Lead Melting Heat Source

That's kind of what I use to melt the lead down into ingots. You could use it to cast with a ladle but I'll tell you, it's pretty nice using a bottom pour Lee casting pot.

Can be. If you go that route you may want a different pot for casting and smelting. Also use a good thermometer to get the temp right.

But I am with jwrowland77 on this one. I started out with a ladle and want a bottom pour now.

If your going to use that burner.
Beef up the legs.
You don't want to find out it can't handle the weight after the temp gets close to 700 degrees.
Pablo

UMMM>>>>>I use that exact burner to make 10 gallon batched of beer holdes more than 80 pounds just fine.....figuring 8.8 pounds a gallon for salt water but water plus malt sugar weighing more than 9 pounds a gallon you should be safe at 80 pounds easily

agreed. A batch of barley mash doesn't get as hot as molten lead, but it's more than a tad heavy. That burner will be fine.

a lead thermometer is in order as well.

UMMM>>>>>I use that exact burner to make 10 gallon batched of beer holdes more than 80 pounds just fine.....figuring 8.8 pounds a gallon for salt water but water plus malt sugar weighing more than 9 pounds a gallon you should be safe at 80 pounds easily

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Just to add: lead weighs more than 10x as much as water so a 1 gallon pot of lead will weigh about 100 lbs...

splattergun said:

agreed. A batch of barley mash doesn't get as hot as molten lead, but it's more than a tad heavy. That burner will be fine.

a lead thermometer is in order as well.

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I could beef up that burner with 3 pieces of rebar and a shop welder.
Believe me, you don't want to be around when 75lbs of molten lead lets go.

Just don't fill the pot all the way up. I have small legs on mine as well and only fill up the pot maybe halfway up if that far.

If you use a pot of any size at all, you'll need to beef up the legs on that one. It's similar to the first turkey fryer I bought and I use cut off propane bottles for smelting pots. You can easily get well over 100 pounds of molten lead into a half full cutoff propane pot and the legs will bend. If they bend too much, or give out completely, the spilled molten lead can be very dangerous if you're standing next to it when it goes, to say nothing of the cleanup.

It's much better to overbuild the stand than it is to deal with an underbuilt one, believe me.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Those burners are big SOB's. Maybe too big. Made for big pots for corn on the cob, lobster and deep frying turkey's.
"...cut off propane bottles..." 25 pounders? Just curious.
The weight might matter, but I doubt it. Corn/vegetable oil, for example, weighs 8 pounds per gallon. Typical turkey deep frying uses 5 gallons. A gallon of water weighs 10 pounds. Corn/lobster takes 5 gallons. All plus the weight of the pot. Just work accordingly with the lead.

Years ago I used a turkey cooker burner and a large cast iron skillet to smelt wheel weights.

I had no problem with the legs.

What I did have a problem with was the pot supports over the burner getting red hot and sagging.

I'd watch that more then the legs.

rc

I've cut off three old propane bottles for smelting pots and added handles. The first was a 25 pound bottle, but it's too deep cut about 2" above the weld. I've going to shorten it about 3" to make it more user friendly.

The other two are old 20 pound propane bottles cut just above the weld. These are much easier to use with my 8 pound ladle. They will hold over 100 pounds of molten lead about 2" below the weld, so filled up I would guess somewhere around 140 pounds or so, but it wouldn't be workable filled to the brim. You'd spill while fluxing and stirring.

The turkey fryers have to be beefed up if used a lot. My burner that's similar to the one in the OP is canted badly to one side after only two sessions (long ones), and is going to have additional bracing added to it before the next smelting session. My smelting sessions are normally for about 800 to 1,000 pounds of ingots, so they do get a lot of use and I use two burners and pots at a time.

RC is also correct in bracing the surface the pot rests on. It bends under both heat and weight. They just aren't built for the kind of use smelting involves, so increasing their strength is pretty necessary. It's not fun when a pot goes over..........

Hope this helps.

Fred

That's what I use, together with a 20lb. bottle of propane and a cast iron pot. Has worked for me the past 30 years. Don't know any other way. I guess, I should have mentioned, that I have welded re-enforcing so that it will safely hold a full pot of lead. I use it on a concrete slab which is conveniently just outside my door.

When did water become so heavy? My reference books all say 8 1/3 # per gallon.

Water still weights the same. It is the weight of molten lead that concerns me. I don't use mine for boiling water.

I've used an almost identical burner for at least 20 years. I used a cast iron pot that holds maybe half a gallon of liquid lead to cast 2 1/2 and 3 lb cannon balls. The biggest issue with that style burner is not getting the lead too hot which is why I finally broke down and bought a RCBS pro-melt for casting bullets. I used to process one or two 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights at a sitting for the cannons making ingots in cupcake pans. Don't shoot the cannons much anymore so a couple pounds of lead goes a lot further making just bullets

I use mine to mix up batches of alloy using wheel weights tin, antimony, and lead. I melt it down, flux and clean it. Then ladle into muffin tins. Usually, between 150-200lbs. at a time. The "muffins" are used in my Lee 20lb. bottom pour. This way, I am putting clean alloy into my inside casting pot.

doubleh said:

When did water become so heavy? My reference books all say 8 1/3 # per gallon.

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That is Canadian water

3.73 Kilos

doubleh said:

When did water become so heavy? My reference books all say 8 1/3 # per gallon.

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Water? You must be thinking of Budweiser or Coors
But seriously, if you are cooking a large batch of corn, crawfish or lobster you are going to be cooking in a large pot of water, so get out your arithmeticker and multiply your 8 1/3# by the number of gallons. Then add in the weight of the food. Pretty soon ya have a heavy load on the burner.

This type of burner system is generally hefty enough to handle the load.

I use a 2 burner camp stove by Fire Chef that uses a 20 lb propane tank to melt wheel weights into ingots. You can get one for around $100 and you won't have to worry about a tsunami of molten lead running over your feet.

If you want to try it as is just get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with as much lead as you want to melt at a time, add the melting pot on top, and set it on the burner and then push and rock it around. If it does not flex or collapse then you should be OK using it hot with slightly less weight. Just use common sense and it should work out OK.

He's using the weight of an imperial gallon.

I looked at those when I decided to get one dedicated to casting. I didn't like the cheesy screw on legs and decided to look a little more before buying. I ran across one similar to THIS ONE

It is welded at the seams, but even so I added a ring of 1/8" flat bar around the bottom of the legs just for my own peace of mind. I use a big cast iron dutch oven as a pot to smelt in. To date I have only blended up one batch that was over 100# in it, and I was REAL nervous about that. It held it fine, but that is a WHOLE LOT of hot if it decided to let loose.