Smelt these WW or use them straight

[spur0701]

I ran into a deal on 4 5-gallon buckets of WW, but these are all large ones (at least 3 inches long) and clean, never used. Should I even bother smelting these into ingots or just use them as is in my Lee bottom pour and skim the clips? Is there a reasonable way to remove the clip?

[jnovotny]

Turn em into ingots they will ,work better in the end.

[docone31]

Turn em into ingots.
You will not be sorry.
Even the oxides around the clip in the weight will gather in the melt.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Ingots, to big a mess in a Lee pot, you can pick the clips out with a pair of pliers or a perforated spoon. I tried this a long time ago and I started smelting/ making Ingots real quick.
It is a real PITA. Good Luck

[Boerrancher]

Make ingots first. The time spent making them well be less than the time spent cleaning up your Lee Pot after the lead and iron oxides clog it up.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Down South]

Smelt them and turn them into ingots first. You will be glad that you did.

[John Boy]

... and make sure you flux the WW melt before you pour it into ingots

[Maximilian225]

... and make sure you flux the WW melt before you pour it into ingots

+1 clean ingots make for a happy Lead Pot

[Matt_G]

Make them into ingots. Don't do that process in your Lee pot if you can avoid it.
It's hard enough to keep those from dripping as it is.
If you smelt WW's in it, your just adding a bunch of dirt and crap that can make that problem worse.
It's also a pain to clean them up.
Find another heat source and use a cast iron dutch oven (preferably) to melt those wheel weights.

[Tom Herman]

All excellent advice! I will pile onto the band wagon as well.
I turn everything into ingots (fluxing and cleaning before I pour them), and I even flux after melting ingots into alloy.
The more work you do on the front end, the less hassles and complications you'll have when you want to cast.
Remember the old addage, "garbage in, garbage out"!

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[yodar]

Ingots, to big a mess in a Lee pot, you can pick the clips out with a pair of pliers or a perforated spoon. I tried this a long time ago and I started smelting/ making Ingots real quick.
It is a real PITA. Good Luck

AIEEEE!!

only REFINED metal goes into MY pot. I smelt the nastiest wheelweights in my ARN KETTLE:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1229/6309647/12253703/349433775.jpg

ingots when cold will be free of stripes down the top. if any stripes seen, re-melt and re-flux. those stripes are DIRT ! THAT WILL RUIN YOUR MOLDS

yodar

[Maximilian225]

Yodar,

Could you elaborate on the Tetraborate ?


-Max

[Wayne Smith]

Smelt them. You will be surprised by the amount of dirt you find coming to the surface when you clean them. Lead is a very dense material and junk tends to stay in the solution. I get junk out of even "clean" lead.

[spur0701]

Just to clarify....I've smelted maybe 300-400 lbs of used WW and would never think of putting those in a Lee bottom pour. But since these were all brand new, clean, never used, large WW was assuming that semlting them would only really be used to remove the clips (see pics)......is there enough oxides and other contaminates on these to make smelting worth it?

Some other smelting questions for you guys. I just smelted the stick on WW that I had seperated from the used WW I had collected over the past 6-9 months, only amounted to 1 5 gallon bucket. But when I smelted them I seemed to get some that wouldn't melt....are there stick on WW that are zinc or something else....I thought all stick ons were almost pure lead?

[Maximilian225]

I myself would still smelt them. Some of the weights and I imagine most of the clips will be coated in some type of Epoxy based paint. I see a few that look coated. I guess you could separate them out and save them for a batch of used wheel weights if you feel the others are reasonably clean.

I have found alot of steel and zinc wheel weights in my stick-ons recently.

-Max

[geargnasher]

Yodar,

Could you elaborate on the Tetraborate ?


-Max

In my understanding tetraborate (sodium tetraborate decahydrate)is the chemical name for a common household cleaning product known as "Borax" by brand or boric acid. A little pinch added to the pot creates a layer of molten borate glass which encapsulates impurities so they can be skimmed off. As the picture says Do Not Stir (after adding).

Gear

[Tom Herman]

In my understanding tetraborate (sodium tetraborate decahydrate)is the chemical name for a common household cleaning product known as "Borax" by brand or boric acid.
Gear

Borax and Boric Acid are two distinctly separate chemicals. Sodium Borate is the chemical known as Borax and is the Sodium salt of the reaction of a Sodium compound with Boric Acid.
Sodium Borate can exist as an anhydrous salt (no waters of crystallization) all the way up to the Decahydrate (ten molecules of water per molecule of Sodium Borate).

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Maximilian225]

Thanks for the reply guys. Was most helpful.

:castmine:
-Max

[kelbro]

Yes, there are zinc stick-ons.

[geargnasher]

Borax and Boric Acid are two distinctly separate chemicals. Sodium Borate is the chemical known as Borax and is the Sodium salt of the reaction of a Sodium compound with Boric Acid.
Sodium Borate can exist as an anhydrous salt (no waters of crystallization) all the way up to the Decahydrate (ten molecules of water per molecule of Sodium Borate).

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

Thanks for improving my understanding, Mr. Herman!

Gear