When do you consider it to hot to smelt?

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Been in the upper 90s to mid 100s here for the last month. When do you consider it to hot to get out and smelt?

Sam :D

[Trey45]

Honestly I don't like to smelt when it's hotter than 70, but I've done it. Around here, 80 and hotter also means 80% humidity and higher, miserable weather for any hot work.

[Hurricane]

It depends on the weather you are accustomed to. I am in Texas and it never gets to hot to smelt here. Sometimes the weather seems to be hotter than the melted lead. If you need to smelt, your smelt, and try not to think about the heat. Up near Canada the locals think 60 degrees is a hot day. They would have a much different answer than me. If it is highly uncomfortable to you, it is to hot to smelt.

[Dale53]

I do my smelting in relatively large quantities (200-700 lbs in a "half day") and try to do it when the weather is reasonable. However, this past Spring, it seemed to be raining continuously for several months. I didn't get my regular Spring smelting done.

I am fortunate to still have some bullet metal in ingots but it will be a bit closer than I like.

I may have to get up early and do it before it gets too hot for at least a couple of hundred pounds. Obviously, I prefer the cooler months for smelting.

FWIW
Dale53

[Marlin Junky]

FYI only (not to be construed as criticism):

The term smelting normally refers to extracting metal from ore... what we do is render scrap metal into boolit alloy. Do you smelters have access to a lead mine?... 'cause I'd really like to get in on this. Perhaps you just like saying smelt? Hey, it's the middle of summer, I don't even like to hear the term smelt unless I'm using it for bait (just kidding, I don't fish with live bait). I really don't care if you want to create your own dialect (i.e., boolits); however, you're using the american-english term smelting improperly. That's is all...

MJ

[bowfin]

Since one has to bring the temperature past 630º regardless of temperature, it's sort of a moot point, as more heat will be manufactured anyhow.

We have at least three factories around here where I know the temperatures would reach 100+ degrees during the dog days of summer, or about 5-10º hotter than what it was outside. Those employees would work 8-10 hours every day in those temps, me being one of them for years and years.

I guess it is like Hurricane says, it is whatever you get used to having as "normal". Now cold, that's another story. I can get frozen out when it gets below freezing.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

it all depends on how bad i need lead , for casting i smelted some wheel weights the other day it was high 80s that's a Wisconsin 90 as the hottest i can ever remember it being was 103 and i was running a chain saw for work cleaning up after a fire removing all the trees that died
we get some big swings in temperature might be high 90's one day and 45 the next that happened the first week of June this year
many a spring or fall day we start the day with frost and see 90 in the afternoon
35 below zero is the coldest i have seen it that with out wind chill
i have a friend that works in a foundry he wears coveralls till it's near 80 degrees out cause he is used to it being hot where he works
everyone figures out how to get done what needs doing if it needs doing bad enough no matter the temp.

in your case muddy where smelting = income, it would depend how hard up i was for cash

[alamogunr]

Since my last session was done when the temperature was in the mid 90's, I voted that way. Now, since I have almost 2 tons of ingots, anything above absolute zero is too hot.

That last session, I lost about 10 pounds and I'm not overweight. I've got some odds and ends(stick-ons, easy range pick-up) that needs to be cleaned up but it can wait until I'm tired of walking around it.

John
W.TN

[Gswain]

I did a bunch of smelting in 95 degree weather 50 % humidity, wont do that again. got mild heatstroke.

[ktw]

Anything over 60 degrees is too hot for me. I have enough ingots put up to last several years. I render down wheel weights sporadically in the spring or fall, and only when I'm in the mood for it.

-ktw

[Moondawg]

Temps running mid to high 90s and huminity about 75+% around here. You sweat a bit when smelting, but drink lots of water/iced tea and you will be fine. Until the temps get above about 110 degrees being too hot is more in peoples mind than it is actual temp. I smelt in the shade and there is usually a bit of a breeze. So. Texas in the summer tends to be on the warm damp side. Folks in No. Texas have the warm, but don't have the advantage of the dampness to keep their skin soft. Thank the Good Lord we don't have to put up with nasty snow, ice and frozen toe-nose.

[41mag]

I can relate Hurricane, I was out two days this past weekend burner going and lead a melting.

Here on the Gulf Coast of TX there ain't such a thing as no humidity, throw in some cloudless days and 95+ degree temps yippie. If I want to shoot them I got to melt it down, so I just get out and git-r-done, then come in cool off and have a cold one.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I only smelt when it is too cold for the neighbors to have any windows open. I live on Center St. and it is indeed in the center of town. I don't want anyone to have to smell that smoke or to smell smoke from someone else.

[LabGuy]

I closed up rendering lead from wheel weights for the season on 5/22 at 96 degrees. I should have saved that one for the fall, but I wanted to compact the volume a bit. Still have six five gallon buckets to go. I’ll wait November. Hope to have more by then. I quit casting for the season the next day. We have what I call a wet heat down here. Now it’s reloading season.

[markinalpine]

I live in one of those Texas areas that was pretty well burnt to a crisp last Spring. We've had a total outdoor burn ban in effect since.
Mark

[imashooter2]

Fall or Spring for me. I like it 50 - 60 degrees.

[KYCaster]

FYI only (not to be construed as criticism):

The term smelting normally refers to extracting metal from ore... what we do is render scrap metal into boolit alloy. Do you smelters have access to a lead mine?... 'cause I'd really like to get in on this. Perhaps you just like saying smelt? Hey, it's the middle of summer, I don't even like to hear the term smelt unless I'm using it for bait (just kidding, I don't fish with live bait). I really don't care if you want to create your own dialect (i.e., boolits); however, you're using the american-english term smelting improperly. That's is all...

MJ


FWIW, I agree, but I don't think our opinion is going to make it change.

Jerry

[alamogunr]

FYI only (not to be construed as criticism):

The term smelting normally refers to extracting metal from ore... what we do is render scrap metal into boolit alloy. Do you smelters have access to a lead mine?... 'cause I'd really like to get in on this. Perhaps you just like saying smelt? Hey, it's the middle of summer, I don't even like to hear the term smelt unless I'm using it for bait (just kidding, I don't fish with live bait). I really don't care if you want to create your own dialect (i.e., boolits); however, you're using the american-english term smelting improperly. That's is all...

MJ

It is easier to just ignore the misuse of "smelting" and use your own terminology. I did that in my post above. To me, we are basically cleaning up what has already been "smelted" and converting it for our particular use.

John
W.TN

[Echo]

Basically latter part of June, then July, then August, then early September. Later September is still hot, but drying out, so it's not terrible, just hot. Hit 111 about a week ago (tied record for the date)...

But if I were of a mind, I could get out about dawn:30 and have at it, for a couple of hours...

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
I "RENDER" my scrap Pb when there is still snow on the ground, in the foothills.
Cools the ingots fast, cools me, campfire melts Pb. About April/May temp. about 60 * f.:Fire::Fire:

[Tom W.]

I prefer to wait until fall, then take an afternoon and into the evening on a cooler day and make ( either smelt or render, your choice) clean ingots from nasty dirty wheel weights.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

When you put the lead/WW's in the pan/pot and they melt right away, its too hot to smelt/render

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[rnelson11]

The last 2 mornings I got up about 6:00 am and started redering my WWs into ingots. I finish about 9:00 am when it got to about 80 deg. It was 96 degs by 4:00 pm.

[Bret4207]

When we get perfect haying weather, it's too hot to smelt.

[gnoahhh]

Finally, someone had the temerity to point out the incorrect usage of the word smelt on this site. Yay! (Hearing us referred to on other websites as that bunch of hicks who can't spell is getting a little old.)

As for rendering lead scrap into ingots, it's not like I feel the need to hover around the pot while it's melting. That's my cue to go over to the shade or in the house with a cold drink and keep an eye on it from cooler climates. Then I pour the ingots, cram some more scrap into the pot, and retreat once again. All in all not a horrible experience even in the 90º+ high humidity weather we've been enjoying here. Actual casting of bullets is done inside in the air conditioning.

[mold maker]

I MELT/SMELT/RENDER from early Fall, till late Spring. I MELT/POUR/CAST, BOOLITS/BULLETS in my MOLDS/ MOULDS, all year.
I have no intention to worry about being, politically, or even necessarily grammatically correct. Within the confines of this forum, I doubt if there is anyone, who misunderstands what I mean, no matter which word I use.
Not everyone here is the graduate, of a prestigious university. I will never point out spelling or grammar errors to anyone, unless invited to do so as a help, or to clarify FOR them, in cases where safety is an issue.
To constantly disparage others for spelling and grammar is to insult them. I for one, want to learn, enjoy, and accept, the writers words as written. Their level of education and command of the English language not withstanding.
This subject comes up way too often, and as far as I'm concerned, it's pointless.

[gnoahhh]

Actually, it's not pointless. Exercising at least a minimal command of our common language and at least making an effort to be grammatically correct is taken as a sign of respect by the people one is communicating with. To speak/write as if English is a second language and not one's native tongue is to be disrespectful to ones audience.

A lot of good information is lost through mis-communication. To wit, breaking off trying to read a response that is full of grammatical errors and twisted syntax but which might contain kernels of casting wisdom. Doesn't anyone own (or use) a dictionary anymore?

I know discussions of this nature probably don't belong on a shooting oriented board, and I apologize for bringing it up. This is a great board with an astounding amount of casting knowledge. I just hate to see any of it fall through the cracks and be wasted due to poor communication.

[Echo]

I MELT/SMELT/RENDER from early Fall, till late Spring. I MELT/POUR/CAST, BOOLITS/BULLETS in my MOLDS/ MOULDS, all year.
I have no intention to worry about being, politically, or even necessarily grammatically correct. Within the confines of this forum, I doubt if there is anyone, who misunderstands what I mean, no matter which word I use.
Not everyone here is the graduate, of a prestigious university. I will never point out spelling or grammar errors to anyone, unless invited to do so as a help, or to clarify FOR them, in cases where safety is an issue.
To constantly disparage others for spelling and grammar is to insult them. I for one, want to learn, enjoy, and accept, the writers words as written. Their level of education and command of the English language not withstanding.
This subject comes up way too often, and as far as I'm concerned, it's pointless.

Having been in a professorial position for a significant portion of my life. mis-spellings naturally grate on me - or they did - but I decided that we aren't all classroom-types, and the important thing is the thought, not the correctness of grammar/spelling/definitions, or homonyms (i.e. 'there' for 'their'). It isn't too much of a challenge to decipher the meaning from a post that has less-then-perfect spelling. And anyone that gets hung up on such stuff needs to get a life...

Render/Smelt indeed... Carrumba.

[para45lda]

Well, considering I wound up with about 100 pounds of ingots this morning and it was over 90 I had to vote +100.

And based on the amount of dirt and trash in the wheel weight buckets, I'm going too keep calling it smelting. :kidding:

Wes

[HollowPoint]

Regardless of the time of year or the ambient temperature, I cast a new batch of bullets when I run out of my last batch of bullets.

It's never pleasant to do a casting or smelting session in the extreme Arizona heat but, if I'm in the shade and there's a good breeze I don't mind casting bullets in 100+ degree temperatures.

I don't want to come off sounding contradictory or like some kind of idiot "tough-guy" because I'm not; but, if I need some more bullets and I have the time to do so, I'll cast/render/smelt (or whatever you want to call it) even if it's over a hundred degrees outside.

Of course I'm not so stupid that I'd do it out in direct sunlight. I do take certain precautions.

HollowPoint

[Marlin Junky]

Render/Smelt indeed... Carrumba.

Are you trying to spell Carnauba?

:kidding:

MJ

[Bret4207]

Okay, smelt ain't accurate and neither obturate or obdurate and a bullet/boolit darn sure ain't a pill or a head, fluxing is really reducing and slugging isn't the right word either. Would you like to take a stab at leade/lead/throat /ball seat and try and figure out which is right there?

I generally don't even think of it as "smelting", I call it melting down a mess of scrap. Smelting is a lot easier to write. We render hog fat.

[Uncle R.]

Smelting?
We used to do that on the shores of Lake Michigan through nights in early spring. Mighty tasty them little fish were too - breaded and fried quickly in hot oil 'till they were near "tater chip" crisp.
YUM!
<
Smelting LEAD?
<
I expect you'd have a heck of a time getting the net up off the bottom of the lake.
Uncle R.

[Harter66]

I don't care to do any rendering when it gets much over 75-80*. But then I'm on a BP med that makes it hard for me to cool out and warm up. Memorial day weekend it snowed,yesterday we broke 100 w/rain last night.in this desert we're dieing when it hits 40% humidity as we live around 14-20% most of the time. I prefer to do the rendering when its down in the 30-40s as I can heat the garage some . I got home last night it was 103 in the garage.

[Marlin Junky]

Smelting is a lot easier to write.

Smelting is easier to write than render?


We render hog fat.

Oh please, do I need to define the word render for you guys? :lol:

BTW, isn't this a lot more fun and/or informative than trying to decide whether it's too hot outside to stand over a 700F pot of molten metal? To me the decision is a "no-brainer" (to quote a contemporary vernacular). Fer exampull: If'n I wanna git warm'd up, I turns on da hot thingy. If'n I wanna git cool, I jumps in da cement pond.

I guess that'll be enough of that...

MJ

[Tom W.]

Jeeze, I ain't gots no ceement pond.. We gots to be wary of gators here....:redneck:

[MT Gianni]

I ingotized some ww on the 4th. I did 150 lbs or so, temps might have hit 90. It was the first day I had time and no rain in sight. I do this outside, 15 feet from the shop where I can head for shade if I need to.

[Bret4207]

Smelting is easier to write than render?
MJ

Nope but it's a lot easier than "melting down a mess of scrap".

[casterofboolits]

I try not to "render" lead scrap and second hand wheel weights when the temp exceeds 75 degrees F.

[Stick_man]

Well, one way to look at it is the higher the starting temperature of whatever it is you are melting down, the less fuel it will take to get it to the molten state. Doesn't a cold wheelweight (been sitting at 35 degrees for a while) take a little bit longer to melt down than one that is already warmed to say 75 degrees? There is a 40 degree temp change that doesn't need to be worked over.

Just askin'

[Dale53]

Well, one way to look at it is the higher the starting temperature of whatever it is you are melting down, the less fuel it will take to get it to the molten state. Doesn't a cold wheelweight (been sitting at 35 degrees for a while) take a little bit longer to melt down than one that is already warmed to say 75 degrees? There is a 40 degree temp change that doesn't need to be worked over.

Just askin'

A forty degree difference is only 6%. It boils down to, "I do it when I have to". My preference is to do it when the weather is cool. However, for three months around here it rained dern near every day. I do NOT run my turkey fryer outside when it is raining or threat of rain. I do NOT need any of THAT kind of excitement.

Dale53

[mold maker]

It was considered too hot to heat up the turkey fryer, so I grabbed a straw hat and went to the range. I picked up over 2 gal of brass before the 90+ got to me. Turns out that I can't enjoy much of anything outdoors with 85% wet and 90+ hot.

[Dale53]

It was considered too hot to heat up the turkey fryer, so I grabbed a straw hat and went to the range. I picked up over 2 gal of brass before the 90+ got to me. Turns out that I can't enjoy much of anything outdoors with 85% wet and 90+ hot.

"Ain't it the truth"...:groner:

Dale53

[Tazman1602]

I SMELT my lead down when I need more nuggets! Cooler is better for me. I normally have enough ingots to last a year or more but much prefer to melt and clean my wheel wieghts in the fall or early spring.

60-65 degrees is perfect temp for me outside.....................if I'm working hard mid-50's is even better...................

Art

[Freightman]

At 100+ that we have been for over a month doesn't leave you with much choice, but the stuff melts fast.

[geargnasher]

Okay, smelt ain't accurate and neither obturate or obdurate and a bullet/boolit darn sure ain't a pill or a head, fluxing is really reducing and slugging isn't the right word either. Would you like to take a stab at leade/lead/throat /ball seat and try and figure out which is right there?

I generally don't even think of it as "smelting", I call it melting down a mess of scrap. Smelting is a lot easier to write. We render hog fat.

One of the problems with esoteric hobbies is that the jargon is difficult to standardize. We do the best we can by borrowing terms from similar things. There is in fact no word currently in the english language that accurately describes the act of melting down dirty scrap for cleaning and ingotizing. Is "ingotize" even a word? We've been over this before, several times. I'll stick to "smelting" because it's close enough and the vast majority of the people here know what I mean, and no one has convinced me yet that there is a better alternative. Besides, as a final step in cleaning my melted scrap, I reduce the oxides by introducing carbon monoxide to the melt, in a similar way the final step of galena smelting is done in industry.

Obturate is borrowed from the medical field, where it means blockage of an artery or passage in the body. The term works well in our hobby, but is constantly misused to mean boolit deformation or expansion to seal the bore under pressure. "To obturate the bore" means the boolit accomplished a seal by what ever means and didn't have a significant or harmful amount of gas blowby, it doesn't mean your HB wadcutter swelled up when the Bullseye lit off.

Fluxing and reducing are two different things. If you "flux" with sawdust you are both fluxing AND reducing at the same time. If you "flux" with candle wax or boolit lube, you are reducing, and not fluxing at all. If you "flux" with kitty litter you aren't doing either. If you "flux" with Marvellux you are fluxing, but NOT reducing.

The common mis-usages that have made their way into our dictionaries do tic me off royally, though. "Irregardless" is one of my pet peeves. And "mold". Mold grows on cheese, old bread, and on top of xeris in casks. A Mould is for boolit casting. But the dictionary says it's right to spell it either way. Barf.

Oh, by the way, I smelted some scrap organ pipes last weekend, at two in the morning it was finally 85 degrees. Too hot for my pink fez, but I did wear pants under the leather apron this time!

Gear

[yotatrd4x4]

Here in Alaska it never gets too hot to smelt down my stash. Now it does on the other hand get too cold. Anything below -10 f and I almost freeze when casting or smelting but I will if I need boolits or alloy mixs. Now when I used to be stationed in Florida a few years back I would just setup in the shade and run a big ass fan because there it's always too hot for my blood. Anyhow just depends on where ur at and what you can stand. I can bear alot when it comes to my smelt/ cast sessions.

[41mag]

Finally, someone had the temerity to point out the incorrect usage of the word smelt on this site. Yay! (Hearing us referred to on other websites as that bunch of hicks who can't spell is getting a little old.)

I came over to this sit years before I finally settled in and started asking questions about this that and the other. To me it was like being around a bunch of old friends. I don't care if it's spelled right or not, if I cannot figure out what they are saying I will ask.

This is a place for most to come and share ideas and some to learn from them. Me personally I hang out here to get away from most of the uppity folks on the other sites with all of their brow beating and chest pumping ethics this that and the other. Here it's your thing and if someone don't like it well they pass on by or keep their noses out of your business.

Don't get me wrong, if it has anything relating to safety, your rear will get winched up right quick, but the rest can all be taken in stride, and the prima donna's on the "other" sites can kiss my grits.

And yes, I am every bit a "REDNECK" and proud of it. GIT - R - DONE....

[Bent Ramrod]

It's been in the 103-109 range here the last couple weeks. As long as I'm in the shade and have an open window where the cool air from the house can blow on me, casting outside is no problem. I just duck inside at intervals for water.

[Rockydog]

Just because I'm feeling cantankerous tonight..... From: absoluteastronomy.com

Smelting involves more than just "melting the metal out of its ore". (emphasis mine)
Most ores are a chemical compound of the metal with other elements, such as oxygen, as an oxide.

An oxide is an anion of oxygen in the oxidation state of -2 or a chemical compound formally containing an oxygen in this state. Most of the Earth's crust consists of oxides. Oxides result when elements are oxidized by oxygen in air. Combustion of hydrocarbons affords the two principal oxides of sulfur, as a sulfide or as a carbonate,

A sulfide is an anion of sulfur in its lowest oxidation number of −2. Sulfide is also a slightly archaic term for thioethers, a common type of organosulfur compound that are well known for their bad odors.

In chemistry, a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, . The name may also mean an ester of carbonic acid, an organic compound containing the carbonate group O=C2....

To produce the metal, these compounds have to undergo a chemical reaction. Smelting therefore consists of using suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. (Emphasis mine)

By this definition I'd consider what we do closer to smelting than rendering. And this doesn't even address the removal of impurities like valve stems, stick on backings, zinc weights and spent copenhagen chaw that ends up in the WW pail that I leave by the tire dealers mounting machine. RD

[Fishman]

It's going to be 109 Saturday and Sunday. That is too hot to do anything.

[Tom W.]

And to paraphrase an old green lady...



AHHHHHH, I'm Smelting! Smelting!!!!

:bigsmyl2: