Hey guys,

Just thought I’d post some photos of the 360 lbs of pure lead I just finished melting down from six 60 lb ingots into much more manageable 1 lb ingots. I got a 1-time deal on the lead & could not pass it up. You can see the stack of large ingots in the top left hand corner of the photo along with about 1000 lbs of wheel weight lead which is also in 1 lb ingots.

As noted in the photos I used an outdoor cooker for the heat source but what made it relatively easy was the very large 16 qt. cast iron pot I picked up from Academy Outdoor Sports for $39.95, a heck of a deal since everyone else wanted close to twice or 3X as much, and shipping was free. It’s actually a 14” (top inside diameter) by 6.5” deep, pre-seasoned Dutch oven & came with the lid, which was of no use for this project. The negative when using a large pot is it radiates a lot of heat, requiring longer time to come up to lead melting temp. But when handling 60 lb or larger ingots a large heavy pot is much more stable (read safer). It fit the cooker perfectly. I had 180 lbs of molten lead in it at one time.

If you’re wondering where the ingot mould came from? It’s a standard RCBS mould with a coil spring ventilated handle welded on that I cut off from a cheap Harbor Freight welding hammer. Works great, speeds up the process and is very stable. Anyway, I’m now in great shape with plenty of pure lead and a bunch of tin. It was hell trying to cut a few lbs off the 60 lb ingots.

The whole process went very smooth, no hiccups, no splattering or split lead. The folded red towel in the photo was soaked with water and used to quickly cool down the ingot mould until the lead hardened sufficiently to dump on the garage floor. The mould was supported by the edge of the pot while filling it with the 2 lb dipper. Gloves, boots, blue jeans, long sleeve heavy cotton shirt, safety goggles were the norm.

BTW, this also resulted in a short experiment to determine how effective a solution of hydrogen peroxide & vinegar was at removing lead. Many of you have likely head of this technique to remove lead from firearm bores. I’ll start a new thread with the results tomorrow when the experiment is complete.

Wayne

I personally smelt lead and render lard.

But that aside a One can make lots of bullets out of what you have..

P dog,

I politely disagree, Smelting lead means processing lead from lead ore. Us shooters don't smelt lead, we melt it, clean it up by removing the dross, etc., a process akin to rendering lard.

BTW, I grew up on a small farm in Central Texas in the 1950's and have a good bit of experience with rendering lard and making soap, hence the reason I used the term.

Wayne

quote:

Originally posted by TexasMac:
P dog,

I politely disagree, Smelting lead means processing lead from lead ore. Us shooters don't smelt lead, we melt it, clean it up by removing the dross, etc., a process akin to rendering lard.

BTW, I grew up on a small farm in Central Texas in the 1950's and have a good bit of experience with rendering lard and making soap, hence the reason I used the term.

Wayne

I don't use expensive petroleum to melt lead..
I put a cast iron sauce pan (that I bought at a salvation army thrift store) inside my coal stove.

AD

My grandparents always said "render lard" and we butchered about a dozen on Thanksgiving weekend every year. Cousins in Missouri still say that. Can't you just close your eyes for a minute and smell the cracklins'...? Taste them too.

Here we just remelt lead and alloy it.

Different terminology from different areas of the US I expect.

Heck people in New England say "Yawl" and it's some kind of sailboat. We know it's really spelt "Y'all" and covers the entire congregation...

Just thought I'd post another option.
Wayne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuWDuXlapzc