spilled lead on concrete....Can I re melt it?

[sbeatty1983]

So Im new to casting. I have a set of molds on the way and a bucket full of wheel weights I wanted to melt down and get the trash and clips out of. While pouring the lead into my muffin pan I spilled a good bit of lead on the concrete. After it cooled it came right up in a large sheet but is got bits of concrete and sand on the bottom side. If I re melt this will the concrete and grit float to the top after I flux it? I dont want to send sand paper down my bore and Im kind of scared it all wont come out in the dross.

[JesterGrin_1]

What Excess is trying to say YES you can re melt it. :)

[sbeatty1983]

thanks. takes a load off of my mind

[Ole]

I put a 2'x2' piece of sheet metal on the ground under my work area to catch the drippings when I am working with molten lead. Makes cleanup a lot simpler!

[JesterGrin_1]

You can go to a Wall Mart and in the Auto section you can get a oil drip pan. They are cheap and work great. They are about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide more or less.

[runfiverun]

those drip pans work pretty good.
i use a stop sign.
found it behind our shed in utah, been using it for a floor under the melter ever since.

[JesterGrin_1]

I use an RCBS Pro Melt on top of a table. And the Table is large enough for me to place the Drip Pan and then the Pro Melt and everything on top of that. So drips.spills or anything else is no problem.

[blackthorn]

R5R--Was the back of your shed that close to the intersection?

[tacofrank]

Like others have said it will float to the top.

[Shiloh]

Yup.

Been there done that.

Shiloh

[H.Callahan]

Yup.

Been there done that.

Shiloh

Ditto. ...and shot the results!

[Lloyd Smale]

I had probably 3 tons of lead in my barn when it burned. After the burned junk was cleared I about had a giant sheat of mixed alloys and melted bullets on the ground. I ended up recovering probably 75 percent of it. I took out sheats that i know weighted 500lbs the neighbors tractor. With his help we used a weed burner to cut the lead into smeltable sized pieces. there was dirt, gravel burned wood, melted steel and almunium all mixed in. I melted it all down into ingots (lots of fluxing) in 200lb batches. then mixed a few ingots from each batch to get some kind of standard alloy. then repeated that two more times. I ended up with 20 some pails of ingots that test out about 16bhn. there was lots of tin there too and its in the mix. Stuff is some of the best casting alloy that ive ever used.

[Markbo]

Dang Lloyd, sorry to hear about your barn. But I guess you got a lot of 'standard' ingots now that you won't have to guess on what is in them for a long time, huh? :smile:

[popper]

Old cookie sheet works also. Makes it easy to dump the flakes and sprues back in the pot when done casting.

[Casper29]

Yes that's the way we learn, I don't know how many times I have has to scrape lead off of my garage floor.