This a pile of scrap roofing lead.Lead Smelter and Lube Making
Lead smelter
This is a few pictures of smelting scrap and making lube. Both are easy but I would suggest caution around hot products and you should take safety measures and wear heavy clothing. This is not a legaleeze statement only common sense.
This a pile of scrap roofing lead.
This is a home made pot (piece of well casing with a 1/2" steel plate bottom welded on) on a turkey fryer. This held about 100 lbs. Make SURE the fryer will handle the
weight. I never put more than 50 lbs in at a time.
This shows the crud and burned tar from the scrap.
After fluxing and skimming the trash off it looks good.
Pouring into ingot moulds. The old steel soup ladle held about 2 1/2 lbs. and worked very well.
This pile turned into about 500 lbs of ingots. It took about 5 hours.
Marked and stacked ready for use.
I recently found 75 lbs of scrap tin at an old junk yard. After cleaning I ended up with 55 lbs of tin.
Lube Making
Just finished making the mould. 1" PVC pipe set into drilled holes in a wood block. 3/8" dowel also set into drilled holes for the core hole.
To make a mould: Use a 2" thick block of wood, drill holes for the PVC pipe with a spade or Forstner bit (flat bottom) to within 1/2" of the bottom. Using the big drill bits center hole as a guide, drill on through with a 3/8" bit for a core hole (if needed). My bit did not fit the pipe exactly so I wrapped some duct tape until the pipe fit snuggly.
A "double boiler" using a cast iron pot and a paint mixing container from a body shop supply. The paint mix container is handy as it is well marked for quantities. Melt slowly
and mix well.
Pouring into the moulds using an aluminum funnel with the bottom cut out to just fit the tubes.
This shows the tube as it was just pulled out. The wrap at the bottom is duct tape to make the tube fit the drilled hole better.
This shows a stick just pushed out of a mould.
The finished product. The sticks were wrapped individually in wax paper and stored in a zip lock bag.
The whole project took about 3 hours.