Suggestions on lead ladle?

Dave Diefenderfer

Dave Diefenderfer

Well-known member
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Spent the afternoon yesterday pouring lead. Made a dozen LI style scoop weights, 4 dozen 8oz egg weights, a dozen 6oz keel straps, and 3 dozen H weights. My melting pot now needs a new handle. I have been using an aluminum sauce pan on a coleman camp stove. The wooden handle burned up yesterday! i am thinking it would be safer, and easier to control if I poured with a ladle rather than handling the whole pot. So I am looking for a ladle that will hold a little over a pound, as the H weights are just under 16oz each. So around 2 fluid oz should do it I think?

What have you been using?
 
Spent the afternoon yesterday pouring lead. Made a dozen LI style scoop weights, 4 dozen 8oz egg weights, a dozen 6oz keel straps, and 3 dozen H weights. My melting pot now needs a new handle. I have been using an aluminum sauce pan on a coleman camp stove. The wooden handle burned up yesterday! i am thinking it would be safer, and easier to control if I poured with a ladle rather than handling the whole pot. So I am looking for a ladle that will hold a little over a pound, as the H weights are just under 16oz each. So around 2 fluid oz should do it I think?

What have you been using?
Click to expand...

EBAY some nice shit up... I used crap for years and then got a nice old cast iron ladle - much nicer. Cast iron dutch ovens work well for bulk, but a plumbers pot is nice to have too.
 
Dave~

Here is the ladle I use - made by my Dad probably in the 50s. It's stainless. Tubular handle stays cool and flat bottom keeps it upright. I often use it as both my melting pot and my ladle if I'm just pouring ballast into a keel or making an anchor or two. Cast iron muffin mold is what I use for my mushrooms.

That said, I'm sure you would be very happy with a cast iron ladle as others have suggested.

Ladle-small_zps79b2e6c1.jpg


BTW: I have a "collection" of decoy anchors - maybe 20 or 30 of different styles. I plan to hang them from the ceiling in my shop for display (someday). I wonder if anyone else here has such a collection.

All the best,

SJS
 
I don't have a photo, but I use a "Lee Production Pot" made by Lee Reloading(?).


It holds several pounds of lead, and has a neat little pouring spout built in the bottom. I had to modify the base a bit to raise it up a little so the mold will fit under it.


I use a big melting pot on the Coleman stove, then just keep filling it as I use it. I also have a ladle, but I seldom use it, mostly to remove the slag from the melting pot. It is really old and came from my Dad.


Just another idea.


Jon
 
Jon, I have used Larry J's similar pot, but I find I get a better pour when I can trace the mold with the pour. Moving the mold is much harder than moving the pour. But I agree, the small pour port on the Lee pot was nice. Of course, when I finally get the mold and the lead at the right temp, the pours just go so smooth and come out perfect.... takes awhile each time I do it to find that point. What I need to do is get a IR pyrometer and record when I hit the sweet spot so I can get there without trial and error each time.
 
Oh, I see Dave, your molds are one-sided or open. Mine is two sided and enclosed, so I only have a small hole to pour into. Or I use muffin-type pans.


A buddy made this for me about thirty years ago. The weights are about 14 oz. I takes a bit to get the mold to the right temperature, but once it's there, I can make anchors as fast as I can pour and unload it.



AnchorMold.jpg



Anchors.jpg



I actually have three sets of these. One set with six feet of line, one set with about sixteen feet, and one set with about thirty feet on them. I can cover most all depths that way.


I think you'll figure it out. I like Steve S's ladle.


Jon
 
Oh, I see Dave, your molds are one-sided or open. Mine is two sided and enclosed, so I only have a small hole to pour into. Or I use muffin-type pans.


A buddy made this for me about thirty years ago. The weights are about 14 oz. I takes a bit to get the mold to the right temperature, but once it's there, I can make anchors as fast as I can pour and unload it.



AnchorMold.jpg



Anchors.jpg



I actually have three sets of these. One set with six feet of line, one set with about sixteen feet, and one set with about thirty feet on them. I can cover most all depths that way.


I think you'll figure it out. I like Steve S's ladle.


Jon
Click to expand...
I wish you lived closer I'd love to borrow your mold sometime!
 
There is a place called Barlow's Tackle I think, that sells a lot of lead casting supplies. A 1# ladle isn't that big, so don't a large size. Try googling "bullet casting supplies" as well.
 
My brother worked for Grumman for years. I saw alot of neat custom work come out of the shops there. Molds, trailers, custom fire nozzles, race car parts etc. Known as G Jobs...
Old saying on Long Island, if the phone company or Lilco didn't have it, Grumman could make it...
 
Rich and Rich~

Actually, my Dad always had second and third jobs. One was in the Oakes (sp?) Machine Shop on Commack Road in Islip. I believe that's where he made the ladle.

Re Grumman's: A friend's brother used to sneak into the high-security CNC router at night (this was 30+ years ago) - to carve decoy heads.

All the best,

SJS
 
As the wonderful old "Bay Rats" used to tell me at the gunning shack out in the South Bay years ago, "Retail is the most hated word in the English language"...and then have a libation while sitting out on their 125 foot long walkway anchored on old telephone poles and hardwood slats from those huge cable reels...as they used to say "Ma Bell's Best"!
 
Speaking of Grummans, Lilco, Ma Bell being a source of cool stuff, Brookhaven Lab was the fourth source of things unobtainable elsewhere. I had some friends that were moving Lead out of there. One of my friends said his volkswagen looked like a low rider going out the gate. They had lead pigs lining the floor front and rear, with carpet over them. those guys are all dead now, all died of cancer. Could it have been from contaminated lead? We will never know, will we ? Rich
 
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