konsole
06-08-2014, 02:42 PM
Here is my situation...
I've metal detected for about 10 years, not all the time but off and on those years. Over those years I found around 3 lbs. of lead fishing weights. I can't remember what got me interested in this, but I decided it would be fun to melt down the fishing weights into some interesting shape. I guess I finally decided to do it because I found out how low lead melts at, and how since its so heavy almost all the other material float to the surface and can be skimmed off. The ease of melting the lead and making it very close to pure, combined with the fact that a real basic setup is all thats needed, I decided to try it. I melted the 3 lbs. of fishing weights inside a small aluminum dish on a coleman stove and I thought it was alot of fun doing it. Now I realize that aluminum isnt smart to use so I'm certainly not using aluminum as my melting pot anymore. After that I found out that lead wheel weights can be found at auto shops for free or sometimes very cheap. Near me is a large strip of auto shops and dealerships so I went around to all of them asking for their weights. In about 3 hours of driving around I accumulated about 150 lbs of wheel weights. I found out which are zinc and which are steel so I separated those out, and I was left with about 100 lbs of lead. In place of the aluminum melting pot I got a couple mini steel bread pans.
The end product I am looking for are ingots that are as smooth and uniform as possible. I'm not looking to make bullets or fishing weights, just bricks of lead that I guess could be used as doorstops, or just sit on the shelf as decoration or conversation pieces :-). The chances of going out and finding more lead to melt is slim at this point since I have no important use for them, but I can't say I definately won't go looking again at some point.
The 8 lb bricks I have made so far I have been able to get within 1 oz. of 8 lbs. on them (8 lb. on the dot isnt critical), however the main issue I am experiencing is the top of some of the bars cave in way too much when they solidify, and the cave in is a fairly steep drop right around the center of the bar. I know its somewhat unavoidable to completely eliminate because all of the bars have experienced some caving in. Also I know that some caving in is typical of "poured" type bars. Other then the sharp caving in too much on some bars, overall the bars have come out very nice.
I figured the deep caving in maybe had something to do with cooling off too fast, so I went from high heat to get the lead fully melted, to medium heat for a minute or two, then to low heat for a minute or two, then to no heat, but the bar still experience alot of caving in when it solidified.
Any tips on how to prevent the deep caving in on the top of the bar when they solidify?
Also why are my 8 lb. bricks so hard? I'm sure my bricks arent 100% pure lead but I would have guessed that they are 95%+ and would be softer then they are. (the bricks are roughly 5"x2"x2" just so you know)
I've metal detected for about 10 years, not all the time but off and on those years. Over those years I found around 3 lbs. of lead fishing weights. I can't remember what got me interested in this, but I decided it would be fun to melt down the fishing weights into some interesting shape. I guess I finally decided to do it because I found out how low lead melts at, and how since its so heavy almost all the other material float to the surface and can be skimmed off. The ease of melting the lead and making it very close to pure, combined with the fact that a real basic setup is all thats needed, I decided to try it. I melted the 3 lbs. of fishing weights inside a small aluminum dish on a coleman stove and I thought it was alot of fun doing it. Now I realize that aluminum isnt smart to use so I'm certainly not using aluminum as my melting pot anymore. After that I found out that lead wheel weights can be found at auto shops for free or sometimes very cheap. Near me is a large strip of auto shops and dealerships so I went around to all of them asking for their weights. In about 3 hours of driving around I accumulated about 150 lbs of wheel weights. I found out which are zinc and which are steel so I separated those out, and I was left with about 100 lbs of lead. In place of the aluminum melting pot I got a couple mini steel bread pans.
The end product I am looking for are ingots that are as smooth and uniform as possible. I'm not looking to make bullets or fishing weights, just bricks of lead that I guess could be used as doorstops, or just sit on the shelf as decoration or conversation pieces :-). The chances of going out and finding more lead to melt is slim at this point since I have no important use for them, but I can't say I definately won't go looking again at some point.
The 8 lb bricks I have made so far I have been able to get within 1 oz. of 8 lbs. on them (8 lb. on the dot isnt critical), however the main issue I am experiencing is the top of some of the bars cave in way too much when they solidify, and the cave in is a fairly steep drop right around the center of the bar. I know its somewhat unavoidable to completely eliminate because all of the bars have experienced some caving in. Also I know that some caving in is typical of "poured" type bars. Other then the sharp caving in too much on some bars, overall the bars have come out very nice.
I figured the deep caving in maybe had something to do with cooling off too fast, so I went from high heat to get the lead fully melted, to medium heat for a minute or two, then to low heat for a minute or two, then to no heat, but the bar still experience alot of caving in when it solidified.
Any tips on how to prevent the deep caving in on the top of the bar when they solidify?
Also why are my 8 lb. bricks so hard? I'm sure my bricks arent 100% pure lead but I would have guessed that they are 95%+ and would be softer then they are. (the bricks are roughly 5"x2"x2" just so you know)