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 dutch 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?

 

[Guided Protector]

Dang lots of good ideas! only tip i got before was to bake it in an oven but i did not want to put lead where my food goes

 

[Dog1]

Dang lots of good ideas! only tip i got before was to bake it in an oven but i did not want to put lead where my food goes

Yeah I don't think I would be putting that in the oven where my food goes. That would be no bueno

 

[Creedmoor]

Use a hand propane or Mapp gas torch to melt those that don't drop into your lead pot.

 

[gassprint1]

Simplest thing to do is a propane chicken fryer burner and any large cast iron skillet used outside. Find the old cast iron cornbread pans and make smaller ingots for later.

 

[Slow Hand]

Old cast iron cornbread molds are harder and harder to find. Lee and Lyman make nice aluminum ingot molds. I have also made my own out of angle iron and welded them up, if you have access to metal working tools. Basically made my own because when you start pouring ingots out of a full Dutch oven, the aluminum molds will eventually get hot enough that it takes too long for the ingots to cool down.

 

[red_zr24x4]

Old cast iron cornbread molds are harder and harder to find. Lee and Lyman make nice aluminum ingot molds. I have also made my own out of angle iron and welded them up, if you have access to metal working tools. Basically made my own because when you start pouring ingots out of a full Dutch oven, the aluminum molds will eventually get hot enough that it takes too long for the ingots to cool down.

Muffin tins from yard sales works great

 

[JTKelly]

I've got all the muffin iron, home made angle iron, regular round muffin tins, and FINALLY just bought a few of Lee aluminum molds when I saw them on sale.

Do your self a favor and just look for the lowest price on the internet for the Lee or Lyman mold and just buy four of them and be done with all the half way making do BS. You'll never be sorry.