Shinny hard ingots

[30Carbine]

Well all was going good today, had the wife helping me ingot up 1000 pounds of lead I was running ingots and she was feeding the pot. all was going good until the mix started to look and pour funny to me, and you got to know it is a spigot pot so I was not watching her anyway, they were running funny all shinny and smooth.so about 90 ingots in I look up and she's running hand fulls of ww and 2 or 3 pewter items in at a time. I shat my self and asked her what she was doing she said it did not make sense to run the lead then the pewter in different batches if I was going to add it later. so I looked I had about 400 pounds of un melted pewter in the pile so after she was done I had about 2 trays left.:mad: wait it gets better I tested a couple holy **** a .039 dot lee hardness tester about bhn of 35 give or take..

now what to do?[smilie=b: i'll get pics after my blood pressure comes down a little. I ran the rest into ingots because it takes to much to heat it back up..

[Hamish]

You just need to. Buy a couple of tons of pure, thats all.

Hopefully you've learned your lesson,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Beagle333]

Them's gonna be some more pretty boolits though!!! :bigsmyl2:

[30Carbine]

Yea don't let the wife think she's helping. also my 60 pound bag of antimony is gone well not gone completely there are chunks of it at the bottom of the pot...

[fishhawk]

Lesson learned keep the wife away from the lead smelt! About all you can do is add pure now.

[scottfire1957]

This is YOUR fault. Your instructions were not clear to your wife.

However, it can all be remedied. Just melt it ALL again to get a good mix, and add pure, lino, or COWW as needed. It's just a lead alloy.

Be more clear next time, and keep the pewter far away when melting lead, and vice versa.

At least she was willing to help. MAYBE she will help again.

[runfiverun]

the first thing to do is laugh about it WITH her...

been there and done that [with the wife] but with a loose knob on the side of the redding powder dump [some got 12 grains some got 13]
siiigh,,, it was only 500 rounds.

anyway I'd just re-mix it all into one big batch of alloy and do the math.
never heard of someone complaining about having to buy more lead before....

[jonp]

Laugh and take her out to dinner. Be happy that she wants to spend time with you enough that she is helping you do something she probobly dosnt give two figs about

[30Carbine]

Yep it is my fault already did dinner last night. will start to straighten it out this weekend and teach her the right way and y we do it that way, maybe she will have a better under standing. still laughing about it can't get mad does no good. also the hardness is probably because of the water river under the molds, its like water dropping I do that to speed up the process. I also gave her my lyman cast bullet handbook 4th edition to read today maybe it will help her understand a little better. she took to reloading her own 38spl and 45 colts real good she just started to ask how I got the boolits for them and i'll teach her, just be patient I got to keep telling my self that..

[Scooby]

My wife has been helping me make shot for 3 or 4 years now, funny thing is she has never shot a shot gun I always ask her to but she says she is content with her 9mm and 22lr pistols. She can run my shot maker with tip top lead but does not have the upper body strength to do the lifting. She helps me hand sort ww all the time but when it come to smelting she wants no parts of it. I have learned more Patience over the years with her trying to teach her as much as I can so that if something happens to me she can yield the most of my stash. Better to much of something that can be fixed than Zinc or something that can not.

[bangerjim]

At leas you STILL got lead! Just not quite what you wanted.

Remelt and mix in pure to get what you want. Hope you have a good hardness tester.

My wife has absolutely ZERO interest in re-melting or casting......a good thing! I just supply her with the loaded carts.

bangerjim

[Retumbo]

I agree, be happy your wife enjoys sharing your interests.

[bruce381]

yeah mine just goes shopping

[RogerDat]

Maybe you can melt it all into a consistent batch, get a sample gunned at the scrap yard. Then you will have a "private recipe" using the custom alloy your wife helped you make.

Easy way to explain it, at least to my wife would be... when you bake you often put sugar and flower in the bowl, maybe a little baking soda. But you do it based on the recipe you are making. You would not mix the flour, sugar and baking soda for storage because then it would be too sweet for bread and you would not know how much sugar to add to make a cake recipe with it.

I don't claim to understand my wife but after 17 years (as of our anniversary today) I have learned how to translate "my man world" into a language she speaks. And even if she won't come out and help me make casting and reloading mistakes she will at least listen like it matters when I tell her the ones I make. Or make appreciative noises about the .38 special lite loads I make for her.

Frankly I don't think she will ever get my melting "pretty" pewter stuff to make bullets, but she is not too bad about how much she wants to rescuing from the pot.

[mold maker]

Been married for over 50 years and have never once had the wife help do anything related to guns. She tolerates me and my hobbies, but would rather shop for the Grand Kids. That's what she's doing now, in my truck.
Your mistake can be corrected, and I'll bet she'll ask next time.
Just consider your self blessed, first for the help, and second, that you caught it early on.

[30Carbine]

Well spent most of the day correcting it, she read the lyman book and helped fix it today well most of it. she want to fire up the casting pot tomarrow and cast some 38 boolits am a bit surprised by that but at the same time great full she what's to know the hole process and she wants to do it her self. me thinks me got a good one.

[62chevy]

Well spent most of the day correcting it, she read the lyman book and helped fix it today well most of it. she want to fire up the casting pot tomarrow and cast some 38 boolits am a bit surprised by that but at the same time great full she what's to know the hole process and she wants to do it her self. me thinks me got a good one.

Yup you got a good one but you better keep that under wraps and no warning shots.

[hickfu]

HOLY ****!!! with that much Pewter you will need something like 19,000 more pounds of pure to come out with 2% tin

Ouch!

[lightman]

I agree, this can be fixed. I also agree, be thankful She is interested. Sounds like you are already on the way with the corrections.