A little nervous

[sfcairborne]

Yesterday I smelted one 5 gallon bucket of sorted clip on wheel weights, I sort all my wheel weights 2 times befor I smelt, in Oder to catch all of the zinc and steel ones. Ok here's my ? I smelted like normal, temp was about 650, according to them,removed clips, then fluxed with sawdust and wax, like normal. Skimmed everything off, had nice sliver lead look, but when I pourd them into my cupcake pans once cooled enogh to dump them, them looked Looked like the surface of the moon and grainy, could I have gotten the lead to hot? Or is this something else? I wish I could post pics, but can't figure out how to do it. Thanks guys

[freebullet]

Ingots all melt the same. I don't worry what they look like. I'd say not much to worry about.

If you used a new or first time pan it is probably just the effect of moisture or the pan coating. Nothing to fear.

[Retumbo]

Depending on cooling rate, sometimes the lead crystallizes and not always the same way. I have found this to be true for pewter too

[Cmm_3940]

Any coatings, nonstick or just plain ole dirt, in cookware can cause weird effects due to the coating gassifying.

[sfcairborne]

Ok cool, I was thinking this was the cause. I hit them with my wire nippers, feels and looks like lead wheel weights. Yes the pans were new. Whew that was a lot of work, just didn't want to have to take all 50 pounds or better to scrap yard

[CastingFool]

You wouldn't have to scrap all 50 lbs. From what I have read here, your alloy can contain up to 5% zinc and be ok.

[RogerDat]

I have seen COWW ingots have a porous surface, like a bunch of bubbles were on the surface of the ingots, which is exactly what happened. Non-stick pan coating was off gassing when I dumped molten lead on it. Goes away eventually, sooner if you set it on a fire and burn the snot out of it. Have seen a sort of a frosted looking fairly fine grain. Have seen shiny with sort of a metal flake looking surface.

All were same basic metal, same basic process, slight differences in melt, ingot or air temp seems to be the difference. All of them were fine.
Might even be some difference in cooling rate for the mold. Thin aluminum (cupcake and bread pan), cast aluminum (Lee ingot) or steel ingot molds (8" angle iron 3 cavity) might be some of the difference also.

What is more I have noticed some alloys will change appearance over time. Some 93/3.5/3.5 alloy in cupcake muffins shows a more frosted look now than right after casting.

[sfcairborne]

thank you all for the responces, Think were good now, gotta love this site.

[bangerjim]

Don't worry about it! A zinker or two in that much is not gonna "ruin the whole batch"!!!!

Cast 'me and shoot 'em!

And don't overthink the Zn thing. So what if you have a bit-o-zinc in there? Just add a little Sn to compensate for the increase in surface tension caused by the Zn. And a few zinkers in that large amount will not alter the alloy weight....at lease not to where you will ever notice it. If fill-out is not what you want, add some Sn. You should anyway, because WW's are only 0.5% Sn and most run around 2% for perfect boolit profiles and fill-out. I do!

banger-j