Removing hard wax lube from boolits, question.

[Murphy]

Ever wind up with a rather good amount (couple of thousand) boolit's that are sized and lubed that you now don't want? BUT...you want to salvage to alloy and start over with a new lube?

I've been using Thompsons Blue Angle for years now. How would one go about removing all this hard wax before re-smelting the boolits?

I've tried just melting them down with the lube on them before. Seems like some of the Blue Angle just doesn't want to go. I've actually watched my silver stream turn blue. *YUCK*.

I've been thinking that perhaps if I just place the boolits in a container, fill it with water and bring it to a boil then wax will depart and float to the surface.

Any idea's? I'm fixin' to try the boiling water trick.

Thanks,

Murphy

[bisley45]

I had some old bullets that I had no yous for so I just smelted them down and the lube just floats to the top and turns to a oily mess I could not get it off then I thought throw some sawdust on it mabey it would stick to it worked like a charm
hope this helps

[44man]

Just melt them with a lot of ventilation. The lube makes good flux.

[SharpsShooter]

Boil them and the lube will float to the top. It doesn't take long to clean up a bunch. If you use a deep fry basket, you can keep the water going and do large volumes of boolits. For additional excitement, use the wifes favorite kettle. :grin:

[Murphy]

Thanks for the reply's gentlemen. I appreciate the help. *Smile*

Murphy

[StarMetal]

Throw some more information on this, not saying I recommend it. The department I worked in at the Sunoco Oil Refinery was De-waxing/De-oiling, commonly known as the MEK units at oil refineries. Basically they separate oil and paraffin. The solvent that disolves paraffin is MEK, thus the name. I mention this because sometimes we spill molten wax and stuff and we have a hard time getting it off. An example is one that happen to me. We had this fireplace at a former home and their there this big nice slab of that pretty grey stone right in front the fireplace. Some candle wax got spilled on it. You know that stone is sort of porous. You can scrap the wax off with a razorblade but it still left a spot. I cleaned it up with some MEK. Thing is becareful with MEK, it's powerful stuff and evaporated fast and you don't want to breathe it. I don't recommend for Murphy to go and soak his bullets in it, just a tip so you all know some things that will cut paraffin.

Joe

[wills]

Is that methyl ethyl ketone?

[StarMetal]

Yessir Wills, that's exactly what it is.

Joe

[Johnch]

The clear PVC cleaner is mainly MEK

You can get it a Home Depo or any place that sells plumbing supplys .

Johnch

[StarMetal]

You can still buy MEK from hardware stores, Lowes, and Home Depot to name a few. But really, don't use it unless you have too.

I'll tell you the worse stuff that I worked with personally. I was a supervisor at a Stauffer Chemical Co plant. We made insoluable sulfur. The solvent for the sulfur is the stuff I'll be talking about. It's carbon disulfide labeled CS2. If you have a dixie cup of it and pour it slowly from arm height, most of it evaporates before hitting the ground. The damn stuff burns in water too or under. Well got to reading the data sheet on it to see what it attacks in the human body and it said mostly the nervous system. Causes such things as heartattacks for one. Well it was back in the 70's when I worked at that plant and I was young and so alot of my fellow workers and friends were much older. My one best friend still works there but got out of the production area that we both were in. He keeps me in tune as to what's going on and who has died. Of 20 friends that I've had there that died, all but two or three of them died exclusively from heart attacks. The others were cancer and blood vessel bursts. Some of the heart attack victoms were young too. That is nasty stuff. Also when it catches fires it chokes you and you can't breathe at all. We had quite a few fires too. Even with the powdered sulfur. Static electricity set the powdered sulfur off alot. Glad I don't work there now and that I didn't work there long.

Joe

[44man]

Still nothing easier then just throwing them in the pot and melting them! Best to melt some clean lead and feed in the lubed boolits so the smoke can burn off. It will flux the metal!

[fourarmed]

Haven't tried this, but I've been told it works. Put them in the deep freeze overnight, then shake them around in a box. The stuff comes right off.

[44man]

Felix lube won't! Real good flux though.

[pdgraham]

I'm melting down a whole bunch of lubed cast bullets right now.. smokey, smokey, smokey... glad I'm doing this outside...

It all scummed to the top.. like melting crayons... leaving nice, shiny lead soup..

It did leave some crayon on the side of my stainless steel rendering pot... I'm glad I render in a separate pot...