how much do you loose?

[Indiana shooter]

Can I take an unknown alloy such as range scrap and turn it into pure lead? I know if you melt down the lead and and skim off the surface crud, without adding paraffin wax or beeswax, you will remove some of the tin and antimony. The question I have is how much do you loose?

I'm not asking this as a way of reliably making pure lead but more from a curiosity standpoint.

[leebuilder]

I dont loose much alloy type slag. The dirt /crud can vary. Roof lead comes out very clean, range scrap can be the dirtiest next to WW.
I am no expert, the dirt and crud has a bit of fluxing properties, heat has alot to do with it too.
Wood shavings and saw dust cleans it up just fine.
The cleaner the smelt, cleaner the alloy.
There was a thread on removing zinc with sulfer, i have done this it works quite well, i left very clean lead, near pure i figure, the fumes were brutal.
Does this help?
Be safe

[Indiana shooter]

Does this help?

Yes.

I suppose if the crud would act as a flux then the majority of the tin and antimony would remain with the lead.

Like I said, this question is purely for educational purposes. It is merely to see if it is possible to get near pure lead if you didn't flux before skimming off the top. Even if it takes 3 or 4 different times.

[white eagle]

I don't think its possible to completely remove a alloy from your batch
you would have to know the exact composition to start
probably just end up diluting the original but the original mix would still be there
just my take on it

[Yodogsandman]

The first time I smelted down range scrap, I allowed the pot to overheat because I couldn't see any lead, there was so much crud and jackets. I ended up with a pot with metallic oatmeal like lumps all through the lead and I thought that I had a zinc problem. By overheating the antimony and tin had separated. I tried to stir it back in and fluxed and fluxed with sawdust. It still hasn't gone back in and is now in a pail by itself waiting for me to decide whether to reheat and try fluxing again or make it into fishing weights. It's only about 30 lbs of very soft alloy.

I got disturbed by the oatmeal lumps and skimmed them off as best as I could but, saved it. This resulted in an alloy that seems very close to pure. I did the acid test and no zinc was present.

So, by super heating your range scrap, you could remove a lot of the antimony and tin by not fluxing or reducing and just skimming it off, I think. YMMV

[runfiverun]

you'll remove everything in the pot before you get the antimony and such out.
you can burn out almost all of the tin through oxidation, but lead itself oxidizes like crazy.
once you start removing the oxides off the top of the pot they will just reform again, and again, and you'll end up emptying the pot.

if you want to remove impurity's you need to strip them from the alloy.
foundry's shoot zinc through the alloy to remove tin, I don't remember what they use to get the antimony out.

[sqlbullet]

No more so than you can remove sugar or salt dissolved in water.

[bangerjim]

CuSO4 (copper sulfate) will remove most other metals from a Pb alloy. Get it in the plumbing section of a big box as "root killer". There is a thread on here about it. Do a search in the white box above. It will impart a bit-o-Cu to your mix which adds "toughness" not hardness.

I have used it and seems to work.

Sulfur>>>>>>>>>>>>>OMG>>>>>>>>>>>forget it!!!! The smell and mess. SO2 (sulfur dioxide) it toxic to breathe and easily forms H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) in your lungs.

Why not just buy some pure on here??????? Or do as I do and buy lead shielding sheets or roofing at the local scrap yard. Most is darned near 5.0 Bhn.

I am sure you can find someone on here that will trade you some pure ingots for your range ingots.

Breaking down an alloy or compound is mostly confined to a laboratory environment and is generally very expensive to do.

banger

[Indiana shooter]

Banger, as I stated before this question wasn't intended as a way to reliably make pure lead. I am fairly new to casting/smelting and thus I want to learn everything I possibly can. Any information or tricks I can pick up on along the way may help one-day. Heck who knows I may be able to use a few "impractical" bits of info and apply it to solve an issue. The question was purely educational, just trying to get a better understanding of my new hobby.......... okay obsession.

[JSnover]

I think I'd just shoot it as-is after cleaning or use it as a component in my finished alloy.