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Looking for recommendations on a lead melting pot. Considering the Lee bottom pour. There isn't a big difference in price between the 10 and 20 lb models. Any reason to choice one over the other. I won't be making massive quanties at any one time. Will mostly be 1/32 jigs heads.
I did just buy 2 55lb ingots that I'm going to have to make into smaller pieces at some point.
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Also open to other brands if the quality and ease of use is much better. Give me some real world experiences.
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Followering :popcorn
If for your use go with the 10#.
I have two Lee pots 10lb. They work good. One got to leaking too much. So I got a new one. Then that one starting leaking and I went to Lee pots website and got the parts for free and fixed them myself.
I'd go with the #20 pot. Your needs might change in the future with things like sinkers or larger bait bodies, larger jigs, etc.
If you ever sell it the #20 pot is more desirable to most casters (sinkers/bullets/etc.).
As far as the dripping of the lee pots go:
Try to keep clean lead/alloys in it. If you can melt the lead in another pan and flux it 2/3 times and then either pour it into the lee bottom pour pot. Our turn it into ingots to be used later.
When you get a new pot loosen the retaining wire and remove the rod that is used to open close the bottom spout where the lead comes out. Put some toothpaste on it and chuck the rod up in a drill and put it back where it meets the spout and turn the drill on pushing lightly. You're polishing /mating the 2 surfaces.
When it does start to drip, empty the pot & pull the rod. Clean the bottom of the rod and use a wire to clean the hole in the bottom pour spout. And a piece of steel wool on the rod to clean the bottom spout mating surface.
Lastly, the lee pots come with a heavy steel handle that screws on. It needs to be a little bit heavier.
I did these things and used the same lee #20 pot for 25+ years pouring +/- #200 of lead a year. The heater went out in it and instead of replacing it I bought a new unit on sale.
I've got the 10# pot that is at least 40 years old. Probably melted 300 pounds of wheel weights, never fluxed or cleaned before or during the melt. Just scraped stuff off the top after melting. I poured bullets and bass jigs.
Cleaned it about 3 years ago and started fluxing the lead. When it starts to drip, I just use a screwdriver and turn the pour rod.
I now mix pure lead and the wheel weight lead to get the softness I want for what I'm pouring.
If it quit today, I'd order another just like it.
I have 2-10 and 2-20 lb pots, got them cheap off of craigslist years ago.
I cast ingots in a cast iron pot, flux once with sawdust and once with wax. Scrape the sides and bottom with a serving spoon and remove trash.
After lead melts in the production pot it gets fluxed again with wax. Sides and bottom scraped and trash removed.
A large paper clip helps keep the spout cleared.
How much did you pay for the lead and what % is it?
I can only answer part of the question. Paid $120 for 2 ingots. Found them on facebook market place local to me. The person had a pic of one ingot that weighed 55lbs it has "FRD FRY" molded into the ingot. Some google searching leads me to believe it is from Federated Fry Metal company, now Alpha Fry. My boss was to pick it up for me as it was about a mile from his house. The facebook seller said he had a second ingot that was exactly the same. So I got that one also. It is not exactly the same, no real marking on it that I've found yet, cast in a slighlty differnt shape and it weights 67lbs vs the other at 55 lbs. So I paid right about $1 a pound.Quote:
Originally Posted by canebreaker
Your guess is as good as mine on what the % is. The seller bought an old feed store, these were probably left in the building when he bought it. The heavier one is a little beat up like it has been hit with a hammer a couple of times or has had things dropped on it. The outsides aren't shiny and have some dirt on them. I plan to wash thm off some to see what kind of markings I can find.
55 lb ingot markings Fed fry on top L5363 stamped in bottomAttachment 480853Attachment 480854
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67lb ingot L-1984 hand written looks like sharpie.
Either 984 or 084 stamped in bottom. Nothing cast into topAttachment 480855Attachment 480856
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See if you can scratch it with a screwdriver.
The 67 lb ingot can be scratched with a fingernail and has a darker grey color. It also has a dull sound when tapped with a hammer. Pretty sure it is pure lead.
The 55 lb ingot does not scratch with a fingernail, it does scratch with a metal tool is lighter in color, and has a different sound when tapped with a hammer. I chiseled a chunk off, came off fairly easy using an old wood chisel and small hammer. It was very shiny under the top, and did a melt test on it. Using an infrared thermometer it melts between 400 to 450 degrees. Much lower than pure lead should melt at. Not sure if it pure tin or some type of tin/lead solder mix.
The 20lb has a better plunger system and wont leak like the 10lb do.
As far as your ingots, hatchet and maul on a stump
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I use a 4# melter to do jigs and sinkers.
Recently got a bucket full of dive belt weights and axe isn't splitting them. Was thinking about either using a torch to melt them into the pot (until it will fit) or saving those and using torch to melt these 50# chunks I have.
I'm a big fan user - no desire to smell or taste the lead fumes.
"The 67 lb L1984 ingot can be scratched with a fingernail and has a darker grey color."
Sounds like pure lead, most likely someone casted that ingot marked it for the year. Being beat up is anyone's guess. My brother was an amateur jewelry maker, had a block of lead for an anvil for gold and sliver.
The 55 lb ingot could be Babbit. It's a bit harder than lead. Good for solid sinkers and soft bullets. It doesn't have the color of zinc.
I look on marketplace for lead, as if I need some. One has RCBS 1 lb ingots that look like cast with a spoon for $4., 50 at $3. Another ad has medical cylinders for 50 cents per lb. Great price, I don't want to mess with them.
"Dive belt weights and axe isn't splitting them." I got 2 in a bucket of wheel weights from the scrapyard, they are zinc, can't/won't use. I know a guy with a 30mm cannon that cast balls with zinc, save them for him.
I get my lead on Ebay and I won't pay more them $2 a pound. I like the one pound bars, because I can just drop in to my Lee pot.
Be wary of medical lead. Lead blocks radioactivity by absorbing it, I have been told.
I decided to go with the Lee 10 lb bottom pour pot.
Ordered all the things I think I will need to get started last night. I can see this side of the fishing hobby is going to be a real money saver.
Supplies I have or have on the way.
67 lb ingot pure lead
55 lb ingot some kind of lead tin mix.
Lg & Med ladle
Cast iron pot 10lb for breaking down large ingot to small ingots
Fluxing compound
med and lg Ladles
small ingot mod 1/2 and 1 lb cavities
Lee 10lb bottom pour pot
Shad dart mold 1/64 & 1/32
Round head mold 1/32
Already had a supply of size 8 and 6 jig hooks
What I don't have. Several hundred dollars that used to be in the bank. lol :Rofl
Am I missing more stuff I need?
Doing a bunch of google reading, and some math, As near as I can tell the 55 lb ingot is most likely plumbers solder somewhere between 40/60 tin/lead and 30/70 tin/lead.
My head hurts a little from the math.
Powder paint, fluid bed, heat gun, rack to put jigs on, hemistats, 1/16 heat shrink, and an oven to bake them in.......cha-ching. :Rofl
Quote:
Originally Posted by tlefire
Got all but the fluid bed covered. That's going to have to wait for a bit. :Rofl
I found that I just prefer not using the fluid bed. I just keep the jar stirred and the powder fluffy and it works just fine. I always made a mess using the fluid beds.
Lordy, on a fixed income I'd hate to have to buy everything new now. Might not enjoy the yard sales either.
At work we got 3" stainless steel thin wall pipe. One end was cupped and other end had a welded piece of flat metal. For long runs there was very little cut from each end. I found a cupped end 3 1/2" long. I had a half inch pull bar that was broke. Welded them together for a ladle.
It may take longer but it keeps me out of the house. I build a fire in the pit, lay a steel rod across then a grate from a scrapped grill. Fill the dutch oven with rough lead and feed the fire. Use the slotted spoon to remove other metals, add them to my scrap bucket. Add a double handful of sawdust, stir and scrape the sides and bottom of the pot. Spoon the ash out. Add a color crayon, stir and scrape the pot, remove ash. Ingot molds are sitting on a restuarant size baking sheet, lead doesn't stick to aluminum. After the pot cools I wipe it with oil.
I fill the production pot with ingots and let melt. Add 1 tsp of candle wax, stir, scrape sides and bottom, remove trash. Colored candles can stain the pot, I get a bag full at Goodwill for $1. Lay the mold across the pot to heat it up. Dump the first 2 casting, they usually not that good.
Finished making the 67 lb ingot into smaller useable pieces using an aluminum muffin tin from goodwill today. I had about half the ingot left this morning. Took it to my cousin's garage used a 20 ton press and wide chisel to cut it pieces that would fit in the pot I was using to flux and clean the lead. Using the press worked pretty well.
Still not sure what I'm going to do the plumbers lead ingot.
Wouldn't worry about the fluid bed. I've been painting jigs over 30 years and never used one. Just fluff and go. Works for me. Keep it simple for now and the more you do the easier it gets.
I never built fluid beds because I have around 90% of the colors Protec offer. No way was I going to build a fluid bed for each color.Quote:
Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS