Casting a lead hammer.

[Shade]

How hot would the lead need to be?

When I am casting lead I try to get the lead between 700-750°F for good casting.

why wouldn't you just use a dead blow hammer? I had a 8oz by snap-on that was just perfect until the plastic rotted from old age.

What is the fun in that?

 

[hey-bear]

I cast lead bullets, and melt down wheel weights as a source for lead.
I use a cast iron dutch oven for my melt. You can use just about any kind of steel or aluminum pot. Lead melts at about 600 degrees.

Make sure you have good ventilation when melting. Don't eat the yellow snow.

 

[Tamper84]

Ok you lost me on the flux lol. Do you put that in the mold before you pour?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Chucketn]

This looks like a handy tool to have! Anyone have a simple, easy to make mold that doesn't require welding? I'd like to try making one?
What is a good diameter for the head? 1", 1 1/2"? I like the paper in the tubing trick!
:holdphone:I happen to have some bee's wax, and some steel tubes that were the rollers on a treadmill.

Chuck

 

[Snag_one]

Ok you lost me on the flux lol. Do you put that in the mold before you pour?

Thanks,
Chris

No , the beeswax is added to the crucible/melting pot just before you pour . Add a small lump , stir , skim the dross and crud off the top , then pour . Different metals need different fluxes , I have one for aluminum , one for brasses , and of course the beeswax for lead and lead alloys .
--
Snag

 

[Sharky]

I you need a source for lead, go make friends with your local tire shop. The ones around here always have 5 gallon buckets of old wheel weights kicking around. You will have to dip out the steel clips that hold them on the wheels, but that's easy enough. If you check the reloading suppliers, you can get a hardness tester and additives to make the lead harder too (some wheel weights are very soft.) Not expensive and helps the end result.

 

[benmychree]

My grandfather, who was from the "Old Country" (Hungary), worked in a lead smelting facility. He died before I was born, so I never got to know him. He was 46. I have to believe that the lack of knowledge, or consideration of the hazards of molten lead fumes contributed to his early death.

When I was a kid, I helped set up all the soil pipe for the sewer and drain on a house that my father's family built a few blocks away from my home place and then moved it next door to us. There was an old (late 1800's) house there that we demolished and cleared away. Anyway, we had a gasoline powered lead melting pot and a few cast iron "kettles" that we melted to pour in the joints. They were the old style Oakem and lead joints. I believe I can get that melting pot still. There was an asbestos "snake" that wrapped around the joint on the horizontal runs to keep the lead in, then we tamped it tight with a couple of special chisels. I could use a couple of lead hammers. I just wish I could buy the lead ingots now days. My father worked in a plumbing wholesaler and we bought everything there cheap, but of course, lead was everywhere back then, as was the asbestos.

Please be careful. Everyone has mentioned dry molds and caution with fumes. I echo emphatically those cautions. Even in High School shop, I did a dumb thing. Well, I knew better, but was distracted. I was pouring lead belt buckles for all the Copenhagen dippers in the lid of the can for the pattern it had. I turned my attention away from the oxy/acetylene torch for a second and dipped the flame into the ladle. I was glad I wasn't looking(???) or I would have gotten a face full of it. Or I guess if I had been looking, I wouldn't have dipped the torch. Be careful.

I have made or re poured literally hundreds of lead hammers; I was given a cast iron homemade mold, made in halves with considerable taper (small towards the striking face) The mold halves are split at the handle center, the handles being 1/2" pipe, pinched down at the end, with a chain link welded on crossways to retain the handle in the lead. Plain old lead is too soft for hammers, they will mush out quickly; the guy that gave me the mold said to use wheel balancing weights, they give the proper hardness to the hammers, but each time they are re melted and cast, some of the hardening agent (antimony) is lost and the hammers get softer. This is dealt with by occasionally adding antimony which can be bought as a 30% alloy with lead, which melts at a temperature that does not so much create toxic fume (antimony is quite toxic) When melting pure antimony, the temp is over 1000deg F and as I remember, purple fumes come off the melt; this was when I was making a batch of cheap babbitt metal, the highest melting ingredient Antimony) is melted first, then the second highest lead, then the lowest (tin). I bought and used a special metal fume respirator for this job.
Back to the hammer mold, there is the pouring sprue on one of the striking faces; after a hammer is poured and hardens, we take the acet. torch and melt out the sprue metal and knock the mold with a hammer and the halves fall off; the mold is made of cast iron to avoid the lead sticking. Occasionally, the mold is cooled off by dunking the mold with hammer still in it, in a bucket of water and quickly pulling it out, perhaps at an interval of every 4 or 5 hammers, and leave the halves apart until it is seen that all the moisture has evaporated.

 

[RJSakowski]

I have a stash of lead from various sources including a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights. If you befriend the local garage, you can often get wheel weights for free.

I make jigs and sinkers for fishing and usually do one or two pours a year. I made my pot by welding some 1/4 plate on one end of a short length of 4" steel pipe. A couple of loops for eyes and some 3/6" rod for a handle and I have a very serviceable pit that I have been using for the last 30 years. I bought a ladle back when plumbers still poured the lead and oakum joints for cast iron pipe. The hardware store probably doesn't stock them any more but they are available on line. For a furnace, I use a propane fired camping stove. To concentrate the heat, I made a chimney from a large coffee can that fits over my kettle.

I dug out my hammer mold. I have needed to remake my hammer for some time. The mold is hinged and meant to use 1/2" pipe for the handle. The mold has a built-in ladle to simplify casting. The mold is hinged and a small clamp keeps the mold closed during the casting process. My handle has the pipe threads on the end and a common nail inserted through cross drilled holes. The end of the pipe is stuffed with insulation to prevent the molten lead from running down the handle. The casting is made by tilting the mold so the molten lead runs from the ladle into the mold. The mold will cast a 3 lb. hammer. It took about ten minutes start to finish to cast the hammer.

I am not too concerned about lead vapors. The boiling point of lead is almost 3000ºF. Unless you were using something like an oxyacetylene torch as a heat source, the likelihood of having lead vapors in the atmosphere is pretty small.

 

[benmychree]

I have a stash of lead from various sources including a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights. If you befriend the local garage, you can often get wheel weights for free.

I make jigs and sinkers for fishing and usually do one or two pours a year. I made my pot by welding some 1/4 plate on one end of a short length of 4" steel pipe. A couple of loops for eyes and some 3/6" rod for a handle and I have a very serviceable pit that I have been using for the last 30 years. I bought a ladle back when plumbers still poured the lead and oakum joints for cast iron pipe. The hardware store probably doesn't stock them any more but they are available on line. For a furnace, I use a propane fired camping stove. To concentrate the heat, I made a chimney from a large coffee can that fits over my kettle.

I dug out my hammer mold. I have needed to remake my hammer for some time. The mold is hinged and meant to use 1/2" pipe for the handle. The mold has a built-in ladle to simplify casting. The mold is hinged and a small clamp keeps the mold closed during the casting process. My handle has the pipe threads on the end and a common nail inserted through cross drilled holes. The end of the pipe is stuffed with insulation to prevent the molten lead from running down the handle. The casting is made by tilting the mold so the molten lead runs from the ladle into the mold. The mold will cast a 3 lb. hammer. It took about ten minutes start to finish to cast the hammer.

I am not too concerned about lead vapors. The boiling point of lead is almost 3000ºF. Unless you were using something like an oxyacetylene torch as a heat source, the likelihood of having lead vapors in the atmosphere is pretty small.
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California has outlawed the use of lead for wheel weights, but luckily, I have a lifetime supply stashed away! I tried using babbit for hammers once, it is too hard and will spall and send out shards of metal easily capable of doing bodily injury. I do not begrudge the state for outlawing the wheel weights, many fall off on the road and get ground up by passing vehicles and enter our waterways, not a good thing.

 

[Silverbullet]

I made a mold out of a black iron 2"x 4" pipe nipple , I drilled a 5/8" hole in the middle of the pipe. And welded piece of steel to one end. , then I sawed it length wise thru the center of the hole in the side . Then I drilled a cross hole in a 1/2 black pipe a foot long 1/4" in diameter about 3/4" from one end to anchor the lead I used a 1 1/2 long 1/4" bolt . Then I just squeezed it with a clamp set the handle on a brick and poured the lead in the open end of the nipple full to the top . When it cools they come out easy and last for ever. Any squeeze outs can be cut with a knife and file. They look as good as the fancy high price ones