A suggestion when melting range scrap

[dikman]

I just did another batch, filled my (half-propane) pot to the brim and set the fire. When it had melted I started stirring and knew, from experience, what to expect - the stirring brought up an incredibly thick layer of black, gritty grime. When I started skimming it I knew that there was going to be quite a lot of unmelted bullets mixed in, which would require sifting through (I think the gritty grime acts as an insulating barrier on some of it). Initial fluxing, btw, doesn't help at this stage as it's just too thick a layer. In my collection of pots and pans there is a steamer set (one of the saucepans has holes in the bottom), so I grabbed the steamer pot and poured some of the skimmed stuff in, then started shaking it to sieve out all the small gritty bits. This actually worked very well, and I dumped the remaining stuff (bullets and stones) back into the melting pot. I did the rest of the grit pile the same, and then added sawdust to the pot and stirred. Lo and behold the rest of the lead bits melted, leaving me with just crud to skim off.

I felt quite pleased with this approach, as in the past it's taken a lot of sorting, stirring and skimming to melt all of the scrap.

For anyone interested the figures are 124 lb. of raw scrap (to the brim), which gave 108 lbs of ingots, a 7 lb lump left in the pot and 9 lb of crud skimmed off. I figure a 7% loss rate is pretty good. :D

[triggerhappy243]

dont use those pots for cooking food anymore. you will get sick from lead poisoning.

[dikman]

:lol: No chance of that happening, after what I've used them for these saucepans look pretty disgusting! (They are actually a cheap set I picked up at a thrift shop and are kept with my (s)melting stuff).

[triggerhappy243]

Sth OZ? would that be kansas?

[NewbieDave007]

Sth OZ? would that be kansas?

Think farther south and so far east that you should go west instead.

[dikman]

Sth Oz, A Land Downunder, where kangaroos hop down the main street, koalas eat all the trees and dropbears terrorize the tourists.........

[triggerhappy243]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

[merlin101]

OK, I'll bite. Whats a dropbear?

[Walter Laich]

A dropbear or drop bear is a fictitious Australian marsupial. Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous marsupials related to koalas (although the koala is not a bear) that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above. They are an example of local lore intended to frighten and confuse outsiders and amuse locals, similar to the jackalope, hoop snake, wild haggis or snipe hunt.
101233

[Walter Laich]

distant cousin to the Jackalope

[jsizemore]

dont use those pots for cooking food anymore. you will get sick from lead poisoning.

They use marsupial doo-dee as flux downunder which counters the posioning effect of lead.

[Frank46]

Take a jar of vegamite and spread on flat surface in the sun. When dry use for flux. Had some once. And once was enough. Frank

[triggerhappy243]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk, way off topic now.

[psychicrhino]

"That's not a knife.....this, this is a knife". ;) ( could not resist)

[tunnug]

Just curious, why would you return stones into the pot, I'm getting all my stuff together to cast and reading/learning all I can before starting, thanks.

[Ed1]

I imagine the stones would be pretty hot to try to get them out. I am learning as well so that was a question in the form of an answer, lol.

[Bigslug]

For my smelts, I've been using one of those wire "spider" strainers used for taking tempura out of deep fryers. Works great for getting the jackets and rocks out before the sawdust flux. After that, a large spoon with the handle bent 90* skims out the ash and grit.

[zuke]

I use one of those "holey" spoon's from the dollar store to get the clip's out, and a soup ladle to pour lead.

[Nose Dive]

Before I smelt range scrap... I wash it. Yep....with water... on the drive way and let it drain down.... drive way is at an angle.. sit over night...(no raining nights here) and then 'smash the lot'... yea..take a ball peen hammer to the FMJ's and crack them.... thus...no skimming of unmelted items...

Put in pot,,Saw dust flux...bit of sulphur...and bring things up VERY SLOWLY.. still when all thing are gooey...very slowly...and bingo! Very little mess..dirt, rocks..trash...etc..etc. Skim well...flux again with saw dust and sulphur... mix... scrape and skim.... Never had a problem....

Nose Dive.

Cheap, Fast, good. Kindly pick two.

[fastfire]

I wash my range scrap by putting it in my media separator filled with water spin it for 20-30 seconds then let set in thin layers in the sun for a couple of days.
Used to not wash range scrap but didn't like all the dirt and sand I was skimming off, A lot less now.

[dikman]

Tunnug, the stones are too big to go through the sieve, and as there's no easy way to separate them, it's simpler to just dump it all back in, and after fluxing and stirring the stones can be skimmed off. The first time I worked with range scrap after washing/sieving it I spread a load on a table and (laboriously) hand sorted it to remove all the stones. I soon realized that I was making a lot of unnecessary work for myself!

[tazman]

The range scrap I acquired is from an indoor pistol range. Lots of jacketed in there. Some 22lr. Plenty of cast.
I am getting about 75% ingots from it. Having good luck with the boolits from it so far. I water drop them and wait a few days to shoot them. Probably wouldn't need to water drop them but I don't have room enough in present circumstances to drop them on a cloth, so into a water bucket they go.

[HollandNut]

vegemite .. ewe , I'd almost eat balut or kimchi first

[dikman]

No argument from me, HollandNut, I can't stand the stuff!

[mold maker]

Before I smelt range scrap... I wash it. Yep....with water... on the drive way and let it drain down.... drive way is at an angle.. sit over night...(no raining nights here) and then 'smash the lot'... yea..take a ball peen hammer to the FMJ's and crack them.... thus...no skimming of unmelted items...

Put in pot,,Saw dust flux...bit of sulphur...and bring things up VERY SLOWLY.. still when all thing are gooey...very slowly...and bingo! Very little mess..dirt, rocks..trash...etc..etc. Skim well...flux again with saw dust and sulphur... mix... scrape and skim.... Never had a problem....

Nose Dive.

Cheap, Fast, good. Kindly pick two.

What the purpose of the sulphur in the flux? are you expecting to find zinc in the range scrap?

[Smoke4320]

vegemite and triscuits yum yum
actually I had more issues with the seaweed candy