Newby on the block... well, to casting anyways.

[avator]

BTW... the insulation came in this morning for the mold oven cover.
I made the form fitted cover and fastened it with zip ties. They are on the outside of the insulation and will never get hot enough to melt.
OK, this is why I feel that the hot plate has a safety temp reg in it....
Completely covered, the oven with only reach about 325 on the high setting. 325 is close enough to preheat the molds.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Question...
Would cardboard act the same as sawdust?
 I have a lot of cardboard and no sawdust to speak of.

[avator]

In the video I watched and learned about sawdust, the guy also used a paper towel as an example.
I'm not sure of the glue content in cardboard or if it would dross off.
Or, would it just act like a wax/flux.

[Spacebus]

I'm close to giving NOE a call about one of my molds 

[RonsPlc]

Scott, the cardboard should do the same as sawdust, I noticed that the paper and cardboard that ends up in my bullet trap ( it has a lot of it from the targets). I don't even try to clean it out anymore due to what I see it pulling out of the lead when I melt it back down.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Awesome!
Thanks guys

[cosmic]

Anything carbon based that can be burned..

[Nvreloader]

Bill,
I have an OLD 2 burner hot plate, Sear's brand I think, $10 second hand,
1 burner is 850W and the other 1000W, I am just the opposite of you,
I have to turn them down, as they get too hot.......I found out.
Don

BTW... the insulation came in this morning for the mold oven cover.
I made the form fitted cover and fastened it with zip ties. They are on the outside of the insulation and will never get hot enough to melt.
OK, this is why I feel that the hot plate has a safety temp reg in it....
Completely covered, the oven with only reach about 325 on the high setting. 325 is close enough to preheat the molds.

[Firewalker]

Scott, the cardboard should do the same as sawdust, I noticed that the paper and cardboard that ends up in my bullet trap ( it has a lot of it from the targets). I don't even try to clean it out anymore due to what I see it pulling out of the lead when I melt it back down.

Ditto. A drop of bees wax after that and I'm ready to pour.

[EdinGa]

Question...
Would cardboard act the same as sawdust?
 I have a lot of cardboard and no sawdust to speak of.

Do you know anyone that does woodwork? I have a buddy with that builds furniture and cabinets and he keeps my supplied with cedar sawdust.

[avator]

I have lots of old wood around here and a DeWalt chop saw. I just hang an ice cream bucket on the back and cut thin slices of the wood to spit sawdust into the bucket when I need to refill the spice bottle.

[cosmic]

I heat my mold in a toaster oven..  450 degres

[avator]

I set up a spot on the mancave shooting deck and turned the 3' industrial fan on. Busted the magnet out of an old speaker I found down in the barn and sorted that 1/2 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights.
I used an iced down 6 pack in a small cooler for fuel.. 

I ended up with about 90% good lead and 10% junk (zinc and steel). I need to visit the old second hand joints and pick up a good old metal ladle. Seems like everything these days is cheap thin or plastic.

Looks like I'll end up with around 50# of good ingots this go around.

[avator]

I got bored/impatient this morning so I headed for the Casting Corner.

The last batch of corn cob ingots I made had #8 shot mixed in and I suspect it had too much antimony in it. So I decided to met 1 cob back into each pan of wheel weight lead.
Also it appears that some of the weights are of a harder metal even though I used a magnet and read the codes (best I could). Out of 2 batches (7 cobs each) I pulled out 6 weights that seemed to not want to melt down at the same temp as the rest.
My vacuum cleaner exhaust fan worked perfectly and drew all the smoke and fumes out of the building. Even when fluxing twice... once with pure wax and once with cedar saw dust.
Best guess is that I have 6 or 7 batches of 7 cobs each to go. My 10# pot will take around 5 cobs to fill from empty.

[avator]

Early start this morning.
The goal is to get the rest of these wheel weights poured into ingots. I need to work in the mornings because it's starting to get too hot here in lower Alabama. Remember, I'm a displaced yankee from the Lake Erie area.
Yesterday saw record high temps for Mother's day here in the Montgomery, Al area. It ain't the heat.. I can handle heat.. it's the humidity.. it's like swimming in hot soup. Then standing over a 600 - 700 pot of molten lead don't help much.
But, the payoff is worth it. Free pellets is free pellets no matter how you pour it..   

[avator]

Been going back and forth on the idea of building a PID vs. buying one already made vs. just continue without.
The tinkerer in me says build one.. the lazy in me says buy one already made and the cheap bastage in me says I don't even need one.

[Spacebus]

Been going back and forth on the idea of building a PID vs. buying one already made vs. just continue without.
The tinkerer in me says build one.. the lazy in me says buy one already made and the cheap bastage in me says I don't even need one.

I don't have a lot of electrical/wiring skills. So for me I would have to buy something easy to make or already done to add PID to an inexpensive furnace. At which point I would rather get an RCBS Easymelt since I want to upgrade from my 4lb pot anyway. It's hard to maintain an even temp with such a small amount of lead.

[avator]

That would be nice but it's way out of my budget.

[avator]

Building the tower of corn...

[Insanity]

I just started chanting jinga... Would not be a problem but I had to take a truck to a freightliner shop to have a recall and have the PTO rpm bumped up. But I'm in the driver's lounge getting strange looks from the other drivers.