Made my first alloy and ingots today!

[APynckel]

I was graciously donated 50 lbs of 100% plumbers lead recently, so I calculated up a good alloy (2% Sn, 5% Sb, and 93% Pb for ~ 13.7 BH) and got to assembling my first smelting attempt!

I acquired an old cast iron dutch oven, turkey frying propane stand, and my necessary ladles.


weighed out half of my metals and dumped them in


set the flame and began the melt!


Fluxed with some saw dust


realized i had double the casting capacity than I anticipated, so I doubled up!


I got the temp up to 700F, fluxed the new volume, and skimmed out the dross:


TIME TO POUR!!!


AND MOAR INGOTS!!!


MONUMENTAL SUCCESS!!

[Jumping Frog]

Great looking muffins!

Good job.

What were your tin and antimony sources?

[APynckel]

Great looking muffins!

Good job.

What were your tin and antimony sources?

rotometals.com

[AndyC]

Nothing like homemade bullet-ready ingots - nice job

[Don2]

What I want to know is.....HOW BIG WAS THE SMILE ON YOUR FACE when you finished pouring the last ingots????

I bet it was like the first person who cooked meat over fire.....then took a bite of it

GOOD JOB
Looks great.
Now comes the coolest part...pouring little pretty shiny lead pills with that nice new RCBS pot.....!

Don2

[AndyC]

realized i had double the casting capacity than I anticipated, so I doubled up!

One safety-tip that you may already be aware of but it's worth mentioning just in case.

Be real careful adding solid lead to melted lead - lead explosions can happen if the solid lead has moisture on it.

[APynckel]

What I want to know is.....HOW BIG WAS THE SMILE ON YOUR FACE when you finished pouring the last ingots????

I bet it was like the first person who cooked meat over fire.....then took a bite of it

GOOD JOB
Looks great.
Now comes the coolest part...pouring little pretty shiny lead pills with that nice new RCBS pot.....!

Don2

I've had experiences casting before. Was nice to be able to do my own process, and have the alloys work as I expected them to. Really pleased with the end result. It's fun, I really enjoy it. I cannot wait, however, to make my first shiny boolits.

realized i had double the casting capacity than I anticipated, so I doubled up!

One safety-tip that you may already be aware of but it's worth mentioning just in case.

Be real careful adding solid lead to melted lead - lead explosions can happen if the solid lead has moisture on it.

Understood. Was pretty confident that this was solid w/o moisture. Professionally cast ingots.

[Don2]

realized i had double the casting capacity than I anticipated, so I doubled up!

One safety-tip that you may already be aware of but it's worth mentioning just in case.

Be real careful adding solid lead to melted lead - lead explosions can happen if the solid lead has moisture on it.

OUCH.....Had that happen once, placed several range scrap bullets into my pot while it was melted.
One must have had some moisture in it because it popped. I usually have my safety glasses on when near or using the pot. I sit them in and then turned around to do something else...only heard the pop did not see it happen.
It was kinda scary after I thought about it..!!!

" It's just part of the fun..!! "
No more fun for me....Some people pre-warm their ingots before sitting them into the melt.
But it's not always possible I guess...

Don

[APynckel]

Got my wheelweights in yesterday and melted them down for MOAR INGOTS!!!

[AndyC]

Boys, I think there's a new addict in town...

[Don2]

Boys, I think there's a new addict in town...

Yep...It's kinda like reloading crack I guess????
Never did it, but understand it's very habit forming.......!!

Hmmmmm...Maybe I should have come up with another comparison??
Maybe Crown Royal Reserve or XR ?????

Don2

[APynckel]

I have set up a hookup with a local range to give me some lead to recycle on their cleanups :)

HAPPY DAY!

[AndyC]

Oh, excellent - I'm sure nobody needs to tell you to grab all that you can while you can!

[velo99]

Buying bullets irks me. I bought exactly one box of bullets. Hornady XTP @ .21 each. I shot 6 of them and eventually will shoot the rest but the cost almost warrants buying those rounds instead of reloading. I cast 450 thankgiving weekend in one session in a similar setup as the op. Drop them in water to make them harder & you won't lead the barrel as bad.

[Jumping Frog]

Drop them in water to make them harder & you won't lead the barrel as bad.

Not necessarily. It all depends on the caliber.

Water drop a low pressure round like .45 ACP or .38 SP and you can easily make the bullets too hard to obdurate in the barrel. That will cause excessive leading.

The best approach is to match the bullet hardness to the pressure. High pressure rounds, like a .44 Mag need a much harder alloy than low pressure rounds. I water drop some of my calibers but not others.