First time making ingots and got some questions? Some pics also.

[usmc0811]

Well this is my first time making ingots. I acquired about 150 lbs. of used wheel weights from local shops and a small amount of lead pipe from a friend. I just got a turkey fryer for Christmas that I am using the burner for my heat source. I also picked up a brand new Dutch oven from a local outdoor/hunting shop. I started by melting down the lead pipe then when that turned to liquid I added the wheel weights a little at a time. All looked good but as I started to skim off the dross and would see nice shinny silver lead it would quickly turn back to a goldish/brass color on top. I would continue by adding some wax to flux the lead, let it burn off then scrape the pot and remove the impurities. I did this several times but it would still go back to the same color, and now turning a rainbow color like blue/purplish kind of like motor oil on a wet road with that rainbow shine. Did I do something wrong? did I have it to hot and maybe melted another alloy with my lead? The Dutch oven was new and had an oily film on it, would that cause this? Either way I skimmed it off and before it turned back to that color I pored it into my ingot molds. Should I have just kept fluxing with the wax till it was all gone? I'm very confused, not to sure if I messed them up. I have seen lots of great videos on line and never saw this happen. Would I still be good to go to melt them in a furnace and make target bullet or are they trash? Ill try to post some pictures. Also I had no way of telling the temperature because I had no thermometer125567125566125564125568125565 125569.

[BK7saum]

You likely overheated the alloy a bit and possibly burned out some tin and antimony. The blue and purple are indicative of pure or too hot. The quick change to gold is indicative of rapid oxidation of tin, again, too hot.

[4719dave]

Turn down the HEAT ......................Get a thermometer lol its close .Your going to learn how to separate your melts ,the lead pipe is pure or soft lead were the wheel weight are not ..

[usmc0811]

ok cool, so it will be ok to make bullets and shoot I guess. Just need to start slow and gradually bring to a melt and get a thermometer. Now if I kept fluxing would that have gone away?

[4719dave]

I use bees wax to flux with lots of guys use saw dust ,,if you flux it 2 or 3x it should go back and cool it down ,What happens is all good stuff is on top .When its to hot over 700 ..If you don't separate by hand the wheel weights, That's when trouble starts zinc isn't your friend.Oh adding new lead to the pot will find the tin fairy and shes not nice ,NOT A GOOD IDEA

[bangerjim]

Use pine sawdust 3X when re-melting lead and alloys to FLUX the dirt and grime out and pout the Sn back in for ingot making. Stir a lot! Use beeswax only in your casting pot to REDUCE the Sn back in. If your ingots are 100% clean, you do not need to use saw dust again in my book.

As said blue-ish is OK for pure lead.......too hot for alloys.

You will learn to melt and ingotize your alloys separately to allow furure mixture changes. Keep the pure and the COWW's separate!

bangerjim

[usmc0811]

What do you mean by Sn?

[BK7saum]

Sn is the chemical symbol for tin. Sb is the symbol for antimony.

[zuke]

Not too shabby for a first time!

[usmc0811]

Thanks, still new to all this.

[Duckdog]

Looks like the blue tinted melt is from the leasd pipe, which is pure and dead soft. You'll get that, is that is the case. The ingots will most likely be nice asnd shiney for as while, too. The other must be the WW. Thast melt looks pretty good, as well, from what I can see.

I've cast a lot of ingots from pipe. I work for an electric utility, and many times when a street is being rebuilt, we are moving our **** around too. Sometimes they replace the water main and services up the the back of the sidewalk in the process. The old lead pipe just gets thrown in the hole, or sold to a salvage yard for little to nothing for beer money. Either way, there is lead to be had.

[RED333]

Good job for a first time.
I can not believe you went out and bought a new cast iron pot:bigsmyl2:, Good will has steel pots for days.
A lot cheaper as well.

[usmc0811]

Thanks, my pot was $48, I didn't think it was that bad of a price and it will be here for ever. My wife and I looked at a few flee markets and found some old used ones that were smaller and way more money. Found some small 10lb pots on line but they were small and had to pay shipping. So I should be ok with these ingots I made? Ok to make bullets and shoot? next time I will go slower with melting it, I just purchased a Lyman thermometer on line it should be here in a few days. Still need a furnace, I was looking at the Lee 420 bottom pour.

[Duckdog]

The Lee bottom pour pots are very nice pots. You may get as small amount of dripping from the spout from time to time, but usually a turn on the stem with a screwdriver fixes it for a quite a while.

Start casting asnd have fun!

[joatmon]

Looks very good to me! The Lee 20lb is what I use and it works great for me. Looks like your well on your way in this addiction and should do nicely at it!
Aaron

[blackthorn]

If you have not thrown out the skimming's from your first attempt, just throw them in with the next batch you melt. Flux with sawdust as advised and you will be able to reclaim most (if not all) the good stuff you skimmed off the first time.

[Seeker]

All good stuff here. I'm a newbie myself and have yet to smelt my first batch of wheel weights. I got them all sorted yesterday and am pretty confident that I got all the zinc out. I am waiting on a thermometer that I ordered Sat. I just wanted to mention....I bought my wife a new deep fryer for Christmas in hopes that I could get my hands on that nice cast iron pot I bought her a few years ago for making donuts. Well, I mentioned to her yesterday that I had to get myself a cast iron pot to smelt lead in and guess what,, she handed it over. It's exactly like the one in your pics. I've been researching this casting for quite awhile and realized that I will need a thermometer so when I get mine I'll be back with pics. of my first smelting adventure.

[fredj338]

As noted, you likely lost some of the good stuff but you can still get good bullets out of that. As noted, flux a lot before pouring ingots. This will help keep some of the tin.

[usmc0811]

thanks guys for all the help. I made 15 more ingots today, started real slow bringing it to a melt, then added more wheel weights. they came out a lot better this time. I still have lots more to do. I just ordered a thermometer and it should be here in a few days. Love it so far keep thinking about it all day and want to do more. Still need to get a furnace and mold for 40cal bullets then ill be in my glory. :)

[Alley Cat]

If you plan on adding more wheel weights to the melted lead, just be certain the new lead is absolutely dry. Even a tiny hidden bit of moisture can cause a steam explosion if it gets carried under the liquid lead surface. Exploding steam can eject your molten lead in a wide circle faster than you can react and that can result in serious burns.

Maybe you already know all of this and are taking the proper precautions but I thought I should say something since it is your first time smelting. Nobody here wants to see anyone else learn the hard way!

[usmc0811]

yes I heard about the dangers, and stupid me still only wore my welding gloves part of the time. Im the kind of person that has to learn the hard way to learn anything. Thanks for the reminder though, I should really take your advice. What about fumes? I was outside but it was still blowing in my face time to time, I would just cover my face with my sweat shirt but could still smell it. Should I wear some type of mask or get a small fan to draw it away?

[Big Boomer]

It is hard to tell how much good tin, lead and antimony we (formerly) inexperienced casters tossed by throwing away the dross. Some of the best of the best. One day it dawned on me that the fairly large bucket of dross that had accumulated was kind of heavy. The thought occurred to me to give it another run-through and got quite a bit of good stuff. Those were the days when linotype was more plentiful and most of my boolits were cast from that source that was given to me by a fellow who was part owner of a print shop that was modernizing. Those days are gone forever, I guess. Don't throw away the dross. Recycle. Big Boomer

[jsizemore]

Your lead pipe is almost pure lead which melts at 629F. After it melts, turn your heat down. When you start putting your WW in they will melt at a lower temp, 550F or there abouts. As you add more your melt temp for the whole pot will continue to drop as you add more WW. When the melt becomes slushy, stop adding WW and let the temp recover as you stir. If you start seeing the colors again, drop in some more WW and it will quench the excessive heat. If your heat is too high you'll see the colors. If too low the melt will be slushy and not have the reflective sheen of a clean melt at casting temp. It takes a while to learn your melting setup.

[Petrol & Powder]

Be safe and cover up! You only get ONE chance to do it right and a bad burn to the eyes/face is never worth it! Scrap can easily hold water and it only takes a small amount under the surface of the molten lead to ruin your day.
I don't worry too much when casting with known ingots but smelting scrap is a whole different ballgame. You only get one set of eyes per life!

[TXGunNut]

Good job but be very careful. A large quantity of molten lead can be very dangerous.

[D Crockett]

usmc0811 WHAT EVER YOU DO NOT HIT THE SIDE OF YOUR CAST IRON POT WITH A LADLE WHEN IT IS HOT AND HAS LIQUID LEAD IN THE POT IT CAN CRACK OR EVEN A CHUNK OF THE POT CAN BREAK THEN YOU ETHER ON THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL OR YOU ARE CLEANING UP A MESS JUST A SAFETY WARNING FROM ONE THAT CLEANED UP A MESS D CROCKETT

[Alley Cat]

Definitely smelt wheel weights with a steady breeze blowing and far away from neighbors you like. The fumes are from the paint, oil, and other nasties burning off and you should consider them to be toxic. Do your best to avoid breathing them. A half face respirator with organic vapor filter cartridges would probably be best but I feel comfortable standing far upwind while the heat does its job. Its hard during the first few smelts but try to avoid the temptation to stand close to see what is going on in the pot!