using muffin tins for lead ingots

[Hungry Horse]

I bought a couple of ingot molds at garage, and estate sales, and can’t imagine why anyone that wasn’t forced to, would use anything else. It is so easy to feed your lead pot with these small ingots, and not have to wait for some enormous plug of lead to melt.
 As a twenty year veteran of the Boy Scouts, I can tell you casting lead in old cast iron cookware without marking it for future generations is just flat irresponsible. After working to rejuvenated an old cast iron kettle, and heating it in the oven to drive out moisture, and get it ready to be oiled, I noticed very small silvery beads oozing from the porous old cast iron, sure enough it was lead. We quit using vintage cast iron all together afterwards.
 I am puzzled by the number of times I have been given, or bought lead, only to find that the lead was cast into some of the most awkward forms imaginable. One batch was cast full depth in a 12” cast iron skilled. But the best was a hoard of about 800 pounds cast in an old aluminum corvette valve cover.

  Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Good point about the old cast iron pans and pots. Yikes!

[Brokennock]

I bought a couple of ingot molds at garage, and estate sales, and can’t imagine why anyone that wasn’t forced to, would use anything else......

  Hungry Horse

Because sometimes even those "small ingots"  are too big.

[Hungry Horse]

For a small pot like that, I think I would look for an aluminum gang mold that molds a medium sized fishing sinker. I would suspect that if you tried to cast round balls over about fifty caliber, in quantity, you would constantly be dealing with either lead that was too hot, or too cold. It would be great for squirrel caliber round balls.

  Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

These are wonderful. You will never wear it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Lead-Ingot-Mould/dp/B07PRJKP3Y

[Mike from OK]

These are wonderful. You will never wear it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Lead-Ingot-Mould/dp/B07PRJKP3Y

I use a similar Lyman ingot mold... But mine doesn't have the handles. However it has a lip that is perfect for vise grips or pump pliers... So easy enough to use it.

I have thought of purchasing the Lee ingot mold a few times... The model that makes 1 lb. and 1/2 lb. ingots. Those 1/2 lb. ingots look like they might be handy for a few things.

Mike

[Daryl]

I like the Lyman mould as I overfill it a bit and all 4 'blocks' are joined for easy handling and stacking.
They break apart very easily with a tomahawk blow or bending back and forth until they separate. The
hawk is fastest.
Taylor has 2 Lyman moulds and I have 2 as well. That means we mould a minimum of 16 pounds (16,
1-pound ingots) each pour.  That keeps the tiger torch (on 20 pound bottle of propane) going.

[Mike from OK]

I like the Lyman mould as I overfill it a bit and all 4 'blocks' are joined for easy handling and stacking.
They break apart very easily with a tomahawk blow or bending back and forth until they separate. The
hawk is fastest.
Taylor has 2 Lyman moulds and I have 2 as well. That means we mould a minimum of 16 pounds (16,
1-pound ingots) each pour.  That keeps the tiger torch (on 20 pound bottle of propane) going.

I have picked up ingots like that in a flea market near me... All 4 ingots are joined by the thin layer of overflow. I'm normally hesitant to buy ingots of unknown make. But they passed the thumbnail and thud test on the concrete floor. So at $7.50 a piece I rolled the dice.

Mike

[Daryl]

The lead we are currently using, came from an X-ray room wall. I only bought 300pounds, should have taken twice that.
It was 50 cents a pound. And is the softest lead I have EVER had. Needless to say, it is easy loading in every gun I have
or have tried them in. 10oz denim material (washed twice) and balls .005" under bore size is easy loading. I measure that
 material at .0225" with my new calipers, compressed as hard as I can, the jaws between my finger and thumb. It does not
work as well in my .69 with the .682" ball. That one wants 12 or 14oz. denim for it's best accuracy. You have to want to load
that combination. A half-hearted attempt with the starter will leave the ball sitting on the muzzle.
I have used the same patch, for a 5-shot group, collecting it after every shot, re-lubing it and shooting again.
Indeed, we used this material as-in some of my old recovered patches, in one of Hugh's barrels after Taylor performed surgery
on an old Hawken he built back in the 80's.
The before rifle on the right, the after rifle on the left. This was the first time I have shot this rifle after the rebuild. I also shot it
before the work was done.



This are the targets shot with the reclaimed patches, at 50 yards. Seemed to tighten
up a bit with the increased powder charge. 2F GOEX was used.

[Brokennock]

For a small pot like that, I think I would look for an aluminum gang mold that molds a medium sized fishing sinker. I would suspect that if you tried to cast round balls over about fifty caliber, in quantity, you would constantly be dealing with either lead that was too hot, or too cold. It would be great for squirrel caliber round balls.

  Hungry Horse

Actually I'm casting .610 round balls. But, I don't cast 100s at a time like some do. Lead temp seems to stay very consistent, it doesn't get a chance to cool in a ladle from pot to mold and once it has come up to temp and melted what was in the pot from last time, it doesn't take long to melt new muffin ingots.
The biggest issue I've had with the small pot is that it is really hard to flux and clean really dirty lead in so small a pot. Thus, scrap lead I've obtained gets melted, fluxed, and cleaned in a big pot and made into small clean ingots.

[Daryl]

The huge pouring ladle Taylor has, melts about 20 pounds of lead at a time. Set up with fire-bricks & a roaring
tiger torch, the lead melts quite quickly. We fluxed with old pieces of candles - paraffin. For casting, I use a pair
of 20 pound Lee Production pots now, one with bullet alloy, the other with pure lead. Both were bottom pour
originally, but I converted them to dipping method by plugging the holes with a 1/2" #6 self-tapping sheet metal screw
from the inside of the pot. I just ran it in with my impact driver, an extension on the 1/4" socket bit.

[nemovir]

I bought a couple of ingot molds at garage, and estate sales, and can’t imagine why anyone that wasn’t forced to, would use anything else. It is so easy to feed your lead pot with these small ingots, and not have to wait for some enormous plug of lead to melt.
 As a twenty year veteran of the Boy Scouts, I can tell you casting lead in old cast iron cookware without marking it for future generations is just flat irresponsible. After working to rejuvenated an old cast iron kettle, and heating it in the oven to drive out moisture, and get it ready to be oiled, I noticed very small silvery beads oozing from the porous old cast iron, sure enough it was lead. We quit using vintage cast iron all together afterwards.
 I am puzzled by the number of times I have been given, or bought lead, only to find that the lead was cast into some of the most awkward forms imaginable. One batch was cast full depth in a 12” cast iron skilled. But the best was a hoard of about 800 pounds cast in an old aluminum corvette valve cover.

  Hungry Horse

I'm hoping you all that use these muffin pans are dremeling "for lead use only. not for food" on it.  Some one going to either sell or give away your gear when you pass on.

[bob in the woods]

An interesting point, re pans and lead. A serious question here...does lead contaminate a pot, pan, or utensil forever and ever ??   If cleaned up, I just don't see this happening , but welcome an explanation if so

[Hungry Horse]

The cast iron I mentioned was old, had long since lost its seasoning, and was quite porous, by modern standards. I would suspect lack of seasoning, and porosity, were major factors.

  Hungry Horse