Nasty wheel weights

[dltaskey]

I was smelting a bunch of newly acquired wheelweights today and got some really nasty stuff. I had a lot of metal "foam" on top that wouldn't go into solution so I skimmed it all off and then had a golden/blue/purple "scum" floating on top. I kept trying to skim off the scum but it kept reappearing and clogging up my dipper and spout. Anybody seen that kinda stuff before and have any idea what I got in the mix?:(

[waksupi]

That gold/purple/blue scum you were skimming off, was tin oxide, I do believe, which is good to keep.

[Ohio Rusty]

That gold/blue/purple coating on top I always skim off when I'm doing PURE LEAD boolets. In the light, it looks like the colors of a peacock feather. If that is Tin oxide or tin related, then that is the stuff that you want to flux back in for smokeless powder boolets. If you do skim it off with the dross, you can always add a length of pure tin solder to replace it. I'm interested in knowing what your pot temperature was. I alwats see those colors when the pot is around 700-725 according to the dial on the LEE pot.
Ohio Rusty

[Aaron]

When I was rendering some WWs and got the bright purple and gold dross, I was pushing 1000 degrees real hard., according to my thermometer. It wasn't frothy though.

Aaron

[dltaskey]

Yeah, the temp was about 700-750 for the colored scum, just never saw that before. I think the Lee thermostat stuck as it went up to about 1000 by my thermometer before dropping back. Maybe something had a bit more tin than usual. How about all the "foamy" dross stuff? When pouring ingots, I got weird volcano looking dross peaks where the lead was poured into the molds. They scraped off pretty easily into a dark grey sandy substance. Maybe antimony coming out of solution?

[Silicon Wolverine]

Its also possible you got a zinc wheelweight in there. In the last six months ive been picking alot of them out of my lead buckets i get from car dealers. I havent been able to pin down the supplier thats making them but they are a headache to pick out.

SW

[waksupi]

I melted two buckets of WW's today. The zinc were very obvious, and the few I missed, were floating on the surface, along with the clips. I don't know how hot you would have to get, to melt them, but I suspect, pretty warm!

[**oneshot**]

I'm new to the wheel weight market but the ones I did I smelted at 650 degrees. I did not have any problems with "stuff" burning off/seperating or mixing of the zincs(they just floated with the clips if I missed them). The ignots turned out great and I'll let you know how the bullets turn out next week.

[LarryM]

I've run into that when smelting a batch of monotype foamy dross and pretty colors. I skimmed it off and saved it incase it is something I want, pretty darn hard stuff when it cools.

[Lloyd Smale]

the colar were probably from the heat. The junk on top id pitch. Im to the point with wheelweights that i dont even flux the melt until ive skimmed everything off the top. I cant see trying to force something into the melt that doesnt want to be there. Sure a guy might loose a smidgen of tin that way but i doubt if its much and i routinely add 2 percent tin to all the ww i smelt even the stuff that im going to alloy later.

[woody1]

I melted two buckets of WW's today. The zinc were very obvious, and the few I missed, were floating on the surface, along with the clips. I don't know how hot you would have to get, to melt them, but I suspect, pretty warm!

Zinc melts at 787*F. Regards, Woody

[3sixbits]

One thing for sure you can not loose any tin from WW, even if you could which you can't, cause there at most is only a tiny fraction of less than a percent of tin in WW. And I mean it's a trace element only. Besides you can not get tin to separate from lead unless you have a SPECIALY built furnace and the correct set-up to remove the tin, it isn't going to come out of solution. I might add that the temp has to be held just above 450 degs to make the process work, that is to get the separation of the tin from the lead. And it can only be done when this alloy is in the solid form as in an ingot. Then gravity takes effect if your set-up is correct, and the tin will move down and away from the lead ingot.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I just got in a replacement thermostat for a big Lee pot today. Original stuck wide open. Yes Sir, they will do it. BvT

[Petander]

I was smelting a bunch of newly acquired wheelweights today and got some really nasty stuff. I had a lot of metal "foam" on top that wouldn't go into solution so I skimmed it all off and then had a golden/blue/purple "scum" floating on top. I kept trying to skim off the scum but it kept reappearing and clogging up my dipper and spout. Anybody seen that kinda stuff before and have any idea what I got in the mix?:(


Been there, I still don´t know for sure what those colors mean. One of my cleaning pots got those colors permanently when I melted some "mystery-pure-lead bars" some years ago. It was very soft lead.

No matter how much I clean that pot, it always gives those colors if I push the temp high enough. I haven´t found out any problems with ingots made using that pot though, I just used it yesterday for melting scrap WW:s.




Tin oxide,huh?


At least in my case there was no zinc WW:s in the pot, that "mystery lead" was my first melt in that pot. Of course it still could be zinc in that alloy.