I'm making bad ingot's

19 March 2007, 04:30

257 Rock

I'm trying to make some ingots out of wheel weights. They come out frosty and fall apart when I knock them out of the mould. The mould is 1 inch angle iron about 6 inch's long. I welded 5 of them together. I put about 30 lbs of wheel weights in the pot, melted them got the temp up to around 600 degrees then dipped the lead into the mould after warming the mould. I can't knock them out of the mould without them falling apart. Also I put some candle wax into the pot of lead lit the smoke and mixed up the lead. I tryed this after I removed the scrap steel and also before didn't make any difference. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong. My reason for making the ingots is I'm planing to make some lead shot in the future but I want to have the ingots made up before hand. Is there something else that would work better for the ingots. Thanks for any help Tony

19 March 2007, 06:08

Max503

Sounds like you're getting the metal way too hot. Try backing off the heat.

19 March 2007, 07:56

Arctic

600 degrees is not hot, and I'd think you'd almost be shoveling this into a mould. Bring it up to 700, flux, skim the dross, and pour. Consistency should be thin and it should pour or run like cooking oil. Let it harden and cool down well before knocking the ingot out. ~Arctic~

20 March 2007, 22:56

Paul B

How big of a dipper are you using? Sounds like the metal from each previous pour from the dipper is solidifying before you pour the next load and they're not "soldering" together. I agree that you're keeping the metal way too cold anyway. That stuff must be close to borderline mush. FWIW, frosted ingots and frosted bullet don't hurt anything.
Paul B.

21 March 2007, 04:44

Paul H

If you drop you ingots out of the mold before it cools down, they can crumble and break. Nothing really unusual about that. Just gather up the bits and melt again in your furnace when making bullets.

You might find wheelweights aren't the best material for shot. They run a bit hard, and also need to be cast hot or else they won't fill out the mold.