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The ingot on the right was cast from range scrap. The center ingot was cast from scrap lead pipes. The ingot on the left was cast from clean roof sheet lead. Not sure if it shows in the picture, but the roof lead ingot is very shiny while the others are dull. Is that purely from the composition of the lead or did I unknowingly do something different between the smelting sessions?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...99b1255603.jpg
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For me my pure Ld ingots are also very shiny. The harder they are the duller they may be, this is what I’ve seen.
What Eddie17 said. My lead ingots are shiny. There was probably just enough tin in the pipe joints to give a bit different alloy in the pipe "ore" and of course the R - range ingot has who knows what in it, OK for boolits but a real mix of alloy depending on what kind of range it came off. Keep the ingot groups and boolits separate and cast/shoot to see what gives the performance you're seeking. 10
Probably, the range scrap has mostly pure lead with some tin and antimony in it.
The pipe appears to have even higher tin content and the roof jack has the lowest tin content.
All of these can probably be considered soft lead even the range scrap.
It takes only a small percent of tin to take the cool blue/cobalt hue out of pure lead.
Looks like different tempature of ingot mold and lead to me
My pure lead is shinny and huey? is that a word. Its got pretty shiny colors. It appears the harder the lead the more dull it is with a crystalline surface appearance. Those look fine. The one on the left is almost pure lead, the one in the middle is pure lead with tin, and the range scraps gets that way from the antimony in it. Just keep them separate and note the hardness so you can mix and match for intended purpose.
I pretty much agree with the others. Try casting bullets with the range scrap before adding anything to it. Treat both of the others as soft. You did good starting out using a permanent marking method. I would never have the time to go back and mark mine.
I'm keeping each smelting batch segregated in its own bucket until I can actually cast some boolits. Using the pencil test, the range scrap ingots are testing bhn 9 after a couple of weeks. I'll go ahead and mark those ingots as such. I'm going to let this soft lead sit for a while before testing it.
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I really appreciate all the help from everyone here!
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This would be my guess as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by GARD72977
Well my freind... those three ingots look pretty darn good!! I smelt from 'road kill and corruption' obtained from anywhere and anyone. Rarely do my smelt efforts look as nice as those three you showed! Good work! And, temp, alloys and 'trash' in the smelt can 'color' and shade your ingots.
KEEP IT UP... YOU DUN GUD!!
Nose Dive
Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.
I've noticed when I smelt lead into ingots, I listen to the sound made when I drop an ingot on the concrete, if it's soft or pure lead it makes a sound like a thud or thunk. Harder lead ingots have a ring to the sound of hitting the concrete. This is a quick way for me to judge the hardness of the lead. JJ
nice looking little muffin pucks. Mold temperature can impact appearance. As can the temp of the melt. Easy example at one temperature and speed of casting a mold & melt will cast "frosty" bullets. Just down from that temperature or casting pace they are shiny bullets. The first couple of casts to warm the mold may well be dull bullets. All from the same alloy.
Seems to me plain pure lead is the most shiny when first poured but tends to blacken and tarnish faster than the alloy lead with tin or antimony, but that is not a scientific assessment, just looking at the shelf and seeing what still has a shine and what doesn't
temperature is my bet. Cold ingot molds produce different surface than warm and hot. I will see dull, shiny and what I call "snowflake" all from the same lead depending on how cold or hot the mold, the lead and how fast it was cooled.