Question about junk left in pot

[Rich22]

So I have just finished practicing running ingots and getting used to the pot (lee 20 Lber) and have a question. After running it down to essentially nothing where nothing will come out the spout, I was left with a tiny bit of lead and probably 2-3 ounces of what looked like, to me, dirt (doubt that is what it is but best visual I can give). I was using ingotized, fluxed SOWW as the lead source so I am not sure if that had contaminants or what it was. Pot was brand new, also the inside of the pot does not look so good, kind of like the beginning of rust. Is this also normal? I will attempt to get pictures. Thank you

[runfiverun]

yeah.
you'll find dust and gunk in a smelt pot too.
you just empty them and clean them once in a while,no big deal.
the idea is to catch all the gunk in the melting pot and get the lead as clean as possible before putting it in the casting pot.
then clean the lead again before you cast with it.

[geargnasher]

It's oxidized metal scum and probably some leftover dirt and trash that was dissolved in the ingots. Sawdust and a paint stir stick is your friend for getting that grey, clumpy, powdery junk to revert back to clean metal. Just dig it out of the bottom of your pot, clean the pot (I empty and clean after every few potfulls), and add that junk back into your next pot. Flux and stir with sawdust and work the scum/sawdust around against the edges of your pot with the wood stick until the only residue remaining is a fine ash, and skim the ash with a spoon. Oxide scum will start forming on top of the shiny metal almost immediately after skimming, either leave it alone or add more sawdust and let it sit on there while you cast. An even, 1/4" layer of sawdust will slowly burn to ash and seal off oxygen from the surface of the melt, preventing further lead/antimony/tin oxidiation as you cast. It's ugly, but it works.

Gear