I have made a mess of 3 buckets of WW

[ScottJ]

My brother offloaded them to me since he just isn't motivated to cast any more (I think his intent is I just make him a box of loaded rounds now & then).

He brought them over and I had him set them outside the garage. I then messed up and let a rain shower pass before I had time to get them inside. So then I just didn't bother all Winter.

Started the process of dumping them out on the concrete outside the garage and spreading them to dry a bit. Once dry enough to handle without making a mess I'll re-bucket them and let them sit inside for months to get well and truly dry.

The lead has gotten harder and more brittle while they soaked in water. That surprised me. Usually I can take a long weight and bend it with my bare hands. These require the leverage of plires and they break after just a little bending.

So, what process has made them hard and brittle? Just oxidation?

[onondaga]

I wouldn't be concerned what ever happened. If you gotta know approximately what loading pressures and velocity will be good for your alloy then cast some bullets and check their hardness with something like the Lee hardness tester.

Cast some air cooled and cast a batch water drop chilled. When both batches have set a week or more their hardness will be stable enough to test and you will know what your alloy can do instead of guessing. .

There is a pencil testing method recently posted for hardness testing bullet alloys. That looks really cheap to try. But do any testing on cast bullets--- testing ingots is very dependent on how they cooled. Ingot hardness numbers can be all over the place.

Gary

[fredj338]

The brittle ones may not be lead based, just a thought. Keep the smelt temp below 700deg & trhow out the floaters.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Water can get trapped between the lead and steel clip on those WW. I do not add WW to a melted pot. You can pile them up high in your smelting pot and then melt them down. I would start with an empty pot each time. Lead at 700+ degrees will burn quick, deep and bad. That is a great score on lead though.

[ScottJ]

I would start with an empty pot each time.

Yeah, that was my plan.

[BruceB]

If I'm keeping plastic uckets of WW outside, I drill a few holes around the very bottom of each bucket.

his won't keep them dry, of course, but it does prevent the accumulation of water in the bucket.

A day or two spread out on a table in a Nevada summer sun will positively ensure that the weights are dry; otherwise I melt them in a previously- empty pot

[10 ga]

I use #10 cans and my coleman, retired from smelting, to "pre heat" ore before smelting in my cut down freon bottle. Dries them up real good and liquifies any flux on "pre fluxed" , ha ha, ore. I'll post pix after next smeltn session. 10