What is going on with my lead?

[chutestrate]

I fluxed this lead like crazy a couple of nights ago. I then forgot to turn off my pot and last night when I had the oh **** moment, I saw this. My pot was clean. Obviously my lead is really dirty,

[runfiverun]

that's probably the heaviest dirt your gonna run into.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

is that a bunch of antimony that separated??

[chutestrate]

I have no idea. Looks like a bunch of dirt and i don't know what else

[quail4jake]

Oh boy, I know how you feel. I left a head of cabbage boiling and went out the other day...lost all my tin in the alloy, oh the dross!

[Grmps]

I hate to admit it but I've left my pot on overnight more than once but I've never had that happen.
How hot was your pot set at? I kind of looks like you boiled the lead [I've never seen boiled lead]

[chutestrate]

I should have double checked the temp. I didn't move the dial so I will plug back in. I cast with where it is set now, so in the 675-750 f range.

[rsrocket1]

What a work of art. I think you may have invented a new element. Casting's version of Corium!

[swheeler]

Looks like you added 23 pennies and then fluxed with copper sulfate!

[308Jeff]

First of all, keep him out of the light, he hates bright light, especially sunlight, it'll kill him. Second, don't give him any water, not even to drink. But the most important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never leave your casting pot on overnight.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

well alrighty then!

[dbosman]

Did you by any chance use borax for a flux?

[John Boy]

Obviously my lead is really dirty,

Looks to me that the ingots were not fluxed and it was done in the casting pot with garbage in addition to lead.
Fluxed melt in the casting pot at 675-750 left over night would never 'create' dross looking like that mess
What was the lead source in the pot - WW's - range scraps or ?

[Grmps]

What lead/alloy were you using and what did you flux it with, how much flux did you use? did you cast after you fluxed it> if you did you could send one of those bullets to BNE and he could tell you what was in it.

[Traffer]

It looks like clinkers from high-sulfur content coal. I have no idea what it is though. Please let us know if you ever figure it out. I am curious as the cat that was killed.

[Lloyd Smale]

wow that's an ugly mess. Ive left pure, ww, linotype and just about every alloy inbetween on over night because I forgot to turn off a pot and they didn't look a bit different then when I left them.

[kens]

where's that link to the drip-o-matic art???

[Ateam]

Wow, that looks more like a reaction than just "dirt" that floated to the top. I hardly get that much dirt out of 50lbs of raw wheelweights. Really curious what is going on here.

[Walter Laich]

one way I overcame leaving the pot on is putting it on a rolling table and always casting outside. when done the table goes back in and first thing is to unplug the pot and roll up extension cord cause the table won't roll over it easily.

back to OP, sure looks like there is dirt in there. any chance you could have had something above it drip into the pot? Something that might have gotten warm from the pot's temp and melted into it?

^total guess by the way

[OS OK]

where's that link to the drip-o-matic art???

I thought this post might catch on but it seems that someone is against 'drip art'...it keeps getting melted down and made into boolits!

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...f-Pot-Drip-Art

This post here is a different art form all together...it looks more like a 'petrie dish' out of control growing microbes from Mars!