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Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:43 am
by Seabear
Not a whole lot of choices, which one are you guys using?
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:01 am
by 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
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:20 am
by Seabear
v-rog wrote: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.
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:33 am
by 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.
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:37 am
by Rex B
v-rog wrote: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.
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:38 am
by v-rog
Yes :) my lee pot was about $55.00
Rex B wrote:v-rog wrote: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 ;)
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:12 pm
by Seabear
Does your Lee pot leak? I've read some reviews that claim they drip.
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:46 pm
by 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.
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:54 pm
by ddstuder
AndyC wrote: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!
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:55 pm
by Gyrogearhead
ddstuder wrote:AndyC wrote: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
Re: Lead Furnace/ Cheap or exspensive?
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:41 am
by 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.