Anyone got any reccomendations? Any burner/pot combo in particular? To be more specific anyone have a good idea how many BTU's are necessary? I was looking at Academy Sports and they have fish cookers that vary from 50K to 100K BTU's. I assume more is better.

I have a Lodge cast iron muffin pan to form ingots. I figured I'd buy the smallest Lodge dutch oven for a pot to put the wheelweights in. I've got 200# of wheelweights to process into ingots.

I bought a Bayou Classic Double Jet cooker and cut a 40# propane bottle in half. for the pot

I used the valve fitting for the bottom dump and used a 3/4" round rod lapped into the hole for the valve control.

I have run about 500#s through it and I am ready for another 200 #s maybe tomorrow if the weather clears up

Good luck to you there are many ways to melt lead.

I would look at your long range plans of smelting lead. If all you will be smelting is 200#, then I wouldn't invest a lot of $$ on a burner and pot.

I've been smelting WWs and other lead for cast bullets since the early '70s. Somewhere in the mid '80s I bought a shotmaker and began to also make my own shot. For about 20 years when I was shooting registered Trap and later Skeet, I was making about 700 pounds of shot per year.

Up until this year, I smelted all of that lead in a 10" diameter x 3" deep cast iron skillet on a Coleman stove.

This past summer I bought a propane burner in a cast iron stand and a hose and regulator from my propane supplier for about $50. I think this burner is a 35K unit, and it works good.

Garage sales and Goodwill stores often have cast iron pans and maybe even a propane burner for substantially less $$ than they sell for new.

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-cast-iron-dutch-oven-44705.html

pot

Smelting: The act of extracting metals from their ores through the use of heat and chemical reducing agents. I doubt you can do much smelting with a turkey fryer. Melting large quantities of scrap lead is doable with one though. (Although I always got the willies whenever I had 100+ pounds of molten lead in a vessel on top of a heat source. Now I just melt the stuff in a relatively small iron pot and accept slow production as a substitute for unnecessary risk.)

My buddy and I melted 3500 pounds of scrap lead in an old iron bathtub a couple years ago. We used four old oil furnace burners as a heat source. The molten lead went into an in-ground sand mold in the shape of the keel for the sail boat we were building. That bathtub full of lead emptied out in 30 seconds through a 2" drain pipe. (We hadn't thought it would empty so quickly!) To say that the whole operation was fraught with danger, to say the least, but OMG the drama of that 3500 pounds of lead dumping in 30 seconds!!

gnoahhh

you just gave me a great idea where I can go and get all of the lead I could ever want

I live fairly close to a lot of ocean docks and I scuba.
do you thing that the sail boats would miss some of there keels.






Just kidding but I may check out some of the boat grave yards to see what they may have. Thanks for the idea.

Ha ha, probably! But you bring up a good point. A lot of old time boat yards have keels salvaged off of demolished sail boats laying back in the weeds. The trouble lies in dealing with a big old hunk of lead the size of a fighter plane cockpit canopy.

Well I have a three axle goose neck trailer the only problem would be loading it up. I could take my time whittling away at it. Could be an interesting project.

I still like a challenge from time to time.

When I am down it that area I will have to look into a few places and see what I can find.

Still thanks for the idea.

Don't bother trying a chain saw to hack apart a big chunk of scrap lead. Ask me how I know...

The good thing is that most boat yards have fork lifts and travel lifts that can be employed to get it on your trailer. But like said, that's when the fun begins.

A Rosebud with Oxy. Acetylene a little at a time should work pretty good with a some kind of drip pan under it.

I looked up some boat salvage yards and I think that I will call some of them before traveling to them.

I just hauled in a 100 lb. ingot of pure lead. Been wondering how to cut it up so it will fit in my alloy pot......

Log splitter?

Ed

man o man gnoahhh. i'd surely love to have seen that! shades of the inquisition! 3500# of HOT.

Been thinking about a Sawsall with a wood cutting blade. Don't know if the lead will clog the teeth or not; probably will......May just have to get a bigger pot.

As far as the sawzall, use your wood blade, and put a drop cloth down to catch the bullet or two of shavings. If it gets clogged, the blade can be brushed off easy enough.

As far as a burner, for bulk work, I use a witch's pot and a log fire in a pit. Stacked bricks up to hold the pot up where logs can be put underneath.

Make a day of it. Sit upwind, drink beer.

Now you're talking! Beer is the best thing to fuel the guy who's fueling a log fire! (Just keep one guy sober to actually mess with the lead!)

Haven't checked here in a while, but thought I'd give my 2 cents worth.

For melting down wheel weights I've been using a medium sized stainless stock pot and a single burner butane fueled portable cook stove. It worked very well for doing 20-40 lbs at a time.