Ahhhh that silver goodness

[wolfman]

Wheel weights have been accumulating for a while now, and I finally got around to smelting them. Had about 950 lb of raw weights, and ended up with about 650 lb of ingots for close to 70% yield. Not as good as the 85% I used to get before the tree huggers started pushing for everyone to go to steel, but not too bad. Makes the work worth it when you consider that I will end up with a cost of about $7.50/1000 for 230 grain 45 acp bullets.

 

[Lucas156]

Pretty cool so did you somehow

 

[Que]

Yeah, you can't beat a 92% savings!

 

[straight-shooter]

The silver stream has a way of making one feel a sense of accomplishment. I have about 600 pounds that need smelted but i'm not thinking it's going to happen this year but it's there when i'm ready. Congrats!

 

[Slawburger]

Wow, that's a lot of lead. I have made a few ingots but nothing near that amount.

 

[djones]

Have fun! You can't beat smelting, casting, loading and shooting your own stuff!

 

[Pete]

Wow, nice! I have some wheel weights but no where near the pounds you have. Great job.

 

[wolfman]

Loaded to the rim, the smelting pot holds right around 225 lbs of melted lead, I had 8 or 9 buckets of wheel weights when I started out and ran 3 melts.

 

[Exodus]

jealous!

 

[BogWalker]

I never can find any in my local area

 

[Jarhead77]

Nice setup. Thanks for posting the pics!

 

[Slow Hand]

Are your ingot molds made of angle iron? That is a good, cheap idea! I've got a couple of Lyman aluminum ingot molds I've used but they get so hot it takes awhile for the ingots to solidify. I'll have to make up a set of ingot molds like that sometime soon!! Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[wolfman]

Are your ingot molds made of angle iron? That is a good, cheap idea! I've got a couple of Lyman aluminum ingot molds I've used but they get so hot it takes awhile for the ingots to solidify. I'll have to make up a set of ingot molds like that sometime soon!! Thanks for the inspiration.

I have a Lee 20lb bottom pour casting pot which is 4" deep, so I used 1 1/2" angle iron cut 4" long for the mold cavity, 2" angle for the end caps, and my finished ingots weigh in right around 19oz each. When you cut the material for the cavities, make sure to grind a slight taper on each end, and weld the end caps on so that the top of the mold is longer than the bottom interior, or your ingots will not freely fall out.

WARNING ,, WARNING ,, WARNING !!!!
When you weld one of these up, weld the peices together on the backside "only"!!!!!! If you weld anywhere inside of the cavity at all, the ingot will stick.

Once you have them made up, lay them outside for a couple of days till they have a good coat of rust on them, then allow to dry and store where they will be "totally dry" prior to pouring hot lead in them.

 

[Slow Hand]

Good tips, thanks for that!