When to flux while smelting?

[lightman]

I'm jealous of you guys that have a source for isotope cores. Their alloy makes a good boolit and they were probably the cleanest lead that I ever smelted. They were clean enough that I only used wax to flux. But, I lost my source for them years ago.

Wheel weights are still available here where I live. They are often dirty, greasy, painted, coated, mixed with junk and require sorting. Just about everything bad thats been said about them is true. But I've smelted a bunch of them. I hand sort all of mine. They have always made a good boolit for me. Occasionally I'll add a small percentage of tin to the pot but not very often.

It looks like range scrap is going to be the source in the future. That has its challenges too.

[fredj338]

fredj338 and Conditor22:

When fluxing the clips, don't you worry about melting floating zinc WW's that might be hidden in the steel and trash? Or do you rely on careful sorting or some other method?

Don't smelt above 750deg & the zinc ones float out, but I do try & sort.

[fredj338]

I guess my processing of source lead different from WW led me to a different fluxing process that wouldn't work for WW.

Lead wheel weights are rare in my area; I've only processed a single batch, and that had every individual weight dike tested. I've done more range scrap, and most recently isotope containers. These last two sources of lead aren't likely to have any zinc, especially the iso lead, so I use higher heat to melt and during fluxing.

My fluxing is done with sawdust and generous amounts of paraffin, which invariably ignites. The top of the melt is one big cauldron of fire, that I assume is well above the zinc melting point. Good for cleaning the jackets of residual lead, bad for WW processing if I miss a few zinkers.

I doubt flaming was is above 750deg. IMO, the was burning is just annoying & not doing a great job fluxing. Sawdust seems to leave a cleaner alloy.

[kevin c]

True that just the paraffin sometimes leaves a scummy film. And for the temp I was thinking of the threads I've read here where folks burn motor oil as a way of getting the last bits of lead out of clips and jackets; I just assumed the trick was more heat and thought that the hydrocarbons in the wax would do the same as the oil and for the same reason. I haven't gotten out of the habit even though I've move on to cleaner lead without the copper, steel or zinc.

[Land Owner]

Yard sales and church flea markets are good places for finding CHEAP candles and candle wax. I have two or three moving boxes full. I flux with a gracious plenty of wax candles before the WW's are melted and set that wax on fire to help heat the whole pot. I keep adding wax about every 15 minutes as the 100# pot begins to heat and melt. Then I flux until I "feel like" stopping after the clips, dross, and soot are gone. Wax flux disappears in the heat. It's fun to set the wax on fire too...in a safe manner of course. I get pretty good ingots after that if I do say so myself...and who else should I be appeasing anyway?

forgot to add, if you work with women - ASK THEM for their burned out candles, used wax, etc. They will fill a box in hardly any time at all and keep it coming for FREE.

[Bantou]

Ok update. I remelted and fluxed with wax and sawdust. I got much better looking ingots this time. I’m also adding the dross back in that I skimmed off last time to make sure I get all the good stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bantou]

final result


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Land Owner]

Those look good. "C" is for?

[Bantou]

Clip on. I didn’t want to get my clip on and stick on ingots confused


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lightman]

Those look good. And marking them is a good idea. I wish I had started stamping mine years ago. I'll never get all of them marked now.

[Bantou]

Somebody in this group suggested it, I don’t remember who.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bazoo]

Those are some good looking ingots.

[Conditor22]

I mark mine with a Sharpie, normally wait 2 weeks to a month before I do the hardness test

[Bantou]

Man I hope to have that kind of supply some day. So far I’ve just got about 30lbs in ingots. I haven’t tested them yet, going to let them sit a while before I do. There are like 4 tire shops in my little town though so as money allows I’m going to keep building.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Idz]

I'm one of the oddballs and don't flux at all during smelting. As I understand it the purpose of fluxing is to reduce tin oxide back to tin and capture other impurities. My scrap comes from a pistol bullet trap and has a goodly amount of target cardboard fragments and wood target stand splinters. Most of the bullets are lead or lead core so not much hardening alloy in them. By smelting in a covered pot the organics are reduced to carbon, carbon compounds, and carbon monoxide all of which accomplish the goals of fluxing. When the melt is ready the carbon compounds flash off when the lid is removed and I'm left with the inorganic debris floating on nice clean lead. We've never seen any improvement in ingots by fluxing the pot again so we stopped doing it.

[Bantou]

Idz If it works for you then that’s great. Unfortunately I don’t have a shooting range close by to mine so all of my lead comes from wheel weights. Wheel weights are nasty and I figured out if I don’t flux then properly I don’t get good ingots.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ioon44]

I always flux WW before and after I remove the clips or add other lead to the pot, I don't think one can flux to much.

[sqlbullet]

I'm jealous of you guys that have a source for isotope cores. Their alloy makes a good boolit and they were probably the cleanest lead that I ever smelted. They were clean enough that I only used wax to flux. But, I lost my source for them years ago.

I have been lucky to have a good source of isotope lead for many years. And, as you point out, it is far cleaner for the most part than many other items. At least the 31.5 lb technitium cores.

Most of the other containers are painted, and gas off some pretty bad smelling vapors during the melting process. This has lead me to use flux options that will readily burn, to burn off the paint as quickly as possible. There is also the issue of a covered pot having a build up of flammable vapors that burst into flame when you crack the lid a bit.

But, the real sphincter squeezer is when you occasionally get something in the bottom of the pot that won't melt. Go ahead, check your periodic table for elements that have a high enough melting point to not melt in a 750° pot, and a high enough density that they won't float in liquid lead. Most of them are not elements you want to expose yourself to.

First time it happened I waited a long time before I finally grew the courage to fish it out. It is tungsten, and I now have a fair collection of different tungsten shapes on my desk.

But every time I still clench just a bit.

[kevin c]

I got the other extreme. A glass ampule for radioactive xenon gas was left in one of the isotope containers I got. It would have floated if I had melted that container, but I found it before it got into my processing pot. The radiopharmacy took that one back really quick. Fortunately for all concerned, the short half life of the isotope meant that it had decayed to the point of having only a millionth of its original radioactivity. All the same, the ampule shouldn't have been there.

You're right about the paint, sqlbullet. I also think the adhesive labels and foam rubber inserts I find in some containers are nasty when burning. That's how I found the ampule, removing those foam inserts.

ETA: I also have a collection of tungsten. The local scrap yard isn't interested in it, but there might be a market for it somewhere.

[jonp]

Those look good. And marking them is a good idea. I wish I had started stamping mine years ago. I'll never get all of them marked now.

Me too. Now I've got mixed up lead that I have to put a bhn on to figure out which is which. I finally did get a clue and started marking them with a sharpie. Pb/COWW/SOWW/50/50 etc.
I bought 60 or 70lbs of isotope from someone on this sight when he was getting it a few years ago. I melted the giant things down into ingots but still haven't cast any.