Question on making lead ingots

[Tumblernotch]

I tried tin muffin/cupcake pans and had some fall out when cooled and some I had to beat out with a hammer. Switched to cast iron and had no problems. The cast iron pan threw little corncob shaped ingots. Been searching to find a drawing or photo of a rondy(1820) correct ingot to pour for trade that the thread counters don't have heart failure over. Bent

Take a chisel and cut out a groove about 6 or 8 inches long and maybe a 1/2 or 3/4 deep and wide in a piece of oak plank. Taper the sides of the groove a little to make it easier for the lead to fall out. After a little bit it will sear and smoke a little, but you can get some pretty neat looking ingots that are easy to cut with a tomahawk or camp axe. They have a "primitive" look to them.

 

[paulvallandigham]

My first casts wee in a small steel tin the size of a muffin, and we made them too thick. They were very slow to melt. Our second casts were in a flower bed. We wetted the ground down with a garden hose, then used our fingers to draw grooves a foot long. We then let the ground dry over night, forming a hard crust in the grooves. We poured the molten lead into these grooves, and came out with half flat, half round sticks a foot long. They were allowed to cool and then dropped on the concrete patio, and hosed down to remove any dirt still attached. Then they were stood up against the South wall of the garage to dry in the sunlight.

Those "sticks" melted the fastest of all the various mold designs we tried. As long as there was about 1/4" of molten lead in the bottom of the pot to begin to melt the sticks, they began to melt and slide down into the pot in less than a minute.

If I did it today, I would make the sticks only 6 inches long, so they would not stick up out of the pot so much.

We were melting scrap lead- not the pure lead you buy-- when doing these sticks. Our interest was primarily in getting the non-lead junk out of the scrap lead, and then pouring the lead into some usable form. This stuff had enough antimony in it to be as hard a lead alloy as you can get. Dad bought pure lead, and added this stuff to it when casting pistol bullets. They were very hard to seat into a BP revolver! We didn't have a lead tester then, and I wish we had saved some of those early bullets to test now and see just how hard they were? :shocked2: :rotf: :thumbsup:

 

[BrownBear]

That's downright cool!

I've got ingot molds from Saeco, Redding, RCBS, and Lyman I accumulated in the last 40 years, all of which cast the company name right into the ingot. The names are handy for keeping alloys sorted at a glance, but I'm thinking I need to talk up one like yours from a welding friend. No name = pure lead is pretty easy for my crusty brain to recall.

 

[D Sanders]

Great Idea! I think I will use your method of different shapes for different alloys also.

HH 60

 

[mazo kid]

My wife is trying to throw out some cupcake pans, and I was thinking of re-tasking them to make lead ingots. Can I expect the cooled lead to release easily from them, or am I just setting myself up for grief? Any idea how much lead these ingots will weigh if almost full?

If they are aluminum they will work fine. Some have said the pans bend easily; I ladle the lead into mine with a large plumbers ladle and when cool, just flip them over. I also have Saeco, Lee, and Lyman ingot moulds, also a large custom welded one that casts probably 6-8 pounds. If you have different ingot moulds it does make it easy to keep track of the alloy. However, I use a 3/8" metal stamp on them so there is no question, as I usually fill each of the molds and dump when cool. So, I have several mould markings for the same alloy. I cast pure lead for M/Lers, wheelweight for center fire and 20:1 or 30:1 for BPCR, marks are Pb, WW and 20 and 30.

 

[oldude]

Thanks Ranger I'll give that a try. Bent

 

[Zonie]

Call me a worry wart if you want too but the mention of aluminum and melted lead makes me give this advice:

Do NOT ever melt lead in any aluminum pot. There is only about 400 degrees F difference between molten lead and molten aluminum.

That said, using an aluminum cupcake or muffin pan is fine for casting lead ingots.
The aluminum will quickly spread out the heat of the lead solidifying it rapidly and the danger of melting lead in it will not exist.

A cupcake or muffin pan also has a taper built into it which will allow the solidified lead to easily fall out of it.

Just make sure the pan is never used for making cupcakes or muffins after it has had melted lead in it.

Also, buying your own pan is a whole lot safer than stealing your wifes good cooking pans.
That can cause large knots to be formed on your head. WHAT!!!! YOUR USING MY GOOD PANS FOR THAT D..N MUZZLELOADING STUFF AGAIN???????
OUT! GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN BEFORE I USE THIS ROLLING PIN ON YOUR HEAD AGAIN!!!

 

[MikeChapin]

I made a bunch of ingots once using a steel muffin pan. It worked great at first, but after about the third pour, some of the ingots would stick and I had to pound them out, which ruined that particular mold. I kept using it until all the molds were smashed in. Probably got 80 to 100 lead muffins before the 12 muffin pan was useless.

I always wondered if you could spray something on the mold to keep the lead from sticking. Maybe graphite or Pam. :idunno: Bill

I use aluminum muffin pans to make molds. As soon as it cools enough the lead muffins fall right out. I tried some steel muffin pans my wife was throwing out and had the same experience you had. They went in the trash after a couple of uses.

The muffins I get weigh around a pound and a quarter to a pound and a half depending upon how full I fill it.

 

[Tumblernotch]

Thanks Ranger I'll give that a try. Bent

By the way, you can cut out any shape or design you want and if you want to put your initials or any other design in your ingots you can carve them in reverse in the wood. Give it a personal touch. You could even recreate a design from an original lead bar such as those imported here from England.

 

[Josh Smith]

They will release just fine. The different cooling times help.

That's theory.

As for reality... I do it all the time and have had no problems whatsoever.

Josh

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I too use a steel minimuffin pan. However, I set it on damp ground when pouring, so the lead cools kind of wrinkly. Never had any stick. ( I actually melt the lead in a cheap yard sale cast iron skillet on the grill. (wood fired) so I am outside when doing it anyway.) It is amazing how hot that fire gets sometimes. Just for Sh's and giggles we melted Aluminum cans in the coals and got some puddle shaped aluminum ingots when the fire cooled. I gave one to a buddy telling him it was a new bullet alloy. He must have tried melting it for an hour before he realized he'd been pranked.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

also, when my brother was small, we used his small toy car. Pressed it into the soft mud behind the house and then filled the depression with melted lead. we had about thirty of those little sports car ingots. Dad still has one on his desk as a paperweight.

 

[mowolf]

I use an old muffin tin that I picked up at a yard sale. Makes perfect sized ingots for my little steel Lee melting pot. Never have had trouble with the ingots sticking.

Waya

 

[Ken Cormier]

Been using a Lyman ingot mold for soft lead'
cornbread mold for wheel wts. that way always know which one is what.Works for me.

 

[trent/OH]

WHAT!!!! YOUR USING MY GOOD PANS FOR THAT D..N MUZZLELOADING STUFF AGAIN???????
OUT! GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN BEFORE I USE THIS ROLLING PIN ON YOUR HEAD AGAIN!!!

Zonie, Sorry about that. apparently you heard exactly what my wife has said to me. I didn't know her voice carried that well.
Not just ML stuff though. Every time I bring a new critter home to cook, or boil down maple syrup, or set off a smoke bomb I'm making, or.........

 

[Tim Ott]

Just got all my lead poured out into ingets today......man lots of work and it's cold outside. I used the method posted here with the angle iron. Man it works great,they stack very well.

Mine came out from 12oz to 14oz, Made 168 of them! Yowwwwzers, that should pour me a few 32 cal balls? :grin:

 

[BrownBear]

I can relate! I just scored over 100 gallons of lead from the backstop cleaning at our local indoor range.

I won't be using it for muzzleloading, but stand clear while I use it for casting CF bullets and fishing tackle. But first I have to run through it all to cast ingots and clean out the dust and bullet jackets. Even with a 50# pot and a gas burner, it's going to take a looooong time. Egad.

 

[CrackStock]

I was looking for something to use at one point and noticed a cap for a chainlink fence post which was for the end of the fence. It even had an arm for me to pound in a piece of wood to serve as a handle. It throws a handy amount of lead in the shape of a large Hershey's Kiss.

For me, it was free since it was from an old fence. For anyone else, it would be very cheap.

YMHS,
CrackStock

 

[sequoia]

I've been using an old muffin tin for years. They fit nicely into my Lee pot. Another nice thing is that I can pour only about 1/4 inch of lead into mold to make lead "coins" that I put in my trekking gear. You can put one of these in a ladle and melt the lead over a campfire to make a couple of balls. Some years ago I was hitting the pan to dislodge the ingots and dented one of the molds. Sometimes I forget and pour lead into the dented one and then I have to put to the mold into molten lead to get it out!