Melting down brass cases?

[theperfessor]

I thought primers had a steel anvil in them. I could be wrong.

[63 Shiloh]

I did some research on zinc oxide, nasty, nasty stuff indeed!

Righto, I will wind it back a notch or two I think, start with aluminium first and become somewhat proficient.

It is just a new hobby, so I shall approach it in the same manner as reloading and casting. Learn the basics and the safety requirements first. Move on to smelting brass when I am up to the standard required.

Love some of the setups you blokes are running, 'red neck foundry'; I like it!


Mike

[a.squibload]

My redneck foundry.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9242137@N05/618818281/

Car go boom??? Please tell me you didn't have to walk home...

[Link23]

we find Coke all the time next to the railroad where it falls off the train, but then again i live in the hills of kentucky

[grullaguy]

Car go boom??? Please tell me you didn't have to walk home...

In my old job they used to let me play with things a bit bigger than reloading powder.

It was my boss's car.

[mroliver77]

we find Coke all the time next to the railroad where it falls off the train, but then again i live in the hills of kentucky

RR vgoes right through our farm. We have hunted it since it was put there in the 20's. They now have a "No Trepassing" policy and told me to scat or the law would be called. They then drove through my field (without asking)to tear down their telegraph wires. I thought it had been ripped off and called the law. They were mad after a week investigation found it was the RR's doin!

[eseemann]

lwkinght,

Please go to http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tuto...n=safety3/demo and read how a long time blacksmith died from zinc oxide fumes.

Paracelsus, sometimes called the father of toxicology, wrote:
German: Alle Ding' sind Gift, und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist.
All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.
Or, more commonly
The dose makes the poison.
That is to say, substances considered toxic are harmless in small doses, and conversely an ordinarily harmless substance can be deadly if over-consumed.

[triggerhappy243]

I melted cartridge brass in high school as an extra credit class. it took 3-4 hours to melt about 1.5 pounds of brass. you need HOT HOT HOT temps to melt it to the point of pouring it. cheaper in the long run to just go buy a piece of raw solid brass round stock.

[CastingFool]

When I was going to college, some of the guys I knew, were taking a metal casting class. I talked to one of them, who happened to be one of the assistants in the class. I wanted to find out if they would make me a brass ingot, using some of my scrap brass. I was told no way. Apparently, someone else had had the same idea, but there were some primed cases in the pile, and when they went off in the crucible, they had a big mess on their hands.

[amosfella]

The iron parts should float up into the flux. Use glass or borax as flux, and wear a mask with a charcoal filter.... The masks from RZR should do it quite nicely...

[lwknight]

lwkinght,

Please go to http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tuto...n=safety3/demo and read how a long time blacksmith died from zinc oxide fumes.

Paracelsus, sometimes called the father of toxicology, wrote:
German: Alle Ding' sind Gift, und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist.
All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.
Or, more commonly
The dose makes the poison.
That is to say, substances considered toxic are harmless in small doses, and conversely an ordinarily harmless substance can be deadly if over-consumed.

I guess he should have stayed out of the smoke cloud huh?

[DRNurse1]

My redneck foundry.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9242137@N05/618818281/

LOL: Did you park your 'car-go-boom' too close o the foundry (read the explanation after my post sorry).

Good photos of your tools and I especially like the look into your furnace for the information it provides.

[DRNurse1]

lwkinght,

Please go to http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tuto...n=safety3/demo and read how a long time blacksmith died from zinc oxide fumes.

Paracelsus, sometimes called the father of toxicology, wrote:
German: Alle Ding' sind Gift, und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist.
All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.
Or, more commonly
The dose makes the poison.
That is to say, substances considered toxic are harmless in small doses, and conversely an ordinarily harmless substance can be deadly if over-consumed.

I have not heard that quote since college. Thanks for that flash back. I have found one exception to that important concept: lead down range...more is better, and a lot more is better than a little more.

[Bullshop Junior]

Only thing i wanna know...can I cast brasa boolits from it?

[bangerjim]

http://www.foundry101.com/search.htm

[bangerjim]

Only thing i wanna know...can I cast brasa boolits from it?

1. What are your molds made out of? NO aluminum or brass molds!
2. Do you have solid carbide sizing dies? Brass is HARD!!!!!!! Standard Lee dies will NOT work.
3. No published loads
4. Forget it.

bangerjim

[eseemann]

Lwknight, you got that right. Everyone that knows this guy is saying the same thing. This is like skin diving with a charm bracelet in Key West. Charm bracelets are harm less. The reef off Key West FL is harmless and a school of barracuda, kept at a safe distance, is harmless. Add together the barracuda + reef hunting grounds + shiny thing that looks like a shoal of fish and you have a 3 foot long fish latched on to your wrist.
If he had a good blower to clear the air he might not have died.

[eseemann]

My dad was classically educated in Germany as a kid. We got him a shirt from a PBS fund drive that said "si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes."

[roverboy]

I guess if I'm gonna sell my split or cracked cartridge brass, I'll have to melt it down. The scrap metal place that's close to me won't buy cartridge brass since 9-11. I need to just try somewhere else.

[lwknight]

Lwknight, you got that right. Everyone that knows this guy is saying the same thing. This is like skin diving with a charm bracelet in Key West. Charm bracelets are harm less. The reef off Key West FL is harmless and a school of barracuda, kept at a safe distance, is harmless. Add together the barracuda + reef hunting grounds + shiny thing that looks like a shoal of fish and you have a 3 foot long fish latched on to your wrist.
If he had a good blower to clear the air he might not have died.

I used to work for a oil company and had to weld in galvanized floor plating. Everyone knew to stay out from the smoke. Even after a few years and dozens of welders, no one ever got sick from the fumes. We had simple fans and common sense. I can't say that no one ever got some chronic exposure that might bite them later but so far nothing I know of.

I remember when I was a kid , my uncle talking about getting galvanize sick from the smoke cloud and he claimed that a glass of milk would help with nausea. Probably a wives tale anyway.

Brass is made from alloying zinc with copper. Brass is safe to melt. I would think that zinc would burn before reaching copper melting temperatures. Maybe copper is dissolved in zinc to make brass?