Oh Crud!

[Wandering Man]

Well, I've cast my boolits twice now, and am quite happy with the results.

I was looking at my ladle earlier today, and noticed all the crud that has accumulated on it.

Then I noticed my lyman minimag pot has a lot of crud around the edges and on the heating elements.

I chipped a bunch of it off, and am left wondering what ya'll do for regular maintanance, and if it is common to accumulate crud so quickly.

Mostly grey, powdery stuff on the ladel and edges of the pot, yellow powdery stuff on the heating elements.

???

WM

[runfiverun]

i just clean them
i will wipe my ladle off during casting, first i whack it gently on a little metal pot.
then wipe it with a rag.
the heating element i will take out of pot and wipe it off also, then set it on a piece of sheet metal and flux the pot and put it back in.
i like to empty one of these pots when done so i can use it to speed up my lee drip-o-matic.

[Bret4207]

Flux more and scrap the crap off. When I went to using a stainless steel pot my dross accumulation dropped by about 60-70%. I figure most of it was rust and corrosion from the iron pot. YMMV.

[Jon K]

WM,

Like Bret said, flux & scape, or wire brus the pot more.
As for the ladle, I coat mine with mould release(Frnckfurt Arsenal), and when I start getting build up on it, brush & scrape and spray again. I also spray & coat the top of the sprue plate- be careful not to get any into the mould cavity.

Jon

[square butte]

Bret, what do you have for a stainless steel pot? I take it this is your smelting pot?

[montana_charlie]

After the last time I wire-brushed my Lyman pot, I coated the interior with two coats of spray-on graphite. At the same time, I gave my Lyman dipper the same treatment.

I haven't emptied the pot (since then) to see how it looks, but the top rim is staying nice and clear. The dipper is also in good shape.

After pouring a bullet, I point the nozzle straight up, and tap the handle on my pot rim. Anything in the spout falls into the bowl.
Then, I invert the bowl and tap again...dropping the contents on top of my melt...and leaving the dipper ready for the next pour.

The dipper stays so clean, I recently used it (without any prepping) to melt and pour some Cerrosafe for a chamber cast.

I am beginning to suspect that some (or all) of that 'crust' is a product of using wax as a flux.
CM

[Maven]

Boing water and a wire brush will get rid of the oxide accumulation very quickly. Once the pot & ladle are absolutely dry, a coating of liquid graphite spray (I use NAPA's DGF 123), slows, but doesn't entirely prevent the depostion of more "crud."

[TexRebel]

It may sound strange, but I flux the lead with used motor oil, and have no crud at all, my stir spoon is shiney :)

[copdills]

lots of good information for a beginner (me) lol thanks

[Wayne Smith]

I use a pot on a gas stove, but place a piece of wax in the bottom of the ladel, put it in the melt and turn it upside down as I push it to the bottom of the pot. The wax melts and comes out the spout and the ladel is clean when it comes out of the melt.

[Bret4207]

Bret, what do you have for a stainless steel pot? I take it this is your smelting pot? Tom

Sorry SB, I didn't check back any too soon. For smelting I use the standard cheepy Chinese made dutch oven. My melting pot is, I think, an 6 cup stainless steel measuring cup. They can be found on Ebay, some hardware stores. Holds over 20 lbs of lead alloy. I just happened on it at a local hardware store when I was looking for something else. It works great on a hot plate. The hot plate needs to be a fairly heavy duty one, mines about 1200 watts IIRC. The smaller 5-900 watt jobs won't work. I'd like to find and electric stove and rob some parts to make an even heavier duty one. Much cheaper than anything you can buy, for sure.

Of course if you're of the bottom pour persuasion...tough luck for you.