Cleaning lead melting pot

[Cloudpeak]

I have an old "Ohaus" cast iron pot that I melt my wheel weights in. It's getting kind of cruddy and I'd like to clean it up. The sides of the pot are rough and it tends to hold some black residue that sloughs off the sides as the level of molten lead goes down. It seems like I'm having to do a lot of fluxing and skimming lately. I'm thinking of bead blasting. After I doe this, how can I keep the pot from rusting between uses.

Cloudpeak

[buck1]

I Clean mine with a wire wheel and a drill.
Some guys here spray it down with the graphite mold prep. ....Buck

[Frank46]

Cloudpeak, ditto the drill and wire wheel thing, it helps to scrape as much crud out as possible then use the wire wheel. But you should were at least a dustmask as there is a lot of dust stirred up when using this approach, and it won't do your lungs any good.
Frank

[Cloudpeak]

Cloudpeak, ditto the drill and wire wheel thing, it helps to scrape as much crud out as possible then use the wire wheel. But you should were at least a dustmask as there is a lot of dust stirred up when using this approach, and it won't do your lungs any good.
Frank

Thanks Frank and Buck. I went ahead and used the wire wheel in a drill. Yep, Frank, I hear you about lung protection. I use face masks and ear protection for anything that smells or makes loud noises. I developed an alergy to fiberglass dust and spray primers when I was building airplanes. Respirators and hearing protection are dirt cheap compared to lung transplants and hearing aids. (I already know for sure about hearing aids.)

Does anyone know what the powdery, black residue in the bottom of my pot might have been? I thought fluxing was supposed to clean out all of the impurities. This stuff was in the bottom but also along the sides and kept coming off & crudding up the melt as the lead level dropped.

Cloudpeak

[porkchop bob]

Does anyone know what the powdery, black residue in the bottom of my pot might have been? I thought fluxing was supposed to clean out all of the impurities. This stuff was in the bottom but also along the sides and kept coming off & crudding up the melt as the lead level dropped.

Cloudpeak

Tin oxide is very black in color. If it is tin oxide, try changing the fluxing routine to get the tin to reduce and go back into solution.

Bob

[Cloudpeak]

Tin oxide is very black in color. If it is tin oxide, try changing the fluxing routine to get the tin to reduce and go back into solution.

Bob

I would have thought the tin oxide would have floated to the surface. I think the black stuff has been accumulating in the pours of the metal & on the bottom of the pot. It just seems that the metal required much less fluxing at the beginning of this year than it has lately.

Can you give me any tips on how to do a better job of cleaning the metal up?

Cloudpeak

[Cloudpeak]

Tin oxide is very black in color. If it is tin oxide, try changing the fluxing routine to get the tin to reduce and go back into solution.

Bob

I would have thought the tin oxide would have floated to the surface. I think the black stuff has been accumulating in the pours of the metal & on the bottom of the pot. It just seems that the metal required much less fluxing at the beginning of this year than it has lately.

Can you give me any tips on how to do a better job of cleaning the metal up?

Cloudpeak

[porkchop bob]

I would have thought the tin oxide would have floated to the surface. I think the black stuff has been accumulating in the pours of the metal & on the bottom of the pot. It just seems that the metal required much less fluxing at the beginning of this year than it has lately.

Can you give me any tips on how to do a better job of cleaning the metal up?

Cloudpeak

Making of ingots
My thinking is like yours. The light stuff should float to the top. However I have found WW clips and other stuff stuck to the sides and bottom of my cast iron rendering pot. You have to scrap it free. I stir the pot and scrap the sides and bottom frequently. Once it is loose, it will surface and can be skimmed off. The stirring also helps in blending the alloy so the first ingot poured is just like the last one in that batch.

It is possible to throw away tin and antimony that is no longer in solution along with trash. Fluxing will help to keep it in solution. I use Nokorode regular paste flux (old time plumber's soldering flux) made by Rectorseal and beeswax.

I am sure there lots of other ways to flux. Like you, I am open to suggestions.

Making of bullets
I use a 20# bottom pour pot to re-melt the ingots. I use the same fluxing routine but do not have to use as much. I have not had a problem with trash or any residue remaining on the sides or bottom of the casting pot.

Bob

[StarMetal]

Gosh, I've never even had anything like a ww clip stick to the bottom sides of my pot. I have the RCBS furnace with the stainless steel pot. I wonder if that clip got magnetic somehow and stuck down there?

Joe

[David R]

Star,

I have had them come up when I stir the pot. This is only when I am cleaning them of course. Usually little ones, but I think the weight of the lead traps them against the bottom.

Same with the black dust, I think it gets trapped there and will only come up when I scrape the bottom with a lifting action.

For the rest that asked about fluxing. Put in some bullet lube,wax or fat. ALSO add some hardwood sawdust, or any kind of sawdust. I use corncob from the tumbler, cause I have it. When the smoke starts, ignite it with a lighter. Stir with a gloved hand while the flames are going. when you are done, all that should be on top is a dry powdery black carbon like stuff. All the silver scum should have gone back into the melt. Remove what is left and you have a nice shiny clean well mixed melt.

David

[Cloudpeak]

Making of bullets
I use a 20# bottom pour pot to re-melt the ingots. I use the same fluxing routine but do not have to use as much. I have not had a problem with trash or any residue remaining on the sides or bottom of the casting pot.
Bob

If I decide to stay with bullet casting I'll probably end up with a bottom pour pot. My little cast iron pot is really kind of a pain. I spend a lot of time adding metal and fluxing when using a 6 cavity mold. The melt just doesn't last very long.

Cloudpeak

[Cloudpeak]

ALSO add some hardwood sawdust, or any kind of sawdust. I use corncob from the tumbler, cause I have it.
David

Would the media I got with my Lyman tumbler (walnut, I think) work for this?

Cloudpeak

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Wood sticks will work, old car oil will work. I've used old toilet rings to flux with.
I 've had to clean my lyman furnace at leact 4/5 times by the wire brush/wheel methode over the past 30+ yrs. I do all my WW rendering in old # 10 cans to make inguts.

[David R]

I have never tried walnut media, but it should work. try it. Let us know. They say "anything carbon". Well that leaves it wide open. Hardwood sawdust smells good.

I forgot about the hardwood dowel.

Everything I mentioned, I learned here.

Bullshop had a nice post, but I don't know were it went.


David

[buck1]

Gosh, I've never even had anything like a ww clip stick to the bottom sides of my pot. I have the RCBS furnace with the stainless steel pot. I wonder if that clip got magnetic somehow and stuck down there?

Joe

Strangely enugh I sometimes find clips at the bottom of my big melt pot. They float when I scrape them free.....Buck