Ok. I managed to latch onto 5 pails of wheel weights......thanks again redhouse.
Here are the steps I followed to turn them into ingots.
Stuff you need, or at least, stuff I used: full 20lb propane tank, tiger torch, 2 empty 5 gallon steel pails, 6 unilock paving stones (bricks), grinder with cut off wheel, wheel weights...lots and lots of wheel weights, leather gloves, safety glasses, hat, old jacket, old jeans, work boots, dollar store straining ladle (big spoon with holes punched in it which I may refer to as the strainer), staineless steel camping style cup with handle, small lee ingot mold, wifes muffin baking tray (I used one of those ones that makes rectangular mini-loafs). a 3 foot by 5 foot or bigger sheet of cardboard. Several bottles of water (for drinking...this is a hot process and unless it's 0 deg C outside, you won't be cold), 5 hours of your life that you're never going to get back
1. Cut the tops off of the 5 gallon steel cans. One for melting and the other for scrap clips and junk comming out of the weights as they melt. Keep in mind, the scrap will be hot. You can use a plastic pail, but put about an inch of gravel/sand/dirt..whatever in the bottom first to help slow down the melting.
2. Set up some bricks in a C shape on the ground the same diameter as the outside of the can
3. Set the can on top and adjust the bricks so that there is just enough opening in the C shape to allow the mouth of a tiger torch to blow flame in. Make sure that the can overlaps the edge of the bricks by at least 3 inches. The bricks are likely to crack during this prolonged heating.
4. Dump about 8 inches of wheel weights iinto your steel can
5. Light up your torch and place it so that most of the flame is going across the bottom of the can, with just a bit of flame pushing up the side. You'll have to block the business end of the torch up a bit to get it just right.
6. While you're waiting for the weights to melt, get the rest of your stuff ready. Mold's, gloves, face mask, eye protection, hat, etc. Bend the stainless steel cup to it has a bit of an oval shape to help in pouring the lead. I'd recommend making your oval point to the opposite side of the handle. Remember, you're working at ground level, and you're not pouring coffee
7. Your weights are now melted, the smoke is rolling, everything smells like a burning toxic waste dump. Great, you're doing everything right. Add some more weights until you've got 6-8 inches of molten lead in the can. If you're like me, you've managed to get 4 old valve stems, a few tire lables, and some mechanics wire into the mix. Give the toxic brew a few stirs with your strainer to make sure all the lead is melted.This will also heat up your strainer so the lead will flow though the holes. Keep in mind. The smoke and the slime floating on top of the lead is flamable, and the pail may catch fire at anytime during this process. Make sure your entire body is covered. It'll only burn for a few minutes at most, then it'll go out on its own.
AS SOON AS ALL THE LEAD IS MELTED use your straining ladle and pull out all the junk...steel clips, half burnt valve stems, wire, etc. If you do this quickly, you might just see one or two unmelted weights come out. They're the zinc ones...bad bad bad. Dump this burnt smoking crap in your scrap pail.
8. Make sure your wifes muffin tin and any other molds you're using are on the ground, right next to the cardboard. Don't put them on the cardboard. It acts like an insulator and slows down your solidification. Eventually, after a while, it'll start to smolder as well. Let the ingots solidify on bare ground.
9. Take your stainless steel cup and reach it into the pail. Use the lip of the cup to pull back the slime (dross) on top of the lead and submerge it in the lead and pull yourself out a cup full.
10. Pour into the molds. Several cup fulls for a full muffin tin.
11. While waiting for this to cool, add more wheel weights to the mix. Put them in SLOWLY!!!! No "Air Jordan" slam dunks unless you like being splashed with scaulding hot lead.
*****WARNING******DANGER DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON****DANGER****** If you throw in a weight that has water on it, or wet anything for that matter, boiling hot lead will....not might.....it WILL come flying out of your melting pot with great velocity. This is the infamous steam explosion everyone talks about. The slightest drop of water will cause this.
Now, I'll share one of those "walking the razors edge" dangerous tricks. If you're dumping weights right from the bucket...which you should NEVER do, but, if you do,
keep the bucket you're dumping from very close to, and covering as much of the top of the melting pot as possible. When it blows lead upward, it hits the bucket and goes either back in the pot, or off to the sides. Again, this is a VERY dangerous practice, and WILL have molten lead flying around sooner or later. Every one of my pails of weights had a bit of water in the bottom (probably somebodys coffee). The last bucket had about 5 pounds of well saturated weights in the bottom of it. I just threw them, and the whole bucket away.
12. While waiting for your new batch of weights to melt, start poking around the mold. Once the lead is solid, dump them on the cardboard. No, it won't burst in to flames, but it might smoke a tiny bit. If the ingots stick in your pan, drop it, upside down a few times. If you get one that's really stuck, just leave it, and work around it. I had one stuck right from the get go, and had to live with it throught the entire pour. It wasn't worth wrecking the rest of the pan over one hole that I couldn't fill.
13. Go back to step 7 and repeat.
Disclaimer: First, I am
NOT responsible for your safety. If you do this, you're going to get hurt and/or die. Your entire family might get hurt and die, maybe even the entire town you live in. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!!! Don't come back saying I left out a step or told you to do something that caused an accident. I've got many years of experience working with nasty stuff like this, an some things just come automatically to me, and I might have left something out. Again, AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
Now that that's overwith
Footnotes: Do this in a VERY open area, not your garage, not right beside your wifes new car, her pet cat......well, maybe the cat, but definately NOT the dog or kids.....etc. There WILL be some splattered lead. There is just no avoiding it. Obviously, you're going to do this on bare ground, and not your freshly paved driveway. Do it on a day that you have a slight breeze. There's going to be smoke, it stinks, it's VERY bad for you...don't stand inline with the smoke. Don't get your melting pot half full of molten lead. If a brick cracks and collapses, it'll make a hell of a big mess, and it's much more dangerous than working with 6-8 inches or so in the pot. If you're using the stainless steel cup as a dipper its safer. Just in case you lost your mind....the fumes got to you....whatever......the cup will hit the bottom of the melting can before your whole gloved hand is submerged in boiling hot lead. Try and keep the level around 6-8 inches.
This WILL destroy your wifes muffin tin...give up on the idea of saving it...it'll be bent to hell and contaminated with lead. Throw everything away when you're done. Muffin tin, gloves, pants, jacket, hat,straining ladle...etc....basically, anything that has lead on it, chuck it. You don't want to be dragging that stuff into your house. Of course, keep the tiger torch and propane tank unless you're really edgy about it, in which case you can give them to me
I've now got enough bulk lead to last me for years to come. I don't know how much the pile of ingots weights, but it's at least a few hundred pounds.
I don't add flux to the mix, because I do that when I'm doing my final cast. The ingots look clean, and I'm happy with them. I've already cast 700+ very nice 170 grain .308 bullets with em, and they look great.
Feel free to add your thoughts.
