Blue Stuff In Lead From Spoon

[benny1636]

I am new to casting, I was melting down some wheel weights and had bought a fancy new sifting spoon to remove the clips with. When i dipped the spoon in for the first time I noticed whatever what coating it melted off into the pot. After fluxing the pot it turned gold then to a deep purple blue. No matter how much I skimmed I kept getting it. When the pot would get lower it would even be pouring blue (Kind of like an oil type of shine) stuff into my mold. The ingots to me look normal, but im wondering if they are safe to use? I bought a big muffing pan too (4lb ingots) and I filled one of them all the way up but I noticed the giant ingot came out with large pits in the downward facing side and was a darker dull gray in color. I am wondering if this is just because the mold was cold and so large that it didnt give a nice fillout? My lee ingot mold seemed to be making the ingots normally with the blue/gold liquid, though I could see blue and gold throughout the face of the ingot. Hard to get this stuff out of my pot so i hope its fine to use.

[jcameron996]

I would imagine that your ingots are fine as long as you didn't accidently let a few zinc weights into the mix. The blue/gold color should not be an issue and is normally associated with melting close to pure lead. As far as the pits in the bottom of the muffin tin ingot, those were probably caused by whatever was coating the pan burning off. I noticed that on the first and only time I attempted to use a muffin tin for an ingot mold. I filled the entire pan and found it nearly impossible to remove the ingots from the pan. Bought a Lyman ingot mold and have had no trouble since

[PS Paul]

Yep. bluish hue is just pure lead. I sometimes get it when melting downrigger weights that are cast from pure lead (I know the guy who makes 'em and he does use pure).

[benny1636]

Think its whatever was on the spoon the lead was kind of clumping at at the top of the pot. I dont think it was pure lead it was the same wheel weights bucket i've been casting.

[Defcon-One]

It is probably not the spoon. Your lead was way TOO HOT!

Gold and Blue are oxides that show up when your Lead gets overheated. Pure Lead does it more, but any alloy will show it if heated over 850 degrees F for a while.

[runfiverun]

nope you let the pot sit around at high heat.
the gold color was tin and the blue was an oxidized layer, it fluxes right back in.
you just need to control the heat.