Lead melting pot

[tlefire]

Powder paint, fluid bed, heat gun, rack to put jigs on, hemistats, 1/16 heat shrink, and an oven to bake them in.......cha-ching.

[zekepa]

Powder paint, fluid bed, heat gun, rack to put jigs on, hemistats, 1/16 heat shrink, and an oven to bake them in.......cha-ching.

Got all but the fluid bed covered. That's going to have to wait for a bit.

[SuperDave336]

I found that I just prefer not using the fluid bed. I just keep the jar stirred and the powder fluffy and it works just fine. I always made a mess using the fluid beds.

[canebreaker]

Lordy, on a fixed income I'd hate to have to buy everything new now. Might not enjoy the yard sales either.
At work we got 3" stainless steel thin wall pipe. One end was cupped and other end had a welded piece of flat metal. For long runs there was very little cut from each end. I found a cupped end 3 1/2" long. I had a half inch pull bar that was broke. Welded them together for a ladle.
It may take longer but it keeps me out of the house. I build a fire in the pit, lay a steel rod across then a grate from a scrapped grill. Fill the dutch oven with rough lead and feed the fire. Use the slotted spoon to remove other metals, add them to my scrap bucket. Add a double handful of sawdust, stir and scrape the sides and bottom of the pot. Spoon the ash out. Add a color crayon, stir and scrape the pot, remove ash. Ingot molds are sitting on a restuarant size baking sheet, lead doesn't stick to aluminum. After the pot cools I wipe it with oil.
I fill the production pot with ingots and let melt. Add 1 tsp of candle wax, stir, scrape sides and bottom, remove trash. Colored candles can stain the pot, I get a bag full at Goodwill for $1. Lay the mold across the pot to heat it up. Dump the first 2 casting, they usually not that good.

[zekepa]

Finished making the 67 lb ingot into smaller useable pieces using an aluminum muffin tin from goodwill today. I had about half the ingot left this morning. Took it to my cousin's garage used a 20 ton press and wide chisel to cut it pieces that would fit in the pot I was using to flux and clean the lead. Using the press worked pretty well.

Still not sure what I'm going to do the plumbers lead ingot.

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

Wouldn't worry about the fluid bed. I've been painting jigs over 30 years and never used one. Just fluff and go. Works for me. Keep it simple for now and the more you do the easier it gets.

[Grainraiser]

Wouldn't worry about the fluid bed. I've been painting jigs over 30 years and never used one. Just fluff and go. Works for me. Keep it simple for now and the more you do the easier it gets.

I never built fluid beds because I have around 90% of the colors Protec offer. No way was I going to build a fluid bed for each color.