Dross reclamation

[DeanWinchester]

I work in a tire shop so I've never had t be overly frugal with my lead. Supply has always been a plenty and I have more now than I will shoot in this lifetime so I have always scooped off the dross and tossed it in with scrap metal.

I decided to start keeping it and I am shocked at how much I've been wasting. I waited until I filled a large coffee can and then I used the wood furnace to smelt it down again. It gets VERY hot, hot enough to make steel glow. Too hot really but since I am certain there are no impurities in there, I stuck it in there. I got about a 50% return. Half a coffee can is a lot of lead to just throw away.

The other half is a yellow ash with the same consistency as sifted dirt.
I imagine I have burnt off the tin.


No surprise to many of you, but as I say, I've never had a need to save it. I still don't, but I will just out of principle!

[7Acres]

Lucky you. 8-) I'm thinking about getting a job at a tire shop just to help them recycle their used WW lead [smilie=1:

[DeanWinchester]

Lucky you. 8-) I'm thinking about getting a job at a tire shop just to help them recycle their used WW lead [smilie=1:

Yeah, it's been good to me.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

I've always (in my 2 years at this) remelted my dross can, figuring I was about to throw out a bunch of tin rich lead.

[madsenshooter]

Mine goes in the recycling dumpster, bet they appreciate that!!

[Bob in Revelstoke]

I have often thought the same. However, with the amount of suspect zinc wheel weights around that can get into the melt I have decided against it. Even though I try to pick them out there is always a good chance some get in. I bring the metal to a melting temperature and skim off the dross before it gets to usable casting temp. I may lose some usable lead but I don't want zinc in the material.

[shadygrady]

send all that zinc to me for lead

[captaint]

I had the same experience. To add to the pain, I think quite a bit of tin ends up in that "dross". And certainly, that's worth getting back. It's now easy to tell how much we've wasted just by the weight. Real dross should be just like ash, nearly weightless. enjoy Mike

[lwknight]

I have tried re-smelting the gross. I tried different flux and ideas.
All-in-all , it was not worth it. You can spend several hours and a lot of work for a few pounds of alloy.
Till someone lets me in on the secret of economical reclaiming I will just send it back to the recycler.

[DeanWinchester]

I didn't spend much time with it. I put it in a heavy cast iron pot and stuck it in the coals of the wood furnace. Came back a few minutes later and viola.