New to casting : Did I ruin my lead

[Jet74]

I decided to get into casting and have been collecting the supplies. Meanwhile, I picked up 2 1/2 5 gallon buckets of WW from a local tire store. I melted them in a cast iron pan on an external grill burner using a torch to speed the process. I skimmed off the trach and poured into muffin pans. I did not seperate them or look for zinc WW and undoubtedlly melted some in.
Did I ruin this batch?
Suggestions?


:confused:

[Dale53]

There is an easy way to check. Do NOT put this in your bottom pour electric pot to check it out. You do NOT want to contaminate your pot.

Just melt some in the cast iron pan on the external burner and see if it casts well (using a dipper). Run fifty or a hundred bullets. Carefully examine them. If they fill out well, with sharp corners, you dodged the bullet. I'm betting you ruined it.

The proper drill is to melt the ww's in a pot, never exceeding 650-700 degrees (zinc weights don't melt until 787 degrees). Monitor carefully with a thermometer. Any weights that float you remove along with the clips.

Do NOT use a torch on top to speed up the process as you can easily exceed the melting point of zinc.

FWIW
Dale53

[Down South]

You may or may not have contaminated your melt with zinc. I've seen bucket full’s of WW that were no zinc in. The best way that I can tell you if you have zinc is by looking at the melt. Did it have a nice smooth shiny surface when you skimmed it? Or did it look something like oatmeal. The oatmeal appearance is a pretty good indicator that you most likely have zinc.
I’ve casted with zinc contaminated allow but it was a pain.

BTW, Welcome to the forum.

[PatMarlin]

Good info from Dale, Jet74 and Welcome to cast boolit heaven! ..:drinks:

[jonk]

I've contaminated some and it isn't the end of the world. You can get a lot out by skimming just as the melt re-liquifies; and a little zinc won't utterly ruin mold fill out. Even with zinc contamination I've been able to get 50-70% useable bullets when running the pot hot.

[Wayne Smith]

I have no idea how much is in mine now, for the past three melts I have removed some when it first melts. Skimming the popcorn off right after full melt has worked for me. I get useable boolits, especially when casing hot. I cast everything with a ladle.