Casting bar

[tenngun]

Has any one cast bar lead?
i thought of seeing if I could get a bread stick mold and try that. I’ve got some lead and want to cast some bar just to look nicer then ingots

 

[sawyer04]

If you can melt it it will mold to anything you want. Be careful, the stuff gets hot.

 

[LawrenceA]

Consider how you are goung to store and use it.
Ingots stack and come in reasonably sized portions.
Dunno about breadsticks.
Personally use muffin tins for wheel weights and ingots for pure lead
Easy to know what i am looking at.

 

[Grenadier1758]

You can route a 3/4" groove about 6" long on a 2x4 an use that as a mold. Sure it will burn up eventually. but you can cast up quite a few bars of lead before you start getting unsightly bars of lead.

 

[tenngun]

Consider how you are goung to store and use it.
Ingots stack and come in reasonably sized portions.
Dunno about breadsticks.
Personally use muffin tins for wheel weights and ingots for pure lead
Easy to know what i am looking at.

Yes ingots are easy, but bars was a big trade item.

 

[tenngun]

You can route a 3/4" groove about 6" long on a 2x4 an use that as a mold. Sure it will burn up eventually. but you can cast up quite a few bars of lead before you start getting unsightly bars of lead.

Have you done any?

 

[Grenadier1758]

A few to verify it can be done.

 

[mooman76]

Why not. People do the corn muffins allot. I have a pan that is about the size of muffins except it is only about a 1/4" deep. Don't know what it was for originally but I like them for my little 4 # pot so being smaller they don't cool the pot down as much when adding during a casting session. I have also used beer cans. Make sure they are absolutely dry first. If you add a little at a time and let cool, you can separate the layers later on when remelting. An ingot mould is nice though as they stack well and take up less space.

 

[Jay Templin]

When I run balls (bottom-pour Lee production pot) I usually pour the bowl of my camping ladle 1/2 to 3/4 full and let it harden up. The little rounded “ingots” fit perfectly in the ladle for faster melting over the campfire, and I can stack two of them in the ladle, stack my bag mould on top, and tie the whole thing up in a bit of scrap buckskin for compact transport.
If I remember, I’ll post a picture in the morning when digging it out won’t wake my slumbering Bride...
Jay

 

[LawrenceA]

If you have access to soapstone use it to nake a bar mold.
Works a treat with pewter never tried lead.

 

[kje54]

Has any one cast bar lead?
i thought of seeing if I could get a bread stick mold and try that. I’ve got some lead and want to cast some bar just to look nicer then ingots

Add some garlic salt to it and let us know if it tastes anything like the Red Lobster bread sticks.

 

[LawrenceA]

@kjberry do you jnow the dimensiins of the bars you want to replicate?

 

[52Bore]

I use a old cast-iron breadstick pan, I believe it has 11 - 1/2 round dividers .
It gets very hot, but works well.

 

[Carbon 6]

I made a mold from wood by sawing strips on a table saw and nailing them to a 2x4 base to make a box.
U-channel also works, you just have to plug the ends. wooden plugs clamped in place will work.

Find your local metal working shop, they almost undoubtedly have a cut-off pile beneath every saw.

100% silicone caulking will take a lot of heat. you could use it to seal a mold, or to construct one. It's cheap too.

A metal mold will make the nicest looking bars, but crappy looking ones are probably more historically correct.

 

[Carbon 6]

http://www.mman.us/barlead.htm

 

[mushka]

I think I'll keep using the one lb bar mould by seaco I've used for about 30 some odd years now. Got two of them, they work well.

 

[Eterry]

I bought about 50lbs of lead years ago at 2nd Monday Trade days in Bowie, Tx. The guy had poured it into 2 foot angle iron, then stuck bolts into it while still slightly molten to remove them easily.
It seemed to work well for him.
Me, i use a muffin tin i got at Goodwill.

 

[tenngun]

Add some garlic salt to it and let us know if it tastes anything like the Red Lobster bread sticks.

Look like old bars were about I pound. About a foot long and 3/4 of an inch. I got this one from Turkeyfoot traders

 

[George]

Have you done any?

I have, a smaller version. I gouged out a trench in a piece of wood with a chisel, it worked very well.

Spence

 

[Carbon 6]

I think I'll keep using the one lb bar mould by seaco I've used for about 30 some odd years now. Got two of them, they work well.

I think you are missing the whole point of Tenngun's topic. The bars are historically accurate and make for a better presentation when reenacting. A small bar can be easily cut with a tomahawk and used with a ladle and bag mold. Small bars also fit in a bag better than Saeco or Lyman bars. It's also fun.