Lessons in smelting

[SkookumJeff]

Today I had my third smelting session. For todays session, I heated up my smelting pot and completely emptied the pure lead I've been smelting up to now. I was amazed at how the smelting pot 'dried' immediately after I tipped it to pour out the last remnants of molten lead out. I didn't have to dry it at all..:-o

I wanted to completely empty my smelting pot because today I wanted to smelt and pour linotype ingots. I had bought some linotype off of ebay, I was interested to see how it went and whether I got snookered on the material. I'm about half way through the 70 lbs I bought. I wasn't snookered, it's great material so far. Very shiny and silvery!

Being my third session, I'm starting to get some confidence in what I'm doing. Naturally this is when the tinsel fairy would let me know it's around. Aside from worrying about the tinsel fairy, another lesson I learned today, I do NOT want to casually 'throw' material into my smelting pot. As I learned watching molten lead splash out of my pot, that is a BAD IDEA...:shock:

My linotype consists of 1" wide by 1"-8" long strips of lino of varying thickness from .01 to 1/8". That's the easy stuff to work with. In addition to that are varying sizes of letter blocks and chunks and slivers. This stuff is more difficult to work with because of it's small size. This material is also where moisture seems to lurk about. As I was trying to add this chunky material to my smelting pot, my pot would spit and pop. It got to be a little nerve wracking. So I separated the longer strips of lino and worked with those for today. On my next smelt, I think what I'm going to do is add a lot of this chunky material to my smelting pot while it's cold, cover it and heat it all up to melt. That should allow time for the moisture to cook off while the pot is heating.

I'll see what happens with that.

Also today I was trying to use my new casting thermometer. It was sitting in my smelting pot and I decided to transfer it over to my casting pot. I grabbed it and was stirring my material with it trying to get all the dross off the stem. The dross sticking to the stem was giving me trouble, I was handling the thermometer a lot longer than I usually do. Suddenly the heat soaked through my gloves and I realized that bugger was frickin HOT :oops: DANG, who'd a thot it! I dropped the thermometer into my smelting pot. :x It's rolling around half submersed in molten lead as I'm desperately looking for something to fish it out with. I finally got it out and put it over in my casting pot. Lens half covered with a film of lead. What are ya gonna do. I just shook my head. Murphy AND the tinsel fairy lurking about just waiting for a moment of weakness. I guess I need to be more careful.

That was the exciting part. The rest of the session consisted of pouring a pretty good supply of mini muffin sized lino ingots. Now I'm ready to make some alloy and pour some bullets that I'll actually try to shoot...:lovebooli

[Alchemist]

As you gain experience, keep in mind that a new lesson awaits you whenever you get complacent. Just this afternoon, I decided to empty my casting pot after finishing today's casting session. I had my boolit mould cooling on a brick while I filled an ingot mould, then placed the ingot mould on the brick next to the boolit mould. (See it coming yet?)

Yep, a minute later I pick up the boolit mould by the handles (which are nicely warmed up by now) with my gloves off....and quickly drop the mould on the concrete garage floor. [smilie=b:

Hopefully, the damage will be limited to the bent sprue plate...but I haven't had a chance the check it out completely yet. I sure hope I haven't killed that mould, it was making some excellent boolits today!

Luckily I didn't burn my hand much...just slightly pink. Hot lead is unforgiving.

Cheers
Alchemist

[fredj338]

IMO, not that important to get the last few ounces out of a pot you are going to smelt 20-30# of lino or what ever in. It isn't going to cahnge the alloy, % is just too small.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I very seldom tell people what to do, but........ DO NOT, never ever pick up the smelting pot by the handle when molten lead is in there. The first time I cast, I had about two inches of melted lead left in the pot and decided to lift the pot and pour ingots with it. Fortunatly I went slow and realized that the pot will tip over immediately. I almost had a very bad thing happen. For me, that little bit of lead stays in the bottom of the pot for the next time.

[Ben]

Charlie Two Tracks


For me, that little bit of lead stays in the bottom of the pot for the next time.
__________________

Not only is it safer, the next time you " start up ", you'll find that an inch or two of lead in the bottom of the pot will make the start up of your smelting process go a lot quicker.

Ben

[SkookumJeff]

I very seldom tell people what to do, but........ DO NOT, never ever pick up the smelting pot by the handle when molten lead is in there. For me, that little bit of lead stays in the bottom of the pot for the next time.

Yep, I'm with ya Charlie. I had ladled out all the lead I could get with the ladle, all that was left was enough lead to pour one more small ingot. The wooden handle on my casting pot is attached with 5/15 diameter ready thread rod screwed into a stub that is part of the pot casting. It's very weak design and not of much use. Except for this one time, I never empty my smelting pot or my casting pot either, I leave some amount of lead in both to make it easier to heat these vessels of silver on the next session.

Thanks for the comments everyone, I really appreciate the feedback.