Hi all, I whipped up a bottom pour smelting pot tonight. I stopped by the local steel place and picked up a piece of 10" well caseing that was 12" long and a plate to weld onto the bottom of it. I drilled a hole in the plate and welded in a 3/8x1/4 pipe reducer bushing. I turned down a 1/2" bolt with a taper on the end to use for my valve. I put a shot nipple on the bottom to pour from and set it on the turkey cooker. I dumped in 1/2 bucket of WW and set the propane to work. I used a weed burner to get things going faster. Once the unit was up to heat things went pretty quick. I have about 16 2lb ingot molds and was wishing that I had more. I went through a bucket full in no time and have a nice pile of fresh ingots on the garage floor. I'll take some pics tomorrow when it's light. The valve does leak a little, but I have a pan under it to catch the drips. I think the smelter is too tall at 12". I will probably take the torch to it tomorrow and cut it down to 8" or so to make it easer to get the clips out.

Great idea. I use a similar set up for smelting with a 10" pipecap and 7" of 10" pipe welded on to it then dip with a soup ladle from Goodwill. I added legs on mine from 3/4" angle iron but I'm not sure they are necessary. Gianni.

That's fun Lar.....kinda makes me want to go get a welding kit.....

BLT I have the Lincoln Weld Pack 125. It's a 110 wire feed machine. You can get them at Home depot for under $200. I also have a big Lincoln 225 stick welder for heavy stuff, but the small wirefeed really is handy to have.

There are four things that every man needs:
-a 2-lb hammer
-a 16" crescent wrench
-a Winchester thutty-thutty

and

-a welder

A man without these things can never be complete.

My smelting/alloying pot is 2/3 of a 15 gallon waterheater cut lengthwise.
The heat source is limbs and brush picked up around the place.

Ingot molds are 1 1/2"X1 1/2"X1/8" angle iron welded up (quite by accident) to yield ingots of 1 pound on the average over a full pour (roughly 200-350 depending on my sources for that pour)!

My pouring ladle is a 2 quart HEAVY sauce pan with extended rebar handle. I had thought of making a pouring spout for my rig, but they burn out often enough to preclude much effort. I have scrounged up a sheet of 1/4" plate to make the next one and may put a spout in it as I plan to make it into a triangular shape.

Long clothes, full face shield and welders gloves are a must when aroud this much lead.

Ingots are piled in piles by pour for a "lot" of lead/lead alloy. If I pour carefully the triangle shape can be stacked neatly into a small pile that contains a LOT of lead.

You mean some folks survive without owning a welder . . . Dang that is what the government means when they speak of the underprivledged class .

I use an old cast iron roasting pot for making up igots. I tried the turkey cooker burner also, but found it didnt really heat that fast and used lots of propane. I bought a Coleman one burner propane heater ($20) and made up a stand for it, and hooked it to the 20 pound tank. It works a lot better and dosent use near the propane.
I agree, everyone needs a welder, even if just the cheap mig outfit. I make my igot molds, and it seems everyday there is something to be made.

What kind of Coleman burner/heater are you useing? I'm drawing a blank on trying to think of what it is. I wouldn't mind something more effecient. Mine seems to put out lots of heat though and now I've got the weed burner to jump start it. I still need to get an old hot plate for the casting bench though.

Its just the one burner propane stove that you buy in the camping dept, its made to mount on a 1# propane tank. I just bought the adapter to run to a 20#er, and made a stand for it.
I agree the turkey fryer puts out a lot of heat, but it is too spread out or too low (I aint figured it out).
I jump start sometimes with the oxy-acetelyne torch also.
The torch works great for smoking the molds, just turn off the oxygen and use just the acetlyne, it smokes like crazy!

Here are some pics of my smelter.

I went through 5 buckets in about 2.5 hours. The bottom pour spout really speeds things up.

You look like you are working that little kid pretty hard. I hope you are paying him "minimum wage" at the very least. <GGG>

2 hotdogs and a box of mac-n-cheese will keep him going all afternoon.