2nd smelt - weirdness, rain, and more questions

[theTastyCat]

Hey all - tried to smelt for the second time today. Unfortunately, there was a front moving in and I was trying to beat the rain, so I didn't have a lot of time to experiment.

Here's my newer smelting setup - $10 off Craigslist got me the rusted bottom half of a fish fryer, and that sucker got HOT and FAST.

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad145/thetastycat/smelt2.jpg

I am still looking for a dutch oven which will be a lot wider than what's there now; in addition to being more efficient, it will hopefully make it less hot on my arms when I'm poking around the pot.

I loaded that little pot with WWs and was really surprised at the result. The temperature was fluctuating kind of wildly at times; that new cooker REALLY heats things up quickly, and I'm afraid I may have overheated the smelt. BECAUSE - almost everything that went in the pot came out as dross - I got barely more than 4 lb. of lead ingots out of the thing, because the dross came out kind of covered in lead, and that definitely didn't happen last time. I'm wondering if either it wasn't hot enough for the molten lead to run off the dross as it was being removed, OR I overheated it (the thermometer did read 950 once - only briefly, but that's when I realized the thermometer wasn't all the way touching the metal) enough that something other than lead melted and formed a weird alloy. Here's a photo of the dross:

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad145/thetastycat/dross.jpg

Any ideas? I put the dross back in the pot and put it on high to try and remelt, but at the first hint of a raindrop I decided it wasn't worth it and shut 'er down for the day.

Your expertise is warmly welcomed.

[theTastyCat]

Hmm - just researched the melting point of Zinc - 787F. So is my dross a huge blob of steel, zinc and lead? I only poured three pounds of ingots, are they probably toast? I've been thinking of getting a hardness tester, and that might be a good use for it.

[Doby45]

If you got the weights recently and did not sort them, then it is very possible that you had some zinc. Not guaranteed but very possible.

[44fanatic]

Lookin in the pan, it looks like you had some zinc that didnt melt. Take your dross pile there and see if the "clumps" in it bend pretty easily. If they do, its more than likely lead. If they dont bend easily and snap, more than likely zink.

I know you will want to crank up the heat on the fryer...dont. Take it easy and slowly turn up the heat and keep your eye on the temp. Pick a day that you have nothing else going on and good weather so that wont be in a hurry.

[fryboy]

presorting is one of the best things you can do to ww's , as stated lead is softer , i use a pair of side cutters on suspect ones if i cant ding it i dont smelt it , lead will also cut with a knife zinc and steel not so much ( think of it like paring a potatoe - a lil nick is all it takes ) and btw ? if you didnt already read it you'd best look for zinc contamination in the stikkies , it's not a good thing and not the end of the world but it surely can be problematic

[clodhopper]

Wind may have been giving you some trouble.
It can take you heat away very quickly,
that makes you want to apply more heat,
raising the fearsoms spectre of alloying zinc.