Poured my first ingots

[steve817]

Casted my first ingots today from various sources that should yield an alloy close to Lyman #2
89.8% lead 5.02% tin, 5.09% antimony .07% Arsenic, and .04% copper.

All seemed to go well, the first ingots I poured came out beautifully if I didn't know any better I would have sworn they were bars of silver. As I continued they started taking on a frosty appearance, maybe because the alloy got a little hot? Also I scooped off more dross than I expected since I started with clean lead as it was. Was I cooking off the tin? I fluxed it several time with paraffin wax.

The picture doesn't do them justice but the bottom one had a lot more shine to it.

104479

[62chevy]

Those ingots look good. Hopefully you didn't toss the dross like I did on my first melt. Use some wood chips they will help keep tin and antimony in the lead.

[bangerjim]

Nice ingots.

I have found looks is only molecules deep! Ugly ingots cast & shoot just as well....as long as you do not have inclusions of gunk in them. Making your own ingots guarantees the are 100% pure because you know what YOU did!

Where 'ya been for over a year? Only 13 posts.......join in the madness more often! :cbpour:

banger

[steve817]

Nice ingots.

I have found looks is only molecules deep! Ugly ingots cast & shoot just as well....as long as you do not have inclusions of gunk in them. Making your own ingots guarantees the are 100% pure because you know what YOU did!


Where 'ya been for over a year? Only 13 posts.......join in the madness more often! :cbpour:

banger

Spent a lot of time reading and trying to figure out whether or not this was something I wanted to get into. Then slowly started collecting items needed to do it and then reading some more. I don't post a whole lot simply because I don't have much to offer in the way of knowledge on the subject of casting and any questions I have, usually have already been answered.

No 62chevy I didn't doss the dross.

[propwashp47]

looks good now choot em

[steve817]

Still gotta pick out my bullet molds and slug my barrels but I'm getting there.

[flyingmonkey35]

Pirty!

[dikman]

A word of warning - this whole (s)melting/casting thing is insidious! Before you know it you'll be hooked and desperately looking for any scrap you can find to melt!

Accumulating lead is part of the disease.

[steve817]

A word of warning - this whole (s)melting/casting thing is insidious! Before you know it you'll be hooked and desperately looking for any scrap you can find to melt!

Accumulating lead is part of the disease.

Mine seems to be pewter.

[FredBuddy]

Good work, steve. I started the same way.

[mold maker]

I find it awfully hard to accumulate something (pewter) that impossible to find, and high as a giraffe's nose.

[a.squibload]

Looks good, good fillout.
Hard to skim dross without getting some metal, but probably should leave the metal
and try to just remove the dirt. Try sawdust for fluxing, maybe with a bit of wax to flame up
and kill the smoke. I throw in a chunk of wax, boolit lube, whatever, and a match.

Yeah just the other day, rounded the corner & stopped, backed up with the door open,
leaned out and picked up a wheelweight.
Don't look at me like that, it's about three 44 boolits...

:>)

PS: I still find pewter at the thrift stores, just not as much as before.

[steve817]

So I took a hammer to one of the ingots and it started to flatten out a bit then broke in half. Is that a bad sign?

[captaint]

No, it's OK. Your alloy is what it is...hard (harder than some). Not a problem. Mike

[steve817]

Looks good, good fillout.
Hard to skim dross without getting some metal, but probably should leave the metal
and try to just remove the dirt. Try sawdust for fluxing, maybe with a bit of wax to flame up
and kill the smoke. I throw in a chunk of wax, boolit lube, whatever, and a match.



Yeah just the other day, rounded the corner & stopped, backed up with the door open,
leaned out and picked up a wheelweight.
Don't look at me like that, it's about three 44 boolits...

:>)

PS: I still find pewter at the thrift stores, just not as much as before.

It wasn't dirt so much but a skin that kept forming across the top of the melt. Perhaps dross was a poor word

[steve817]

No, it's OK. Your alloy is what it is...hard (harder than some). Not a problem. Mike

Considering I was looking to hunt with some of these, I was worried about them fragmenting on impact with bone tissue.

[Docjames]

Like it has been said, hot lead molds make frosty ingots. Other than that, I feel like water dropped 95-2.5-2.5 is hard enough for most uses, but I am new and don't fire mag/rifle cast boolits...yet.

[steve817]

Curiosity got the best of me so I took a sample to my local scrap yard for them to check with their X-ray scanner. The results yielded mostly what I expected but there was a little surprise thrown in. See if you can guess...lol

Pb 78.76
Bi 9.94
Sn 4.34
Sb 5.54

[NewbieDave007]

Bismuth. What was your source?

[steve817]

Bismuth. What was your source?

It was a mix of range lead, wheel weights, and pewter. I'm suspecting that it came from the range lead. I expected some to show up but not almost 10%.

[NewbieDave007]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.