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Thread: The difference between casting and smelting

  1. #21
    Boolit Bub
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    I just found this thread. I'll admit I didn't realize the difference either, I've been melting down wheel weights and fluxing several times to pour ignots for later use. Then when I'm ready to cast I use the ingots to cast from.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Ola's Avatar
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    As English is not my native language, I had no idea what smelting actually is. Because I've seen it hundreds of times here, I thought it means "melting AND fluxing un-pure lead to usable form". Because of this thread I translated it for the first time to my language and it is: "reduction melting" (pelkistyssulatus).

    I know what reduction melting is, but is that translation correct?

  3. #23
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ola View Post
    As English is not my native language, I had no idea what smelting actually is. Because I've seen it hundreds of times here, I thought it means "melting AND fluxing un-pure lead to usable form". Because of this thread I translated it for the first time to my language and it is: "reduction melting" (pelkistyssulatus).

    I know what reduction melting is, but is that translation correct?
    Ola, I think it is a proper translation but smelting as used here is more like you originally thought. All the lead people here use was previously smelted from ore to metal at a real smelter (reduced, oxides turned to base metal). Smelting here is a cleaning, undeforming process with only a small amount of reduction going on.

    Tim
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  4. #24
    Boolit Master Ola's Avatar
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    Thanks Tim. But then, why is it called smelting, if it isn't? Because you do not have a better word for it?

    Btw. We call it "cleaning", as "Today I'm going to clean some WW's". (I'm not sure if that makes sense to you, but that is what we say in Finnish. )

  5. #25
    Boolit Man
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    Smelt; best eaten lightly floured fried in butter with salt and pepper and often during the early spring.
    Smelting: the act of net dipping for said creatures or otherwise bringing them to table.
    just throwing it out there...
    rick

  6. #26
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ola View Post
    Thanks Tim. But then, why is it called smelting, if it isn't? Because you do not have a better word for it?

    Btw. We call it "cleaning", as "Today I'm going to clean some WW's". (I'm not sure if that makes sense to you, but that is what we say in Finnish. )
    I expect that if they called it cleaning people might think you were using soap and water. Purifying, blending and ingoting would better describe what they are really doing.

    Tim
    Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS

    The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grendl View Post
    Smelt; best eaten lightly floured fried in butter with salt and pepper and often during the early spring.
    Smelting: the act of net dipping for said creatures or otherwise bringing them to table.
    just throwing it out there...
    rick
    I went smelting once, they requested that I bite the head off the first one I caught, it was thru the ice on a hook and line.

    Tim
    Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS

    The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

    The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides

  8. #28
    Boolit Master

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    Why is it called smelting?
    You'd need to ask the gent who first published the process.
    However I'm thinking that he's been buried many decades hence.

    I think it's called "common usage".
    Pepe Ray
    The way is ONLY through HIM.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master
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    We figured if we called it smelting we could keep the Finns out for a while.
    Just yanking your chain, Ola.
    Smelting is close enough for our purposes and a lot easier to type.
    Warning: I know Judo. If you force me to prove it I'll shoot you.

  10. #30
    Boolit Master Ola's Avatar
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    Tim: soap and water... ok, .. I have to admit I've never thought about that

    Everyone: I'm fine with the word smelting. I'm just plain curious and trying to expand my vocabulary. And I really like to understand what all the words actually mean. It helps, because some times translating English-Finnish-English some information is lost because the meaning of the words in languages are not excactly the same..

    And like in this case: it also has other meanings. Thank you, smelt eaters!

  11. #31
    Boolit Master
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    Smelting is the process of reducing lead bearing compounds to elemental lead. Lead does not normally occur in the elemental form. For example ggin galena (lead sulfide) the most common lead ore the ore is smelted to separate the lead from the galena.


    As for common usage how many would support a policy of accepting the most commonly given answer to the question of how 3x2+7 if that was the answer most respondents gave. Well don't ever criticize the younger generation for their ignorance if we are fostering the acceptance of false or erroneous information just because it is wisely believed. Personally I come here to learn not to listen to fallacies perpetuated.

  12. #32
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I see you've learned common core math. I will politely tell you you're barking up the wrong tree. These threads never go well. Smelting is used to differentiate cleaning up a lead source, such as wheel weights, from casting bullets. Care to take on Boolit versus Bullet next?

  13. #33
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I melt my dirty wheelweights in batches of 350-400 pounds, but I don't consider myself a gambler. Since Zinc started showing up, I hand sort all of my weights. If I do miss a Zinc weight or two, there won't be enough contamination to hurt a 400# batch. In the past, I did not separate the stick-ons from the clip-ons as there were so few of them. I do now, just because there are more and more stick-ons. I also use the word"Smelt" when melting lead and casting ingots, and expect most casters to know what I'm doing.

  14. #34
    Boolit Buddy Doggonekid's Avatar
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    Good information! Now I know the correct definition for smelting, I think I will continue to say I cast boolits and smelt my junk lead and alloy it 100 pounds at a time and poor it into ingots. Most people know I don't have a lot of lead ore in the garage. It is good to know that I am using the word wrong. But who cares? No offense to anyone.
    "Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid." John Wayne

  15. #35
    Boolit Bub flintlock62's Avatar
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    I always thought smelting meant this:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelting

  16. #36
    Boolit Buddy
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    Geezzzz... Man...is our hobby getting complex or what?

    Smelting,, Easy tasks
    1..take trash you got...smelt it,,,clean it up as much as you can. pour it out to save..

    Casting..

    1. take the 'trash' ingots...remelt, check quality..clean up again with items to get smelt up to quality...
    2. add alloys to bring BRN and pour ability up to snuff
    3. pour into ingot size to fit your casting pot
    4. get ingots into cast pot
    5. cast and drop your boolits.

    Now here, we can water drop...age...size...lube...you know...get fancy...

    Nose Dive

    Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two

  17. #37
    Boolit Mold
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    I also agree with what you have written.

  18. #38
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I have always called the process of melting to remove impurities trash and other materials, smelting. When making a batch of alloy Im blending and when making bullets sinkers or jigs Im casting.

    I smelt and blend in the same big pot some times at the same time. I will fill the pot with a known amount of wheel weights, range lead, or scrap. melt flux until clean then pour a couple small ingots and let cool then check hardness. Add the need tin and anatomy to get where I want to be flux again and pour ingots. My smelting blending pot is 400lbs so I end up with nice big batches of the same alloy for future use. These ingots are stamped with a personal Id number and pot number. This is so if I blend the same over multiple pots I can add ingots from each pot when filling the casting pot, this makes 4 pots of the same basic blend the same for every pot cast from rather than the small differences that might occur. As an example If I blend and make 3 pots of 96 2 2 each ingot is marked 96 2 2 P 1 or P2 or P3 depending on which pot Im on. These are stacked in groups. when filling my pot 10 lbs pot I use a P1 P2 and P3 ingot his way instead of having 3 400 lb batches I now have 1 1200lb batch.

    I find the larger batches tend to "smooth" things out more from batch to batch.

  19. #39
    Boolit Mold
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    Newbie to the forum. Don't know if this is the place to post my question.

    Little history first...been planing on reloading for a few years so in the mean time have been acquiring supplies and equipment. Have a foreign made cast iron pot for smelting my raw materials. A cast iron bread stick mold pan for ingots. 20 lb Lee bottom pour casting pot and various Lee bullet molds.
    My lead stockpile consists of ingots made from some unknown lead from my father-in-law (was with some sinker molds which disappeared) so most likely melted down wheel weights. Some housing lead from a carpenter friend, and some utility bar stock from an old lead underground cable splicer. The utility bars are marked as sn30pb70.
    My first casting session, I used mostly the wheel weight ingots and the bullets came out good. Went thru the resizer easily. Cast some bullets today using the pure lead ingots and utility ingots on a 3 to 1 ratio.
    Tried to size the bullets and cant. 0.356 Lee mold and Lee 0.356 sizing die but the bullets are sticking in the sizer requiring so much pressure to push thru that I pulled a lag screw loose from where I had it mounted on a 2x10 c-clamped to the kitchen table. Hardness problem or is there a problem with my mold?

  20. #40
    Boolit Master



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    Sounds like the larger amount of tin you have in that mix makes the bullet much harder than you need, plus the as-cast diameter is probably a thou or 2 larger than the wheelweight bullets. Try putting a lubed bullet through the sizer every 5 rounds or so and see if that helps.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check