Stainless Steel Or Cast Iron?

[BulletFactory]

Do you guys melt your lead in stainless steel or iron pans? I was cleaning the iron pan with a copper scrubber, and noticed this black powdery junk that must be coming from the pan itself. I suspect that this is part of my contamination issue, as some of the junk in my bullets are little black specks.

Also, when I flux with wood, it seems like there's this black powder under the lead pool that I cant seem to get cleaned up entirely before I pour it into the ingots. How do I deal with this potential contaminate?

[zuke]

old pressuer cooker form a thrift store, cost me $1.00 and it'll never crack.
Coffee can's for scale.I don't know what it weigh's when it's full,but I fill it to withen 1/2-3/4 inch's from the top.

[Bret4207]

I switched from a cast pot to a stainless pot 8-9 years back. I noted immediately that my dross accumulation dropped by half at least. When I stopped using waxes, oils, sawdust, etc to flux and started stirring and scraping with a stick it dropped even further. I never empty my pot so can't say about the the black stuff you see. Are you stirring aggressively? You have to move it around. Could just be surface tension letting it sit there.

These days most of my dross is dust and bugs. If I'd remember to cover my pot....

[Cadillo]

I cast from a cast iron Dutch oven. Every time I fire it up, I have to remove a lot of rust that has flaked off into the melt. It is a continuing problem, which makes me long for a stainless pot, but I have yet to find anything that is large and thick enough for the task. The one in the photo looks to be just the ticket. Good Score!

One day I may find one.

[gray wolf]

Important Question for some of us.

Do we have to watch for anything special with a Stainless steel pot ?
As to safety. Does it have to be a certain thickness ? Any chance of melting if we take the smelt up to lets say 850-900 * by accident and what about overloading the turkey frier if the pot is to big.
Anything else anyone wants to add ?

Sam

[BulletFactory]

No, stainless steel melts at over 2500*.

When I stirred more aggressively, I kept getting a dull gray dross, I wasn't sure if it was just oxidization, and maybe I was wasting metal, so I quit. How do I know when to stop?

[Bret4207]

I use a 12 cup (IIRC) stainless measuring cup that I happened on in a now defunct local hardware store. It holds better than 35 lbs of lead alloy. Ebay has similar items. http://cgi.ebay.com/Norpro-64-oz-Sta...item4cf4e01751 That one isn't quite like mine. Mine measures about 6"x6", very eazy to dip from even with a 1lb ladle.

[HangFireW8]

20 qt dutch oven. I only use it for smelting. It was in good shape when I got it. I spray it with Fluid Film (foamy lanolin) when I'm done with it. When I fire it up again it is well seasoned and not rusty. I simply do not have the issues of rust flakes et al.

When I started out it was with a rusty old 25 pound plumber's pot. That pot had rust flake issues, it is retired now, but at least it got me going.

-HF

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
TRY SAND BLASTING OUT THE RUST, THEN OIL CAST IRON, SHOULDN'T RUST AFTER THAT.

[BulletFactory]

Its not rust, the pan gets used too often.

[303Guy]

Do be careful with stainless steel. It can crack. Not to say it will but it's an idea to check it over from time to time.

[Bret4207]

BF, answered your question in the "Smorgasboard of flux" post.

[zuke]

Do be careful with stainless steel. It can crack. Not to say it will but it's an idea to check it over from time to time.

Any cast iron has a LOT better chance of cracking then any other type we use for smelting.
As I mentioned above when I fill my pot it's withen 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch from the top of the rim.
Don't know what it weigh's but I know I can't lift it.
It does make for easy alloying tho!
I'll pour 20-30 ingot's then put more WW in.The pot's about 1/2 full when I start to add more WW.

[casterofboolits]

Have used a cast iron 60 pound plumbers pot for 30 years and no cracks to date!

[XWrench3]

as for rust in your cast smelting pot, here is what i do. when i am finished smelting, i clean the pot well. if the stuff was exceptionally dirty, i will actually wash it out with a wire brush, and hot dawn dish soap and water, rinsing very well. then, put the pot immediatly back on the flame, and dry it with heat. shut the flame off, and allow it to cool somewhat. then, i take one of my parafin bars, and coat the pot with a nice even coating of wax. no rust. draws lest dirt / dust than oil. plus, next time you smelt, you already have some flux in the pot to start with. if my dad was alive, still working in the boiler shop, i would have a nice 3/16th thick stainless steel smelting pot. and it would have cost me a 6 pack. but those days, like dad, are gone forever.

[BABore]

The dark grey dust your finding is very fine dirt and other non metallic junk that will not float to the top of the lead through casual stirring and fluxing. It's lighter than lead, but stays suspended or clings to the pot walls. I flux to reconstitute oxidized metals. I stir, scrape, and lift to bring out this grey junk. Just stirring alone does not seem to bring the dust to the surface. It does when you stir and scrap, then lift the spoon straight up. A thin line of dust gets wiped off the spoon as it breaks the surface. It seems to stick to the spoon and pot walls. Maybe a magnetic or polarity type attraction. Not sure. I stir, scrape, and lift the spoon til I no longer get a line of dust/dirt. It may take me 20+ minutes til I'm satisfied. Then I give it a final fluxing and pour ingots. No longer do I get the dirty looking inclusions on boolits. You can also get nasty looking surface inclusions on boolits when you run more tin than antimony. You can run as much tin as you can afford along with pure Pb. When antimony enters the picture, the tin needs to be lower than the antimony.