Melting Lead

any of you guys out there ever melted your own lead? melted a little last night for a test mold i built. little dirtier than i thought. wanted to see what type of set up you guys were using..

Showtime, found it easier to get rubber maid containers and fill them up with tire lead & duct tape the up. 50 pounds each, ease to move around for balancing the boat and setting up a surf wake.

thanks randy, the complete rear seat in my 205 lifts out -- plans are to add about 3/4" of lead under the rear seat -- giving me about 700#'s and access to my seat still.. will also add bags of lead (small amounts under the seats in the bow. mainly wanted to see what others that had melted the lead were using for molds. but i agree, it would be alot easier to use them in there received form...

I went to the thrift store and picked up a old cast iron pan, put that on a coleman stove worked great! also used a small torch to help speed up the process, poured the mixture into a small pan that I found at the same store, Now I have nice little 10lb. blocks.

I used the disposable foil bread pans for molds. The bricks are about 21-24 pounds each. Seemed to work pretty good for me.

ah ha --that's more like it. i have been using a turkey cooker styler burner and 2qt pan from wal-mart. i made a mold from wood, and surprisingly the lead released pretty well. did you have any trouble w/ the lead wanting to bubble/boil after you poured the lead into the mold/pan? was hte top somewhat slick afer it cooled? my test runs have never boiled while on the burner, but as soon as i poured them into the mold they started to. after they cooled and i dumped out the bricks, there were small holes/air pockets in the bottom, and the top was real rough... maybe i didn't skim off all the "impurities"?????

Another option is to use pipe and caps from Home Depot. Fill them with the lead either wheel weights or bullets, then add water and cap them, using glue of course. How long you make the pipe dictates how heavy they are. You can add a half round if you do not want them to roll. Also a web handle can easily be made and attached.

just be careful!! look it up on the web this is extremly dangerous..dont let a drop of sweat roll of your forehead when pooring it..we use a dual burner camp stove and a big pot from walmart.. melt the lead and strain the clips and what not off the top with a large metal spoon with holes in it.. once melted down i poor it into small block chevy valve covers works perfect for 60 pound bricks or less depending what level you fill too.. ive also used small cast muffin pans from walmart for an assortment of sizes...

Where are you getting the lead?

did about 350lbs in 50-70lb blocks using a sheetrock taper's pan as a mold, I will probably die from lead poisining...

Recipe For Ghetto/ Redneck Ballast


Go to your local shooting range. They usually have 5 gallon buckets filled with lead shrapnel from from fired bullets. I poured mine into 2- 4 gallon flat plastic "Jerry Cans" that I found at a local sporting goods store (Sportsmans Warehouse) and they fit perfect under the back seat of my boat. They have handles for moving around AND they are A LOT SAFER than melting lead and pouring it into molds... OH... did I say... it's CHEAP!


(Message edited by kirk on March 07, 2006)

richard, i am very aware of the dangers, and take every pre-caution..

small wake, i went ot 3 dirrerent places and collected over 800#'s in less than 2 hrs.. since then i have gotten over 300 more #'s from one of the previous... hasn't cost me a dime yet... went to local tire shops --actually i have had better luck at hte local toyota dealership -- i am getting about 1/3 5 gal bucket full each week -- i 5 gal bucket is approx 200 lbs.. as kirk stated, shot from a local shooting range is an option, however it is much nastier than the lead tire weights...