evaluating WW alloy

[miner49r]

Knowing that someday I would be casting I had collected WW's and once I had a good bit I would smelt them over a campfire and pour into a Lyman 4 ingot mold. I have noticed that when breaking off ingots that some seem more brittle that others and the broken ends appear more crystaline.

What could be the reason for this? Contaminants? Smelting temps? My mind?

[454PB]

All the ingots from the same melt (batch) should be the same. If you're seeing a visible difference between batches, it could indicate some type of contamination or simply a difference in the alloy of that particular batch. Wheel weights vary in composition. During a smelting session, as your ingot mould heats, you will see the ingots begin to "frost", just like you see when casting boolits. If that is what's happening, it's perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

[miner49r]

Yes, the samples are from different batches. It is not the outward appearance like frost from an overheated mold that I am looking at. It is the crystaline structure of the metal at the break.

Zinc?

[shadygrady]

send that zinc to me for lead

[runfiverun]

the crystaline nature thing is just antimony.

[btroj]

Some ingots will appear more crystalline than others even from the same pot. Cooling rate makes a difference. I just ignore it, it doesn't matter.

[cbrick]

I would smelt them over a campfire and pour into a Lyman 4 ingot mold.

Did you do anything to segregate the zinc weights? Did you use a thermometer?

A camp fire will easily get the melt hot enough to melt the zinc weights and most batches of weights you get will have some zinc ones, they are fairly common these days.

So the answer to your question is . . . Dunno, it's possible to have zinc in the alloy. You'll need to cast some and see how the alloy casts, if there is zinc you'll have a tough time getting nicely filled out boolits.

Rick

[miner49r]

A bon-fire. Ice cold beer. Molten lead in a coffee can. What could be better than that? Could be some zinc in the mix. Never thought about it back then.

The alloy casts fairly in simple molds. There is a high reject percentage with multiple groove and hollow points. I will try small batch with tin and see if it fills better.

[miner49r]

Last nite I smelted my WW alloy in one homogonized batch. My poor little camp stove creeked and moaned under the weight of it all.

I tried casting some hollow point with more success. Since the thermometer had arrived I now see that olde lead pot needs a new potentiometer. That's a topic for another thread.