Is washing and cleaning WW really necessary?

[shotstring]

I just finished spending several days soaking washing and degreasing some bad linotype and a couple of 5 gallon buckets of WWs. My old back isn't as limber as it used to be, and while I was spreading the lead out to dry, I started wondering if all this was really necessary. No question, the water that comes off a bucket of used lead is dark and brackish and full of who knows what. But now all that drainage goes into my back yard, which doesn't excite me too much either.

My question envolves fire being the ultimate purifier and separator. Won't all the grease and contaminents burn off with the melting and heavy fluxing of the mix? Won't any dirt or gravel or other heavy contaminants simply float to the top to be skimmed off? Am I wasting my time doing all the soaking and labor intensive work of swishing heavy lead around in a bucket with a metal broom handle and then spreading it out to dry?

[waksupi]

I have never washed and cleaned WW's. I suspect the only time this may be good, is if you live in an urban environment, to keep the odors, and neighbor's complaints down.

[imashooter2]

As long as you can stand the stink, there is no reason to clean WW before you smelt.

[Springfield]

IMHO, you are totally wasting your time. I usually do 800 lbs at a time and I find the lead comes out the same no matter how dirty or clean the lead was going into the pot. Plus you are making it more possible to get water into the mix, always a bad thing. Let the fire purify the lead, not your back.

[45nut]

As you surmised everything that isn't alloy will just float,,and anything carbon based is flux to boot. I once left a 1/3 bucket of ww's out and had a solid mass of rust to the eye, dumped it all out on a piece of scrap plywood on a hot day and dried them well, turned them over occasionally then scooped the mess up and into my smelter. started with a cold pot and no tinsel fairy, no muss or fuss, just fluxed and poured ingots.

[mtgrs737]

The dirt and grease make a good flux, so I leave it on.

[shotstring]

You guys just made my day!!! It really does pay to ask questions! I don't know how I got into thinking I had to clean the WWs, but somehow I did. I have never used WWs before in my casting as I had a fantastic source of good hard clean hospital lead the entire time I was casting in the past, so dealing with them is a new experience for me. Now the experience will certainly be a whole lot easier. Thanks again for the tips.

[Blackhawk Convertable]

Thanks for this post. I just melted down 153# of WW's. I was thinking the same thing with regards to the oil and grease. Was kinda wondering why my dross was so minimal. I guess I scooped most of it out with the clips.