View Full Version : Too much dross?
Markbo
10-21-2011, 04:07 PM
I am wondering if I am doing something wrong. I smelted up probably 120 lbs of ingots yesterday from wheel weights and thought I would cast some today. Beautiful outside... not too hot and all my chores are done.
Soooo... I melt about 12 lbs - all recovered wheel weights - in a cast iron pot and set to heating it up. Once liquified I drop in a couple tablespoons or so of wax as flux and stir it in. About 2 ladels of dross was skimmed off the top and I start casting.
About 50 or 60 bullets into it I notice that there seems to be a lot MORE dross... I don't know why. I drop in 2 more 3.5lb ingots and flux again... now I have another 2 ladels of dross to skim off the top. It is just gray 'fluffy' stuff that floats on top.
Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?
Wally
10-21-2011, 04:14 PM
I am wondering if I am doing something wrong. I smelted up probably 120 lbs of ingots yesterday from wheel weights and thought I would cast some today. Beautiful outside... not too hot and all my chores are done.
Soooo... I melt about 12 lbs - all recovered wheel weights - in a cast iron pot and set to heating it up. Once liquified I drop in a couple tablespoons or so of wax as flux and stir it in. About 2 ladels of dross was skimmed off the top and I start casting.
About 50 or 60 bullets into it I notice that there seems to be a lot MORE dross... I don't know why. I drop in 2 more 3.5lb ingots and flux again... now I have another 2 ladels of dross to skim off the top. It is just gray 'fluffy' stuff that floats on top.
Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?
That fluffy stuf is zinc.... you have to cull the zinc WW's to prevent this before you melt them.
Markbo
10-21-2011, 04:18 PM
that was done during the smelt. Anything not lead was skimmed off along with the old clips.
Springfield
10-21-2011, 04:21 PM
Keep fluxing until it goes away. Everytime you put in a new ingot you will probably get more as all the impurities didn't go away during the smelting. Running the lead too hot will make it worse also.
I, too, suspect that there is some zinc contamination. Not all of them are marked Zn, and they can easily be overlooked.
Wally
10-21-2011, 04:39 PM
that was done during the smelt. Anything not lead was skimmed off along with the old clips.
I had this happen to me---the fluffy stuff was zinc...
243winxb
10-21-2011, 04:47 PM
Try getting the alloy hotter, see what happens.
williamwaco
10-21-2011, 04:52 PM
Your alloy is contaminated with zinc.
You cannot "flux it away" with wax. It will keep coming back until the pot is empty.
Check this posting:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=62957&highlight=zinc+contamination
PS, I find that fluxing heavily three or four times with sawdust will reduce it somewhat.
I did not have good luck with the sulphur suggestion.
The "less bad" news is that you can cast bullets with it. and they seem to shoot OK.
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