Weirdness in my Lead Pot -

[Mr_Sheesh]

Send a sample to BNE with a pound of lead and find out for certain?

[Oyeboten]

Send a sample to BNE with a pound of lead and find out for certain?

I'd love to send off a sample of the Crust anyway to find out what it is...but...

Who or what is "BNE"?

[Conditor22]

BNE is a member here that has access to high-end XRF (x-ray machine) that tells you the exact content of the material you send him.

His fee for this Is 1 pound of pure lead.

You can find him here http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?29218-BNE

send him a private message and make arrangements.

[Oyeboten]

BNE is a member here that has access to high-end XRF (x-ray machine) that tells you the exact content of the material you send him.

His fee for this Is 1 pound of pure lead.

You can find him here http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?29218-BNE

send him a private message and make arrangements.

Ahhh!

Thanks!

Will do!

[kevin c]

Please let us know what he finds. Informed guesses can be helpful, but hard data will help us learn something new.

[Oyeboten]

Please let us know what he finds. Informed guesses can be helpful, but hard data will help us learn something new.

I sure will, thanks!

[kmw1954]

Hi all - help me out here please, what IS this thick, firm, pale "Pea Soup" green stuff forming on my molten Lead???

Once broken up and cooled it goes more yellow color with some pale Orange in it.

Hosted on Fotki.

Sorry but your hosted pictures are not showing. Click on the file and it takes me to site home page.

[Oyeboten]

Sorry but your hosted pictures are not showing. Click on the file and it takes me to site home page.

Oh my!

There should not even be anything to click on, should just be the image or images IN my Post.

Nor are these images supposed to allow access to my Fotki Pages, so something is a whole bunch of not right, eeeesh!

I have no other way to post images, our site does not accept them right from my Computer or Camera Card, at least not that I know of anyway.

Is anyone else having to 'click' on some URL or something to see the images?

[kmw1954]

Oh my!

There should not even be anything to click on, should just be the image or images IN my Post.

Well it looks like obsolete Windows IE is the culprit. Went to Firefox and all is well there.
I need a new puter! Sorry for the alarm.

[Oyeboten]

Well it looks like obsolete Windows IE is the culprit. Went to Firefox and all is well there.
I need a new puter! Sorry for the alarm.

Was it allowing you to view the entire Image Album?

Or, only just the one image?

[BNE]

Guys,
Thank you for the recommendations. I am turning people down for testing for a little while as I am really slammed right now. (“Essential work” and home is busy also). Just don’t have time to do testing.

BUT, in the interest of answering this question, I will test a sample.

FYI. The crud looks heavily oxidized. XrF may not give us a good reading.



Oyeboten- see PM

BNE.

[kmw1954]

Was it allowing you to view the entire Image Album?

Or, only just the one image?

Looked like just the sites home page with a log-in you should be safe

[1Hawkeye]

That's a pretty weird occurrence. Just out of curiosity did you try fluxing with a lot of beeswax? To see if the dress went away.

[Oyeboten]

That's a pretty weird occurrence. Just out of curiosity did you try fluxing with a lot of beeswax? To see if the dress went away.

I sprinkle on clean Hardwood Shavings from my Wood Lathe, and I also put in a little dab of Beeswax, and stir, and then I spoon off any dross which occurs.

This oddness happened after doing that, when I had stepped away for a little bit to make some Coffee...I was away from the Pot maybe twelve minutes, came back out with my Coffee, saw the odd, textured, thick, greenish Crust.

It happened also an hour or so earlier, when I was warming up the Lead Pot from cold, and when cold, the Lead in it ( it was about full also, from last Casting time when I filled it up, then shut it off )...and the cold Lead was merely a light grey color and no dross worth mentioning...but having let it worm up to heat, and warming the two Molds I had set on it, when I came out to begin, it had formed the wierd Crust material, same as it did again later.

[Dusty Bannister]

[QUOTE=BNE;4896536]Guys,
Thank you for the recommendations. I am turning people down for testing for a little while as I am really slammed right now. (“Essential work” and home is busy also). Just don’t have time to do testing.

BUT, in the interest of answering this question, I will test a sample.

FYI. The crud looks heavily oxidized. XrF may not give us a good reading.

Well, the dross would be whatever is excess in the alloy that has now formed an oxide. But a drip from the melted alloy would still show an excess or at least the presence of something that could be causing the dross to form. A small sample of each would be prudent, even if the oxide fails to read, the alloy sample would give a reading. Thank you for accepting this test sample so we can all learn something.

[Oyeboten]

[QUOTE=Dusty Bannister;4897159]

Guys,
Thank you for the recommendations. I am turning people down for testing for a little while as I am really slammed right now. (“Essential work” and home is busy also). Just don’t have time to do testing.

BUT, in the interest of answering this question, I will test a sample.

FYI. The crud looks heavily oxidized. XrF may not give us a good reading.

Well, the dross would be whatever is excess in the alloy that has now formed an oxide. But a drip from the melted alloy would still show an excess or at least the presence of something that could be causing the dross to form. A small sample of each would be prudent, even if the oxide fails to read, the alloy sample would give a reading. Thank you for accepting this test sample so we can all learn something.

I'll melt what is in the Pot and pour some in to some shape or length of small section, for a sample, in addition to gathering some chunks of the mysterious dross crust material.

[Oyeboten]

Looked like just the sites home page with a log-in you should be safe

Ahhh, okay, thanks!

[Mr_Sheesh]

BNE,if you had a muffle you could melt the sample in charcoal or the like to reduce it, maybe? I wish I still had my muffle :/

[BNE]

Here is some data:

Bullet:
Pb = 98.0%
Sb = Trace%
Sn = 2.0%

The crusty stuff:

Yellow/green fluff side
Pb = 83.2%
Sb = 0.4%
Sn = 16.4%

Black Side
Pb = 79.3%
Sb = 0%
Sn = 20.7%

Middle
Pb = 57.6%
Sb = 0.2%
Sn = 42.2%

I looked up Tin Oxide and Wikipedia describes different oxides of tin with the same appearance as demonstrated by your samples. I think you could reduce this fluff back to the constituents listed above with a lot of fluxing and higher temps than needed for casting.

That being said, I re-read the posts and saw you have your Lee pot set at ~8.5. I suspect that may be the culprit. That would be REALLY a hot setpoint for my Lee pot. I suggest a thermometer so you know what the real temperature is and try a lot of fluxing. I think it will reduce back into the melt. Maybe...

BNE

[Oyeboten]

Here is some data:

Bullet:
Pb = 98.0%
Sb = Trace%
Sn = 2.0%

The crusty stuff:

Yellow/green fluff side
Pb = 83.2%
Sb = 0.4%
Sn = 16.4%

Black Side
Pb = 79.3%
Sb = 0%
Sn = 20.7%

Middle
Pb = 57.6%
Sb = 0.2%
Sn = 42.2%

I looked up Tin Oxide and Wikipedia describes different oxides of tin with the same appearance as demonstrated by your samples. I think you could reduce this fluff back to the constituents listed above with a lot of fluxing and higher temps than needed for casting.

That being said, I re-read the posts and saw you have your Lee pot set at ~8.5. I suspect that may be the culprit. That would be REALLY a hot setpoint for my Lee pot. I suggest a thermometer so you know what the real temperature is and try a lot of fluxing. I think it will reduce back into the melt. Maybe...

BNE

Ahhhh...okay...

Thank you for doing this analysis!

I'll go back to 7.5 and see if I can do okay with that...and I'll post an update then.

It may well be I was a little 'warm' there, Lol, and that this somehow encouraged these curious formations to occur when I stepped away and it sat undisturbed a little while

Thanks!

Oye