First smelt, rainbow ingots

[Cowboy_Dan]

So, after hanging out on here for a couple of months and reading a lot, I finally smelted down some wheel weights. I wasn't able to get my thermometer to reach the alloy, so I kind of played it by ear. I noticed the melt going all rainbow, so I cut the flame and fluxed a few times trying not to pull out any colors with the dross. The rainbow never left the surface, so after fluxing, I poured ingots hoping the rainbow would disappear in the pour. Didn't happen. This is what they look like, do I have any problems here? Also, the picture may not fully show the texture, they are a little bumpy/bubley on the open side of tue mold, does that mean I still had dross in my melt?

119192

Thanks for anwering yet another question from this noob!

[5Shot]

Sounds like Zinc...

[1johnlb]

Was this stick on ww or clip on ww?

[williamwaco]

Those colors are perfectly normal.

More colorful means progressively hotter than necessary.

[Smoke4320]

Looks like you got the lead a little too hot.. not really going to hurt anything .. my first few looked the same way.. then rigged up a thermometer and all was well..
Did you sort out the zinc and fe weights first
Also what did you use for flux ?

[dragon813gt]

To hot, that's all. You had it a lot hotter than needed.

[Cowboy_Dan]

I was hoping too hot would be the only answer. I guess I'll settle for the main answer. I knew it was too hot when the rainbow showed, but was confused when it didn't disappear after I turned off the flame until the pot was nearly empty.

These were clip on weights. I fluxed with pet store hamster bedding. I'm hoping there wasn't any zinc, but the thought crossed my mind. I did sort them, but there's always that possibility of some slipping through.

Also, I yielded about 25 pounds of ingots from about 40 pounds of weights for close to 62.5%, is that good? The dross felt heavier than I expected it would and I couldn't prevent removing some color when I scooped it out. I may sift the dross later for any larger pieces that look like metal rather than ash.

Thanks again!

[dragon813gt]

If you didn't remove all the zinc weights you definitely melted them.

[zanemoseley]

I just smelted my first bucket of WW's, I got 85 pounds from a starting weight of 120, so 70.8%. All depends on where you get the weights and what they come from I guess.

[RED333]

Do not listen to these guys, you lead is bad, soured, stale, just bad.
Send it to me for proper shooting, UM I mean disposal. LOL
As others said, to hot.

[bangerjim]

Lead, mainly pure, turns all technicolor when you get it tooooooooooo hot. No problme, senor.

Use is.

Aloys with Sn and Sb tend to not turn colors but form oxides on the top. That is why you use fluxes/reducers to force them back into the lead.

Cast away.

banger

[osteodoc08]

Too hot as mentioned. Zinc will get all oatmeally on you. The colors are
oxidation. Get something to reduce
the oxides back in (beeswax works well).

[websterz]

And re-smelt that heavy dross, there is good metal in there that didn't get reduced back into the alloy. As you are fluxing use your ladle, spoon, whatever you use, to smear the dross along the side of the pot then stir it in good. When you're done fluxing a couple of times you're not going to get much more than a fine powdery ash as all of the metal will have gone back into the mix.

[Bullwolf]

This question comes up often, and may also be a good candidate for a FAQ.

You can find some of the answers to this re-occurring question from an older thread Gold and purple and blue... Oh My! (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?63550-Gold-and-purple-and-blue-Oh-My)

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?63550-Gold-and-purple-and-blue-Oh-My!



- Bullwolf