First wheel weight smelt.

SoBored

SoBored

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This was a lot quicker and easier than I thought it would be. I scrounged and re-purposed a lot of gear, got the old stainless pot, ladle and slotted spoon at the local flea market.

I found all my gear, set up, smelted, cast and cleaned up in about an hour and a quarter. Total haul was only about 16 pounds, but it's a start. Now I gotta get shameless about sourcing lead. :) Thanks for all the great posts that helped make this happen, especially blacksmithden and Andy.

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Funny that, I just cast my own pure lead projectiles for a .63 calibre muzzleloader for the very first time today. Thank you Silverback for you guideance and advice!!
I now wonder why I'm such a late starter in this really neat hobby.

Cheers fellas..............
 
Once you start, you'll never go back.
I own a couple 45-70's, and with the price of bullet's I learned to paper patch my boolit's.
 
Spray your muffin tins with liquid graphite the ingots drop right out.
I like the fact that I can load 50 bullets for $2.95 instead of paying $13 for a box of 50.

I spray my bullet molds with liquid graphite and the bullets drop right out as well, no pounding required. No smoking the molds either. Graphite lubes all the pivots and hinges as well.
 
SoBored said:
Now I gotta get shameless about sourcing lead
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I know right?!! I'm in the same boat. Did my first smelt a couple weeks ago and I can't stop casting! I shot my first self cast reloads today with great results - Its very satisfying.

Tonight, I finally honed a pan lube recipe that seems to work so I'm excited about that too.

:dancingbanana:
 
Just to add to the fun, check out the Cast boolits website and you will find more combined experience and knowledge than you could even imagine! Like everyone else that gets bitten by the silver stream bug , it does become addictive! You will know when you have it bad when you find yourself buying moulds for guns that you do not even own (yet) And all the while you will be telling yourself that you started casting to save money .
 
tigrr said:
Spray your muffin tins with liquid graphite the ingots drop right out.
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You saw my busted up tin huh? :redface:


It was a lot of fun but I already feel the itch again. I'm cataloging tire shops in my town in my mind and planning on calling the scrap yard.

My local smith offered to loan my his lee production pot.

I should build a stand for my smelting pot, things went well this time, but I would never argue that it's foolproof. :redface: The burner worked well considering I think it's only 8000BTU. A low powered burner might actually help noobs as you have a longer window to scoop out the zinc. Speaking of Zinc, I did better than I thought sorting them out. I only had to scoop out two zinc weights.

So far I have .36 round ball, 158 grain .357 and 230 grain .451 molds. Planning on adding .312 for my 303 British.
 
Good luck with the scrap yard. I tried calling a bunch of scrap dealers in town (Winnipeg) and none of them would sell anything to public.

I just hope I can keep getting WW's from tire shops.
 
I don't use lead for bullets but I do use a lot for decoy weights. I've found a couple tire shops/garages that save all their wheel weights for me. It never hurts that at least once a summer I show up on a hot Friday afternoon with a 12 pack of ice cold beer and say hi.
 
Congrats on the first smelt. I did the same thing a few years ago, but with a "seafood fryer" (same as Turkey fryer, but half the cost at Gander Mountain). I cast down about 20 lbs of weights and threw in 1 lb of 50/50 solder to help with taking the shape of the mold at casting time. That did not last long, so I cast 80 lbs the next time; that I am still casting from.

I would suggest getting a lead thermometer; it will alow you to regulate the temperatures better. If you get the temps correct (think between 450 and 650 degrees (don't quote me on that), the metal AND the zince weights just float to the top. I tried different fluxez, but somebody on Cast Boolits had recommended hardwood sawdust; a buddy uses a lathe so I tried it and it seemed to work well.
 
Looks like cruelty to muffin molds. I look for heavy duty aluminum muffin molds, cast iron cookie molds and stainless steel contiment cups in yard sales. Roofers and plumbers sometimes find lead. Look in castboolits.com for stickies with lead alloy pictures like babbit, solder, isotope containers, so you can identify it when you see it. Zinc ingots look similar but are hard, ring, and fracture lines are crystalline. No batteries, ever.
 
ohh well i was looking into it but i live in an apartment i dont know if im allowed to smelt at a park and dont want to mold bullets in a park lol itll be weird
 
Casting definitely opens the doors to a lot of stuff to acquire and tinker with. You'll never go to a gun show and pass up checking out obscure cartridges and strange old guns again. You can tame an African cartridge and bring life to a forgotten gun. And you will forever live with the delusion of "hey, I can buy that and it won't cost me much to operate, I can make it work!!"
:confused:
 
I checked Canadian Tire and they have Jigaloo graphite spray, I will try it as I already lost two muffin cups. I might hit the dollar store and get a bigger muffin tray, that tiny 8 one is too small.

I called my local scrap yard and they have no problem selling lead. What's a good price for scrap and a good price for WW?
 
SoBored said:
I checked Canadian Tire and they have Jigaloo graphite spray, I will try it as I already lost two muffin cups. I might hit the dollar store and get a bigger muffin tray, that tiny 8 one is too small.

I called my local scrap yard and they have no problem selling lead. What's a good price for scrap and a good price for WW?
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I picked up some Jigaloo Graphite spray today too... Gonna spray my moulds and sprue plate with it. Looking forward to seeing how it works.
 
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