melting lead shot

[lotech]

I've attempted to melt shot several times in the last couple of years. I have two batches; one is a couple hundred pounds + of reclaimed shot (no steel), the other is new shot, probably from the '60s or 70s, about 75-100 lbs.

I can't get a complete melt. Lot of unmelted "residue"; looks like shells, the outer surface of individual pellets. I thought perhaps my pot was not getting hot enough, though it has been fine for normal casting use. I tried a second pot; same thing, an incomplete melt. Is there a trick to this process?

[dragon813gt]

The graphite makes a mess of things. Hopefully you aren't doing this in your casting pot. Especially if it's a bottom pour.

[triggerhappy243]

if it were graphite free, I could go places with it, but in large quantities, it does make a mess.

[lotech]

Thank you. Yes, I tried it in casting pots. However, cleanup was no problem. Poured what actually melted into ingots and discarded the rest.

Is there a practical way of removing graphite?

[warf73]

The shells like others have said is graphite.
When I smelt down lead shot (I've got 100lbs to melt sometime soon) I pour the shot into the smelting pot and then add used motor oil. I add enough oil to just see it threw the shot then smelt like you would normally. Might not be the best way or least amount of smoke, but when the oil has burnt off I skim off the top and start making ingots.

The main reason I started doing it this way was because my dad found 250lbs of chilled shot that had lead powder all over it. Which from reading here is lead oxide and messing with that is way more dangerous than licking a lead ingot. So to encapsulate the oxide we used old motor oil and melted it down skimmed off the junk and made ingots.

[lotech]

The advice is well taken; thank you all.

[Loudy13]

I am about to melt down about 150-200 lbs of shot also, another helpful thread from CB.

Thank you

[Bigslug]

Nothing really sophisticated to my approach - light the fire under Satan's Little Smelter, and use a chunk of straight wrought iron stuck into a wooden handle to stir/squish/agitate until the graphite floats to the top. Squeezing the graphite against the pot wall with the back of a large serving spoon helps to crack them open and separate also.