Gang-
I've finally got enough stuff to start, bare bones, but it'll work. My molds arrived, (found 'em on eBay) and are currently soaking in denatured alcohol to hopefully degrease them. Anything else I should be doing to them? I am planning on scrubbing them up with a nylon brush tonight.
The first smelting operation took place in the back of my pickup, I live in an apartment complex, and while I am single, I didn't want to fume out the whole place. A few lessons learned, some you may even find humorous:
1) Gotta get a bigger pot, I'm thinking about trying to find a 2-4qt dutch oven at a yard sale; the thrift shops around town didn't have anything like that.
2) Make sure the Coleman is full of fuel before you start.
3) Corralary to #2, when re-fueling, don't place your pot down on asphalt, it'll melt. Oops!
4) More on melting stuff, the spoon you are stirring with gets HOT; don't set it down on your plastic bed liner. It tends to stick and smell funny when you start stirring again, though I guess the plastic could be considered a flux of sorts.
5) This one only really applies to people who live up here where the sun doesn't like to go down, keep an eye on your watch. Especially when you have to be at work by 0530 the next day.
All in all everything went okay, I will admit to approaching the idea of fluxing with quite a lot of trepidation, consequently I think I probably need to flux some more. There was just something about throwing a piece of wax into a pot of molten lead; in the words of the former, almost Mrs. Klaus, "Are you crazy!? My response was always "Well, yeah, but you don't have to advertise the fact" Anyway, hope my mis-adventures brighten your day, take care
-SSG Klaus