Sorting at the scrap yard.

[bgoff_ak]

I would like to know what everyone else is doing… my scrap yard is more of the all WW’s go into bin marked WW and any thing that’s a white metal and heavy goes into the lead box. Now after a few cases of beer I’m allowed into the ww bin to sort what I want. The soft lead I’ve had more of a problem with though. Its normally a few dozen pieces covered in heavy grease and every piece is different ( size shape paint etc ) my normal procedure is to grab a few of the biggest pieces that look alike and melt them separately. But now I’ve taken all the big pieces and I’m down to odds and ends. Should I just nipper and end and check for “softness” as I normally do. I’m inclined to toss in a few known leads into the pot and skim anything that comes to the top. ( were talking a couple hundred pounds ).

[Wal']

You've done about as best you can sorting, a magnet will help with any metal, usually stick on's............as you said, nip the ones you're not sure about & dump them in the pot with already melted lead keeping temp well below 750f.......zinc!!!!!!

Keeping your odd WW's from the bottom of your pot, zinc WW's loaded up with a heap of lead WW's on top can allow the temp at the bottom of your pot to build up & melt any zinc before the top layer of lead melts, if you get what I mean.

[bgoff_ak]

I do you what you mean, I actually melt all my ww separately melting a bit from the old batch first then putting in the new stock. I guess my concern was with the olds and ends of soft lead. last time there was some thing that was tin like in about 40 lbs of lead, but that being said i missed the opportunity to set this aside and my fear was this would happen again. I use the "tin mix" I found all the time by adding a little here or a little there, but I really don't want to be melting this down 5# at a time to keep it all separate. the stock they have had has been in about 50# bars or plates i just cut it up with an ax and it made the perfect pot. the scrap they have now is about the size of a large snickers bar so it will be a lot harder to keep it all seperate.