Re-melting already cast boolits

[arawakstorm]

Greetings to all. I have cast several 44 mag boolits in linotype, 310 grain. They have already been lubed with the Lee bullet sizing lube. I want to "re-melt" them so I can cast them in the 240 grain mold. Is there any problem with this? In other words, can the sizing lube in the molten metal cause any hazardous reaction?

Please advise.

Thanks!!

[500MAG]

No problem. I do it all the time. Especially, when they fall on the garage floor after being lubed and get dirty. Fluxes right out.

[HATCH]

Depending on the lube and the temp of the lead in the pot, you may get a little flash fire (just a sec) when you put in a lubed boolit.
I run my pot hot so for me it normally flames up a sec if I put a boolit in that has lube on it.

[dragonfire]

No problems there melt away ,I smelted down a little over 200 pounds of 45 acp bullets the other day .Bought them from a family of a former caster ,they were all lubed with rcbs green lube ,I preheated the bullets drained the lube and then melted them down ,I now have a good supply of lead and flux for future runs.

[DrCaveman]

+1 to the advice above. Sometimes, one may cast more of a particular boolit than they need. That same person may take the trouble to lube & size said boolits. After testing various loads with this boolit, they may find it consistently inferior to other boolits for the same cartridge. At this moment one may find themselves a little short on ready-to-cast lead. The solution is quite simple, and productive.

Yes, I am talking about myself and yes the melt came out great after fluxing.

The only waste was electricity and time, but I got valuable practice as a return. I consider it a wash. Melt away!

[MT Gianni]

Once they get warm enough to pour the lube is long gone.

[arawakstorm]

Many thanks to all of you for your replies. I can now "re-cast in peace!":bigsmyl2:

[evan price]

I bought a 5-qt dutch oven full of cast, sized, lubed and gas checked boolits that had been a flooded basement and ruined.
They melted down quite nicely, the lube acted as a flux, and the gas checks popped off and got skimmed.

[btroj]

Think of them as unfired range scrap

[mr.jake]

I wouldnt drop them directly into the melt without pre heating them first.

[trixter]

I have a friend that seems to have an endless supply of cast, lubed/sized boolits. I just put them right into the mix and re-cast them into what he wants. We both get to have fun. The lube helps to flux and all is good.

[Mk42gunner]

Greetings to all. I have cast several 44 mag boolits in linotype, 310 grain. They have already been lubed with the Lee bullet sizing lube. I want to "re-melt" them so I can cast them in the 240 grain mold. Is there any problem with this? In other words, can the sizing lube in the molten metal cause any hazardous reaction?

Please advise.

Thanks!!

First of all, Welcome aboard.

There isn't any major problem with remelting a few boolits that have been lubed. If you have several pounds, I would do it outside in your smelting pot.

I bought a few hundred pounds of lead from a scrapyard once that had a lot (about 90 pounds worth) of LLA lubed boolits. since they were in calibers that I didn't need I smelted them the same as wheelweights. The LLA first melted into a black sticky goo layer about 1/4" thick, that covered everything; but eventually it caught fire and went away.

Other than the potential mess, there weren't any problems. If I had done it inside though, there would have been problems.

I will say that the layer of mule snot was about 1/16" thick on each boolit, that probably exacerbated the mess....

Robert