Lead ingots are rippled. What do I have?

[Arkansas Paul]

Sorry if rippled wasn't the correct term, but I'm wondering exactly what I have here.
A neighbor who knows I cast brought me some lead they were throwing away at work. I'm pretty excited about it because its about 40-50 pounds of free lead. That's a lot of boolits.

Here are what they looked like when he gave them to me.




Here is what all the ingots look like when I smelted them down and fluxed.



I'm just wondering why the ripples in the ingots. Does this mean anything? The ingots seem soft, but I don't have a hardness tester so I can't be sure. I think they're close to pure though.
None of my wheel weight lead has ever done this, even when I melt down stick ons separately.

Any ideas what this is?

[Arkansas Paul]

Thanks.
I guess it was just starting to harden up as it poured.
They sure make good boolits. I've been mixing about 4# of this to 6# of COWW lead to make bullets for .40, .38 Spcl, 9mm an d.45 Colt. It seems to be a good alloy for my stuff. I don't push things too fast though.

[bangerjim]

You poured too slow and you poured too cold.

Cast it and shoot!


banger

[fredj338]

Cold mold, pour them hot they look better, but who cares? If it casts bullets you are GTG.

[RayinNH]

Paul if you had poured all at one time you wouldn't have had this layering. A large ladle allows that. I'm guessing you had to pour several ladles full to get the ingot. Absolutely no effect on finished product...Ray

[TES]

when starting....set your molds close or on to the flames to heat them up. If you are doing a casting session leave the poured lead in the mold until you are ready to pour your next set of ingots. This will keep the mold hot and reduce the wrinkles so you have nice shiny ingots.

side note if you are using a bottom pour pot to make ingots you will not be able to get rid of this unless you heat the pour with a torch as it fills out the mold.

[Larry Gibson]

Send them to me for analysis and testing.....when I'm done I'll tell ya how well the alloy worked.....in the meantime see if you can scrounge up some more to send me........

Larry Gibson

[Defcon-One]

What they said. It is temperature related.

Your lead appears to be Plumbers Lead, which is Pure or very close to it. So, you were right it is soft and better yet, FREE!

DC-1

[Arkansas Paul]

Thanks guys.
I don't think I was letting it get hot enough in the pot. As soon as it melted, I would stir in some fluxing compound and pour them up.
Anyway, I got a bunch of free lead and that's awesome.
Cheers and happy loading.

[olereb]

Same thing happens to me,my ladel isn't big enough to fill one mold at a time so each fill creates a ripple from the lead cooling.

[Arkansas Paul]

My ladle is big enough. That's what threw me. I'm filling it up fairly quickly.
It's no big deal though. I'm fairly sure its nearly pure.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

UGLY ingots often cast the best boolits!

BvT

[Arkansas Paul]

UGLY ingots often cast the best boolits!

I love it.
That sounds like a good sig line.

[SlippShodd]

Dangit, what's wrong with you guys?
Them 'er growth rings!
Sheesh.

mike

[JSnover]

It's like casting boolits. Once the molds get hot, a handful of problems go away.

[jsizemore]

Damascus ingots.

[AlaskanGuy]

Shoot them.... Or send to me, and i will shoot them....

[myg30]

The important thing is no ripples after they drop from your boolit mold ! Looks good lead. Wish I had 50 lbs too !!

Merry Christmas, Santa was good to you !

Mike