First melt down

[BBGun]

A little while back I posted that I am just starting casting. This is turning out to be a LOT of fun. Finding a source for lead is daunting but there are still some wheel weights still out there.
Finding wheel weights is harder than I thought. Most of the tire and wheel places sell the old weights to salvage folks. I was able to score about twenty pounds of some from one of the local stores.
I melted down some of the weights today! The weights are very dirty and I didn't want to get the new furnace messed up with all that gunk that comes with them. I went to goodwill and bought a 1 or 2 qt. aluminum cook pot with plastic handle. Also I found an square aluminum muffin pan with a handle and 5 small, cookie size cups in it. I then went to the $1.00 store and got a couple large serving ladles. Spent a total of $5.00.
Anyway, Using the pot and my outside burner attached to my BBQ, I melted down some of my weights. Then stired in some parrifin wax to get the junk out and so far have 5 small round ingots ready for mixing in some solder. That was so easy, I was amazed. This really ain't rocket science!

Now I have to find some solder sticks. I hope I can find some at the local Home depot.
If anyone has any ideas where I can get some solder, please let me know.

[HATCH]

Didn't they ban lead wheel weights in California?

That might be why its so hard to find.
What boolit are you casting for??
I haven't had any issues with my pistols using straight wheel weights

[DRNurse1]

You may wish to reconsider the aluminum. Your muffin tins appear pretty heavy (thick) but molten lead is too close to the melting temperature of aluminum to be safe every time. We are shooting for safe every time aren't we? Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Galeana stream (my pardons to the female casters, I mean no disrespect and consider you 'brothers' in name if not gender)

[HangFireW8]

Welcome to the madness... please plan on upgrading that aluminum pot soon. They are known for working for a while, then failing dramaticly without warning. Cast iron or steel is what you want.

HF

[BBGun]

Didn't they ban lead wheel weights in California?

That might be why its so hard to find.
What boolit are you casting for??
I haven't had any issues with my pistols using straight wheel weights


I think you're right about them banning lead in CA. But there seems to be a lot of cars with lead wheel weights still on them. I scored a can full about 30 pounds and about 20% were not lead.
I'm casting for 45 acp and 38 special. Is it possible to use straight lead in these calibers?

[I'll Make Mine]

I'll agree -- the aluminum ingot mold is probably fine (heavier metal, and it'll be cool -- preheat above boiling point of water, please, but that's still "cool" for lead casting -- before you pour), but I wouldn't make a second attempt melting lead in an aluminum pot. Cheap stainless are the Goodwill pot of choice, or cast iron if you can find it at a tolerable price.

[BBGun]

You may wish to reconsider the aluminum. Your muffin tins appear pretty heavy (thick) but molten lead is too close to the melting temperature of aluminum to be safe every time. We are shooting for safe every time aren't we? Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Galeana stream (my pardons to the female casters, I mean no disrespect and consider you 'brothers' in name if not gender)


Yes, I was concerned about the aluminum pans. I started slowly with my first ingot and it seemed to hold up quite well, so i went ahead and poured the rest. All went well. But you're right maybe I should go to something else. it sure makes good looking ingots though. Ha. The pics look like the ingots are fogged up, but in reality they are very shiny. I used parrifin wax to clear out the dross. (I'm a newbee so I hope Dross is correct, Ha)

[cbrick]

Yep, loose the aluminum pot. Is the plastic handle still on it?

Loose the wax for flux because it isn't flux. Sawdust will do everything you need and is a flux. The following link will explain this in easy to understand english, chapter 4 is on fluxing.

From Ingot to Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

Ingots look great.

Rick

[Wayne Smith]

Please do not use the aluminum pan again to melt lead! It's not the melting point of aluminum that matters, it's the slump point. At the slump point the lead penetrates and you get a flow of molten lead wherever it wants to go.

[1Shirt]

Good advise on the Alum pan------take it or you may learn the hard way!
1Shirt!

[BBGun]

I'll go out tomorrow and get another pot. I'm convinced!!
Thanks!!

[bigjason6]

I use a cheap stainless saucepan from Walmart to do my smelting. Works pretty well for me. :)

[Bad Water Bill]

If you are frugal and a horder like most here you might have an OLD steel coffee can. Mine is so old it is a REAL 3# can.

I can not tell you how many pounds of WW have been melted in that can.

Just remember that can will hold OVER 30# of molten lead.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

I'm casting for 45 acp and 38 special. Is it possible to use straight lead in these calibers?

That's really all I'm casting for right now and all I've ever used is straight wheel weights with great results.

[darkroommike]

About that steel coffee can, it's OK if the side joint is welded but many cans have soldered side joints!

[ipijohn]

About that steel coffee can, it's OK if the side joint is welded but many cans have soldered side joints!

I think soldered joints in cans is a thing of the past.

[ronbo40s&w]

You are in SOOO much trouble. You have melted lead over a camp stove. You have made muffin-shaped ingots. You are looking for more lead. I am only one step ahead of you in that I found more lead. Maybe we can both pull free of this while there is still time. We could sell the lead as prices drop. They are still way higher than what i paid. we could not buy that first boolit mold and ditch all these wacko Boolit casters while there is still time...


NAH. I don't think so. Welcome. You'll like it here. These folks are great.

God Bless!

Ron

[BBGun]

You are in SOOO much trouble. You have melted lead over a camp stove. You have made muffin-shaped ingots. You are looking for more lead. I am only one step ahead of you in that I found more lead. Maybe we can both pull free of this while there is still time. We could sell the lead as prices drop. They are still way higher than what i paid. we could not buy that first boolit mold and ditch all these wacko Boolit casters while there is still time...


NAH. I don't think so. Welcome. You'll like it here. These folks are great.

God Bless!

Ron



Yea Ron, I think it's too late.
People are starting to look at me funny when I go up to them and ask" Hi, I make boolits. Do you have any old lead?" :mrgreen:
:

[BBGun]

That's really all I'm casting for right now and all I've ever used is straight wheel weights with great results.


Hey Stumble, don't you get any exess leading?

[runfiverun]

you can cast with straight ww's they have some tin in them allready.
at the good will store you bought the wrong pan at look for a stainless one,then wander around and look for stuff made out of pewter.
picture frames,plates,bowls,beer steins.
try and get them for about 3-4 dollars a lb.
wilton and pewterex are not real pewter,look for it to say pewter or " plated B.M." which is british metal which is tin.

[Bad Water Bill]

plated B.M." which is british metal which is tin.

Well this OLD reprobate learned something new today.

thank you sir

[thegreatdane]

beautiful little muffins ;)

[HORNET]

If you're going to use California wheel weights (or most any others), you need to check down in the Lead and Alloys section and learn how to identify Zinc weights. No point in contaminating a batch of alloy when you can avoid it easily. I do a visual sort, plier test each one and use a PID controlled pot for smelting and still get some once in a while (probably from range salvage). Them zincers is tricky...

[cbrick]

California weights?

The mfg's don't make a wheel weight for California and something else for everyone else. Zinc weights are all over, not just CA.

Rick

[HORNET]

I was thinking that California mandated the change away from lead weights well before the other states started panicking. It would seem to me that a much higher percentage of the wheel weights found in California would be zinc due to the earlier change. I'm certainly finding more zinc here in Michiana than I used to find, including in some pre-made ingots that I got in a trade.

[mold maker]

plated B.M." which is british metal which is tin.

Well this OLD reprobate learned something new today.

thank you sir

Me too.
Thanks.

[BBGun]

If you're going to use California wheel weights (or most any others), you need to check down in the Lead and Alloys section and learn how to identify Zinc weights. No point in contaminating a batch of alloy when you can avoid it easily. I do a visual sort, plier test each one and use a PID controlled pot for smelting and still get some once in a while (probably from range salvage). Them zincers is tricky...




All of the weights I have found, I use a pair of dykes on them. The zinc is too hard to cut. I've found steel to plastic. The last weights I found are well over half lead.
Probably because we have so many foreign cars here.:bigsmyl2: