Stirring the Pot

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I flux and stir well initially, adding back in sprues and the first cold pour boolits as I cast. After casting 15 lbs. of lead into bullets I'm ready to be finished and have never added any new lead to the melt. Sounds like occasional stirring might be a good practice if just to let the mold cool a bit. Never noticed anything funky with boolits near the end of the pot.

[lightman]

Even with the metal stuff it is smart to give it a bit of warm up lying across pot or floating on surface. My 2# casting ladle is cast or pitted and it has given me "recoil" the one time I made the mistake of dipping into the pot too quickly on a cold day. Made an impression shall we say. Slotted spoon has done the hiss and spit thing a time or two also. January thaw with all the melting snow pumping moisture into the air. Imagine in a high humidity climate wood might well be pretty iffy as far as sticking into a pot.

BTW my comments are about making ingots in a larger pot. In my 20# casting pot it's just the occasional pea sized piece of bees wax to drive tin back in or the table spoon or wood stir stick to skim. I ladle cast so need the top clear of dross. Sounded like some were describing leaving a top layer of ash on the melt which I think is normal way to seal out air for bottom pour casting pot usage.

This is true, moisture can lurk anyplace including a metal spoon. I should have added that to my reply. Thanks for adding this warning!