Wal Mart ingot molds

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

I saw someone had posted that Wal Mart had ingot molds disguised as muffin tins for 88 cents a piece. When i was there getting them I saw they also had loaf pans for 88 cents. Picked up six of them also. These cheap molds are plain steel without a non stick coating and have a slightly textured surface. I wanted to dump my master caster pot and clean it out so I stuck one of the loaf pans under it. This is how the lead came out of the pan

Man am I glad I didn't fill all six muffin tins if they stick like this. Does the teflon coating affect casting?

[swamp]

If they are plain steel, let them sit outside and get a bit of rust on them. Will keep the lead from sticking.
swamp

[bangerjim]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

[Dpmsman]

I did the same thing what a pain!! You need to hit up some household sales for the old aluminum muffin pans they work great.

Jon

[RogerDat]

I have had one muffin pan that stuck out of the bunches I have bought at garage, and estate sales or thrift store. I'm thinking I have around 750 lbs. of 11-16 lb. slabs that were cast in bread loaf pans. Around 400 lbs. of pucks from those muffin tins. Steel does work better once rusted, or even smoked like a mold would help.

I can't see spending the amount of money that would be required to buy enough "store bought" molds to do 60 to 120 lb. batches in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time. when inexpensive baking pans do just as well. But then I do most of my casting out of salvation army or garage sale pots. I only use the store bought cast iron dutch oven for smelting. Cheap molds and pots means money for brass!

I saw those same 88 cent bread loaf pans and was tempted, if nothing else they make good containers for holding brass or bullets when reloading. They stack as long as not full to the brim and are sturdy enough for the weight of cast lead bullets. For casting wet the bread loaf pans and leave them outside for a few days to rust. Should release a whole lot better.

[rondog]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

I agree. I use a Lyman, works great. Would be even better with two or more, so they could cool a little between pours. But those 1# bars fit perfectly in .30 cal USGI steel ammo cans for storage, I can get 64 in a can. Yeah, they're heavy, 65lbs/can, but the bars stay clean and dry, and readily accessible and movable.

Great weight for wintertime traction in my 2wd pickup too.

[NavyVet1959]

Some of the pans are tin coated and that just allows you to solder your ingot to the mold. I had that happen with a cookie sheet that I was using as a drip pan underneath my Lee bottom pour pot. It made quite the mess and the cookie sheet was destroyed by the time I got the lead recovered.

Some of the multi-loaf pans are not made out of a single piece of metal. Each of the loaf sections are crimped into the main body. If you fill it all the way to the top with the lead, the crimped section will probably prevent the ingot from dropping out, so you need to leave about 0.25-0.5" between the top of the loaf pan and the top of the ingot.

[lobogunleather]

Started casting bullets before I ever heard of a Wal Mart store. Been using the aluminum muffin pans for making my ingots for at least 40 years, probably made at least 1000 lbs. of lead muffins.

REAL ingot molds? Show me one with as much experience as my old muffin pans.

[bangerjim]

Started casting bullets before I ever heard of a Wal Mart store. Been using the aluminum muffin pans for making my ingots for at least 40 years, probably made at least 1000 lbs. of lead muffins.

REAL ingot molds? Show me one with as much experience as my old muffin pans.

Well.....my Lee, Lyman and RCBS 1# ingot molds have ALSO cast many thousands of them! They work great, have convenient handles and will last me a couple lifetimes. Best money I ever spend. I have 6 of them and use all when casting ingots for storage. And they do fit neatly into ammo cans a said! Unlike those round things that do not stack or store as well. I have melted down all my round muffins (from a previous life) into real ingots.

[ArrowJ]

I did my first ingots two nights ago and used the Lodge cast iron scone pan. It makes nice triangle wedges that stack well and line up nice head to toe, but it is unwieldy to use and sticks. I believe it will stop sticking when it breaks in and gets some rust. Still wish I had bought an ingot mold. I will buy one next year and retire the scone pan.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Several years back I saw these minerature cast iron frying pans that had a candle air freshener in them. They were listed as `Paula Dean` air freshner skillets. Naturally that 25 watt light bulb glowed on over my bald head as an idea for using these skillets formed. I bought the Frau 6 of them for her to burn the candle out of and me to get the iron skillet. To say they make a nifty ingot mold, complete with skillet handle, is an understatement. I hate to admit it, but they were in `Wally World`.Robert

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I picked up some small loaf pans at a garage sale. 2" wide, 4" long, and 1" deep. Make nice ingots that stick nice, and a little faster than the "traditional" Lee/Lyman/Saeco ingot molds. Mine are aluminum, and do not stick. One is non-stick coated. Seems to work fine. Once the alloy is solidified, I flip the pans with a pair of vice grips holding onto the lip.

[Dan Cash]

REAL ingot molds cast 1# trapezoidal ingots 4 at a time. They are avaialble from Lee, Lyman, SAECO, and RCBS. Not Walmart! And they cost a whole lot more than 88 cents!

They are made from either heavy cast aluminum and cast iron.

Leave the kitchenware muffin pans to the cook!

bangerjim

Those are nice moulds and work well but are expensive and very low capacity. If you really process lead in quantity, you need bigger moulds like the fabricated angle iron moulds or, I have found, stainless steel mud pans for sheet rock work do a very good job for the large volume processor.

[Scooby]

I use this stuff from tractor supply co, to coat my ingot molds with. Smells first time you put lead in them but I think it works well.

[bangerjim]

Those are nice moulds and work well but are expensive and very low capacity. If you really process lead in quantity, you need bigger moulds like the fabricated angle iron moulds or, I have found, stainless steel mud pans for sheet rock work do a very good job for the large volume processor.

I only cast what will fit in my Lee 4-20 pots. Huge mud pan or bread pan ingots are just a waste of future energy because I either have to cut them up or re-melt them for use later on in casting.

And those commercial ingot molds I have cool down very fast when setting on sopping wet cloth towels! Doesn't take but a minute to be cool enough to dump. And with six 4 cavity molds, I can move darned fast.

Works for me. And money is really no object to enjoying my hobbies. I buy what I need when I need it - and what gets the job done to my needs.

banger

[LUCKYDAWG13]

they need to rust first time i did the same thing as you

[SciFiJim]

I did my first ingots two nights ago and used the Lodge cast iron scone pan. It makes nice triangle wedges that stack well and line up nice head to toe, but it is unwieldy to use and sticks. I believe it will stop sticking when it breaks in and gets some rust. Still wish I had bought an ingot mold. I will buy one next year and retire the scone pan.

When you retire that scone pan, please make sure it does not get back in to the food prep system. My wife has instructions to destroy my muffin pan molds when I pass. The rest of my equipment is obviously for casting and reloading, but if those were sold at a yard sale, no one would know that they were used to process lead.

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

I think i'm just gonna use my angle iron molds and stamp an "A" in them when they are soft for alloyed. They will span across the top of my pot and be more stable up there. Right now I have my alloy in mini muffin size because I was using a 20# lee. When these fall off the pot edge into the pot and splash it scares the living daylights out of me!

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Walmart used to sell condiment cups that were made out of stainless steel. They charged a reasonable sum (a couple of bucks) for a set of 4 or 5. But there was no handle so you needed a pair of pliers to grip the edge and turn them over to dump the ingot. With a couple of sets you could make ingots until the cows came home. Some folks drilled holes for them in a length of board to aid in the dumping. The ingots were a comfortable size that would fit any pot and of course you could vary the weight by how full you poured the cup. LLS

[runfiverun]

I have a pretty good selection of ingot molds from rcbs and lyman.
heck I even have some custom made ones with the cast boolit logo in them.
mostly I use the gang mold I made from angle iron a few years back anymore.
I now wish I would have made three of them 25 years sooner.
the triangle shapes stack tighter and higher and neater than the ingot molds do.
they also slide right into my 10-20 and 40 lb pots without any drama.
and they take just a bit less lead than my stainless soup ladle holds, which allows me to keep the oxidized scum out of the ingots.