cooling wort
 

I'm planning on my first ag batch in a couple of weeks. I don't have and immerson chiller. would it be a problem to cool part way in an ice bath, transfer to fermentor with airlock and let sit a day or so before pitching yeast

it should be fine as long as you sanitize well. do a search for 'no chill brewing'

Read up on "No Chill" brewing to get some pointers. It takes quite awhile for 5 gallons of boiling liquid to cool to pitching temps. Work that ice bath as long as you can. For full boils you should look into a chiller unless you are going to modify a freezer for chilling the wort. It is not too hard to make your own IC, although copper prices keep going up.

I can get my wort from boiling to around 70f with an ice bath in about 30mins. I use a large rubbermaid tub and I fill it up with water, pace the pot in there with no ice, when the water gets hot I dump it and repeat. The 3rd time I fill 50/50 with water and ice. As long as you are sanitary, your method will work