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New Mould


Swainiac
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Used my Do-It cannon ball mould for the first time today, cast an abundance of 1 to 4 oz leads. Its absolutely cracking. The method of holding the Brass loops in place ensures they are centrally placed, giving a central point of fulcrum. Im very pleased with it.

 

Just need a 1lb bopedo now, and thats me sorted for all my leads.

 

Rich

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Used my Do-It cannon ball mould for the first time today, cast an abundance of 1 to 4 oz leads. Its absolutely cracking. The method of holding the Brass loops in place ensures they are centrally placed, giving a central point of fulcrum. Im very pleased with it.

 

Just need a 1lb bopedo now, and thats me sorted for all my leads.

 

Rich

High Rich, fancy swopping some raw lead for some 1oz and 2 oz leads?

 

Mad Mike

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Mike, Im always up for provising lead weights for lead, I have 25 1oz and 25 2oz I can shove your way. I think its best I post a pic to show you what they are like before entereng into a verbal agreement, I will post pics for you..

 

Charlie, thaqnks for the offer, I'm afraid I'm one of theese characters, if I borrrow it twice I need to buy one, there fore, I really think I need to have one of these for my own collection, but thank you for your kind offer.

 

Rich

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This mould does 1oz to 4oz, and Ive just taken delivery of 4oz to 6oz, and 12oz and 16oz.

 

Size wise, they are smaller than bopedo's, and offer a good drop when wrecking/drifting, but also enable you to bounce back to search a given area behind the boat, If anyone wants any, let me know, I'll bring them to the december meeting, in return for sufficient lead to cover my smelting, time and cost of brass loops.

 

Rich

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kam, all my lead comes from BB, who collects it on his travels.......you know what a pikey he is wink.gif ........and it is generally in sheet form. I cut it down into 1" strips and find it runs very quickly once the cruciblelead is wet. I am looking at upgrading the kit I have to a crucible on a stand, with lever to pour directly into moulds. This will be a safer method than the one I currently use.

 

Apparently, there is an additive which you can sprinkle onto the molten lead, which takes away the dross, and almost completely does away with the waste slag which forms on the surface.........anyone know what it is called??

 

 

Rich

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  • 1 month later...

Propane burns hotter than butane apparently, although it may need a different regulator??

As for a crucible - I use the bottom half of an 8kg gas cylinder on an old BT lead cable jointer's stove burning butane (at the moment). I can keep enough lead to make 10x 10oz supazooms molten, any more and the lead starts to solidify around the edges.

I find that after a while performance drops due to the cooling effect of taking gas out of the cylinder, so much so that in winter it starts to get frost on it. I get round this by standing the cylinder in a cat litter tray and pouring hot water from a kettle over it every so often. This seems to keep the pressure up.

If you're really serious about making leads then I remember reading an article in a mag or book where the lead was being melted in an induction furnace, the sort used by shooters to make their own bullets. The lead was dispensed via a tap in the bottom, so dross was less of an issue.

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Gas is a PITA for melting lead, esp this time of year.

 

Try a Coleman Sportster Stove, I dont think you can beat these - they run on unleaded, and take about 10p to fill them full - this will burn at full chat for well over an hour, and melts lead faster than I can mould it.

Edited by Adam F
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Adam, after your post ages ago re. the coleman, I actually bought one, and indeed, it does burn remarkably well.

 

However, I now tend to only burn a couple of times a year, when I take delivery from BB, but make enough leads for all of us, including the juniors down in Weymouth, so I'm after a decent set up, which will melt a few pounds and keep it running for a couple of hours. Air temp has a huge influence on stove running times, be it gas or petrol, and I am a tad worried about the heat transferred down to the stove when I am getting towards the end of the burn!!!

 

I am interested in a decnt furnace now, to make enough gear once or twice a year.

 

Rich

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Rich,

 

My lead melting pot (a milk pot) holds over 4lb of lead without being too full and my lead making sessions last well over 2 hours - we roughly smealt about 40/50lb of lead on a big session doing 1-2lb dowtide leads.

 

The stove does get hot, but the base doesnt and when it runs low after an hour or so, we simply leave it 10 mins, have a brew, re-fill her and off we go again.

 

I would suggest that a Coleman is all anyone needs, unless you are going to make them commercially - the other factor is that regardless of how fast / efficiant the stove is, I still cant pour the lead, release the moulds, re load wires and stack before the lead is melted!!

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