New Casting Pot

[Mike 56]

I have a Lee bottom pour casting pot. I have never had cast iron casting pot I bought this pot and dipper for six dollars at an estate sale. I was thinking I would wire brush it and heat it up and rub it down with Crisco? Does this seem like a sound plan?

 

[Heir Kommt Die Sonne]

It'll be good for casting in the wilderness, over a fire. Yea rub it down, get the oxidation off. For 6 dollars that's not bad for a setup.

 

[troy fairweather]

Ya good snag, clean it up and use it. I would make a nice little stand to hold it up, kinda like a tribit but taller.

 

[Mike 56]

After I get cleaned up I have a gas burner that it fits in I will give a try. Not much to do these days we have been going to estate and yard sales for something to do. Found a nice pop riveter for twenty-five cents and a brass hammer for two dollars today.

 

[SlowFuse]

I put a pinch of BP lube that was heavy on oil/ crisco as Flux and it made my lead bubble a bit as it got up to temp.

Maybe a bit of a fluke, but I won't add any type of oil to my production pot now after that happened.

 

[damoc]

I have a Lee bottom pour casting pot. I have never had cast iron casting pot I bought this pot and dipper for six dollars at an estate sale. I was thinking I would wire brush it and heat it up and rub it down with Crisco? Does this seem like a sound plan?

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don't use crisco use lard if anything and like slowfuse said impurities can cause problems..

 

[whughett]

I have a Lee bottom pour casting pot. I have never had cast iron casting pot I bought this pot and dipper for six dollars at an estate sale. I was thinking I would wire brush it and heat it up and rub it down with Crisco? Does this seem like a sound plan?

View attachment 939010

If your intention is too display or just own, fine otherwise any thing you rub on the pot will just burn off otherwise. All my scrounged, mostly range backstop mined, lead processing is done with a cast iron pot and propane furnace outdoors. Balls and bullets are cast from a Lee or Lyman electric. By choice I use a dipper like yours for casting.
Lead in an electric pot will exceed 800 degrees in temperature, higher over propane, any thing not lead is either going to float or burn off, except maybe zinc, zinc does funny things, it’s why I avoid lead from tire shops.

 

[SlowFuse]

any thing not lead is either going to float or burn off, except maybe zinc, zinc does funny things, it’s why I avoid lead from tire shops.

In my case i've learned my lesson buying from random e-bay sellers. I dont have a source around here for lead, none of the scrap yards will sell it and I hate paying $3 a lb for verified lead plus shipping knowing it's worth half that. But, after the problems i've had it seems like that's what I will have to do. Have been bitten twice with Zinc contaminated lead. Here's the last pile of crap I scraped out of my pot.

 

[Mike 56]

I am lucky my nephew installs high-end doors and windows from Italy the garage doors use 35-pound counterweights made of pure lead he gives me his extras.

 

[whughett]

In my case i've learned my lesson buying from random e-bay sellers. I dont have a source around here for lead, none of the scrap yards will sell it and I hate paying $3 a lb for verified lead plus shipping knowing it's worth half that. But, after the problems i've had it seems like that's what I will have to do. Have been bitten twice with Zinc contaminated lead. Here's the last pile of crap I scraped out of my pot.

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If you shoot on a regular basis in one spot recover your own lead, if permissible. I’m fortunate I first was able to stock pile from my job b4 retirement and now supplement that with lead recovered from my gun club back stop. The club recovery is so so on on time spent to amount of junk, bullet jackets, to amount of lead by volume. Seems more and more just full jacket pistol Ammo and little cast lead bullets.
Apologies to the op for the off topic comments.

 

[whughett]

I am lucky my nephew installs high-end doors and windows from Italy the garage doors use 35-pound counterweights made of pure lead he gives me his extras.

Nice, my oldest is a plumber he used to get me billets of lead, not so much anymore very little cast iron plumbing any more it seems. Even water lines are going plastic. Solder was a nice addition to lead for hardness.

 

[robhof]

In my case i've learned my lesson buying from random e-bay sellers. I dont have a source around here for lead, none of the scrap yards will sell it and I hate paying $3 a lb for verified lead plus shipping knowing it's worth half that. But, after the problems i've had it seems like that's what I will have to do. Have been bitten twice with Zinc contaminated lead. Here's the last pile of crap I scraped out of my pot.

View attachment 939592

Check with roofers, bathroom vents and flashing from older roofs are very soft/pure lead, they don't bother to recycle, just dump all into a dumpster. My son worked one summer as a roofer, before going into the USAF and I ended up with 40 Lbs of lead after melting off the tar and impurities from the roof.

 

[Mike 56]

These garage doors are something else they cost forty thousand dollaers. They are custom made it takes three years to get them from Italy. Some people have waaaay tooooo much money. They open and close without a sound they a warning beep before they open or close. There no spings they use hidden counterweights that work on cables and pulleys. In the center of the garage door, they have a regular passage door that you can't see unless you are really close to it.

 

[woodnbow]

Back in the 1980s I did a remodel up in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Right next door to former president Gerald Ford. We installed lead sheets as a runner on all of the stairs. (One of the stairs was over 12’ wide) my partner and I split the scrap material between us. I’m still working on that pile. If I run out one of my neighbors is a roofer and uses a lot of lead.

 

[whughett]

My curiosity compelled me to ask. Lead sheets as stair runners .........?

 

[woodnbow]

My curiosity compelled me to ask. Lead sheets as stair runners .........?

Haha, yes, over 3/4 black walnut stair risers, treads and staircase. After installing the flooring and stairs the lead sheets went up the stairs. The floors and exposed portions of the treads were then distressed and finished by others. It was weird but not even the weirdest thing I’ve built up there.

 

[TheOutlawKid]

Haha, yes, over 3/4 black walnut stair risers, treads and staircase. After installing the flooring and stairs the lead sheets went up the stairs. The floors and exposed portions of the treads were then distressed and finished by others. It was weird but not even the weirdest thing I’ve built up there.

Wait...whats the weirdest thing you built up there? I get my lead from the local recycling place. They have junkes cars and random metal etc...they have huge pallets with large crates filled with roofing lead. Its soft and pure. I go and cut and keep the "clean" parts that dont have roofing tar and silicone sealants etc. Come home and make myself some ingots. I pay a dollar a pound. I have purchased from roto metals though..great stuff too.

 

[Mike 56]

It took a little time to wire brush and steel wool the remove the rust then I wiped the metal with W-D40. I finished the dipper handle as well.

 

[dh1633pm]

I processed 100 pounds of wheel weights into about 63 pounds of lead. No need to oil your pot since it will just burn off anyhow. When I was on a business trip down under my wife purchased 600 pounds from a local junk man. I have an ample supply.