SpudFiles

How to smelt lead and make ...ammo or what ever you'd like.

1. Get lead. Go to tire shops and ask to purchase their scrap tire weights for $.15/lb. This is the going rate in Idaho, it may work elsewhere.
2. Get a wok or pot to use as a smelter. Also get a metal slotted spoon and ladle. These are best obtained from a second-hand store, not your kitchen.
3. Set it up: see pics. You need a heat source and somehing to hold the lead in while the heat is applied. You need somewhere to put the lead after is has liquified, like a mold.
4. Wear protective clothing: long sleeves and pants, protective shoes and gloves are all a must. You can wear eye and lung protection if you wish, or just don't do dumb things like throw extra weights at a boilingleadbath or stand downwind from all the fumes. Take extra precautions to avoid the fumes. Neither propane exhaust nor lead anything will prolong your life or increase your mental capacity, quite the opposite.
5. Add weights to wok. Try to remove the tire shop garbage from the mix: old valve stems, tire stickers, lug nuts, etc. Cover and heat on high
6. When you remove the lid: stand back with your arm extended. Lift up high and then step back. There are nasty gasses brewing here and you don't want to breathe them in. More importantly, these gasses and the hidden garbage inside are flammable and will combust in a spectacular fireball when supplied with oxygen.
7. Scoop out all non-lead items with your slotted spoon, they will be floating on top. You can also scoop out most of the dirt and dust. Place these very hot items in a water-filled tin can that you wisely prepared before-hand for this very purpose.
8. Break to snipe something on eBay. ...I won! Suckers!
9. Use ladle or pour from wok/pot into mold. Let cool- you just melted some metal, albeit soft, and it will retain its heat for a while.

Best molds are made of metal. Anything flammable has a good chance of burning quite a bit, if not combusting. Also, as seen during the smelting process, everything floats on lead. So, if you use a high-density wood for a mold, make sure it is fastened securely to the base, with no gaps.

nice, now do a how-to on molds!

ive done small scale lead moulding before, but nothing that big.

This was 225 lbs of lead done in about 2 hours. I only used one mold and it was made of wood ... When I get my welder I will do a how-to with pics on some molds.
Any ammo would really only be worth making for larger hybrids, unless anybody has creative ideas such making darts from plastic milk jugs and clothes hangers...

EDIT: I added some pics of some "lead apples" that I poured into an empty incandesent light bulb. While it was still cooling, I inserted/screwed a decking screw into the end. After the lead cooled, and shrunk just a little, the glass broke right off in my gloved hands. The screw can now be screwed out of the apple.
This is a very large projectile, and heavy. I've yet to try it on other molds, like candelabra-base light bulbs... whatever
This projectile makes for an expensive one, and time-consuming to make. But if you have the power behind it, you could knock out an engine in a car.

any precautions for the fumes, or are they not noticeable?

They are quite noticable, mainly the propane exhaust because you are using so much of it. I nearly gagged each time I had to walk through it- and I was holding my breath. Do it outdoors, I don't think you can have a high enough CFM rating on a fan to get all the fumes out.

You could use a heavy metal / organic filter mask, but I would still recommend doing it outdoors.

isnt that a VW Karmen ghia?

Hah alizleading title but I love this, now I want to cast a lead slug!

at what temperature in °C does lead liquify? Cuz i'd like to mold my own lead pellets.

327.5 °C (600.65 °K, 621.5 °F)

isnt that a VW Karmen ghia?

Yup, that's my ghia. I love late model VWs. There aren't too many of these left, in good shape.

VW's are pretty rare up here...(Canada) but I have seen many carmen's. One time i even found two matching VW station wagons at a wrecker's, never seen anything like them.

wow...nice how-to!

now i nead lead,and a propane,and parents gone allll day lol.

hmm this suddenly gives me the urge to go melt the five 5 gallon buckets filled with lead tire weights i have and make 2" inch lead slugs...excuse me.

Well I tell you what I found a guy willing to sell me 180 pounds of lead for 20 bucks. He made me carry it though, which I regretted for 2 weeks due to a sore back. I found 7 good valve stems, 2 good wrenches, and a pair of pliers mixed in with the lead. Now I’m working on making molds for 1.5 inch slugs and cannon balls. Oh man I can’t wait to use them. I plan on using baked plaster of paris for the molds, but does anyone else have any good ideas?

^^
I assume you read this:
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/how-to- ... t7180.html