My first "real" smelting.

[AndreaCarrara]

Last saturday I went to a friend's workshop to melt abt. 100lb of scrap lead.
Friend has a furnace fed by coal, 90 minutes & I came out with 40 ingots.
During smelting I had to take off about 4 pounds of crud/trash/scum...the funny thing was that at a certain point the melt got a reddish tint & I (quite dorkily) kept on skimming it...took away about three spoonfuls of it before recalling that it was actually lead...damn it..Too late to recover it, has gone in the county trash.
Anyway, everything went well, filter mask, leather gloves & total ban on smoke/drinks/pets/chatting around. I dropped ingots into a big wash basin to cool them down & gaining some hardness...now ingots are nicely resting under my bench, labelled "Piombo puro" (that's italian for Pure Lead).
Cheers.

Andrea

[btroj]

Gaining hardness in your ingots does you no real good. Once you melt the ingots to cast your bullets the alloy is still what it is. The extra hardness from water dropping in not "kept" By the alloy once you remelted it.

I like to skim til I get the chunks of dirt off then start pouring ingots. That skin you got was from the hot melt oxidizing. Getting it too hot spreads that up.

[cbrick]

Welcome to CastBoolits Andrea,

Nothing wrong with dropping your ingots into water to cool them off quicker but as btroj said, the alloy is what it is. Also, you mentioned pure lead (Piombo puro), no lead will heat treat or water quench without antimony (Sb) in it, without Sb it will never harden. If Arsenic (As) is added to a Pb/Sb alloy heat treat results will be far more dramatic.

Hope this helps clear it up for you.

Rick

[AndreaCarrara]

Welcome to CastBoolits Andrea,

Nothing wrong with dropping your ingots into water to cool them off quicker but as btroj said, the alloy is what it is. Also, you mentioned pure lead (Piombo puro), no lead will heat treat or water quench without antimony (Sb) in it, without Sb it will never harden. If Arsenic (As) is added to a Pb/Sb alloy heat treat results will be far more dramatic.

Hope this helps clear it up for you.

Rick
Oops, looks like I just cooled down a few ingots...
Thanks a lot for Your input, gents; I think I've misread some info along the way...
No harm done, anyway; this morning I went to the scrapyard & asked the boss about wheel weights..."Go & dig for Yourself" he said...So I went & I found quite a bunch of tyres waiting for me...ripped off some three pounds in an hour, will be my morning pastime now on.

Cheers

Andrea

[btroj]

No harm done to the lead. I frequently sprinkle water on my hot ingots to cool them faster.

[Ole]

I often use a wet paper towel or spray bottle to hasten the cooling process in my favorite ingot mold.

Just make sure the mold is 100% dry when you fill it up with the next load.

[AndreaCarrara]

I often use a wet paper towel or spray bottle to hasten the cooling process in my favorite ingot mold.

Just make sure the mold is 100% dry when you fill it up with the next load.

Hi,
sure I will remember this...but 1st casting is still far away...I'm in the "lead scrounging" mode now & I'm building up my stash (9 punds of WW ripped off this morning). Indeed, I do not even own a mold so far, I have to keep my wife at large because of lack of room in the locker...she still thinks I'm going on the waterfront with the dog every morning...ahahahahaha. I'm trying to train my dog to select between zinc & lead weights....it's still a bit confused.

Cheers

Andrea

[MBTcustom]

A lead sniffing dog! What a great idea!
I'll give you a tip, you may already know, but you should flux the molten lead to make sure that the impurities rise to the surface, and the good elements stay in there. Sawdust is the very best at this (as I have recently been taught) and stir the melt with a wooden stick. The stuff you scrape off the top should be a black or gray powder, no shiny stuff. Hope that helps.

[218bee]

Glad ya got your first batch done. I really like turning "trash" into something I can use. When ya get your first mold and start churning out boolits you'll feel all warm and fuzzy

[Cherokee]

Way to go Andrea, getting started is the first step. Keep collecting those wheel weights while you can. What cartridge do you plan to start casting for ?

[a.squibload]

A lead sniffing dog! What a great idea!

Sure, that's why they chase cars...


Andrea, "molto benny!"

[AndreaCarrara]

Hi Mates,
I will cast for 40SW & 357Mag, in a still far away future.
Meanwhile, my brother in law showed up yesterday evening with a 10 pounds lead sheet he found in the shipyard where he works...So he earned a couple glasses of wine...
Planning to smelt it tomorrow saturday along with 20 pounds of WW I ripped off...Now I'm hunting for sawdust to use as flux.
Weather is actually damp, a bit of drizzle, maybe I have to dry sawdust before use.
Is a wise idea to dry up sawdust???

Thanks for the support & the answers.

Andrea

[WRideout]

If you put anything wet into a pot of molten lead it will suddenly boil, creating a tiny steam explosion that sprays molten metal all over the general area. The Tinsel Fairy is the being that visits us when we do something like that, to share the gift of strands of shiny metal.

Wayne

[MBTcustom]

That's not necessarily true. You only get tinsel fairy when you throw something in the pot that gets under the surface. Damp sawdust will only steam but the moisture will evaporate in short order. Even so, I wouldn't intentionally wet down your saw dust. The only time I get tinsel fairy visits is when I drop a wet boolit back into the mix too quickly. Even then if you slip the boolit into the pot gently so that it rides on the surface tension of the molten lead.

[badbob454]

If you put anything wet into a pot of molten lead it will suddenly boil, creating a tiny steam explosion that sprays molten metal all over the general area. The Tinsel Fairy is the being that visits us when we do something like that, to share the gift of strands of shiny metal.

Wayne

in all fairness he did say into....
welcome aboard fellow caster a good start we all are still learning some dont learn to mark their lead for years so you are off to a great start

[badbob454]

now if we can train a dog to sniff gold ...hmmmm?

[a.squibload]

Is a wise idea to dry up sawdust???

I dry sawdust for storage in a plastic jug so it won't mold.
If you sprinkle it on top of the lead it will float and get toasted,
then stir it in.

[AndreaCarrara]

Hi,
infortunately I had to pospone smelting...
Drizzle & sleet arrived this morning...maybe I will try tomorrow sunday,hope weather improves.

Cheers

Andrea

[MBTcustom]

Anrea, I just wanted to mention to you a word about boolit lube (which is something else you can be getting ready in preparation for your new molds)
I cannot recomend Felix World Famous Lube highly enough. I love it so much, that I just made a lifetime supply of it, cut it into bars like soap, and wrapped them in wax paper for future use. Thats my high speed lube of choice, 1500 FPS and faster.
My low speed lube, (1800 FPS and slower) is 45/45/10. Very easy to make and it works very well. These two lubes are homemade and are a cut above in my personal opinion.
All my boolits get treated with 45/45/10 right after I cast them. If they are being driven to faster speeds, then the 45/45/10 acts as a sizing lube for when I install the gas-checks, followed by FWFL and sized a second time to strip the excess lube from the boolits.
If you have rainy/sleezy/nasty days, thats a perfect time to make up your lube recipes and have them handy for when you need them.
Just a tip, If you throw blue crayons in the FWFL trying to color it blue, you get lube that looks like pea soup.:violin:
:drinks:

[cbrick]

:hijack:

goodsteel, just read your thread and remembered your in Arkansas. I am in Mountain Home right now, made an offer yesterday on a really nice house just outside of town. I could know tomorrow or Tuesday if they accept it. It's only 1 acre, I was looking for more than that but I really liked the house.

We might be neighbors soon. My chance to move back to America.

Rick

[Sasquatch-1]

Hi,
she still thinks I'm going on the waterfront with the dog every morning...ahahahahaha. I'm trying to train my dog to select between zinc & lead weights....it's still a bit confused.

Cheers

Andrea

You better be careful! If PITA reads about you training your dog to sniff lead they will swear out a complaint for animal cruilty.:bigsmyl2:

[cajun shooter]

CBRICK, Mountain Home is one of my favorite places in Arkansas. The fishing is fantastic but the economy is bad and unless you are retired it's not a place for money.
Take the short ride back to Flippin where the Ranger Boats are built and go to the local Drug Store which has a small eatery inside.
They make a malt that is called the Buttermilk malt that is unreal. If you wait till the afternoon you will miss out as they usually sell all the makings by 2PM.
My wife and I would go there most days as the food is also very good. We fish the White River just below the Dam and limit out on Rainbows ever day.
A few years back my wife even caught a nice Brown which we released back so that the next fisherman could have the pleasure also.
Make sure you have a guest bedroom. Ha!! Ha!!

[cbrick]

Yep, it's an area hard hit by obummers econonmy. No shortage of available real estate to look at but I am retired and not looking for or dependant on finding work. FINALLY!

Looked at homes through Flippin, Yellville and all around Mountain Home and down through Calico Rock. Been to the lake, the dam etc.

Yep, the home I made an offer on has a guest bedroom, perhaps I should put a sign on the door . . . "CastBoolits home away from home" [smilie=l:

Rick


CBRICK, Mountain Home is one of my favorite places in Arkansas. The fishing is fantastic but the economy is bad and unless you are retired it's not a place for money.
Take the short ride back to Flippin where the Ranger Boats are built and go to the local Drug Store which has a small eatery inside.
They make a malt that is called the Buttermilk malt that is unreal. If you wait till the afternoon you will miss out as they usually sell all the makings by 2PM.
My wife and I would go there most days as the food is also very good. We fish the White River just below the Dam and limit out on Rainbows ever day.
A few years back my wife even caught a nice Brown which we released back so that the next fisherman could have the pleasure also.
Make sure you have a guest bedroom. Ha!! Ha!!