Casting pot for Free!

john442

john442

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Central Alberta
Just getting into casting wheel weights into shotgun slugs and needed to acquire a melting pot.
Searched every thrift store for a large cast iron dutch oven, with no luck.
Being too cheap to spend $100 on a new one(9qt), i read that 20lb propane bottles(expired) make a good vessel and they are readily available for free.

After completely empty, removed the valve (thanks youtube), filled with soapy water, then drained.
Pit in an airhose and let run for 10 min to purge any vapors and left the air running while i went after it with the sawzall.
trimmed the handles off the top, and welded them to the sides.
Now i got a steel melting pot that should last a lifetime and maybe more.

What you you think?

John


 
Nice looking DIY project. I would agree that tacking something to enhance stability is a great idea. If the burner is dedicated to this only, tacking some rod/bolts around the circumference of the burner in 3 or 4 places so that they almost make contact with your pot would work. Thanks for posting.
 
Nice idea! I've been planing on getting into pouring my own, so I'll be doing the same as you!
 
I use a smaller tank and don't have any issues with stability on a similar burner. I do plan on making the fryer alot sturdier though. But I only put in 50lbs or so at a time.

Looks good!
 
Dragunov said:
Why make it so big? A quart is about 10 kilos of lead. That's a 1000 bullets at 10 grams per...
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When you're starting with wheelweights and scrap its easiest to do a bulk melt first, then when the clips and garbage are removed pour it into ingots. Then small batches are fine.

My pot for this sort of thing is about 3 gallons, and I hit it with a tiger torch.
 
Fantastic smelting pot for making ingots from wheel-weights. I have been using one just like this for the last three years and thousands of pounds, best tool for the job, just make sure to turn down the flame when you reach into the pot. The round bottom directs the heat up the sides and wants to catch my gloves on fire! (never had a tip over, I made sure it was stable before adding heat)
 
skneub said:
Can you add stability to it by welding something to the bottom that will hit the edges of your burner on a couple sides ?

Lead aint light.
it would suck if it tipped over
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Been there, done that. Thankfully still have all my original skin.

On a serious note this is a good idea. I tipped over a pot once, it caught my lawn on fire, just thankful I didn't spill it on myself.
 
6.5x55iswonderful said:
Fantastic smelting pot for making ingots from wheel-weights. I have been using one just like this for the last three years and thousands of pounds, best tool for the job, just make sure to turn down the flame when you reach into the pot. The round bottom directs the heat up the sides and wants to catch my gloves on fire! (never had a tip over, I made sure it was stable before adding heat)
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Me thinks you need better gloves then, I use the cheap blue pair of welding gloves from princess auto, I've yet to have any fires :)

Another thing I forgot to mention is use a heat shield around the pot, helps to keep the heat in so you use less propane.
 
Something such as this could be the bee's knees for large caliber casting, or casting that requires unusual designs that are difficult to keep really hot for better results.

Do you plan on scorching off the outside paint before indoor use?
 
It might not work with your burner, but what you can do is take the top of the tank and set the bottom on top.Trace out the foot ring and cut out the circle.Next trim the top down so that it is just a bit longer than the foot ring.You will have a larger more stable base and it will concentrate the heat under your pot and not let the heat come up the sides.
 
mr.e moose said:
It might not work with your burner, but what you can do is take the top of the tank and set the bottom on top.Trace out the foot ring and cut out the circle.Next trim the top down so that it is just a bit longer than the foot ring.You will have a larger more stable base and it will concentrate the heat under your pot and not let the heat come up the sides.
Click to expand...

It works just fine !

 
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