smelting Zinc...never again

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

at the end of a 3 day WW, Monotype, and misc scrap lead smelting marathon, I thought I'd end it off with smelting all the Zinc that had been sorted out, skimmed off, and some I got in a trade...my little gasoline campstove was barely up to the task (heatwise)...it took about 3 hours of MAX heat on the covered pot to liquify it, then trying to flux the dross was nothing like fluxing a lead alloy...I suspect my problem was it wasn't hot enough, the dross I removed probably had a few lbs of zinc that should have been recovered...But, I did get 20+ nice looking 'castboolits' ingots though...BUT never again, the zinc will get trashed, traded, or sold as it.




These are WW alloy ingots, I store them in used MFR box bottoms with a 1/4" plywood bottom. 64 ingots each...about 50 lbs.

[Lefty SRH]

I recently did a 1 day smelting marathon. I did 4 1/2 buckets of COWW which yielded about 642lbs of GOOD boolit lead. I still have 1 1/2 of tape weights but I don't use that much pure lead so they can wait.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Lefty,
you put me to shame.
in my 3 days, I did about 560lbs
130 monotype
250 WW
160 unknown (TBT)
10 solder 50/50
10 Zinc

but the days are short here in the winter, I start cleaning up at 3pm

[fryboy]

eh ya did good for a camp stove ( all things considered ) i tried a huge pot full ( 3/4 of a old propane tank ) on my old turkey fryer ..it wouldnt quite get it done , i added a tin wind block ring and that helped alot but still took some time to do ( and about broke the legs on ye olde fryer :P ) i suppose i should invest ina jet type burner but i score so few ww's and my lil dutch oven does lead pipe pretty well ( i can cut it to fit easy enough ) but i can only alloy about 70-ish pounds at a time in it umm btw ? winter doesnt start for better than a month yet :P

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

umm btw ? winter doesnt start for better than a month yet :P

Yeah yeah...HA HA !
I couldn't think of a better way to state the short day thing to you southerns.
we're less than 5 weeks from the winter solstice...da shortest day in da year !!!

[fryboy]

there's something about going to work in the dark and not getting off until it's dark again that just depresses me ... i think it's because i'm solar powered after working outside all my life lolz thankfully here and currently i have just enough time to drive home and watch the sun set as i let the pup outside when i get home ( still greet 5 sunrises a week tho ) i cant consider my self real southern however ( just barely south of the middle and a lil bit west of center ..but again just barely lolz ) and i just cant imagine one nite lasting 3 months - i'd go mad being so under charged from sol's rays , you know what they say tho - once you hit the bottom ( the shortest day of the year ) it's all uphill from there

edit for add , one thing that helps me is having several ingot molds , not enough to do a whole smelt at once but perhaps someday

[badbob454]

i use a turkey burner on hi and a cast iron skillet i then throw candle wax in it and set it on fire thats what it takes to melt zinc to get it hot enough and the clips drop to the bottom wont float on top strange stuff that zinc

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

one thing that helps me is having several ingot molds , not enough to do a whole smelt at once but perhaps someday

I am real anal about using certain ingot molds for different alloys. While I do have several ingot molds...and could procure more of the cheapo Lee's that work just fine, I use different ones for different alloys/batches. So my tendancies are part of the reason I am so slow.

[2wheelDuke]

I've smelted zinc before, but I used a small cast iron skillet on the turkey burner.

I have a few zn ingots around, which are stamped "ZINC" so they don't get confused.

I could use to make a run of zinc sinkers to trade to guys who work in tire shops.

[Griz44mag]

A deep dutch oven with a lid on a turkey fryer will make pretty short work of them.
The key is to trap the heat. Put a lid on it!

[Wal']

I tried the same thing, clean up & ingot the Zn wheelweights & have every thing neat & tidy.

Had no problem with heat......had a 3 ring gasburner with an adjustable regulator.

Everything went well until I finished pouring the Zn ingots & tried to clean up.

I now have a casting pot which I went to so much trouble to build..........coated in Zinc.......guess it will never rust.

My stainless scraping spoons & dipper also Zinc coated.............look pretty but are now trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wont be trying that again.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I now have a casting pot which I went to so much trouble to build..........coated in Zinc.......guess it will never rust.

My stainless scraping spoons & dipper also Zinc coated.............look pretty but are now trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wont be trying that again.

Wal,
I guess it was a blessing I couldn't generate enough heat to properly flux.
Jon

[badbob454]

i have melted zinc and have had no galvenizin effect on any of my pan or molds when i pour zinc ingots i give em( the ingot molds inside ) a spray of aluminum spray paint for barbeq's that way the zinc falls out and no need to clean up

[Wal']

There were no problems with the zinc sticking/galvanizing with the cast iron ingot moulds, but the stainless casting pot & accessories I was using were a different story altogether.

Coated them nicely........not !!!!!!!!!

[a.squibload]

a spray of aluminum spray paint for barbeq's

Dang that's a good idea, I got rid of some
non-aluminum muffin pans 'cause lead ingots
were starting to stick.

[eldoradolee]

at the end of a 3 day WW, Monotype, and misc scrap lead smelting marathon, I thought I'd end it off with smelting all the Zinc that had been sorted out, skimmed off, and some I got in a trade...my little gasoline campstove was barely up to the task (heatwise)...it took about 3 hours of MAX heat on the covered pot to liquify it, then trying to flux the dross was nothing like fluxing a lead alloy...I suspect my problem was it wasn't hot enough, the dross I removed probably had a few lbs of zinc that should have been recovered...But, I did get 20+ nice looking 'castboolits' ingots though...BUT never again, the zinc will get trashed, traded, or sold as it.




These are WW alloy ingots, I store them in used MFR box bottoms with a 1/4" plywood bottom. 64 ingots each...about 50 lbs.



this photo is at the end of the smelting marathon....and after organizing my garage to fit the car inside. Most all of those buckets are all 'half full' of WWs needing smelting, I'll get to them another time.

Howdey,What type of ingot mold are you using?Where can I purchase them.Thank's much,Lee

[shadygrady]

if you got zinc problems save it up 40 lbs or so in a flat rate box an send it to me

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Howdey,What type of ingot mold are you using?Where can I purchase them.Thank's much,Lee

they are a "castboolits" ingot mold.
from a group buy over a year ago.
I don't think any are currently available,
but you could post a WTB add and lure one out
of the wood work, but plan to spend more
than any other ingot mold,,,as they were over $35
during the GB.
Good Luck,
Jon