Rendering dross

[Oklahoma Rebel]

ok, I took about 1 oz of this block, just clipped off the edge, put it in a lyman dipper, and used a torch to heat it up. the tip of the thermometer was resting on the bottom of the dipper, if that makes a difference, but it melted ( the alloy) at about 480,i printed a page from here I think with different melt temps, and it seems to suggest that what I have is VERY tin rich, run five or anyone else, do you agree or have any other thoughts? I am hoping it is mostly tin because I have been making some 20:1 and would like to make a big batch, I have about 80lbs of 4.1sn to 1.9sb that I will use, the sb will get watered down enough that it wont really matter,as far as making it brittle. so let me know what you guys think.

[Grmps]

Hold it! A properly fluxed alloy will only have ASH, gray ash. There will be no metal of any kind in it. If there is - you are not fluxing the alloy properly regardless if it is from smelting scrap lead or the melt in the pot!

I concur. I don't claim to be an expert,... my experience 50# dirty/mystery lead , 2 tbs sulfur (in case of zinc) stir - stir- stir with an Asian spider strainer then flux with small handful of sawdust , burned off - stir - stir - stir ( the spider strainer does a good job getting the flux into the lead) then repeat with the sawdust - burning and stiring that leaves "ash" and the crud that was stuck to the lead, NO DROSS

[Oklahoma Rebel]

bump!

[runfiverun]

Travis there are a few things that can lower an alloys melt temperature.
clip on ww's will melt at about 500-f.
think about that for just a second.
yep antimony will allow the alloy to melt at a lower temp. [weird huh?]
but so will bismuth.
and so will Tin. [melts at @ 450-f]

but if your below 500 you got something with a higher tin content [lino-type melts at about that 480 point]

[RogerDat]

Well I had three bread loaf pans of assorted dross, cleaned up splatter, some reject bullets, some bottom of the pot residue and a partridge in a pear tree.

Yield was 10# ingot of what feels and looks like decent alloy and 1 full loaf pan of dust. I was noticing as I labeled it and put it on my misc. shelf that I had slabs marked "smelting dross" and "casting & alloy dross". Smelting will be mostly plain or COWW's, with a touch of maybe dental foil or cable cover. Big pots of basic stuff. The alloy and casting will mostly be richer stuff. At least based on grain structure and general hardness (ring vs. thunk too)

[Oklahoma Rebel]

so run, your saying it is rich in something,lol thanks very helpful!