Smelting session

[Liberty'sSon]

Had a pretty good smelting session today. Got 50lb COWW, 25 lb SOWW and 25 lb pure from some pipe joints. A few questions.
Should I keep the pipe joints and the SOWW separate?
While smelting the pipe joints, I first skimmed the sisal rope that was mixed in with it then fluxed with beeswax and pine shavings several time each. It had that purplish tint to the melt that I assume indicates pure lead. Is this correct?
Also I fluxed several times and skimmed the melt at least 2 dozen times but I kept getting some dross like substance floating on the surface. Is this normal for pipe joints? I was going to mark the ingots to differentiate, but there is no need as the pure is very purple in color.

[zomby woof]

My advice would be to keep everything separate.

[lwknight]

That purplish stuff is indicative of pure lead as you suspected.
I would keep some pure lead separate unless I was mixing up for a larger batch.
Other side, If you have no use for pure lead it would be simpler to mix it all the same.
Really there is no right or wrong or best served that anyone else could guess.

[slim1836]

I keep pure lead separate for muzzle loading round ball casting, and COWW for .45, .308, and other boolits.
I can always mix the two, but can't separate the two later.

Slim

[runfiverun]

what you were seeing was oxidization, you can pretty much skim a pot of pure lead to nothing
if you keep after it.
mark the pure lead somehow and set it off to the side you'll want it later.

[Liberty'sSon]

Thanks Run Five, that's the info I was looking for on the pure stuff. I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to stop skimming or if I was leaving trash in the lead. I will keep it all separated so I can alloy as needed for different applications. That purple color sure is cool looking.

[Springfield]

I have found that if you don't run over about 650 deg then eventually you will get a pure clean top. If you keep getting stuff like looks like dirt, it probably is. If just lumpy lead looking stuff then just turn down the temp and it should all go back in. Not always, but most of the time.

[el34]

I'm in the minority I suppose, I don't segregate pure lead. I don't have a need for it, everything I shoot so far is happy with boolits made with alloy of 12BHN hardness.

I weigh whatever I got- soww, coww, whatever, and throw everything in the pot. After it melts I scoop out clips and trash and subtract their weight. At the same time I pour small ingots, 1/2" thick in small SS condiment cups and while they're cooling I flux with wood chips, get it burnt with a chunk of wax, then cover the melt with more wood chips. The little ingots cool within a handful of minutes and I measure the mystery mix hardness.

The laptop is already on and has my calculator up. I plug in the weight and BHN of the still-melted pot, see how much monotype and tin to add for 12BHN and 2% tin, blend it in, and ingotize. Badabing badaboom.

I get lead semi-regularly and will segregate pure if I ever have a need for it.