zinc?

[craveman85]

ive been picking up as much lead as possible lately. i got one ingot from a guy who melted down wheel weights and it had a very textured surface on it. i melted it down again and let it cool and it has a very textured crystallized surface on it. hope this pic helps a little. also when melting it was kind of the consistency of wet sand around the edges of the pot until it got hot. i figured its got zinc in and i have some sulfur to see if that will fix it but thought id show/ask your guys opinion.

[454PB]

Hard to tell by looking, that could be wheel weights and the ingot you poured it into may have caused it's frothy appearance.

Try casting some boolits with it.......you'll know right away if it's zinc contaminated.

[craveman85]

i didn't pour anything into this. this was heated up until it just melted then i let it cool. it was skimmed and the surface was perfectly flat before. when i melt pure lead it doesn't do this.

[Ole]

Do you have any pool acid?

WW alloy looks a lot different than pure lead does.

[craveman85]

no i dont have any. I dont have a decent mould right now. i went to cast with my lee mould the other day and it warps when heated up now. ive tried heating it slow and fast to no avail. i can see through the mould and lead will actually flow through the mould.

[Ole]

Left ingot is WW (known to be zinc free)
Right ingot is pure lead.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh280/Ole1830/IMG_5440.jpg

[Ole]

no i dont have any. I dont have a decent mould right now. i went to cast with my lee mould the other day and it warps when heated up now. ive tried heating it slow and fast to no avail. i can see through the mould and lead will actually flow through the mould.

6 cavity or 2 cavity?

I've had 6 cavity molds do that before if they were simply out of alignment.

If it's a 6 banger, try loosening up the screws on your handles and see if the pins line up better.

[craveman85]

it was a 1 cavity hollow base. its definately warped though.

[lwknight]

My large ingots look like that. What the picture shows is within the normal range of appearances for antimonial alloys.

[clodhopper]

I attemped to alloy zinc with lead recently, and the resuls were much lumpier than your photo.
It looks like the melt was a little warmer than needed to melt the alloy, a smother surface can be had with the lead not quite so hot.
The pan also held heat, slow cooling makes a rougher surface than fast cooling.

[Bulltipper]

Looks like zinc could be in there... try the sulphur remedy, that worked well for me---stay upwind!

[trapper9260]

I t look like antimonial alloy with lead mix in it . When I get some that is too large for my use I would melt it to make small ingots. It dose have the wet sand look before it is melted completely . Hope this help. if you have some WW that you are not sure if it is zinc ,take a nail and try to put a mark on it like lead if it glid on it like you would with steel it is zinc.

[*Paladin*]

Before I would put it in my melter or one of my molds, I'd test it with muriatic acid first.

[craveman85]

i used the sulfur method and it still produced the same crystallized surface. i guess it is just the antimony in it then. ill try cooling it quickly today and see what happens. i probably wont be using it anyways, just stockpiling for the fun of it.

[Jal5]

Since it passed the sulphur why not try using a smaller piece and alloying it with WW?

[Jal5]

Follow this link for the muriatic acid test description:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=109305

[a.squibload]

Also a cheap and safe test with citric acid:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=83978&highlight=citric+acid+zinc+test

[MikeS]

I've been casting with straight WW and I've been smelting small amounts at a time in my regular Lyman big dipper pot. The other day I added for the first time about 3oz of 95/5 leadless solder into the pot after filling it with WWs (I added the solder after they were melted down, and skimed) after adding the tin solder in, I added a few more WWs, (enough to cool off the pot a bit) and I noticed that the pot got slushy, this was the first time I had seen this happen. I cast some boolits with no problem, then before I shut off the pot I refilled it with more WWs, skimmed off the clips and junk, then shut down the pot. When it cooled the surface which normally looks like ole's picture of WW had a totally different look than normal, it had a spongy sort of look to it. Could the pot be contaminated with zinc? Here are a couple of shots of what the pot looks like. Or is this just because of the added tin that the pot looks different?

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_177914d8b4e811de0f.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=288) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_177914d8b4e92446e6.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=289)

[*Paladin*]

Mike- It just looks like solidified tin dross. Next time you melt, flux and stir good.