Picked up 2 Pursuit belts on sunday(very comfy & nice and robust while remaining very flexible/stretchy). Then stopped by the LDS to find that lead is $3/lb seems ridiculous to me. So i've picked up a 2lb mold to start making my own weights and although it was $25 I can now make unlimited weights because I get old lead wheel weights at work for free. My first attempt went poorly and i didnt melt enough lead and it cooled too quickly in the mold. To top it off I then overfilled the mold and it was a bear to get out. OK so that one went back onto the stove for round two. Second weight came out much nicer, so heres the things I changed: wiped mold with wd40 (small amounts because the stuff is flammable) then I preheated the mold to 350 in the oven to help keep the lead temps up while I poured. Not overfilling the mold and removing the weight while it was still warm(too hot to touch without welders gloves) made life easy. Now its cooling in the garage and the only thing I see that might be a bitch is that the belt is thick and the holes in the weight are fairly thin. Does anybody have any simple suggestions? Using a file would be way too time consuming and not make it worthwhile. I'll post pics shortly
the mold side came out great
as you can see it was cooling too quickly and I overfilled the mold
Damage from trying to pry it out due to overfilling and poor technique