Just getting started.

[Markbo]

Yes I have read... I have searched. I have not found exactly what I am looking for.

I have no equipment. No pot, no ladel, no molds, no nothin'. I am just starting. All I am doing at this point is gather lead. Wheel weights to be precise. I got probably 120 lbs yesterday after yet another flat tire by my SO. :roll:

I am going to keep scrounging for old wheel weights since I seem to be able to talk some tire stores out of them. Once I have several 100 pounds (2 or 3 x 5 gallon buckets full), I figure I will have enough to do something with them.

My first question is - what do I do with them? I mean I know I have to get all the junk out... suprising amount of other 'stuff' in there. I will just take each one and throw it in a bucket. Do I have to clean the paper off of them? What about any oil, rust, etc? Or does all that stuff burn & float to the surface later to be skimmed off?

I know everything should remain dry and I will ensure they are dry prior to storage. But at this point, is there any preparation that I need to do? One other obvious question - how do I tell lead from zinc and do they need to be separated now?

Many thanks
Mark

[docone31]

First off, look for the zinc ones. Some are marked Zn, some float when the alloy is melted.
Get a good cast iron pot from a tag sale. It makes a great smelter. I use the kitchen stove to smelt.
Get a very small cupcake tray. Old ones are better than new ones if possible. You will not be cooking on these items ever again.
I melt my alloy and use a bullet ladle to pour into my ingot mold. One ladle full, one ingot.
The dirt, paper, glue, tire valves, etc., throw away as many as you can get out of the bucket before smelting. Keeps the stink down and smoke also.
I also use a soup ladle to just pick up alloy and let it cool. Doesn't stack as well as cupcake ingots.
I use the Lee 20lb pot. I like it. From there molds, fluxes, etc.
Borax makes a good first flux that crap adheres to. It is an high heat flux so it doesn't really deoxidize. Sawdust really pulls crap out of the melt, but it smokes and can stink. Candle wax, or beeswax is good if the melting temp is low. A little dab will do ya.
Good place to start.

[Cherokee]

Hi Markbo, good to see ya here. Another point, be careful that the WW are dry, water on WW's dropped into hot lead could buy you a silver paint job. Good to start with cold pot, add your WW's, then light her up. Also be careful digging thru the bucket of WW's, razor blades & other undesirables have been encountered. Discard as much junk as you can first but all the junk will float to the top and you skim it off. I use a turkey fryer for bulk melting.

[miestro_jerry]

I use a dutch oven that I got at Harbor Freight, a thick steel ladle from a thrift store and the base from a Turkey Fryer. I have less than $50 in the smelting of raw materials. I have a 4 of those Lee ingot molds that were on sale at Midway a while back, plus a couple of old cast iron molds from when I started casting.

I use a Lee bottom pour pot for doing my bullet casting, I have a lyman analog thermometer. There are various small things that you will need, flux being one of them. I use 20 Mule Team Borax in my smithy and it works for fluxing my lead.

I do my work outside, better than having a poor ventilated work area in the basement or the garage.

I wear a face shield, welders gloves and a leather apron. You can buy these things at Harbor Frieght, but I buy the commercial one for my forge work and for welding, so I do get better safety equipment.

For many years I was famous for casting and welding in my sandals, this is not a safe thig to do. The sandals have been retired and now I wear work boots when doing hot work of any kind.

I too have been hard pressed to find lead, I have bought some from Gun Broker and eVil Bay, but I have been able to buy tin at a good price. I still have a bag of high antimony lead shot that I use for my hardening and alloying of lead. I like using Lyman #2 and WW Plus alloys. My wheel weight plus alloy is 100 pounds of WW and 1 pound of tin. The formula for Lyman #2 alloy is 90 pounds lead, 5 pound of tin and 5 pounds of antimony. For very high speed bullets I use Lino, which I have several pigs of it stored away.

Hopet his helps,

Jerry

Hope this helps,

Jerry

[Tom W.]

Jerry, If you have a modern sawmill nearby, find out where they get their Nickel babbitt from. It's mostly tin. The supplier that we udes is onlt 25 miles away from my home, so It's not a big problem for me to stop down there and get an ingot when I need some...

[MtGun44]

Wow. I had an emergency landing at Eufaula one fine afternoon.

Nice little airport. :drinks:

Really well located on that particular day, too. :-D

Bill