Lessons from my first ingot making.

[Twmaster]

Today I took all my junk pewter, a can of wheel weights and my casting pots over to the Dallas Makerspace facility.

I live in a tiny apartment so no casting at home for me.

One of the biggest rules in life I follow is "Always have a backup plan." And today following this rule saved the day.

I have a really nice smallish iron pot with a lid. So I bought an electric hot plate for heating the pot.

As it turns out the pot is too small to fit over all of the heating element. As such I could only get 300F max inside the pot with the hot plate on maximum. Some of the pewter melted but it was obvious this was not going to work.

Plan B.

I also brought my Lyman Big Dipper pot. It was full of cold lead from the last casting session I had.

Once warmed up I poured that lead into the Lyman ingot pan and made ready to melt the pile of busted up pewter I've been rounding up from thrift stores for the last two weeks.

Other than having to pound the pewter pieces into smaller sizes that went well. All of the pewter went into the melt other than stuff that the label said was pewter but obviously wasn't once I tried to break it up.

After a nice afternoon heating up metals I learned a couple of lessons and reinforced a main lesson I live by.

Always have a backup plan. This time I'd have not melted anything if I had not thought to bring my Lyman pot.

Lids are great for keeping heat in during the initial melt.

Bottom pour pots are nice. Big ladles suck.

Not everything marked as pewter is.

After melting all of the pewter I melted all the WW I had.

Turned into a nice productive day. Now I have about 10 pounds of Pewter, 8 pounds of salvaged wheel weights and a bit more knowledge then I started the day with!

[Horseman1]

Thanks for sharing your first experience. I've just begun as well and have about the same amount done too. I use a camp stove out back. I made a bunch of 2 oz pewter "coins" using a small muffin tin. They look great now that I got them hot enough. The "Not everything marked as pewter is" you mentioned is true too. Some companies outright lie about it.

[lightman]

As you scrounge more lead you will want to get a bigger pot. Then you will need a bigger heat source. Then you will need more ingot molds. Its an addiction that never ends!

[Twmaster]

As you scrounge more lead you will want to get a bigger pot. Then you will need a bigger heat source. Then you will need more ingot molds. Its an addiction that never ends!

So true!

[KuunLB]

As you scrounge more lead you will want to get a bigger pot. Then you will need a bigger heat source. Then you will need more ingot molds. Its an addiction that never ends!

anything gun related is addictive..

[RogerDat]

As you scrounge more lead you will want to get a bigger pot. Then you will need a bigger heat source. Then you will need more ingot molds. Its an addiction that never ends!

You forgot that after you get all that swell equipment you will just want more lead so that equipment will be "productive". And the ever popular someplace to put all that lead. Plan that one for your long term addiction level you think you could reach. Rearranging a lead stash because it has outgrown its current location is a lot of work!