Smelting question... (new to casting)

[Jake McCracken]

I appologize in advance if this was answered already. I tried reading through the stickies. But to be honest, I got so sidetracked reading other good info I lost track of what I was searching for quite often!

Anyway, I smelted about 30 pounds of indoor range lead. All went well til the next day when I was sorting through the "slag" (not sure on the proper term, it's the stuff I skimmed off the top) to pick out the copper. I noticed some of it was really stiff lead like stuff. Did I do something wrong? Maybe not get it hot enough, and pulled out one of the alloys?

If there is a smelting procedure posted would someone mind tossing me a link to it?

Thanks!
Jake

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Hullo Jake, welcome, go to Classics and Stickies and start reading, there are a lot of threads on your question. It is hard to say what you may be seeing, range scrap may have a little of anything in it. If the melt was around 700* you should be OK as far as alloy, the copper and other "Stuff" should be scrap, the lead, tin and antimony should be in the melt, if you flux your pot and stir the alloy into it.

You might have some zinc in there, hard to tell without seeing it. When you smelt try to keep the Temperature below about 730*, zinc melts at 770* and will contaminate your lead

I would need more information to give you a better answer, so read the stickies until you find something that fits your needs, Good Luck.

[leadman]

You probably pulled some lead out when you skimmed off the debris. I try to pull the wheel-weight clips and bullet jackets out and tap the slotted spoon on the side of the pot to help the lead fall out.
I save this stuff in a bucket and when I have more time I will remelt it and usually get about 10% or so by volume of lead from it.
If the debris isn't too deep on the melt you can flux before pulling it out and this gets most of the lead out.

[Jake McCracken]

You probably pulled some lead out when you skimmed off the debris. I try to pull the wheel-weight clips and bullet jackets out and tap the slotted spoon on the side of the pot to help the lead fall out.
I save this stuff in a bucket and when I have more time I will remelt it and usually get about 10% or so by volume of lead from it.
If the debris isn't too deep on the melt you can flux before pulling it out and this gets most of the lead out.


That's kinda what I was thinking. It kinda looks like dirt and crud covered in a thin layer of lead. I'll do like you did, save it for remelting later after I get the rest of the range lead melted into ingots.

Thanks!!!
Jake

[mooman76]

No mater what you're going to get some waist like that. The lead oxidizes and sticks to dirt and crud. I'd just leave it and toss it unless you don't have it to waist. Just don't over flux because you'll be removing metals you need for hardness too like tin and antimony.

[cajun shooter]

It's called dross and is the dirt and impurities in the pot. A lot of people think that when you flux it puts the alloys together but that is not true. Flux brings the dirt and impurities to the top and that is what you skim off. If you just dip it out then you will remove your alloy. Later David

[Jake McCracken]

It's called dross and is the dirt and impurities in the pot. A lot of people think that when you flux it puts the alloys together but that is not true. Flux brings the dirt and impurities to the top and that is what you skim off. If you just dip it out then you will remove your alloy. Later David

Dross, got it. I skimmed the dross off the top with a heavy duty slotted spoon. And, I'll just be tossing it all in the trash, once I get out all the copper that is!

Thanks~!!
Jake