I did a dumb one!

[Muskrat Mike]

I fired up my 20# Lee bottom pour furnace which was almost full of alloy. I set it on max because I was only going to be away 10 or 15 minutes. I came back at least an hour to an hour and a half later to a hot pot full of alloy with 1/2 to 3/4" of glowing red/orange slag like on the top. I put several more ingots in to cool it and stirred and fluxed it again. I scooped off the slag. What did I do to my alloy????:(

[kodiak1]

I would bet that you probably got most of the tin out of that batch of mix. Any idea at all how hot you were?
If you cooled it with other ingot I would warm it back up when I could be there to watch it cast a couple of bullets pour the rest into ingots once all had cooled again I would test the hardness and go from there.
It should be soft if you got the tin out.
You dun broke a couple of the rules of casting.
Free time
Mind on what you are doing.
Don't beat your self up to bad we have all broken a rule or two now and again.
Anyone that say's they ain't is a bold face liar.
Ken.

[IcerUSA]

I left mine to warm up and came back to an overflow from the feader pot, 10 lbs of lead almost on the side of the bottom pot and the bench, oops, not a nice job to clean up, that lead geets hard when it gets wrapped around stuff, will be more attentive to the pot from now on, no wandering away. [smilie=1:

[Lloyd Smale]

you probably just burned the junk that was in the lead to dust. YOu cant burn tin out. I melt lead on a turkey fryer that gets hotter then any lead pot. when the lead cools off flux it and cast. It shouldnt have changed enough to worry about it. The tiny bit of lead that may have oxidized in to small to worry about.

[shooter575]

Save that slag.I dip so I skim a lot.That slag is just lead oxide.Next time you fire up the turkey fryer to make ingots just dump that lead oxide in and flux real good.[I like dry sawdust] As the flux turns to carbon it will combine with the oxygen in that oxide and leave as C02.That leaves just the lead.I threw away a lot of slag for years till I learned this.

[Muskrat Mike]

Thanks Guys! I'll try not to get distracted again!

[Buckshot]

Save that slag.I dip so I skim a lot.That slag is just lead oxide.Next time you fire up the turkey fryer to make ingots just dump that lead oxide in and flux real good.[I like dry sawdust] As the flux turns to carbon it will combine with the oxygen in that oxide and leave as C02.That leaves just the lead.I threw away a lot of slag for years till I learned this.

.........Yup and prolly a lot of tin went with it if it was an alloy and not pure lead. Same reason that in the heyday of the hot type machines there was enrichment alloy to melt into the tanks, to replace what was lost.

...........Buckshot

[UweJ]

I did the exact same thing but only for 1/2 hour.When I came back the pot had emptied all over the work bench and the floor.Had a Lee .357 mold laying next to the pot which was engulfed in lead.Luckily I could get the mold back out without destroying it.All that just for a pot of coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uwe

[Sundogg1911]

I didn't think that you could burn tin out of the alloy? :roll:
am I wrong on this?:confused:
I would just stir in the crud that floatin' on the top, flux, stir again, remove dross, and start casting.