Indoor range lead mixed with sawdust

[NYer]

I have a rather good deal on lead from an indoor range that uses sawdust/wood chips under the backstop to keep splatter down. When I clean out the trap I always get a certain amount of wood chips mixed in with the lead even if I use a flat shovel and skim the top. This causes a porblem in melting it down because of the amount of wood chips in the mix. I have to let it get to a rather high temp to get the wood to burn off and the lead to sink out of the wood ash on the top.
I am trying to come up with a solution that does not use water because I think there will be lots of wet sawdust mixed with lead dust left in the seperated wood that floats to the top. It also will leave wet lead that will need to be melted batch style because of the fear of the visits from the fairy.
Does anyone think a tumbler would seperate out the lead from the wood?
Does anyone have other suggestions

NYer

[plainsman456]

Maybe blow it off with compressed air.

[NYer]

That was one of the ways that it was cleaned before me. Shovel it all out on to the floor and use a leaf blower to blow off the sawdust. Shovel the lead into buckets shovel the sawdust back under the back stop. Just seems to me to be a environmental disaster with blowing all that lead dust all over the place. Better for me but bad for the range members.

NYer

[Dan Cash]

Put your sawdust/lead mix in the pot or add to existing melt, then add a quarter cup of diesel while playing a propane torch in the pot. Watch for flash up when you add the diesel but the sawdust will ignite and burn off before you have to raise the pot temp to extreme levels. However, with range scrap, I would just raise the temp and light the sawdust with a match as you really don't have a concern for Zink.

[Bill*]

I guess some (maybe most) of the wood should tumble to the surface as it's a lot lighter than lead or copper. If it was mine though, I'd wash the wood off and let the stuff dry for weeks if you're worried about the moisture.

[stubshaft]

Just smelt it and light the sawdust up while melting. Premade flux.

[para45lda]

Put it all in a pile out back and light it up with a bag or two of charcoal and some lighter fluid.

When its out just pick up your "puddles" of lead. No mess no stress and no tinsel fairy.

Wes

[NYer]

I have done several batches and sawdust burns like c***. Just smolders and smokes. What I am left with is very heavy black c*** on top that obviously has a bunch of lead still left in it. Thought of sifting it out but there is too much fine dust created and I fear it may have lead oxides in it drifting around the neighborhood. Sooo, I have resigned myself to just scrapping the black stuff and adding the tin etc back at bullet casting time. No jackets allowed at this range so it is just lead and sawdust.

NYer

[NYer]

Gee, I never thought the word C R A P was not used in polite society. It was automatically converted to stars. Have to clean up my language. Sorry.

NYer

[para45lda]

Sounds like you aren't getting your "pile 'O ©®ap" hot enough. Is that happening in a pot or a pile like I suggested?

Wes

[Colorado4wheel]

I don't see the problem. Just don't dump new lead/wood mix into premelted lead. Heat up from scratch and the humidity will come out and you can just flux with the existing wood chips. If you need to add existing to already melted lead just lay it carefully on top. As long as you don't dump it in it won't explode. Then heat it up and stir. I use wood chips to flux.

I normally use wood chips. Lay it on top of the lead. Throw a small amount of candle wax on top. Let it melt in. Light the wax and wood. Wait a little bit and stir.

[NYer]

I'm talking about 3 inches of "the stuff" on top of the 3 inches of lead on the bottom. That "stuff" gets a yellow ash on the top when it cools. Odd color, no? Here is the drill.
Fill the dutch oven to overflowing, put on a 14" saw blade on top, heat for 45 minutes, smoke, smoke, mix a little, smoke some more. When the smoking stops and the temp gets to 650 to 700 ladle off the balck stuff and expose the silver stuff, flux with comercial flux in TP tube (ney) cast in 3 lb ingots. Start over. I can do about 3 batches per evening. The real problem is the left over black stuff and the long cycle time. So if I can get the wood out up front maybe I can cut down on leftovers and cut down on cycle time.

NY

[melloairman]

You might try and hold a out door vacuum hose above it to suck the saw dust out and not the lead .Marvin

[runfiverun]

you know wood floats right...

[NYer]

I'd rather not trade one leftover for another, lead contamated ash for lead contaminated wet wood. Although I could dry the wood and return it to the range and it is harder to get rid of lead contaminated ash.

I am start to lean to the adding water to the partial buckets of lead, stir somehow, and remove the wood chips. Dry the lead in the sun, or batch melt it to drive off the moisture.

NYer

[runfiverun]

add the lead to a bucket of water a bit at a time.
the lead will drop to the bottom.

[Bill*]

add the lead to a bucket of water a bit at a time.
The lead will drop to the bottom.

Bingo

[imashooter2]

I've done a lot of indoor range scrap. At the end of the day, the best method is to crank on the heat, put the lid on the pot and wait. All the lead will melt. All the wood will burn.

[NYer]

I'm going to do two of the last two mentioned.
crank on the heat
and
dribble into a bucket of water
When it warms up a little I'll let you all know.

Thank you all for your thoughts - it has helped a bunch

NYer

[excess650]

I got the clean out from a couple of indoor ranges over the years. Between jackets, wood, paper, and sand there is a lot of c*r*a*p* and I found about a 50% weight recovery.

I just got the dutch oven heated up and stirred. What didn't melt floated to the top and got skimmed off. Yeah, you have to do it outside, and preferably when there is a moderate breeze to blow the smoke away, but no problem. I would rather deal with the junk than wet lead.

[MBTcustom]

I had a thought while reading this thread. Not saying its a good one, but here it is anyway: dump your lead/sawdust into a vibratory tumbler, turn it on with the lid off, use your shop vac to either blow or suck the dust off the top as it is agitated by the tumbler. You dont need to get all of the sawdust out because it is the greatest flux devised by boolit casters, you just need to cut it down a little bit. You could be preparing new lead as the old stuff is melting and just keep adding until the dutch oven is full. As soon as you get it almost full, cast about half of it into ingots and go back to separating and smelting. I have never had your particular problem, but right off the bat, thats how I would try to handle it.

[Forrest r]

Is there any way you could treat the wood chips like chaff?

An old blanket laid on the ground to catch the lead & a windy day or a couple of fans might work. Sawdust/wood chips are a lot lighter than lead & should be blown further than the lead when their tossed into the air in the wind.

[a.squibload]

Hmm, maybe a compressed air blowoff gun (air squirter? whaddya call 'em?).

[NYer]

Well, took the a quarter to third full buckets and ran a hose into them while mixing and straining the wood that came to the top. Strangely some of the wood would not rise into the water and the hose was needed to bring it into the water column so that the strainer could get it. The end result was a three quarter bucket of wet sawdust and a "mostly" clean, wet range lead. For the record the tumbler did not seperate the lead from the wood. I also thought it would work as suggested. Poked a hole in the bottom to allow drainage for the wet lead. Now we wait for better weather to melt.

[mold maker]

I don't have wood but I scrounge a NC red dirt berm. I use a HF cement mixer to literally wash the red clay off/out of the range lead. Set the mixer at an angle and add water till the runoff is clear. That should work for sawdust and wood also. Catch your outflow in a screen so that the wood scrap is caught while passing the water. I then scatter the lead on my cement drive and turn it with a hoe and rake. MY results is dry clean lead, and dirt fill for the low places in my yard.
The mixer will wash half a bucket at a time, and the results aren't labor intensive. On a hot Summer day, I can process 5-700 lbs and clean up afterwards.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

TOP HEAT

a 400,000 btu weed burner will have that stuff incinerated in no time at all

or i get additional top heat by dropping a old candle in it burns , sometimes i light the top with a propane torch

i would think waste oil or a bit of diesel added to the pot then add heat then light the top

i found an ice fishing scoop the perfect thing for getting all the crud out once it is melting

it is like a 6 inch around shallow ladle full of holes , meant for scooping the ice chips out of your hole. it is all metal

a piece of tin that just about covers the top helps hold the heat in when the smoke starts rolling , light it with a Map torch or propane and it burns off much of the smoke

[fredj338]

Hmm, shop vac w/ a piece of 1/8"-1/4" screen over the end?