I Want a Magma Type Melting Pot 1 of 20

Junk-Ologist

One of the points in using so little junk in the construction of this pot is that it will show that in an emergency you do not have to have a lot of first line products to make something fantastic. Many years ago when I was a boy I wanted a wrist rocket sling shot. We lived in the desert and my dad would carve us wooden sling shots and we would salvage old car inner tubes and make the elastic straps to shoot stones with. One day while at the sporting goods store I saw a wrist rocket sling shot. The kids at school were talking about them and the price soon made it apparent that a kid my age could never afford one. The market was focused entirely on the adult pocket book and it cost as much than as a bicycle. Today they are from $5 to $15 but then about $100 seams to be the price that stick in my memory. One day I saw a piece of 1/4 metal rod in my dads scrap pile and realized that with a little effort I could make one. The replacement elastic straps were $2 and so I went to work and shaped the thing using a piece of 1/2 inch water pipe as a bender and wrapped the grip with a colorful #12 electric wire. For the pad by my wrist I salvaged some vinyl and some kind of stuffing as padding. My allowance was $1 a week. Two weeks would pass and with my small change I would have a wrist rocket sling shot. 

One man who read my book on restoring our liberty said to me concerning the section on home production of guns and supplies if you could not buy them "that people do not think that way any more about making things."  Perhaps so! But, I know a lot of guys who fix their own stuff and it would not be to big a leap for them to take the next step and create things if they were only provided with a little information. I think the time is fast approaching when we will either produce things at home of do without.

Before moving I had many hundreds of dollars of found scrap metal from road side pickup that had fallen off of some trucks here and there. How do I know how much it was worth? Because when I moved that is what I got for it at the metal salvage yard. Where I live now makes found scrap as rare as hens teeth. In Fact the photo above shows nearly all the scrap metal I have
 I will change the design of the pot some what to make construction easier But the photo above  is what metal scrap I will began with. It is all I had! But it would be nearly enough.

9/29/12 Time has passed since the above beginnings of this project. The blog program allows for going back and making additions so you can see the finished product. Below is what I ended up with and it will take 20 posts to show the completion of the metal work and no I am not selling you the blueprints, what you will see is all the information needed to construct this pot. The primary tool used in constructing the metal parts was a chop saw, a hand grinder, drill press, stick welder, box welder  and files. This project, though it is somewhat different in design to its Magma $525 Cast Master cousin many of the same principles apply in construction. This melting pot to this point was under $50 It will melt 90 lb of lead. Outside of the screws, fasteners, and bolts everything below was hand made by me.

The Magma design used three 1/2 inch X 8 inch  1000 watt fire rods which is what this pot was designed for producing 3000 watts of melting power. So this is not an experimental design. This pot was made in a box shape to simplify the construction. The pipe used for the pot was thicker than the Magma and slightly taller and the valve system was made beefier.  The scrap metal in the first photo above would have almost been enough to make this pot but I would need one more bent auto fender and decided on making a better pot liner. 

Alternative emergency products for producing this pot are electric stove heating coils in an emergency the 1/2 inch X 8 inch fire rods may not be available. This pot will burn 3000 watts of 240 volts with 3 fire rods at 1000 watts each. An 8 inch electric stove top coil will burn at 2500 watts which is more than enough to accomplish what this pot will do but it will be 500 watts short.  The Magma people suggest that this pot not be turned up any hotter than 700 degrees but it will go much, much higher. This means that the Magma pot is running at a lower wattage output.  A stove coil sandwiched between two 1/2 inch pieces of steel plate with the stove regulation equipment taken from a stove would theoretically produce an excellent smelting pot for lead about as good as this one. By slightly off setting the cook top stove coil and welding on a solid chunk of steel near the edge than you would be able to produce a drain.. Just so you know the smaller stove top coils burn at  about 1500 watts so two of them would give you the 3000 watts. I would not put both of the small burners side by side as they would probably destroy each other. Research and Development Needed R&D.N. to use stove coils. 

To view the next post on this project click here    This will save you from using the side bar but you can scroll down the side bar and find the  individual posts if you like. You will not find that a waste of your time as there is so much information on this sight useful to guns, reloading, shooting and inexpensive gun products that you can make at home when in the future you may not be able to buy them. To see my book click my name  Richard W Norman 

If they pass laws against guns then you will either make your gun parts, bullets and supplies at home, salvage or do without. There is a gun and ammo supply system in a book “AmericanHandbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom”. This is a Book on home gun construction and repair, powder, primers; and a brief history of how the USA has moved toward socialism and their written plans to overthrow our freedom and some solutions to save the Constitution.