What came out of my lead??

[supv26]

Like I posted earlier, this is my first time with pure lead and today when I started pouring boolits I had some strange stuff come to the top of the pot. Like any molten metal it would skim on top and oxidize with different colors. Today however, the oxidation turned to a bright gold color and when stirred floated some "stuff" to the top. I could crush it against the side of the pot to squeeze out the lead and it would leave this gold colored dust that I could just spoon right off.
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I looked at it with a magnifying glass and it looks like silica............

[littlejack]

Was there anything on the lead, before you started melting it, i.e. dirt, glue, glued on paper, sheetrock etc?
What is the origin of your lead, where did it come from? It looks like it may have been purty dirty prior to melting ?????
Jack

[Phoenix]

I get something like this all the time from smelting lead water pipe. All the sediment inside the pipe floats to the top when you stir it. You really should not put non-cleaned alloy in your casting pot. Or you are going to have allot of headaches with plugged up spouts. Even if you dont want to deal with large amounts get a cast iron frying pan or a smelting pot from ebay and pre-smelt and clean the lead before putting it into your casting pot.

[supv26]

This is lead I've picked up from a couple of different people. It was "supposed" to be cleaned/fluxed and ready to go! If I'd known it had this in it I wouldn't have put it in my pot. Anyway, it's just about used up and the pot is still running great. I still haven't had a single issue with this pot leaking or stopping up.

[tomme boy]

It is lead oxide. Keep smashing it up side the side of the pot when it shows up. Keep smashing it till it turns to powder. Then scoop it out and throw it away. No big deal.