Did my first smelting today.

[jessdigs]

I got a call from my father in law, and he asked if I wanted a bunch of lead fishing weights from his friends house that just passed away.

I told him of course, I will take all the lead he had.

I got a call about 20 mins later, asking if I would want 5 buckets of wheel weights.....uh, yeah. So I get over there, they have been outside for probably 20 years, the buckets are rotting, and when you pick them up they crumble.

I dug up every container I could find at the guys house, transferred the wheel weights into other containers, picked though the dirt to get all the ones that fell down over time, and loaded them in the trunk of my 2005 Toyota Corolla.

1/2 ton of wheel weights and fishing/diving weights in the Corolla.

Anyways, got them home, drug out my setup I had put together for the eventual smelting session, and gave it a try.
While some of the cleaner ones were melting, I cleaned some of the dirtiest Rusty ones and put them out to dry (yes I know you don't have to clean them).

Looks like I have a lot more work ahead.

There are still cashes of lead in California. I found a good one.

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[richhodg66]

Good score. Lucky you didn't bust something in that Corolla, they're great little cars but not the best tool for that task.

[jessdigs]

Yes I know. I had no idea it would be that much, and my wife had my truck.
Luckily it was only about 2 miles away.

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[Rug480]

you lucky son of a gun, what a find!

[lightman]

Nice Score! Your Toyota will probably be mad at you for a few days but you got the lead home!

[Cue]

Stinky work, but fun, I just did a 5 gallon bucket of WW today myself.

[Pb Burner]

Great score! Looks like your first "smelting" session went good too. I'd give many thanks to the FIL..buy hime a beer..or dinner!

[jessdigs]

Still have the ball weights and big blocks to do.
Might wait on those though.

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[lightman]

That was a good days work! The sorted wheel weights should be a consistent alloy but the weights and balls could be anything. I would keep them separate. You can get them tested and blend them in with another alloy later on. I smelt in batches of 350-400 lb and wheel weights are my main alloy. I tend to blend small batches of odd stuff with them.

[D Crockett]

dang that reminded me I still have about 500 pounds of roof flashing to put into ingots and yes that was a good find on your part happy casting D Crockett

[glockfan]

seems like you worked that lead with the bayou classic sp10 burner ?

bought one myself recently but have yet to use it. heard that it burns fuel quite fast.

still in need of a decent pot to match the burner capability as i'm still left with 5-600lbs of unprocessed WW. theorically i should be able to process 500lbs of unsorted metal in 3-4 hours.

[Walter Laich]

I love the pictures of the clean lead in nice little cup shapes

never can have too much of that

[MaryB]

seems like you worked that lead with the bayou classic sp10 burner ?

bought one myself recently but have yet to use it. heard that it burns fuel quite fast.

still in need of a decent pot to match the burner capability as i'm still left with 5-600lbs of unprocessed WW. theorically i should be able to process 500lbs of unsorted metal in 3-4 hours.

I use 3SP-10's brewing beer. They aren't to bad on fuel. Once you get a melt going you can turn them down quite a bit. I can usually get 4 2 hours boils out of tank1 and tank2 lasts a lot longer because it only heats water to 162 & 170 then gets turned off.

I also use one smelting, can do 2-3 long sessions with one where I am doing 3-400 pounds of WW

[lightman]

I would really like to have a quieter burner, but what I have works really well except for the noise. I would consider buying another if I could see one in operation. Anyway, I'm probably closer to the end of my casting career than the beginning of it.