Throwin'em back in.

[Chris C]

I'm running a bunch of casting tests. When I throw bullets back into the pot after the test, do I need to do anything special...........like additional fluxing.............or can I just put them back in as if they are straight from ingots?

[dtknowles]

I flux regularly so I would flux.

Tim

[Yodogsandman]

Just a few...NAH, a whole bunch, then yeah I'd flux again.

[Chris C]

Okay, thanks.

[Geezer in NH]

My sprue's and obvious messed up bullets go back in when the pot goes down.

I get coffee after washing my hands and when the pot is back to temp Flux and start casting again as the mold has been on the hot plate. 1 or 2 fills and Boolits are keepers again.

[dtknowles]

Oh, I flux after adding Ingots too.

Tim

[runfiverun]

I throw my sprues back in as I go.
I'm sure there is plenty of oxides in the pot but since I keep it full I guess they work their way to the top.
I rarely flux but will scrape the stuff off the top every now and then and re-run it when I melt down my other lead scraps.

[dtknowles]

I throw my sprues back in as I go.
I'm sure there is plenty of oxides in the pot but since I keep it full I guess they work their way to the top.
I rarely flux but will scrape the stuff off the top every now and then and re-run it when I melt down my other lead scraps.

Yep, more than one way to run a pot that works.

I keep a bed of ash on the top and run the pot down to one third remaining then fill it back up with sprues, rejects and ingots and flux again for the next round. I leave the pot full when done.

Tim

[JSnover]

I'm running a bunch of casting tests. When I throw bullets back into the pot after the test, do I need to do anything special...........like additional fluxing.............or can I just put them back in as if they are straight from ingots?
My only concern is the rejects picking up contaminates while they're cooling. Aside from that they're as clean as my ingots, if not cleaner, since I flux a little during the casting session.

[fa38]

I throw my bad bullets and sprue back into the pot as I cast. To prevent lead splash out of the pot I keep an alum thingy on top of the lead in the pot. The sprues sit on top of it and melt back into the pot.


179285

[lightman]

I don't throw mine back in until the pot starts getting low. Then I load it back up with the sprues, rejects and a few new ingots. Then I stretch the ole back some, flux and start casting again. I probably would not worry about fluxing if I did add the sprues back in.

[Yodogsandman]

Here's a prior thread on the subject...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?276854-Weight-sorting-cast-bullets-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips

[reddog81]

As long as the pot is more than half full I just throw the sprues and reject bullets back in while they're still hot. I do not flux or do anything else. Works fine for me.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Throwin'em back in.


My suggestion is try it both ways, with and without fluxing.
Most everyone has different procedures which work and don't work for others.

My 2¢:
I rarely flux when casting. At the begining of each casting session, I will scrap the sides with a wooden stick then scrap the bottom and sides with a stainless steel spoon (shaped to fit the bottom edges) and lightly agitate the melt to coax junk to the top. I leave the dross on top to insulate the melt and create a barrier for inhibiting more oxides to form as well as float the sprues if I am casting pistol boolits, but I don't add back the sprues when I cast rifle boolits...I like to keep the temperature as constant as possible for those.

[dragon813gt]

I never flux in my casting pot. Had to many issues w/ the pot dripping, it's a Lee. Since I stopped fluxing I haven't had any more drip issues. The alloy I add to the pot is clean. The sprues are cut off and land in a sheet metal pan. There is nothing that can make them dirty before I add them back to the pot.

[Walter Laich]

cast most of the lead in the pot
add sprue and rejects at the end + more ingots to fill it back up...time passes...after everything is melted will flux.

turn off and ready to go for next session

[Blackwater]

As Tim said, there's more than one way to manage a pot, and I've typically done as Run5 does, and dropped my sprues back into the pot. This tended to make me need to run the pot a little hotter, and I often had frosted bullets, but they shot very well, so I just never bothered changing once I started getting good bullets with consistent weights and diameters. But what I've learned is to flux (either rightly or wrongly in others' views) when the dull grayish layer forms on the surface. I've been told that's tin separating out, and fluxing keeps it back in the mix more evenly, and keeps the metal flowing more nicely. That's just what I usually do, but I've been trying to get even better bullets and ... am changing and experimenting more. Can't learn much doing the same thing all the time, and there's so much head trust here it'd be a shame not to try some of the stuff we read about here. I suspect we could all refine our techniques a bit, even us old heads at it. I know I've learned an awful lot here in the years I've been reading here.

So really, this is the kind of question there's not really a 'right' or 'wrong' answer, but only variants, with varying results. Just do what winds up working best for YOU, and that's your best answer, and all that takes is a little experimenting and observation of the results you get in the various methods. That's what I think most of us do.

[Bzcraig]

I never flux in my casting pot. Had to many issues w/ the pot dripping, it's a Lee. Since I stopped fluxing I haven't had any more drip issues. The alloy I add to the pot is clean. The sprues are cut off and land in a sheet metal pan. There is nothing that can make them dirty before I add them back to the pot.

This is pretty much what I do except I do flux with wax but nothing else of any kind goes in for the same reason you mentioned and I use Lee bottom pours as well. And like you I no longer have ANY issues with a dripping pot! Amazing......

[warf73]

I throw my sprues back in as I go.
I'm sure there is plenty of oxides in the pot but since I keep it full I guess they work their way to the top.
I rarely flux but will scrape the stuff off the top every now and then and re-run it when I melt down my other lead scraps.

I do the same R5R

[jlchucker]

Yup. Has always worked for me.

[robg]

Flux with wax and stir with a bit of wood before casting but only flux the once until I need to refill low pot at the beginning of next session.

[Soundguy]

When me and my buddies cast, we each have a station.

If its 2 of us, one guy runs the mold, drops bullets in a padded pan. The other guy scoops the keeper bullets and transfers them to a box using a lee ladel. He then scoops sprues and reject drops back into the pot. We flux as needed. Its a bottom pour lot, so that helps.

If we go 3 man, the third guy handles sprues and rejects, watches the ingot mold under the pot we use to catch splatters, adds alloy and flux as needed.

Sometimes we run 2-3 guy smelting with a gas burner, pour lot and ingot molds.