Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?

[Seabear]

Not a whole lot of choices, which one are you guys using?

[v-rog]

Bass Pro shops have a great fish fryer on sale for $29.99. I used my fryer yesterday to melt down a couple of hundred pounds of lead. All you have to do is buy a cast iron dutch oven and a ladle- you will be set!

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-P ... 5245/72596

[Seabear]

Bass Pro shops have a great fish fryer on sale for $29.99. I used my fryer yesterday to melt down a couple of hundred pounds of lead. All you have to do is buy a cast iron dutch oven and a ladle- you will be set!

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-P ... 5245/72596

I have my smelting setup like you guys got. I bought mine at Academy yesterday and will set it all up and make a run this afternoon.

What I am asking about is the Lead Furnace that will be used to fill my bullet molds.

[v-rog]

If you are talking about a casting pot, I'm using a Lee 20 lb, bottom pour casting pot.

If you are talking about ingots molds, I used a little $4.00 bread tin and a cast iron corn cob mold from academy- about $12.00.

[Rex B]

I used little $4.00 bread tins and a cast iron corn cob mold from academy- about $12.00.

So your ingots look like corn cobs??

I bought a nice Lee unit at a gun show last year for $25. I think this is the one:
http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/lead-melte ... 00090.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Could have bought a bucket of lead for $10, but I did not want to carry it to the car ;)

As cheap as the Lee units are, I'd just go buy one.

[v-rog]

Yes :) my lee pot was about $55.00

I used little $4.00 bread tins and a cast iron corn cob mold from academy- about $12.00.

So your ingots look like corn cobs??

I bought a nice Lee unit at a gun show last year for $25.
Could have bought a bucket of lead for $10, but I did not want to carry it to the car ;)

[Seabear]

Does your Lee pot leak? I've read some reviews that claim they drip.

[Rex B]

Mine drips a bit if you don't keep the swarf clear.
I don't see any way to prevent that happening unless you use new lead in a new pot.
I guess you could use a ladle if it was a problem.

[ddstuder]

It's not as a big a deal as it might sound - the drips land on the aluminum base and solidify quickly (and can be thrown back into the pot), but you can use a screwdriver to twist the rod back and forth to clean the nozzle of debris inside the pot.

A long paperclip can be used to scrape in the nozzle-end from outside of the pot.

I hear alot of people complain about the LEE pots dripping. It's not a big deal!

I just keep a LEE ingot mold under the spout and then toss it back in the pot when I'm done. Sometimes the lead foil is hard to scrape off the aluminum base!

[Gyrogearhead]

It's not as a big a deal as it might sound - the drips land on the aluminum base and solidify quickly (and can be thrown back into the pot), but you can use a screwdriver to twist the rod back and forth to clean the nozzle of debris inside the pot.

A long paperclip can be used to scrape in the nozzle-end from outside of the pot.

I hear alot of people complain about the LEE pots dripping. It's not a big deal!

I just keep a LEE ingot mold under the spout and then toss it back in the pot when I'm done. Sometimes the lead foil is hard to scrape off the aluminum base!

I found one of those little cast iron frying pan ashtrays, you know about 3" in diameter and 3/4" high, at a resale shop for 75c and have been using that to catch the ocassional drips from the Lee pot. Works great; no complaints!

Gerry

[ghostrider]

I have a Lee 20lb, bottom pour; its new and I haven't had any issues with it dripping.

For melting wheel weights I got an RCBS cast pot and an electric hotplate.