JWFilips
02-10-2013, 01:40 PM
Well I did another casting session yesterday and this time 4 hours totally wasted!
I made up a batch of softer alloy ( BHN 10 /11 ) based on the calculator The good news (If they was any good news) was that the alloy came out as I had calculated the hardness.
It was based on a few 5 lb ingots of old plumbers lead (I got many years ago at a garage sale I used them for counter balance weights for years) Some newly smelted Sheet lead I purchased, Some pure lead (hornady swaged round balls) a bit of pure tin & some 60/40 solder off the coil ( this had some rosin in it as I found out when it went into the melt!) I figured that everything was clean ( and assumed the plumbers ingot were) Anyway after 4 hours of casting, remelting, fluxing the life out of it, I couldn't cast a bullet with out inclusions! My bottom pour pot plugged up about a dozen times or more which I had to clean out each time.
Now, I have had a few inclusions on on first few times I cast ( usually at the end when I let my pot get too low) & they were more like ash, which could be wiped with a fingernail .....However yesterdays were hard & sharp I just kept remelting and fluxing mixing & scraping the pot ( I spent more time doing this the actually casting! I went through a quart of sawdust)
Dropped very few I could trust to be good. I quit and figured that alloy will have to go to the smelting pot ( if it ever can be cleaned)
Ripped apart my casting pot today and scrubbed everything with a wire brush & steel wool. Had to get crud out of the spout & seating valve which wasn't easy. There was a yellow hard muck everywhere & it wasn't easy to get out.
It took me an hour or more to get the pot back to what it should be.
Nasty! I'm thinking that old plumbers solder was never smelted to be clean ...since it was to be used to seal sewer pipes What a waste of time & good alloys.
Do you guys think I could smelt the stuff back to usable state? I figuring if I smelt it and ladle pour into molds I may be able to salvage some of it.
I made up a batch of softer alloy ( BHN 10 /11 ) based on the calculator The good news (If they was any good news) was that the alloy came out as I had calculated the hardness.
It was based on a few 5 lb ingots of old plumbers lead (I got many years ago at a garage sale I used them for counter balance weights for years) Some newly smelted Sheet lead I purchased, Some pure lead (hornady swaged round balls) a bit of pure tin & some 60/40 solder off the coil ( this had some rosin in it as I found out when it went into the melt!) I figured that everything was clean ( and assumed the plumbers ingot were) Anyway after 4 hours of casting, remelting, fluxing the life out of it, I couldn't cast a bullet with out inclusions! My bottom pour pot plugged up about a dozen times or more which I had to clean out each time.
Now, I have had a few inclusions on on first few times I cast ( usually at the end when I let my pot get too low) & they were more like ash, which could be wiped with a fingernail .....However yesterdays were hard & sharp I just kept remelting and fluxing mixing & scraping the pot ( I spent more time doing this the actually casting! I went through a quart of sawdust)
Dropped very few I could trust to be good. I quit and figured that alloy will have to go to the smelting pot ( if it ever can be cleaned)
Ripped apart my casting pot today and scrubbed everything with a wire brush & steel wool. Had to get crud out of the spout & seating valve which wasn't easy. There was a yellow hard muck everywhere & it wasn't easy to get out.
It took me an hour or more to get the pot back to what it should be.
Nasty! I'm thinking that old plumbers solder was never smelted to be clean ...since it was to be used to seal sewer pipes What a waste of time & good alloys.
Do you guys think I could smelt the stuff back to usable state? I figuring if I smelt it and ladle pour into molds I may be able to salvage some of it.