This is truly a comedy of errors... AKA A Sad Story

[Mk42gunner]

Jim

Good luck on your pot. It has been too hot and humid here for me to want to do anything with hot metal.

I don't even want to cut the grass because radiator on my Kubota blows heat back towards my right foot.

Robert

[Jim_Fleming]

Thanks Gents. Your support means a lot!

Truly! Not to worry, I'll eventually slop enough weld on there that it'll HAVE to seal up! I'm that determined! I wanna start casting bullets! I'm run clean out of 9's. I need to make some 357's & 45 ACP SWC's too!

I'll take a few pix of this contraption, and letcha'll have a gander at it. Now and when the pot's fulla good clean alloyed mixture.

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[West Creek]

Jim

your kiliing me!!! - your story reminds me of a project my dad started about 30 years ago.

Carpenter by trade - tinkerer at heart and frugal to a point he can;t help himself. I think a combination grown into him by parents of the depression erra and a disease I'm guilty at times.

He gets hold of a lincoln gas motor welder worn out and left in his care. Decides to try and weld things and learn to weld on his own. After succesfully welding a few things decides he wants a parts washer and comenses to scrounging and welding a tank. Unfortunatly he scrounges steel welding rod and sense to a point. I watched him weld that sqaure tank - for months - check it for leaks - weld it some more. scrounge more rod. weld some more - grind - check for leaks - weld some more. scounge a little elctric motor and pump - build a plywood cabinet with sheet metal top and lid. Weld some more on the tank - check for leaks - grind and weld some more.

Finally after about a year and half gets the thing leak freel - pumping water and cabinet built. Only to never once use it because he couldn't scrounge any parts washer fluid. That poor cabinet sat in the barn for 20 years before it got junked. He never scrounged any fluid and never once used that machine.

It's a lesson I've carried with me - Never ever try to weld up a tank and I try my best to work at what I know to earn money to buy what I must. Doenst always work but I try.

At last if I ever learn to weld anything - god help me.

[Jim_Fleming]

Thanks West Creek, it's appreciated, sir... you gave me a nice chuckle...!

I think I finally have had success in closing up the little leaks, folks!!! I boiled water in that pot for three solid hours, not a drop of water leaked!

Take a looky see at the attached pix... I am pretty proud of how nice my welding turned out, even if I do have to brag on myself...

I forgot to tell you...

I boiled the water in that pot for three hours. It boiled down to about half full.

I realize minute leaks would evaporate, before discovery. Which is why the next test will be with about an inch of molten lead.

Jim

[Clinebo]

Jim> All I can say is " endeavor to persevere".

[Jim_Fleming]

Clinebo, the next test is this coming week.

Since the boiling water test passed, I am gonna go for the next level, about an inch of lead in the bottom.

That should be the proof in the pudding.

Jim> All I can say is " endeavor to persevere".

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[Suo Gan]

Jim, Howdy and hope all is well with you.

I am having trouble understanding why you aren't using steel for this project? Should be able to scrounge what you need at the steel/pipe dealer for a couple bucks. Just my dos pesos.

Take care

[Jim_Fleming]

Suo Gan, we're doing well. Thanks a million for asking!

This kind of tickles me, that you found me here, thanks for discovering this thread.

Suo, the sides of the pot are in fact mild steel. It was made from a piece of eight (8") inch pipe. Cut to about the same length. I got it for nothing. The walls of the pipe, incidentally, are about 1/4" inch in thickness.

The reason I made the mistake of using cast iron for the bottom, the first time around, was simple economics. I got it for free also. Big mistake.

After the cast iron bottom developed it's rather ugly crack of about 3 inches in length, I knew I would have to use another piece of mild steel plate for the bottom, because I knew it wouldn't crack the way cast iron did.

So to make sure I'm not misunderstood, my large melting pot is made now from mild steel. Sides and bottom.

I calculate it to have a capacity of about 150 pounds of molten lead. But that would be brimming full.

Suo Gan, my friend, with respect? You're way more than welcome to chime in ANY TIME, ANY WHERE, in any thread I have or perhaps participate in.

Thank you, sir!

Jim

Jim, Howdy and hope all is well with you.

I am having trouble understanding why you aren't using steel for this project? Should be able to scrounge what you need at the steel/pipe dealer for a couple bucks. Just my dos pesos.

Take care

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[runfiverun]

wow just wow..
jim iv'e seen your other projects.
but no matter how long you use this pot it'll still be.
pot -3
jim- 1

[Jim_Fleming]

R5R! Great seeing you sir!

Yer right ya dawg! About the score!

However, I don't care about the score, it's who wins by melting lead that counts!

In that case it'll be:

Jim - W
Pot - L

LMAO!

run five, glad you found me! How ya been?

Jim

wow just wow..
jim iv'e seen your other projects.
but no matter how long you use this pot it'll still be.
pot -3
jim- 1

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[Suo Gan]

Jim, Your welds are so much better than mine they are not in the same ball park! Never learned to TIG. My MIG welds look like bird turds and my arc welds are wide and beefy...like my mother in law!

I like a rendering pot to hold a little over a hundred pounds too.

I am up for a new phone...is the Droid the way to go? I think they are now free with a two year contract.

[Jim_Fleming]

SG, I tried a BlackBerry, I broke the daggoned trackball within 5 months, but from what I understand, they're using something called an optical mouse these days... as in no moving parts.

But that doesn't answer your question, sir... Yeah, I LOVE my Droid... It's a Verizon phone, it's a Motorola Droid, (the original Droid Verizon sold.) NO MOVING PARTS on the outside... It does have a slide out keyboard, but to be honest, I almost never use the keyboard. I don't need it, hardly... I'd say I don't use the keyboard 1 time a month... When it comes time for me to renew, I'll get another Android OS based phone, that's fo' sho'!


SG, re: MIG Welding, it's far easier than stick welding, in my opinion... All you gotta do is set the heat right... MIG is even easier than TIG welding... I recently used a neighbors flux cored wire feed welder, at it's pretty easy, once you get the hang of feeding wire. I liked it, very close to Stick Welding, less slag, and didn't have to worry about feeding the sticks and moving at the same time. Light Wire Feed is good for thin metal, (not quite sheet metal, etc...)

TIG is a lot like the old fashioned Oxy-Acetylene (speeling?) Gas Welding, except a helluva lot easier than Gas Welding... I never, ever, mastered Gas Welding. As I wrote up above, I spray weld cast iron on a daily basis... If I'm not spray welding, I'm TIG welding Aluminum Bronze Moulds... (they're mostly Bronze, and look like Brass) I guess I didn't really think about it when I was learning to TIG, I had to get fairly decent at it, I had to remove the excess and by golly when you're filing, grinding, polishing (filing by hand, and grinding & polishing with air grinders) your own work, you learn to not put on too much material, ASAP! Thanks for the compliment, SG, I admit I'm pretty darned proud of that piece of Government Work... LOL!

Today is Wednesday, 10 Aug 11, it's about 0640... I'm thinking (Good Lord willing and the crick don't rise) that I'm going to finally get around to taking the final test on this pot, and melt about an inch of molten lead in it, this afternoon... If this pot doesn't blow up in my face, (really I mean leak like a daggoned sieve) I'm very likely gonna be rendering, (better word than smelting! Thanks SG!) wheel weights this afternoon... YAHOO! I'm gonna be casting very soon after that!

Jim

Jim, Your welds are so much better than mine they are not in the same ball park! Never learned to TIG. My MIG welds look like bird turds and my arc welds are wide and beefy...like my mother in law!

I like a rendering pot to hold a little over a hundred pounds too.

I am up for a new phone...is the Droid the way to go? I think they are now free with a two year contract.

[runfiverun]

doin good.
made the big bore cast boolit prairie dog shoot in wyoming.
had one heck of a time, not many dogs, but the campfire was a hoot.

anyways you are right about the absolute final score, Jim wins.... pot gets used.
hopefully you have a dipper figured out too.

[Jim_Fleming]

Oh yeah, no problem with my dipper at all. I use a four pound dipper made out of cast iron. I guess you could say it's a regular lead dipper. Ugh! That sounded kind of lame. It is a wee bit heavy when full of lead, But it only takes a few dips to fill my ingot pan which holds about twelve pounds of lead. Several of those ingot pans don't take long to empty my rendering pot.

SG, see? I do like your choice of words rendering than smelting.

LMBAO!

Big bore, prairie dog shooting. Sounds like a good time.

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[Jim_Fleming]

Gents I have good news to report!!!

The much accursed pot, and darned well long awaited pot, has been completed!!!

I rendered about 33-34 pounds of wheel weight metal out of about 2 & 1/2 3 lb. coffee cans full of wheel weights...

OMG, I can't believe how many iron and zinc wheel weights that didn't melt down and were scrapped as dross...

NOT A SINGLE LEAK, I am damn please to report... As I'd hoped.

runfiverun, the scores were:

Jim - 0
Pot - 3

However the final tally and recount is, as predicted...... (drum roll please!!!!!)

Jim - Winner
Pot - Loser


LMBO! I hope to render down a lot of lead thru this thing... I'll say this about the newer thinner bottom... It seems faster to melt down... less heat absorbed by the cast iron...

[Leadforbrains]

Congrats again Jim!
Steve

[Jim_Fleming]

Thanks, Steve, it's appreciated...

Congrats again Jim!
Steve

[Jim_Fleming]

Well guys, I'm thrilled to say in the last 2 days I have rendered about 100 pounds of wheel weight metal down from scrap wheel weights. It is amazing how much loss I have due to iron and zinc weight contamination.

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[Jim_Fleming]

Well, there's really great news to report on the great lead pot escapade.

I rendered down my entire stock pile of about 500 pounds of mixed wheel weights. I ended up with about 420+ pounds of ingots of wheel weight lead.

Even if I shoot nothing but 44 Magnum, it's going to take a while to run through that many wheel weights!

You've all given me a lot of support while I was aceing out the problems.

Thank you folks!

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