Last smelt of the season.

[Lee W]

My casting buddy and I melted the last of our accumulated yearly take today and I thought I should share. This session we melted the last of the wheel weights we have. (Thanks New York) The total was 704 pounds today and 1774 pounds since September. 1070 pounds were range lead we dug out of the local club's indoor range. The picture below shows just 260 pounds.

This year we started using 5 pound ingot molds from Magma. They empty a pot rather quickly. The large cast iron mold makes 1.7 pound half circles for roughly 20 pounds in a single mold. Of course a collection of Lyman, Lee and Cast Boolit molds.

The heat source is an old Garland range I picked up for cheap since the sheet metal parts were trashed. It seems very efficient since we did all 1774 pounds on a single 20 pound tank. I do not think we could have done another pot with it today, it was very light.

Now to convert them into boolits!

[S&W-629]

wow that would be real nice to have lol

[dieguy59]

Very nice set up. How is your back? That's a lot of laddle work.

[sqlbullet]

Looks good....

But last of the season. Just getting cold enough to go work over a hot fire! I have about 1200 lbs to catch up on Saturday, and I expect my "supplier" has another stack ready to be picked up.

[Lee W]

Our backs are fine. Emptying the pot does not take long with a ten pound ladle and two people.

I wish I had more suppliers of lead. The wheel weights have dried up and the local club is a once a year thing good for 1k. Split between my casting buddy and I, it does not last long. If anyone has suggestions of where to look, I would be happy to give them a shot.