladle and skimmer from RayinNH, nice guy and nice stuff too.

 

[novalty]

I'm like a kid right before Christmas. Just got my shipping information from Mihec on the 359 125 4 cavity mold I ordered from the GB over at Castboolits. Should look something like this:

Placed an order for Action Targets Steel Plate Rack last night. It was a hard decision to make between the plate rack and a shotgun, but I figured I would get more use out of the plate rack, and might get some more people to join me at the range.

"Steel Some Fun: ActionTarget Plate Rack" by Nutnfancy - YouTube

 

[Frank237]

Casting IS very addictive. Especially in these times of scarce/non existent bullets. This past winter I think I consumed 140 pounds casting for all the revolves and autos.

 

[Maximumbob54]

Your bullets look better than my last batch did. Mine are sticking in the mold and the pins are warping the HP opening. That makes to molds I need to tear apart and clean with acetone now. My .40 SW mold has been nothing but a pain after making a slew of good bullets. Don't let any lube get on those pins or inside the cavity. I was putting a drip of lube where the pins go through the blocks and that stuff is a terror to get out from the mold. Simple Green wouldn't even touch it. I still have yet to take time to strip both of those molds down. (sigh)

 

[novalty]

Your bullets look better than my last batch did.

Unfortunately, those aren't pictures of my castings. Just an internet pic of the specific mold I ordered. I just got my shipping info yesterday from Mihec.

 

[Buford57]

I do all mine inside my shop with exhaust fans going. As far as growing a third eye.......that's how people end up with a bad opinion of cast bullets. All I shoot are cast bullets and I have been casting my own for 43 years and I only have two eyes!

One on each elbow?

 

[novalty]

Figured I'd update this post with pics from my last two melting sessions. So far have melted down about 440 lbs of lead wheel weights, and have about 360 more to go.
This is from my second melt with 200 lbs of wheel weight.


This is from my 3rd melt yesterday about 130-140lbs of wheel weights. Have found I am getting about 70 lbs in my dutch oven per melt, and it takes about 1 hour to melt down a dutch oven full and flux it 3 times with pine sawdust.



Finished checking this last batch of about 300lbs of wheel weights today, and only ended up with about 1 Folger's can full of zinc, steel & iron wheel weights, and some valve stems nuts and bolts--figure about 20 lbs of junk.

 

[novalty]

Well the weather wasn't the best this morning, and windy this afternoon. So I decided to finish casting some 45's for a family member that traded me some lead for some cast boolits. Decided to take some pictures today. The boolits were cast using a M-P 452-200 4 cavity brass mold, which is dropping 215gr. FN with COWW's.

Preheat the mold on a cheap hot-plate.

Here is my water-drop setup. Not really for any additional hardness benefit, just to keep them on one place--plus I don't see how many I've cast until I'm ready to call it quits.

Found the boolits cast nicely from these Mihec molds at around 700-725° (almost there.)

Sorry for the fuzzy picture of the sprue

Better picture of the cut sprue.

Finished product

Sorted out any that didn't pass inspection, and lined up the rest next to my RCBS LAMII for sizing and lubing (Total of 636). Not too bad for a couple hours.

 

[thedane]

800 lbs. of wheel weights can deliver over 26,000 215 gr bullets. I guess that should keep you busy for a while.

I've been casting for years but only sporadically. There's something very satisfying about knowing that you made the bullets from scratch.

Nice pics!

 

[novalty]

Thanks, I really enjoy casting, and find it an enjoyable addition to the hobby. Hoping others would enjoy some pictures of the process.