I'll never go back....

[jonk]

I know a few guys here use weed burners to melt their lead. Well, Harbor freight was having a sale- $18 plus tax. So I thought I'd bite. I mean, what red blooded american can say no to what is essentially a short range flamethrower????

All I can say is, wow. It melted the clips off of a 20 lb. pot of wheelweights in under a minute, and re-melted and liquified the lead underneath within 3. Plus I burnt the weeds in my driveway with it. :mrgreen:

No more 30 minute melts on Coleman stoves for me.

[Johnch]

Better sort your WW carfuly
I have been getting a fair amount of Zink WW lately around Toledo

And your flame thrower is putting out enough heat to melt Zink if you are getting those results

Hate to see you with unusable lead

John

[GrizzLeeBear]

Yeah, I've gotten a couple zinc WW in the last two pots I melted. These looked exactly like regular WW, molded onto the clips, not riveted. On close inspection after scooping them out after everything else melted, sure enough, a real small 'Zn' on them.

[jonk]

Well, I did find a few that didn't melt......so perhaps I'm lucky? We'll see.

[Crash_Corrigan]

As far as Zinc I would rather have the 20 min wait and keep the alloy at less than 700 degrees in order to not melt down the zinc. If the mix hits 700 I scoop off all the dross, clips and unmelted weights and toss 'em. Then I flux and either add more weights or start ladeling into mold for ingots. I have one pot full of ruined alloy now that I have to remelt and play with to remove the zinc. One is one too many!

Now I have the Exide Battery company placing their buckets near all the tire breakers in my shops around town and they are paying money for the lead. Nobody can tell me how much they are paying because they are getting a credit when they restock the Exide batteries. I guess I am having to go out and form a company in order to compete with these people. Things are gonna get ugly around here unless I can keep my lead stash growing!!!!:Fire: