I'm with Skeetbum, I use a heavy cast iron pot and a turkey fryer. My set-up will melt lead in 15-20mins, about 80#'s. Iwas given some awesome equipment this spring by an ol' timer. I received a cast-iron tea-pot with a square spout, an ingot tray which makes 1/2 tennis ball sized ingots 28 of them. I melt scrap lead with the pot and the fryer cranked up, I use long-pliers and tongs to hold or move the lead. You can't put your hand over the pot at all. I'll melt for ingots first, then I'll melt for the tea-pot which I use for bigger stuff, like downrigger weights. I don't care for wheel weights in jigs or spoons, but they work good for 8# rigger weights. I love plumbing lead: pipe,traps, it'll look like a campfire when I start. I can melt down 300# into usable size ingots in about an hour. Plumbing lead is self-fluxing usually, when the greases and fats start melting and burning they do the same thing as flux. Just make sure your lead is dry and when melting pipe make sure there's no kinks or smashed ends, the pressure will build and you've made a BOMB. I do this all outside and I keep the slag which can be converted back into usable lead, but not by me cause it takes 1200* to desulfate lead. Molten lead is mesmerizing and with a little safety and knowledge is somewhat safe. Here's a quick tidbit, lead comes from galena which is decomposed uranium, not depleted uranium which is even more toxic. Lead only combines with a handful of molecules which produce slag basically. And there's not many lead-alloys available either. Zeiners Bass Shop has an excellent webpage for beginners.