Lead casting pots. Cast iron saucepan?

[Tallbald]

I have maybe 18 pounds of scrap lead I'd like to turn into round ball for my Ruger Old Army. I really don'e want an electric melting pot, and am asking if a thrift shopcast iron small sauce pan would do the job over a Coleman white gas camp stove. I know that generations ago they cast next to camp fires. Thoughts please? Thanks. Don

 

[clearcut]

that should work I use a rose bud torch with a cast iron pot on some bricks to make my ingots,bot then I use a lee pro IV to cast with but you can use a ladle and save some $
CC

 

[oldpapps]

The vessel makes no difference as long as it is up to the prolonged heat (aluminum is not a good option, my opinion). A cast iron kettle works well. The handle may not stand up all that well and I would use vice grips to try to move a hot pot.

A good lead ladle is all but a must and they are relatively cheap and last forever.

BP needs very, very soft lead. Keep this in mind when gathering your scraps.

I have used a 'boiler plate' box (rectangle plates of boiler plate welded to make a box, I had a tong on the upper edge to grab with vice grips - free with scrap iron and a little welding) in a bed of charcoal to cast lots of bullets.

 

[zxcvbob]

Revereware stainless steel work as good as cast iron (maybe better because it heats faster) and you can get a 1 or 1.5 quart saucepan really cheap at a thrift store.

 

[JohnM]

A camp stove works fine, that's all I use and can't bring myself to invest in anything else.
Now days a stainless pot can usually be found for less than one of cast iron.
You might want to get a couple, a bigger one for smelting and a smaller to cast out of.
And for that BP revolver you do want soft lead.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Sure that will work just fine.
There's no one way to do it. Besides, folks cast bullets for a couple hundred years before there was a such thing as an electric pot.

If it's something you find yourself enjoying and want to get more into you may decide to go that way, but just 15-20 pounds every so often, nah. The pot and Coleman stove is all you need.

 

[mdi]

Nuttin' wrong with a Coleman stove fer melting lead. I used one for several months to cast for my .44 before I got a tax return and bought a bottom pour electric pot. The only "problem" (if you can call it that) is temperature control is a bit more difficult with a C. stove. Not insurmountable though, jes harder to get used to. I still use a single burner propane stove for my smelting (40 lbs max at a time).

 

[Sunray]

More about safely pouring the molten lead into the mould than how it gets melted. The guys who make their own fishing lures use cast iron pots with bail handles and spouts. $21.99 will buy you a pot that your entire 18 pounds can go in. Melted on a propane stove.

 

[MEHavey]

- No need for cast iron/anything heavy. Get an inexpensive (steel) 1-1½-Qt saucepan from WalMart ($18) for gross smelting
- Cut the handle off and throw it away immediately
- Coleman Camp stove is fine/what I've used [for smelting] since 1968.
- Use two visegrips at 8 & 4 when finally melted and you pour things into ingots

- For casting use a 1-Qt so it will heat/melt faster (1-Qt filled 3/4 full is 17 lbs of lb)

 

[splattergun]

Thrift store pots and coleman stove will work fine. Get 2 pots. One for smelting and getting the trash out, the other for the clean lead for your mould.

 

[Slamfire]

I cast a 50 caliber ammo can of Minie balls with this set up. That is the Coleman "GI Pocket Stove", which incidentally, was made after WW2.

I don't remember where I got the casting pot, but I also found another with a handle. Cast iron handle attached to a 700 F lead pot, is about 700 F, you don't have much time to touch the handle regardless of the gloves you use. I preferred this pot as I could attach a cool pair of Vise Grips to the back ledge.



It is my opinion that the standard cast iron frying pan is a bad idea. You want tall sides and a small bottom. A big bottom requires a big burner and lots of flame.

 

[243winxb]

My Coleman white gas camp stove can boil lead. I seem to remember some warnings about overheating a casting alloy?? May be different for pure lead? I dont have time to google now.

 

[Walkalong]

You want tall sides and a small bottom. A big bottom requires a big burner and lots of flame.

Yep, and if I were designing a pot, it would be like Slamfire1's pot. I used a Club Aluminum pot. It was almost as tall as it was wide. It had a small aluminum "tang" on it for the handle to mount to. It was good for using locking pliers on. Great for pouring the last bit back into an ingot mold.

 

[jcwit]

I also use a Coleman Single burner camp stove for melting lead, have done it this way for decades.

I am lucky in the fact that I live in Amish country and am able to buy white gas at the pump. Still works better than reg. gas even tho the stove is now a dual fuel.

 

[homatok]

Cast or steel is best. Using aluminum is not the best idea you ever had! Aluminum pots have, can and will fail, without warning, spilling very hot and dangerous molten lead all over what ever is close by---including you! You may get away with it, (for awhile) BUT, ask yourself is it worth the risk? For melting scrap I use a cut-off 20lb propane tank placed on top of a three ring "turkey" cooker burner. My burner sits on short legs, about 4" off the ground and will hold a LOT of scrap lead.

 

[Don McDowell]

Lee,RCBS and Lyman all sell nice little casting pots you can set on a stove of some type to melt the alloy for bullet casting. The hardest part when using coleman stove is keeping the heat even.

 

[LAGS]

I have been casting my own for the better part of 40 years, and untill two years ago, used nothing but a Coleman stove outside.
I finally bought a Lyman Big Dipper electric pot, when I got tired of standing out in the HOT Arizona Sun to cast in the back yard.
Now I am in a ventelated garage, but it is still HOT