So how do you get all the sand from backstop mining

[Smoke4320]

So how do you get all the sand off the bullets from bank mining..
I have mined my sand backstop .. probably recovered 50 LBS of lead ..
Most has good amounts of sand embedded in the lead


tried washing.. tried tumbling ..still too much sand ..
My smelt pot is a bottom pour 100 LB pot so I am leary of getting sand in the ingots

so I am asking what you guys are doing

Thanks

[twc1964]

Im believe the sand will float to the top of your melt. Ive had range scrap with tons of dirt and junk in it after smelting and fluxing a few times, it was quite clean.

[imashooter2]

I melt it and pay particular attention to stirring and fluxing.

[carbine86]

It all floats to the top, but I will be building a screen table to wash each bucket with the spring rains but I have not had any issues with sand in my ingots.

[Wild Bill 7]

I mine range lead also. I find as above that fluxing several times and scraping sides and bottom of the pot. All the stuff will float and you will get clean lead. JMHO, you shouldn't have any trouble processing the lead.

[lightman]

Yup, what the others have said is true. Stir and scrape and flux, then do it again and again. If you have the ways and the means and the space, making a heavy duty screen that you can leave outside in the weather is a good idea and let the rain help you.

[GL49]

Ditto to what the others have said. Everything you'll find in range scrap will float in lead. Just watch out for anything some goofball may have thrown on the berm that you don't want in your pot. Unfired cartridges, primers, water trapped in a jacketed bullet...... I start it all out cold, have a lid for the pot, and stir it well through a hole in the lid before I start fluxing and scraping.

[2wheelDuke]

I'd look for a non-bottom-pour pot for smelting. I use a harbor freight Dutch oven and an old turkey fryer. Smelting will get your pot nasty.

[Smoke4320]

I have smelted over 1000 lbs of wheel weights and some unknown alloys .but first time smelting dirty recovered lead
was not sure what issues I would be running into

Great guys
thanks for all the answers..

[WRideout]

So how do you get all the sand off the bullets from bank mining..
I have mined my sand backstop .. probably recovered 50 LBS of lead ..
Most has good amounts of sand embedded in the lead


tried washing.. tried tumbling ..still too much sand ..
My smelt pot is a bottom pour 100 LB pot so I am leary of getting sand in the ingots

so I am asking what you guys are doing

Thanks

The backstop at my club is essentially mud. When I mine the berm, I generally just hand pick the bullets that are lying on top. They still come out rather cruddy. I found a cheap hotplate at the local deep discount store, and use a cast iron pot to smelt. My molding is all done with a small Lee dipper-type pot, but I just don't want to get it all covered with crud. As a side benfit, the copper jackets I sell to the scrapyard at copper prices. hmjtgr

Wayne

[Nose Dive]

Yea... dirt, trash, crud, mud is a problem in smelting range scrap.... I have a very scientific process in cleansing this stuff......

Tools are slopped drive way, yard hose, and hand held flower sprinkler...

Process is to spread the scrap on the driveway... spread it out...got plenty of space.... get the hose and sprinkler and get after 'et.

Start up at the top of the spread and wash down to move the refuse down the driveway letting gravity pitch in and help out here.

Then...let all sit over night to 'dry'.... there is a little sweeping, dusting really, the next day and I get all up in a dust pan and into the smelt pot she goes.

Now..BE CAREFUL here.....there is always a bit of moisture stuck and hidden somewhere and THIS CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS in the smelt pot! KABOOM!!

I start COLD...no heat anywhere...add 2 or 3 inches of sawdust and sulfur mix...then add ALL OF THE SMELT MATERIAL I am going to melt in the COLD POT.... Then I had heat...VERY LOW....and let the ole smelt pot heat up.....once she is smoking good, i begin to come up on the heat....
NOW LISTEN...THIS STUFF SMOKES, STINKS, IS NOXIOUS AND CAN BURN YOUR EYES, LUNGS AND NEIGHBORS CAT. This must be done outside, standing up wind and with all appropriate safety gear.... once you see a bit of melt...stir slowly with a LONG HANDLE device with head back....add some more sawdust and sulfur mix....stir slowly.... then come up on heat some.... just follow the slow heat up...slow stirring and flux about 3 or 4 times...and again..NEVER ADD ANYMORE 'SMELT' MATERIAL TO THE POT...only good dry sawdust..... once the smelt is melted...stir and scrape the sides and bottom and remove dross, clips, and corruption using a long handle tool. The 'trick' here is to evaporate the moisture SLOWLY from the smelt before things get hot and cause you some problems. And I keep the smelt down around 700 or so...try to anyway....

I've done this 100 times and todate,,,no moisture problems....did get some love letters from the HOA once...but have sinced moved to where my closest neighbor is about 300 meters away and they now, just rattle my chain at church....or,,, "Hay! I smelled you making boolits Tuesday!".....

And, if it does rain the day I wanted to smelt...to bad Dick...gotta wait until the sun comes up and helps out....

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[country gent]

Several ways to do this are quick and easy and can be done relativly cheaply. One is spread out material and rinse free of the crud then let dry. If chunks piece are big enough a leaf blower or like tool could be used to push the sand and crud away with air pressure. A rocker type slush box could be made with open ends and screened botom to work mined material thru the screen allowing dirt and crud to drop thru. Also as stated simply melting a pot from cold start to molten with topping off then fluxing till clean works also.

[John Boy]

Sand (silicon dioxide, or Quartz): 1723 C ... will be part of the dross with good stirring agitation

[BNE]

When I was smelting in a bottom pour pot, I just scraped the junk off the top, then used a small ladle to pour into ingots.

I then can scrape the pot out when it is empty.

[bruce381]

doesn't the sulfur react with and REMOVE tin? as well as other contaminates but you want the tin to stay.

[WHITETAIL]

+1 on the driveway method.
I collet all year, and then when spring comes.
Is when I smelt.:Fire:

[borg]

IDK, I find that the weight of the alloy pushes some of the sand to the bottom and holds it there.
I usually melt, then dip into ingots, then clean the pot and remelt.
There's usually a lot of sand on the bottom of the pan.
JMHO

[Idz]

I suspect some of the 'sand' on the bottom of the pot is lead oxides. Normal silica sand has a density of 2.2, lead is 11.5 and lead oxides are around 9. Normal sand will float like a cork in lead but the oxides are heavy enough to stick to the bottom until you stir the pot. Don't dispose of that bottom crud assuming its sand.

[borg]

Is that why wood/carbon stays on the bottom when you stir with a wood paddle?

[Nose Dive]

Bruse381... Sulfur is added in my smelt pot for its action with ZINC. As I add the sawdust/sulfur mix several times,.. my smelts are bona fide 'trash mixture' of who knows what.... I get happy with the flux from the start. I really don't believe it reacts so much with the tin. And, in many cases, my 'ingots' have to be re-melted and treated to provide me with a decent, useable, alloy for my boolits with acceptable mold fill out. But,, as you may be suggesting,... In many cases, on the second smelting of ingots I find to be of low quality...i do have to add pewter..and if available...some tin. Due to cost, i rarely have any 'good tin' offerings....my 'solution' to the pollution is pewter picked up at second hand sale stores, garage sales...where ever I can find cheap stuff.... And, I believe your are correct in your position that some tin in proper amounts adds to the pourability of the alloy for good boolit mold fill out. Anyway, I have found adding some to the alloy has helped me achieve better boolits on occasion.

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[jonp]

Box for sifting raw sand to use in mixing up brick morter. Essentially a square wooden box with a screen on the bottom. Dump the sand with the boolits in and hose it down leaving the boolits. You can make one easy, in whatever size you want with whatever size hardware cloth looks good to you.

[fredj338]

Is that why wood/carbon stays on the bottom when you stir with a wood paddle?
Never seen this happen.

[Frank46]

When I did mine our old clubs pistol range I made up a 3'x3' box outta 2x4's and used 1/4" hardware cloth. Did an excellent job of separating the fines like sand small pebbles and stuff like that. used a rake and shovel. only bad part was lugging them heavy buckets back to the truck. On a good day raking and shoveling then sifting would end up with 3-4 buckets of mostly lead. Then dump one bucket into a concrete mixing tub and blast with the hose.stir with shovel and blast again. Take one of the 6mil contractor bags and slit so basicly you have one big sheet. Dump the tub and mr sunshine does the rest. repeat for each bucket. Frank

[mold maker]

When I did mine our old clubs pistol range I made up a 3'x3' box outta 2x4's and used 1/4" hardware cloth. Did an excellent job of separating the fines like sand small pebbles and stuff like that. used a rake and shovel. only bad part was lugging them heavy buckets back to the truck. On a good day raking and shoveling then sifting would end up with 3-4 buckets of mostly lead. Then dump one bucket into a concrete mixing tub and blast with the hose.stir with shovel and blast again. Take one of the 6mil contractor bags and slit so basically you have one big sheet. Dump the tub and mr sunshine does the rest. repeat for each bucket. Frank

Basically the same here, but poured on concrete to dry. Raked back and forth dry, they dropped a lot more sand. A day in the sun this Summer would dry anything. Still used extreme care when adding to pot. The more sand and trash removed now the less has to be fluxed and spooned off the melt.