Melting Large Lead Bars

[Guided Protector]

Anyone have a good practice to break down large lead bars into smaller chunks? Ive gotten a few bars for free from a friend but my melting pot is not up to snuff to melt most of them.

 

[patience0830]

Anyone have a good practice to break down large lead bars into smaller chunks? Ive gotten a few bars for free from a friend but my melting pot is not up to snuff to melt most of them. View attachment 385124

Sawzall over a bucket?

 

[Dog1]

Sawzall over a bucket?

That's what I was going to say. That or a bandsaw.

Just wear a mask don't want any lead particles getting in your lungs

 

[Slow Hand]

Your picture won’t open for me for some reason, but depending on how big they are, I have used a torch to melt off parts to get the rest to fit in my 20lb Lee pot. Or, when making alloy, I use a cheap Walmart ditch oven on a turkey fryer base and use a ladle to pour the alloy into my ingot molds. I have read of guys salvaging keep weights out of sailboats which are very larch, with a chainsaw. Put it over a tarp to catch the chunks. Personally, I’d like to see that in person!

At work, the carpenters and to cut some blocks for a radiology room that were a couple inches thick. They used a jigsaw on low speed and had someone spritz it with water. Lead, being very soft will clog up a blade very quickly so even a larger toothed blade, like a wood sawzall blade will end up coated in melted lead easily of you go too fast and hard.

Well, now it opened. I see five pound plumbers lead and dive weights. The dive weights being kind of open will cut or partially melt pretty easy. The muffins of plumbers lead is a bit tougher. A thrift store soup pot and a camp stove or a side burner on a grill will make it all liquid fairly easy.

 

[Dog1]

Another thing you could do to break up those blocks is use a chisel or a splitting wedge and just split them up.

Get a cheap Amazon or Harbor Freight one and just smack it with a 5 lb sledgehammer

 

[patience0830]

U

Another thing you could do to break up those blocks is use a chisel or a splitting wedge and just split them up.

Get a cheap Amazon or Harbor Freight one and just smack it with a 5 lb sledgehammer

Yeah, cold chisel and a hammer.
Drive a screw into one side, tie a wire to the screw, hang it over the pot and propane or mapp gas torch it in.

 

[red_zr24x4]

when making alloy, I use a cheap Walmart ditch oven on a turkey fryer base and use a ladle to pour the alloy into my ingot molds.

Same with us
We picked up an old muffin tin at a garage sale and use that to make our ingots

 

[patience0830]

Or, when making alloy, I use a cheap Walmart dutch oven on a turkey fryer base and use a ladle to pour the alloy into my ingot molds.

FTFY. For a minute I couldn't identify a ditch oven.

 

[Mgderf]

FTFY. For a minute I couldn't identify a ditch oven.

Is that a last ditch oven?