How to Melt Lead 

Spread it out on the ground and use a magnet to get rid of steel/iron.

Needed to learn a little about melting lead. Yours was the first video to come up. It gave me all that I needed to know. Thanks.

Very cool video John !! That's a great idea getting the old tire weights from shops I'll have to look into that !! My setup is gonna be super light so I'll be doing the same thing as some point !!

You can melt everything in same pot. Iron, zink, plastic, everything float on lead. Keep it liquid for a long time and scrape off top layer once in a while.

Just started doing this, this is a great video showing how to do it. My uncle owns an automotive shop so i have an endless supply of weights. I wish i would have started years ago

Damn Good idea, repurposing old wheel weights for Ballist for the Race Car.

I've had to do this before, easiest way is to dump it all out on the floor and get a strong magnet to pick up all the iron weights.

When I was a kid I youst to melt down the old led weights that went on the lip of the rim and I had a mold for fishing sinkers, I’ve made a bunch in my day lol This brought back some great memories with my grandpa, ty John👍🏻💯

I really dig metal casting, I used to work in a foundry, I miss it. 👍🏻

Interested to see how you decide to mount them! Excellent video, as always!

You are right John those are bubble's on the bottom if you wait just a little longer before you pour it you want have that happen next time by the way great video loved it! 👍🏻

Lead melts at 600-700 degrees steel melts at like 2500-2800 degrees. your lead would be close to boiling before you melt steel. Additionally fluxing your lead with candle wax would remove all the slag. Which is that stuff you have on top. Removing all the slag gives you a sexy silver finish and will get rid of the bubbles.

Damn, you're killing a beautiful lodge cast iron pan!

I know I'm about 2 years late to the party. The reason you had the bubbling on the bottom was probably the non-stick layer of the pan melting off, PLUS not heating the pan beforehand. If you don't heat up the pan or the scoop you're using before hand, you can cause a steam explosion. The fact that the lead didn't bubble up to the surface and "pop" in a 50 degree pan kind of surprised me. I didn't heat up my ingot mold one time and the lead "popped" and I took melted lead to the hand. After the scars healed, I never forgot to heat things up again. I'm glad you had fun though! It's fun to do, and can either be sold to bullet makers or sand casters like myself! Make a pretty penny on it.

When John starts talking funny, we'll know it was from the lead.

I believe the reason you don't want to get it too hot is inhaling lead fumes (750 degrees). The steel should stay solid to well over 2000 degrees and you can scoop it out with the slag.

A few suggestions, especially after the lead almost took flight on you. Most guys I've watched on here use big soup ladels to pour instead of picking up the pot. The only weights that could melt with the lead are the zinc ones, roughly 100 degree difference in melting temperature.

I use silicone oven mitts from the dollar store. Game changer! My welding gloves weren't enough for the heat from the pan. Heat doesn't go through the silicone oven mitts.

I have been melting lead and making sinkers since I was 5 years old. I am 73 now. Next time make smaller ingots. Old tuna fish cans are good to pour lead into. It is easier to make smaller ingots than large 12 pound one that you made in video. I always used an old porcelain pot to melt lead, lighter and a nice handle to work with.

Melt some down and dump in ant hill, dig up its pretty cool! Keep prepping for more win lights

1 SBCvalve cover Buy big bags of lead shot for reloading 12 gauge dove shot #7 or so. Fill the clean valve cover melt and let cool. Normally right at 50 lbs to 52 lbs.

Have you ever tried using a strong earth magnet to help separate the steel and iron out or is that not a option?

Just what I needed thanks 👌🏽

Fishing weights work great also!!

Great video. Going to try this myself.

i melt wheel weights for making fishing lures. i use a cast iron pan with the ridges in the bottom. set the pan on the heat source with very slight tilt. i drilled a hole in corner of the cast iron pan. have the hole on the downhill corner of the pan. dump your weights on the high side of the pan the lead ones will melt and the liquid will run to the downhill side of the pan and out the hole. place the catch pan under the hole. just have the cast iron off center of the flame enough where it will drain clear of the flame. you can scoop off the non lead weights that dont melt. once your catch pan is as full as you want it you can place it on the flame and reheat to make one solid thru chunk, also if you let it set on the heat alot of the impurity will rise to the surface and you can skim it off.

Heat the mold pan to get rid of the holes

Borax acid is the same thing as buying flux for drawing out the impurities in the lead but you can also use candle wax when casting bullets!

The "holes" are from the non stick coating off gassing. Once the pan gets worn in it should get better.

Thank u for video just getting in myself for reloading good info

You can also hit the weights on the ground and you will hear a difference in each metal

The impurities are from the nonstick coating that was on the pan you stole from your wife. A stainless pan wouldn't have done that also look at your local sporting goods store or gun store and you will find little furnaces that are made for melting and pouring lead and you can get some ideas for how to improve your setup. I used to make fishing weights that same way and your stove that you cook on will get hot enough to melt the lead it just takes longer but only use the stove if it is no longer used for cooking

Just put them in the pan and start melting. The iron will float on top of the lead.

Nice video. Did you season your cast iron before you melted your lead? :) On a more serious note, were you using any kind of respirator?

Very cool video

Cool vid John. What’s the plan for attaching to axle?

Use a Bundt cake pan they are like a giant doughnut, it will work nicely with the mounting setup you have.

Preheat your bread pan a little before you poor the lead in it. May help it lay a smoother form on the bottom and not create the little air bubble indentions.

Those really flexible weights are rubber we come across that a lot at the tire shop I work at here in southern ohio

use a strong magnet to sort out the iron :D

You don't need to separate iron. Iron float on top and don't melt, but is a extra energy spend. The problem is zinc, if you don't respect melting temperature of lead and rise more, zinc can melt producing a mix that finally is not pure lead.

Any impurities will burn off as you melt it. You can skim off all the bad stuff as it floats to the top. Use some parrafin wax to flux the lead. Tea lite candle works

Next time, pre heat the pan also before pouring to help match.

Learn from my mistakes. I've melted quite a bit of lead . Don't waste your time with batteries. I've melted about a truck load and not got a lot of pure lead . So much waste mostly zinc. Keep up the good work.

cool dude, I get free lead from the roofs I replace. This is awesome, gonna start stacking those bricks up!

I have a huge lead pot. Anything not lead floats just stay under the zink melt point and your good tps have a battery in them that will explode when cooked

Melted thousands of pounds of lead in my life, helping dad with reloading.

I use wheel weights for hard cast slugs

Just a heads up to anyone thinking of doing this outdoors, make sure there's no rain promised because one drop of moisture in molten lead and it'll literally explode and splash everywhere. Extremely dangerous so I recommend do the melting indoors if possible.

that foam might separate the zinc from the lead?

i bought a packed down 5 gallon bucket at my local tire shop for $20 thats a good deal

we sell our scrap old wheel weights to people that make weights like that and also make fishing weights too.

with this amount in the bucket use a magnet to separate the iron and other attractive metals,pure lead is always worth its weight,don't handle it much without gloves,treat it like mercury,the damn stuff is never safe

If you never plan on using it for anything other than weights, no need to hand sort. Keep the temp low and the steel and zinc with float on the top and just skim it off. If you do get above 900 and the zinc melts, youre just using it for weight anyway.

10:30 if you can get steel to melt (2500F) on a turkey fryer than you’ve got other problems to worry about!

Sir can you tell me which material use in stove ??

You should wear a respirator, decrease exposure time to the fumes and use gloves to touch it.

You can just out it in and melt it all together and then fish out the steel and dirt with a stainless steel spoon with holes in it

You can sort out the pieces of steel with a magnet

You can lightly sand it till it's perfect if you want! 🦅🇺🇸🦅

Bulk qty was ordered and minimally packaged.

Would you mind taking a few photos of how your skillet looks after melting lead? Curious if it's very obvious that a skillet had been used to melt lead, for those people (like me) that sometimes buy skillets at yard sales, estate sales etc. Also would be curious to see if a 3M lead test comes up positive after a rinse out/wash out of the skillet.

use a magnet to sort them, PREHEAT the pan that's the cause of the bubbles

Her bread pan 🤣🤣

Bro is there any method to melt the lead airgun bullets from the gun

You can dump it all in and let the lead melt and just scoop the steel off the top after u flux it some.

Where to buy new lead sheet to melt ??

The zinc makes lead turn to cottage cheese it definitely messes a batch up

My son works at a big tire shop I'll see if I can't get you hooked up. . I'm local to most off the tracks you go to

Good job but Just an advice Always wear a Mask FFA2P3 when you melt lead and wear Also protective glasses gloves and a protection suit that Is useful to protect you from lead particles.

Great handling with no gloves. But just do it until your gums bleed and your hair falls out.

Yes, when melting lead at 650 to 700 degrees you must not get it too hot or else you might melt the steel as well. Or not.

I think I'd wear a respirator while doing this. I found a couple of lead acid batteries behind my house. Nice to know I just need to 650 degrees.

Experimentation without using a catalog. = Hot Rodding. Makes me think of Burt Monroe in worlds fastest indian. Painters blow torch.

That's an old dirt track race car trick.

Did you flux it?

steel melts at over 2000 degrees that cooker isn't ever gonna get close to melting steel pretty sure you meant zinc I have a ton of lead I mixed with zinc years ago before I started making fishing sinkers the only thing I find is I have to get it hotter to work it make some great bank sinkers don't have a splitshot mold yet but when I eventually get one I plan on going for another round in my local ponds and lakes in my kayak and pulling lures and stuff out of trees. I can say one thing about my kayak I never need to buy another trout lure in my life :)

That looked like a good steak cooking pan! LoL not no moe!!

Don't they use bismuth or tungsten these days?

Alot of wheel weights are made from zinc today

Only forty two more to go.

Use a pea-sized piece of paraffin wax or beeswax will help clean the Lead, get the impurities to the top

I’m here because I wanna know how to make fishing weights for when SHTF

Do not get any water whatsoever in there. I will guarantee it will leave marks cause you are basically making a bomb when you hit molten lead with water. Been there done that. Snow fell into molting lean and it was actually a chunk of ice. Boom. Cool as hell seeing as I was a Marine Combat engineer what was not cool was hot lead stuck to my new Tatoo. The ice was actually thrown at me and went in my crucible. Use caution. Like they say its all fun and games until someone puts out an eye. LMAO.

If you’re going to try melting lead make sure you wear protective equipment, and research the dangers of lead if you haven’t already. Saying this for any viewers trying to learn how to do this.

Watch out the terminator don't get ya!

That's a crap ton of wheel weights in that 5 gallon bucket

Next time use muffin tins or a Lyman ingot mold. Rather than having one heavy ingot… you will have smaller ones that will melt faster and allow you to pour smaller volumes. In order to melt that block u made next time …you’ve got to melt all 12 pounds rather than having a few one pounders lying around to make your jigs or whatever you’re making… Just my two cents ..trying to help.

Make those weights

Welcome to cooking with John, on today’s episode we cook a special dinner for the racecar in your life, our special guest T2000 from terminator. Lol

Did you really throw the steel into the trash?

I noticed you didn’t flux the lead? Next time put a little candle wax or sawdust to flux it while it’s in the pan it will catch fire just let it burn out this will help to bring the impurities to the surface.

Was that all you got out of that 5gal bucket?

is it dangerous to do that? because of the fumes

I had a uncle that made TONS of 3oz sinkers for tautog. He died of lung 🫁 cancer. I rather pay for my sinkers

All those delicious fumes.

Why wouldnt you just use a magnet to separate the iron from lead if you couldn't tell

I would have just dumped it all in the led will melt quicker then the steel and iron, the adhesive will burn off flux the molten led and the impurities will float up just skim it off

if my momma ever caught me using her LODGE CAST IRON SKILLET to melt lead, I would be slaughtered on sight

John use a magnet to remove the metal