Can you separate tin and antimony from range scrap?
Can you separate tin and antimony from range scrap?
Maybe but I doubt it. Leave it in and cut the proceeds with pure to get a softer alloy if that is what you want.
not sure what "cut the proceeds" means.
if i can separate the lead, then I could use the tin and antimony for special batches, and pure lead for most of what i make, which gets powder coated and doesnt need tin or antimony.
Not with the normal hobby caster techniques that we use.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
I did it by mistake, I heated the range lead up too much during initial smelting. Don't know what the temperature was that it happened, maybe 800 degrees. It showed as a metal oatmeal-looking pudding on top of the melt. I really thought it was zinc. The guys here on the site have convinced me that it's tin and antimony separated from the lead by overheating. Skim it off and save for later.
I cast some boolits from what was left and a week later, could scratch them deeply with my thumbnail. I threw them back in the bucket and didn't use them. I'll try to get the tin and antimony to melt back into the lead next time I fire up the pot.
I agree with Jon. Smelters have the ability to do things we really can't do, or at least not safely.
What is wrong with range scrap as is? In many cases it is about ideal, or at least it is for me.
You will learn far more at the casting, loading, and shooting bench than you ever will at a computer bench.
I have experienced that, and wanted to ask about it.
i try to flux before the pot gets hot enough to light the wax on fire. not sure if that is a good idea, but lately iv noticed a lot of silver sludging to the top and mixing in with the dirt and such, i skim it off and put it with the rest of the dross i have. not sure what it is coming up. its not a lot.
It probably was antimony, but you probably didn't have it hot enough. It goes through a slush stage where it does that, maybe <600 but once you reach the liquidus of the alloy it all goes together again.
Get a thermometer. Some work without it but to me it's like not having a tachometer in your truck. I want to know what rpm, not just what it sounds like.
And just for your info... casting with a single cavity is about as close as you can get to zero production, while still having some production. -- Whitespider
I'm going the PID route for about the same $$ as a thermometer, pretty lights too.
I suspected my old pot, new one's on the way. But, no problems with COWW, just that batch of range scrap.
Je suis Charlie
"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
Bertrand de Jouvenel
Any government that does not trust its citizens with firearms is either a tyranny, or planning to become one. Joseph P. Martino
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years there would be a shortage of sand. Milton Friedman
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns; why should we let them have ideas?" - J. Stalin
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 |