went through 800lbs soft lead

[arjacobson]

I got to looking at my soft lead stash after working out another of my swaps.. After sending these last two boxes of soft lead I will have gone through over 800lbs of smelted soft lead this year. I traded for many usable items though. I cannot wait until excavation seasons starts again.. although there is that one guy who wants me to rid him of the over 400 lbs of lead water service line....wonder if he's home now???

[canyon-ghost]

You go, sir! We need people with supply lines!

[Hammerlane]

It going to get intesting when the WW dry up and everyone start driving around a back hoe.

[Ervin]

This makes me crazy.
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to change the oxidation state of the metal ore; the reducing agent is commonly a source of carbon such as coke, or in earlier times charcoal. The carbon or carbon monoxide derived from it removes oxygen from the ore to leave the metal. The carbon is thus oxidized in two stages, producing first carbon monoxide and then carbon dioxide. As most ores are impure, it is often necessary to use flux, such as limestone, to remove the accompanying rock gangue as slag.

Plants for the electrolytic reduction of aluminium are also generally referred to as smelters. These do not melt aluminum oxide but instead dissolve it in aluminum fluoride. They normally use carbon electrodes, and conversion of carbon to carbon dioxide provides an important part of deoxydation energy, rest of energy being provided by electricity, but novel smelter designs use electrodes that are not consumed in the process. The end product is molten aluminum.

[arjacobson]

ok-smelt-smelt-smelt-smelt:bigsmyl2:

[clodhopper]

When you get a bucket of wheel weights, old buried lead pipe, or mine some bullets there is so much **** with them that ore is a pretty good description. I use saw dust to offer carbon to the lead oxides in a grand attempt to make my favorite chemicals CO and CO2 not to mention PB and alloys of PB.

You want to know what drives me crazy? The talking heads on the 6 oclock news saying a semi-trailer hit another vehicle.
Just have to wonder what happened to the tractor and driver!

[10 ga]

I hate it when they talk about co-conspirator. If you are a conspirator that is it! You are or you are not a conspirator, there ain't no co to it. Takes 2 or more to have a conspiracy and .......... Damn ignorant talking heads! They should have everything edited by a person who knows the language as in an "English" major, not some dogma infused politico with the title of "editor". This is one of my favorite rants, ie, invented words and malapropisms, but I need to move on .... Best to all, 10 ga

I'm a terrible speller.

[btroj]

When we loved in Michigan my dad used to go smelting. Didn't involve any molten metals of flux. Just lots and lots of little fish.

These days I only smelt my raw lead supplies to clean it and make ingots. No fish involved.

[nanuk]

my wife asked me where I was. I sez I was in the garage putting heat to some lead in a pot... You know.. swelt....er, no.. dwelt.. er...

then she sez, "Smelt"?

I sez, I dunno, I stood upwind

[merlin101]

When we loved in Michigan my dad used to go smelting. Didn't involve any molten metals of flux. Just lots and lots of little fish.

These days I only smelt my raw lead supplies to clean it and make ingots. No fish involved.

Try using the smelts as a flux in your smelt[smilie=l: :groner: