evan price
06-26-2012, 06:04 AM
Scored a wheel-barrow full of telephone cable sheath. The junkyard guys stripped it to get the copper wire inside. Time to melt it down to ingots.
45508
Here I'm preheating some of the larger stuff. Started with a cold pot, put in the smaller pieces, added a few cupfulls of used motor oil. It had rained a week or so ago and the bottom of the wheel-barrow had water standing in it. If you look at the left end of the long piece where it curves down to the ground you can see the water drips on the concrete. I don't like Tinselina very much but if you preheat it the water evaporates off safely.
45509
Here's the pot going good now after the first flux and skim the crud off, adding more lead and more used motor oil and letting it all burn down. The telephone cable had a lot of powdery stuff inside and a string of waxed paper with the maker's name on it running the length of the lead. The motor oil flux leaves a nice crusty slag that traps impurities, and it also gives plenty of carbon for reduction of oxides. Plus, it is free and I have no shortage of it.
45510
Here's as many of the ingots as I could get to stay on the scale without sliding off. I use cast-iron ingot molds for pure to make it different from the other alloys I melt. These are between 1.5 and 2.5 pounds depending on which mold I used. Turned out to be a bit over 300 pounds of shiny ingots. I dump the molds into a bucket of water to cool them faster.
Hopefully there will be more of this at the junkyard. It's good stuff.
45508
Here I'm preheating some of the larger stuff. Started with a cold pot, put in the smaller pieces, added a few cupfulls of used motor oil. It had rained a week or so ago and the bottom of the wheel-barrow had water standing in it. If you look at the left end of the long piece where it curves down to the ground you can see the water drips on the concrete. I don't like Tinselina very much but if you preheat it the water evaporates off safely.
45509
Here's the pot going good now after the first flux and skim the crud off, adding more lead and more used motor oil and letting it all burn down. The telephone cable had a lot of powdery stuff inside and a string of waxed paper with the maker's name on it running the length of the lead. The motor oil flux leaves a nice crusty slag that traps impurities, and it also gives plenty of carbon for reduction of oxides. Plus, it is free and I have no shortage of it.
45510
Here's as many of the ingots as I could get to stay on the scale without sliding off. I use cast-iron ingot molds for pure to make it different from the other alloys I melt. These are between 1.5 and 2.5 pounds depending on which mold I used. Turned out to be a bit over 300 pounds of shiny ingots. I dump the molds into a bucket of water to cool them faster.
Hopefully there will be more of this at the junkyard. It's good stuff.