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cheier

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Just got a Lee Pro 4-20 melter from Stevebot-7 here on the forums. Put it to good use the day that I got it. I have a bucket of wheel weights from the local Kal-Tire for nothing and ended up melting about 25% to 40% of what was in the bucket into 25 lbs of lead ingot.

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Not looking for feedback at the moment. Just excited. I'm guessing there is probably another 50 lbs of lead left in the bucket. I'll be popping over to fountain tire to get some new tires put on my rims. I'll see if they can spare a bucket of old wheel weights for free with tire mounting and balancing... :)

I intend to cast in .500 S&W near term, but will also probably cast in 45-70 fairly soon as well.
 
What did you smelt all the wheel weights in? Got all the zinc out?

What bullet weights are you planning in for the 500?
 
577/450 said:
zinc w/w will not melt at lead temps
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Obviously. And yet there is many threads about people getting zinc in their lead. That's why I asked about his smelting setup. I assume he knows about it already but just incase I asked.
 
Many lee pots have bad temp switches .. lots of stories .. so temp can run up well above the zink base line even when set at 4 or 5 .. only way to be sure is have a termometer .. actually read a post on another fourm where a guy in Europe got a 220v pot with a 110v switch in it .. That means no control at all .. wide open

Now I have the equipment , but I have yet to cast a lick .. do have a termometer though :)

Nice looking lead in the OP ....
 
rocor98 said:
Many lee pots have bad temp switches .. lots of stories .. so temp can run up well above the zink base line even when set at 4 or 5 .. only way to be sure is have a termometer .. actually read a post on another fourm where a guy in Europe got a 220v pot with a 110v switch in it .. That means no control at all .. wide open

Now I have the equipment , but I have yet to cast a lick .. do have a termometer though :)

Nice looking lead in the OP ....
Click to expand...

Which leads into my other point, ideally you should be smelting in a different pot then your casting pot. You can make bigger batches and thus better consistency batch to batch. And with lees being drip-o-matics it helps reduce crap in your pot.
 
When prepping lead, ie melting wheel weights or other bulk lead, use a burner from a turkey deep fryer and a large pot.
I have used a 20 year old aluminum pot for years but the never ones may be too light.
Keep the temp down and you will be able to scoop off the crap that comes with any lead you get. This is also the best time to add a fluxing agent. I use candle wax. It helps the crap to come to the surface.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
What did you smelt all the wheel weights in? Got all the zinc out?

What bullet weights are you planning in for the 500?
Click to expand...

I smelted them in the Lee Pro 4-20 furnace.

All the non lead weights didn't melt and were able to be scooped out in one piece.

I'm looking at the Lyman 375 grain SWC mold for the 500.
 
tbrwlf said:
When prepping lead, ie melting wheel weights or other bulk lead, use a burner from a turkey deep fryer and a large pot.
I have used a 20 year old aluminum pot for years but the never ones may be too light.
Keep the temp down and you will be able to scoop off the crap that comes with any lead you get. This is also the best time to add a fluxing agent. I use candle wax. It helps the crap to come to the surface.
Click to expand...
I'll definitely admit that the job doing it in the Lee is slow and tedious. I may consider an aluminum pot as I do have one kicking around, but I'm worried about the wall thickness on the pot itself. It was one I picked up from Canadian Tire and used it for brewing beer. It was around $60 or $70 for the pot and burner.
 
On cast boolits they all say avoid smelting in aluminum pots as it can get weak at lead melting temps and I don't think 40+ lbs of molten lead would be fun all over. What I did was get an old refrigerant tank and cut it in half. It's around 1/8th" thick and has held around 40lbs at once.

I bought a $50 turkey/fish fryer from basspro shops. I need to make a heat shield to help direct the heat to the pot but it works pretty good. I use sawdust and candle wax for flux.

Cheier you should check out the cast boolits website. Check the groups buys for some 500 molds and many others. I missed out on the 700gr mold for the 500 but was able to get the 600gr one with 2 style of hollow points for 150 shipped to Canada.
 
Lucky you to find w/w. My local market seems to be tapped out and already spoken for. Sad thing is I'll bet most of the lead is winding up in fishing equipment. Nice looking ingots!
 
Red Herring said:
Lucky you to find w/w. My local market seems to be tapped out and already spoken for. Sad thing is I'll bet most of the lead is winding up in fishing equipment. Nice looking ingots!
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I just popped over to Fountain Tire and they said they would sell me a bucket of used w/w for $40. That's too bad as I was already spending $60 to get new tires on my rims... :)

I figure I might pop over to Kal Tire again and drop off a business card and see if they can keep in touch when they have a bucket to get rid of. Maybe when I empty this one, I will bring it back and see if they can refill it... :)
 
cheier said:
I just popped over to Fountain Tire and they said they would sell me a bucket of used w/w for $40. That's too bad as I was already spending $60 to get new tires on my rims... :)

I figure I might pop over to Kal Tire again and drop off a business card and see if they can keep in touch when they have a bucket to get rid of. Maybe when I empty this one, I will bring it back and see if they can refill it... :)
Click to expand...

Offer then coffee/donuts to help ensure they will actually call you back.
 
My pot is old. Very thick. I have had over 50 lbs in it without issue. That said, I would look for cast iron or thick steel if I choose to replace it.
 
cheier said:
I smelted them in the Lee Pro 4-20 furnace.

All the non lead weights didn't melt and were able to be scooped out in one piece.

I'm looking at the Lyman 375 grain SWC mold for the 500.
Click to expand...

Smelt the wheelweights in a separate pot. They are often covered in crud & will just muck up your casting pot & cause spigot leaking problems. I just use a cast iron pot on a Coleman stove (white gas type, not propane) & it does a pretty good job of melting down the wheel weights. The ingots you get will be pretty pure with minimal contamination.
 
I like to use a turkey burner with a cheap Chinese cast iron dutch oven that I picked up at a liquidation place.Lyman thermometer to keep your melt below the melting point of zinc and sawdust to flux. Ad in a cheap mini muffin tin and a stainless steel seive and ladle.Total cost about $140.00 but it gets rid of all the crud when you make ingots.I use a Lee pot quite a bit when I am casting smaller bullets and it helps to feed it clean ingots to reduce problems.I find with heavy bullets it is often better to ladle cast them and therefore I will go back to the dutch oven because it is easier to ladle out of the larger pot.You can also dip your mold into the bigger pot more easly to keep temps up to assist in mold fillout.
 
Things seem good so far. I have around 50 lbs of lead now and the bucket is almost empty. Probably another 5 to 10 lbs left. Took some time sorting them this time around. Managed to only get a couple zinc weights in there and got them out before they melted down. It's at least enough lead to keep me busy for a while when I get my molds in... :)

There does seem to be some crud collecting inside the melter. I manage to get most of it out, but it doesn't take much to scrape the walls and get a little more crap out of there. I'll see how things go when I'm ready to start casting. In the mean time, more ingots to add to the collection. I will definitely invest in a bigger pot to throw on the propane burner though. Would certainly make life much easier when I'm at the point of getting more buckets of w/w.

I do notice though that it doesn't take much draining in the pot to notice the flow rate slow down a touch. I can see why the Cast Bullet Handbook makes mention of getting more consistent pours with a casting dipper. I'll see how things go with the bottom pour spout first though.
 
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