Radiator shop trade

[boho]

I read in a thread on here about getting solder drippings from radiator shops for the tin. I stopped in to the shop in town and asked. The guy working there was friendly and said he used it for trot line weights, but couldn't seem to clean it up where it was easy to work with. By the time we finished talking he agreed to trading pound for pound 60/40 drippings for pure lead! Gonna trade him 40 lbs tomorrow!

[Beagle333]

I'll take that deal every time! :grin:

[badbob454]

Nice job... Those who try succeed

[littlejack]

boho:
I have processed quite a bit of the drippings from my local radiator shop. It IS quite dirty, but DOES
clean up very well.
I use my turkey fryer for my heat source, and a large cast iron dutch oven to melt it in.
First, I sift it out by hand and remove all of the odds and ends. There was steel washers, bolts, nuts,
pieces of radiator metal and so on. I put about an inch of drippings in the pot and let it melt. I then
add my flux (candle wax and sawdust). As I flux, I stir and skim off the dirt and debris as I go. After
cleaning fairly well, I start adding more drippings to the melt. My drippings were wet from the drain
tanks at the radiator shop, so you should keep watch that you do not drop any wet dripping into the
melt. You may have a visit from the "tinsel fairy".
After getting the pot full, I continued fluxing until the melt was clean of debris.
I then started pouring my ingots. As the melt level got lower, there would be debris/dirt float to the
top. Just keep on fluxing and skimming. When you get to the bottom, there will be quite a bit
of "heavies" in the pot. I use my ladles and spoons, to separate the melt from the heavies, and finish
pouring my ingots. When all/most of the melt is gone, I discard the debris and repeat.
Have fun.
Regards
Jack

[boho]

Jack that's the same process I use for smelting WW, roofjacks etc. Can you define what you mean by heavies? The 40 lbs I got from him he had attempted to smelt already, ingots just left in his pot and cooled. It appears he wasn't as efficient as we casters are, the top of the ingots look like a lot of oxidized tin was on top and they have inclusions with junk in them. It had alot of color and grainy. He may have got too hot and lost some tin, but I'm sure there is a lot that can be salvaged with reduction.

[SciFiJim]

I've processed some as well. I fill up a 3 quart stainless pot with the drippings, debris, trash, dirt and all and heat it to above the melting temp of the solder. After stirring, the solder will settle to the bottom and the dirt and such will be on top. I spoon the dirt out until it is mostly solder left and then flux heavily with saw dust.

One of the things that I have found that helps is to pour "coin" ingots in the bottom of muffin pans. They only weigh a couple of ounces each and are easy to handle for adding to my melt later as needed.

[dale2242]

I have smelted a LOT of solder drippings.
This stuff usually comes out of a tank of water.
NEVER add it to molten metal while smelting.
Put whatever amount you want in an empty smelting pot and bring it up to melting temp each time.
The water/steam can evaporate as it comes up to temperature without the tinsel fairy......dale

[littlejack]

The "heavies" are just as named. They are particles of ???????? that stay in the bottom of the pot when the metal is molten.
Folks have these in their melt when using an electric pot and they fill their molds from underneath. I had this issue with my Lyman electric a few years ago. I solved the problem by switching to ladle pouring my boolits. The bottom pour boolits came out fine to shoot, but I did not like the inclusions that showed up. Some will say that I didn't clean my melt enough. What-ever. I get nice boolits every time, without the inclusions ladle casting.
Regards
Jack

[boho]

Thanks Jack I'm just getting started on casting bullets. I spent the last 6 months collecting and smelting so I don't have but one afternoons experience casting bullets. Smelted about 600 lbs of ingots in that time. Haven't seen any heavies yet. My first casting session went well, just added wax with each ingot and stirred with pine splinters from untreated lumber. Appreciate the heads up!

[littlejack]

Yes sir, you are welcome.
Jack

[boho]

Thanks all of you for the input!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Boy, I'd offer the radiator shop guy ZINC for his trot line weights.
it should work as good as Lead for that...maybe even better !
my 2¢
Jon

[boho]

Never keep the zinc. Take it to my scrap dealer he gives me lead wheel weights for them. He and I trade alot. Good idea though.

[boho]

There was a ton of dirt in this bucket. They sweep the floor and put everything in this bucket. I ended up with 2 of the old steel coffee cans 1# I think of solid dirt! No matter what I tried using wax and sawdust I would get small bb's of metal left in the dirt. Is this just what I should expect to lose? Is there a way someone knows to get better separation of the metal out of this dirt? I am very pleased to get 30+ lbs of 60\40 out of this deal, but I still have a lot to learn.

[littlejack]

I would have the last of the melt in my dutch oven.
I would spoon out as much of the dirt out as possible without getting too much of the melt.
Then I would tip the container up some to get all of the melt in the corner.
( I clamp vice-grips onto the edge of the container to have better control.) (Wear gloves.)
You can block the back of your pot to hold it tipped up.
Then, roll the container a little while keeping it tipped. The melt will roll around the inside corner of the
container, and the dirt will stay stuck to the container if you do not roll it too far.
Then you can spoon out the majority of the melt that is left, with the dirt/debris away from the melt.
After that, I dump what is left.
Jack