03-24-2010, 01:41 AM
Hi all, new here and to lure making but not to casting lead, I've cast hundreds of 1000's of bullets over the last 28 years. As said above, the problem with wheel weights is that some are zinc which can ruin a batch of lead. The good thing is zinc weights melt at a higher temp than lead ones. Watch your pot during the melt and keep the temp around 675 - 700 degrees and skim off the weights that don't melt at that temp (the zinc ones). Skim off the dross (junk on top of the melt) and flux well, scraping the sides of the pot to bring all the dross to the top. Flux well using Marvelux, parrafin or even sawdust will work in pinch.
I melt large quantities of lead in a dutch oven over a turkey fryer burner then pour the lead into muffin tins to make ingots that will fit in my melting pots. BTW, the Lee pots work really well for relatively short money. My last "smelt" we made over 1500 lbs of ingots.
Stay away from battery lead (contains arsenic!). Small amounts of antimony and tin will help flow out. The reason lead alloy pours better in the large molds than the small ones has to do with mold temperature. A hot mold allows the lead to flow out more before it "freezes". A large cavity mold will quickly come up to temperature due to the volume of 700 degree lead and the resultant heat transfer. Small cavity molds will take much longer to heat up due to the smaller amount of lead being poured and less heat transfer. The large surface of the mold compared to the small size of the cavities makes the mold act as a heat sink "freezing" the lead before it flows out.
Try preheating your molds. You can either set them on top of the pot to heat up or set the molds on a cheap hot plate (don't steal Momma's if you want to sleep in the big bed tonite, lol) or dip a corner of the mold in the molten lead until it heats up.
Also make sure the mold is clean and then smoked (a candle works well) or use an areosol release agent. Brake cleaner or spray gun cleaner work great to clean the mold and remove all the residual oil that limits flow out.
BTW lead melting pots, flux (Marvelux is the hot ticket) and mold release agent can be purchased from midwayusa.com for substantially less than most other places. This is a reloading site for shooters but the products are the same.
Hope this isn't too long winded for my first post, great forum here!! Happy fishing!
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I melt large quantities of lead in a dutch oven over a turkey fryer burner then pour the lead into muffin tins to make ingots that will fit in my melting pots. BTW, the Lee pots work really well for relatively short money. My last "smelt" we made over 1500 lbs of ingots.
Stay away from battery lead (contains arsenic!). Small amounts of antimony and tin will help flow out. The reason lead alloy pours better in the large molds than the small ones has to do with mold temperature. A hot mold allows the lead to flow out more before it "freezes". A large cavity mold will quickly come up to temperature due to the volume of 700 degree lead and the resultant heat transfer. Small cavity molds will take much longer to heat up due to the smaller amount of lead being poured and less heat transfer. The large surface of the mold compared to the small size of the cavities makes the mold act as a heat sink "freezing" the lead before it flows out.
Try preheating your molds. You can either set them on top of the pot to heat up or set the molds on a cheap hot plate (don't steal Momma's if you want to sleep in the big bed tonite, lol) or dip a corner of the mold in the molten lead until it heats up.
Also make sure the mold is clean and then smoked (a candle works well) or use an areosol release agent. Brake cleaner or spray gun cleaner work great to clean the mold and remove all the residual oil that limits flow out.
BTW lead melting pots, flux (Marvelux is the hot ticket) and mold release agent can be purchased from midwayusa.com for substantially less than most other places. This is a reloading site for shooters but the products are the same.
Hope this isn't too long winded for my first post, great forum here!! Happy fishing!
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