Building your own ShotMaker??

[smird]

Yes! Thats exactly what im talking about. That is infact what gave me the idea. Ours would need to be suspended and raised/lowered by a hand wench system or something...

Would that work or no?

I would love to make it out of aluminum. I heard it is a difficult material to weld though...

how are you going to add more lead?

[Bagelthief]

There could be a small hole (use a metal funnel to fill) that you could plug with a piece of tapered steel shaped like a cone. If the cone doesn't provide an air tight seal, a few small drops of molten lead could be poured around it after it was inserted and that would surely make it work.

Or maybe a small circle at the top could be cut out and threaded...It could be figured out.



Will silicone hold up at those temperatures?

[smird]

There could be a small hole (use a metal funnel to fill) that you could plug with a piece of tapered steel shaped like a cone. If the cone doesn't provide an air tight seal, a few small drops of molten lead could be poured around it after it was inserted and that would surely make it work.

Or maybe a small circle at the top could be cut out and threaded...It could be figured out.



Will silicone hold up at those temperatures?

As soon as you put a hole in the top it will drain. There are silicones that will go up to about 500-600 degrees. They use them for casting pewter.

[Bagelthief]

Yea I know it would drain as soon as you unplugged the top. The air pressure would be compromised. Remember I said earlier there would be a lever that you could flick that would stop the flow at the bottom momentarily? That part wouldn't even need to be air tight, as lead is very viscous even when hot.

I'm probably making it sound much more complicated then it really is...I will make a model out of cardboard this weekend and post up some pics.

[smird]

Yea I know it would drain as soon as you unplugged the top. The air pressure would be compromised. Remember I said earlier there would be a lever that you could flick that would stop the flow at the bottom momentarily? That part wouldn't even need to be air tight, as lead is very viscous even when hot.

I'm probably making it sound much more complicated then it really is...I will make a model out of cardboard this weekend and post up some pics.

sounds good, might be cool.