Free lead for reloaders

I just finished smelting all this lead into ingots and I have a suggestion for you MIT lead folks. First, I mentioned the smoke. Well, there is a lot of paper/fiber material
in this mix so when you start melting this in the pot it's going to smoke and smoke a lot. I lived with it yesterday doing a couple of buckets and I was worried about the
neighbors calling the FD it was so thick. Today I tried a slightly different method and it worked just fine. When it started smoking I lit the melt with one of those BBQ
igniters so that the paper/fiber would burn instead of just smoking. Not only did it cut way down on the smoke factor (it still smokes, believe me) but you do not have
to flux this melt one iota. The ash from the material is a great flux and worked perfect. Another plus is that once the fire goes out the material is just about complete
ash and makes skimming much easier. Previously I was getting a lot of lead captured in the skim. This way, almost zero. Final count, around 325 pounds of lead!
 
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Patriot said:
I just finished smelting all this lead into ingots and I have a suggestion for you MIT lead folks. First, I mentioned the smoke. Well, there is a lot of paper/fiber material
in this mix so when you start melting this in the pot it's going to smoke and smoke a lot. I lived with it yesterday doing a couple of buckets and I was worried about the
neighbors calling the FD it was so thick. Today I tried a slightly different method and it worked just fine. When it started smoking I lit the melt with one of those BBQ
igniters so that the paper/fiber would burn instead of just smoking. Not only did it cut way down on the smoke factor (it still smokes, believe me) but you do not have
to flux this melt one iota. The ash from the material is a great flux and worked perfect. Final count, around 325 pounds of lead!
Click to expand...

Sounds good. We were thinking of waiting until Winter to smelt so that the neighbors won't notice it as much with all the windows locked. The fire idea sounds good, we'll have to try it next time [smile]
 
Marcus5aurelius said:
Sounds good. We were thinking of waiting until Winter to smelt so that the neighbors won't notice it as much with all the windows locked. The fire idea sounds good, we'll have to try it next time [smile]
Click to expand...

I try to do it on weekdays and between the school hours. Most folks are at work/school and the only ones
I have to worry about are the stay at home Moms and they are a dying breed, at least in my neighborhood.
 
Patriot said:
The ash from the material is a great flux and worked perfect. Another plus is that once the fire goes out the material is just about complete
ash and makes skimming much easier. Previously I was getting a lot of lead captured in the skim. This way, almost zero.
Click to expand...

Heh, so it's "Pre-Fluxed" [laugh] Awesome!

DukeInMaine said:
Don't waste your money on the LOW PRESSURE burners..... You'll be disappointed. Get high pressure burners only. They should roar like a jet engine when running.
Click to expand...

I will take yours and EddieCoyle's word for it. Looks like the Bayou Classic Bob J listed in the other thread is the way to go. The Burner that comes with the 16qt pot doesn't specify but, probably isn't.

Now I just gotta figure out how I can get away with smelting all this behind my apartment building [smile]
 
One year later Ziptar finally smelts his lead

Since he lives in an area that isn't conducive to making smoke, Ziptar hadn't been able to smelt the lead he got from MIT. This week he loaded his car with 430 pounds of Home Depot buckets and visited the farm.

DSC_1374.jpg


We had lots of fun playing with the lead:

DSC_1379.jpg


It made very nice ingots:

DSC_1382.jpg


And came up with 401 pounds ready to cast:

DSC_1388.jpg
 
YES! FINALLY!!!

I can't thank Exousia enough for having me out to his place and so I could get that stuff smelted up finally.

It was smoky and for the most part self fluxing. Most only needed a single flux with wax after the fluff burnt off.

The really fun and interesting part was how the ash made great big puffs of greenish smoke as it was dropped into the dross bin. It was like a magic trick.

We also learned something. on the 4th or 5th bucket the lead would oxidize on top bright gold.

We thought maybe we'd become accidental alchemists. After many passes with pine shavings and wax it just kept coming up gold. We didn't know if perhaps we had lead contamination or what.

After Exousia did some thorough research it turned out we had it a bit too hot, and apparently pure lead changes color at different temperatures. Once it cooled down it looked like lead was supposed to and all was right with the world.

It was a great day. Yes, it took a year but, it was awesome to finally get that stuff smelted.

Thanks Again Jacko! and Exousia !!
 
I got around 40lbs of frangible dust out of mine. The green smoke was cool and the paper burned nicely.

I guess you won't need any MIT lead this year? Lol

Have fun.

Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.
 
I have smelted a bit f indoor range lead also.....I believe a lot of smoke comes from the lube on the bullets or whats left of them....especially the cast lead ones.
I only wish a local metal recycle would take the spent metal jackets.
 
turbo-smelter

I am resurrecting this thread rather than starting a new one because there is good info in the thread for newbies.

Ziptar and I got together this week for another smelting session. We were surprised at how much longer the lead took to melt at 40 degrees than it did at 80 degrees. We had heard others say that they always wait for cool weather before smelting so we waited for cool before getting together again to smelt the lead we have been collecting. Half way through the session we were getting a little frustrated with the slow process so I pulled out my propane torch. Heating the pot from the top as well as the bottom really sped up the process. It also made it more fun.
2011-12-13_15-36-41_935.jpg

We are looking forward to getting together to do some more turbo-smelting.
 
Exousia said:
I am resurrecting this thread rather than starting a new one because there is good info in the thread for newbies.

Ziptar and I got together this week for another smelting session. We were surprised at how much longer the lead took to melt at 40 degrees than it did at 80 degrees. We had heard others say that they always wait for cool weather before smelting so we waited for cool before getting together again to smelt the lead we have been collecting. Half way through the session we were getting a little frustrated with the slow process so I pulled out my propane torch. Heating the pot from the top as well as the bottom really sped up the process. It also made it more fun.
View attachment 22989

We are looking forward to getting together to do some more turbo-smelting.
Click to expand...

Nice! Yea we normally wait for cool weather just so it's not a nuisance for the neighbors who are close by. Otherwise hot weather is definitely the easiest path. I'm sure it wasn't a problem but be careful with the torch. Sometimes the torch can be hot enough to melt Zinc on the surface into your mix.
 
However.....

The torch's propane container can get too hot, and burst under pressure.
My mom had a friend who was horribly burned when the propane tank she was holding (to light the charcoal grill) burst, dumping propane which instantly ignited,
2nd and 3rd degree burns everywhere. She almost died!

Do not use a hand held propane torch over a running smelting pot.

You obviously would benefit by getting one of the HIGH PRESSURE regulators for your smelting burner. Mine puts out so much heat that it could be -20 outside, and still quickly melt lead.
 
DukeInMaine said:
However.....

The torch's propane container can get too hot, and burst under pressure.
My mom had a friend who was horribly burned when the propane tank she was holding (to light the charcoal grill) burst, dumping propane which instantly ignited,
2nd and 3rd degree burns everywhere. She almost died!

Do not use a hand held propane torch over a running smelting pot.

You obviously would benefit by getting one of the HIGH PRESSURE regulators for your smelting burner. Mine puts out so much heat that it could be -20 outside, and still quickly melt lead.
Click to expand...

Duke,

You must be thinking of the propane torches that se a small bottle, not the huge "driveway melter and weed burner" that is shown in the pics that has a remote 20lb tank???
 
Exousia's burner is an SP10 that should be throwing out enough heat. I was thinking though adding a wind screen could help keep the heat around the pot and channel it up the sides.

If anything the "Turbo Smelter" was fun. It did get the lead melted much faster. The range lead also had some wood chips in it, the torch made short work of them and quickly made them into useful flux.

It was hot enough to get the copper jackets glowing.



We did notice one interesting thing. A couple of bullets on top of the pot that had a small pinholes in them. The torch melted the lead so quickly it cause them to spit very thin streams of molten lead.

The Mrs. Asked for my Christmas list, I put the Kick A Banjo Burner Plus KAB6 on it. I figure, I've been a good boy this year. [smile]
 
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I see the weed killing torch in the video, but didn't see it in the other pictures.
Also seen in an edge of the video is the MEGA smelting pot (aka beer keg pot) but I noticed that you guys didn't use it for the actual smelting.
Has it been broken in yet???
 
Exousia said:
It is too large to safely fit on my burner. Ziptar is planning on getting an extra large burner to support it.
Click to expand...

Had the same problem with trying to use it on my burners...... The pot balances on the inner (smaller ring) of the burners and the outer rim never comes in contact with the support surfaces.... Makes it balance pretty precariously..... Love the volume and construction so just have to figure out how I'm going to have to deal with it.... Was thinking to get a larger ring welded on the stand so that it would engage with the outer rim on the bottom of the pot but if you know a burner that it would fit that might be the easier way for me to go.....[thinking]
 
Bob J said:
Had the same problem with trying to use it on my burners...... The pot balances on the inner (smaller ring) of the burners and the outer rim never comes in contact with the support surfaces.... Makes it balance pretty precariously..... Love the volume and construction so just have to figure out how I'm going to have to deal with it.... Was thinking to get a larger ring welded on the stand so that it would engage with the outer rim on the bottom of the pot but if you know a burner that it would fit that might be the easier way for me to go.....[thinking]
Click to expand...

Hey Bob,
Check out this one. Or this one.
 
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Another issue we had with the cool weather smelting is when the level in the propane bottle got low the flame reduced. Shaking the bottle would make the flame start roaring again. I don't know if we would experience this in warm weather or not.
 
Exousia said:
Another issue we had with the cool weather smelting is when the level in the propane bottle got low the flame reduced. Shaking the bottle would make the flame start roaring again. I don't know if we would experience this in warm weather or not.
Click to expand...

Have had that happen in really cold weather on camping trips.... Guess the propane needs to be a certain temp to vaporize effectively.... From my experience would not think the current weather would be cold enough for there to be a problem..... Temps in the teens and below is where I've seen the problem.....[thinking]
 
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Bob J said:
Thanks! Are you getting one of these? Looks good be would like to be sure that the pot rests securely before investing in another burner (currently have 3 smelting burners)....[thinking]
Click to expand...

Ziptar put a KAB6 on his Christmas list. I'm thinking about ordering one also. The 22" diameter should easily handle those 16" pots. It appears to me that the only difference between the KAB4 and the KAB6 is the strength of the legs but for filling up a large pot with lead I guess we should spend the extra for the heavy duty legs.
 
Bob J said:
Had the same problem with trying to use it on my burners...... The pot balances on the inner (smaller ring) of the burners and the outer rim never comes in contact with the support surfaces.... Makes it balance pretty precariously..... Love the volume and construction so just have to figure out how I'm going to have to deal with it.... Was thinking to get a larger ring welded on the stand so that it would engage with the outer rim on the bottom of the pot but if you know a burner that it would fit that might be the easier way for me to go.....[thinking]
Click to expand...

When I had this problem I just laid a few pieces of rebar across the outer ring of the burner and rested the pot on it.

Exousia said:
Another issue we had with the cool weather smelting is when the level in the propane bottle got low the flame reduced. Shaking the bottle would make the flame start roaring again. I don't know if we would experience this in warm weather or not.
Click to expand...

Try laying the tank on its side.
 
Exousia said:
Ziptar put a KAB6 on his Christmas list. I'm thinking about ordering one also. The 22" diameter should easily handle those 16" pots. It appears to me that the only difference between the KAB4 and the KAB6 is the strength of the legs but for filling up a large pot with lead I guess we should spend the extra for the heavy duty legs.
Click to expand...

Would really recommend the heavier legs, especially for smelting with this pot..... This pot can hold a serious amount of lead....
 

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