Lead thermometer?

Armored Metal

Armored Metal

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
10   0   0
Location
The People's Republik of Kébekistan
Hey guys, casting noob here. I'm getting close to doing my 1st melt. I'll be smelting wheel weights and stick-on weights. I have almost everything I need: cast iron pan, burner, muffin tins, spoons, protective gear, casting pot and lead. I'll be getting a bullet mold, Lee resizer laddle and lube in the near future.

Being new to this, whould it be better if I had a thermometer?

BTW, I already sorted my weights and I'm confident that I got all the steel and zinc weights out.
 
Not essential if you're just making ingots. You will want one when you start casting boolits. It takes a lot of guess work out of the equation.

M
 
Last edited:
Never used one and still got shinny beautibul bullets.
Once your lead melt, pre-heat your mold, pour lead to your mold, then WATCH the bullet you have casted carefully.

Wrinkle surface -
your mold is too cold. Cast few more times but leave the lead in the mold a bit longer to make mold warmer.
Usually only take less than 3-5 times to make mold hot enough.

Matt surface -
your lead or mold is too hot. Add a few ingot or wasted bullet to the burner to bring temp down. Or bring the mold to a fan to cool down a bit.

SHINNY surface -
is what you are looking for. Once you got shinny result, adjust your speed to pour, cast, knock out the bullet.

Remember the less lead you have left in the burner, you have to speed up a bit.
I personally found by adjusting my working speed will make things easier an faster.
A wet towel beside you is a good option. but be careful molten lead will explode if it touches water.
 
I also have not used a thermometer for smelting ingots. Toss in some wheel weights while the pot (pan) is cooler and wait for them to melt. Toss in more and the mix will get “slushy”.

Once it melts again, toss in more and it will get slushy. Continue this until your heat source will not keep up, the pot is full or the weight is too heavy for your melting setup. No risk of melting zinc with this method. They will stick out like a sore thumb, floating to the surface and not losing their features.

Just an FYI. Clip on wheel weights will melt quicker than stick on (pure) lead. Zink requires a lot more heat in my experience to date. Focus on safety, not zinc.

MRM
 
Never used a thermometer for casting and I have cashed at least 70 pounds of bullets this past year (first year doing it). It might help with getting a consistent temp each time though. I am considering getting one.
 
I just started casting this summer as well. I did my first melt without one, ended up picking one up for cheap on eBay just for the sake of knowing what my temp is for consistency. The Lyman unit is what I got. I'm someone that likes having all the information I can get my hands on, it's just one more tool for me.
 
yomomma said:
Consistency and repeatability.
Click to expand...

You scratch a mark where you got good results, on the adjustment plate around the dial that raises and lowers the temperature.

You look at the results you are getting, adjust accordingly. Remember, it's lead, it can go back into the pot if you are unhappy with it!

Cheapest thermometer I have found cost me ten dollars and a little scrounging. Super cheap multi-meter on sale at Princess Auto, comes with a temperature function and a thermocouple. Scrounged up some stainless steel tube (small) and ran the thermocouple wire down to the far end and crimped it in, then had a weld bead ran across the end to seal (I used TIG, but any weld will do if you an hold it steady while you feed the rod to the arc to seal the end).
Reads in Celsius only, make a quickie conversion chart or simply make notes in degrees C.
 
I got a couple of lead thermometers from the Telephone Pioneers Surplus store for cheap. That was from back in the day when cables were lead sheathed and had lead splice enclosures and the transition to plastic was underway. I use them when casting as a way to get in the ballpark and to satisfy my curiosity of what temperature range works best for whatever mold I'm using. Nothing beats looking at the bullets when you've got into a rhythm of making good ones, and then try to keep within 25 degrees or so.
But I'm moving on to a PID system (in the mail) to make life easier. Can't beat it for the $50 in parts it takes to put a system together. Consistency is the ultimate goal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom