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Posted: 7/28/2011 11:00:44 AM EDT
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If you could your do set ups all over again.... Would you dual stack your pots ??
Have over 200 lbs of lead truck wheel weights and i really don't like the idea of casting twice, then again I know nothing about casting. It would seem better to me to dump weights into top, bottom pour pan and then cast from bottom, bottom pour pan. |
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Even when you have a double pot set up you need to smelt the raw lead in a different setup. The reason guys use the double setup is to keep the temp of the casting pot stationary. If you put an ingot into you casting pot you have to wait for the temp to come back up. If using double setup you fill the lower from the top with molter lead, then put an ingot in the top. While it is melting and getting up to temp you are casting with the lower.
Either way you need to do the initial smelt to clean the lead and get it into ingots before hand. It is a dirty messy process, you don't want it near you casting setup. |
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When I first started I would dump the wheel weights into a Lee 10# bottom pour and go to it.
That worked but some of the wheel weights were heavily coated with crap from decades of sitting around in a tire shop or garage, it's also a pain to dig the clips out of that small pot. As I got more range lead and scrap/crap lead from other sources I went to a rendering pot to make ingots with. Rendering your lead into ingots first and then putting the ingots into your casting pot makes your casting time go faster and easier. Having to fuss with another pot while casting would seem to me to just get in the way. Gratuitous picture of cast 45 bullets 
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I am new to casting so here it goes...
Removing all the steel clips and dirt, grime etc can be done and removed in the initial ingot stage. Flux well and cast as many as you can. The production pots are more difficult/finicy when they become dirty, if the spout becomes jammed in addition to the small area you work with. I use a 6 qt pot to melt them down. 
Then drop ladel the cleaned shiney meatl into ingots (muffin pans and Lee molds) Once you have a bunch of clip on wheel weight ingots it is also easier to mix the alloy (10lbs of lead to 4~8oz of tin) 
no one says you can't do it, it just can make more of a head ache. Also if you have a hot pot (like the Lee 10# production pot) and you have molten lead already, when and if you drop additional wheel weights in and there is any oil or moisture on it it can cause a burst of steam and shoot lead molten beads all over you. Start with a cold pot, melt away. My pot cost a few bucks at a garage sale. |
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No I would not. Smelting raw weights in an electric furnace of ten to twenty pound capacity is not the way I wish to spend my life. If I had it to do all over again, I'd take back the twenty years I spent smelting and casting on a Coleman stove and buy a single bottom pour and a turkey fryer right away.
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Quoted:
No I would not. Smelting raw weights in an electric furnace of ten to twenty pound capacity is not the way I wish to spend my life. If I had it to do all over again, I'd take back the twenty years I spent smelting and casting on a Coleman stove and buy a single bottom pour and a turkey fryer right away. I did see on another forum a guy who installed a spigot on the bottowm of his turkey fryer pot, when the pot was filled and all the dross removed he pooured ingots from it. I'll see if I can find it... |
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Quoted: No I would not. Smelting raw weights in an electric furnace of ten to twenty pound capacity is not the way I wish to spend my life. If I had it to do all over again, I'd take back the twenty years I spent smelting and casting on a Coleman stove and buy a single bottom pour and a turkey fryer right away. You have that right! I spent a lot of time smelting with an electric furnace. Now I use a cast iron dutch oven, turkey fryer and a small garden shovel to skim the wheel weight clips off. I like the idea of the single bottom pour turkey fryer! |
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