scrap reclaimed copper

[triggerhappy243]

ok, so I have smelted my first 1000 pounds of range scrap. out of that it looks like i have 300 pounds of shredded copper jacket. I checked with the recycler yesterday and they will not take it if there is lead stuck to it. I thru 2- 5 gal. buckets into my cement mixer to tumble.............. 5 hours. now the jacket scrap looks like lead. can I clean this up enough to look like copper and if soo, what could i use?

[Half Dog]

I cannot answer your question but I am interested too.

[jsizemore]

I saw where fellow members have used one of those propane weed burners to remove that stuck on lead.

I don't use real high heat to melt my scrap. I guess you could call it a medium setting. I got a wind shield and lid made from the sheetmetal from a hot water heater. The lid sits right on top of my dutch oven. I stick my thermometer through a hole in the lid to the scrap. When the temp hits 700degF, I cut the gas control to low and start scraping jackets from the top of the melt. By the time I'm done the melt temp is about 650-675degF. The copper scrap comes out pretty lead free. The scrapyard gave me $1.95/lb for it yesterday. He said copper and gold had dropped yesterday so next week they were going to adjust their pay out. I'd haul it to them for $1/lb. My guy lets a little stuck on lead by but it's pretty clean. Good Luck

[tomme boy]

Throw them into a LARGE pot and heat them up HOT and throwing a candle and set it on fire. Stir it till the flames go away and the lead should come off.

I have 3 scrap yards I go to. One will not take them, the other two will but at different prices. I hold off going to them till it makes it worthwhile to hit all 3 on the same day. As 2 of them are about 45 miles away the other is less than a mile. The one that will not take them pays almost a $1 more a pound for brass than the other 2. But the other two it depends on the day when you call them what they pay for the jackets. And it depends on who is at the scale. One day I get #1 copper and the next it is #2 depending who is there.

I suggest you call around the yards near you to see what they say. For me it is worth driving 45 miles to get a better price because I will end up with a lot more $$$$

[BK7saum]

I try to get them clean as I remove them from the smelt, which usually means throwing a bunch of sawdust in the pot and a grape size piece of candle wax. Stir and I have to shake the jackets in my slotted spoon basket until lead quits coming off and none is visible in or on the jackets. Sometimes I have to just drop them back on the smelt and repeat. Mine are recovered from a dirt berm and bullets are mostly intact. A lot of work, but I'd rather have them clean the first time out of the pot than have to try and re-clean them again later before I can sell them. If they needed a re-clean, I might just toss them instead of working them over again. Sorry for your dilemma.

[runfiverun]

you could melt the whole pile down and pour into ingots.
scrape the top of the pour before it solidifies and you'll have clean brass.
it's yellow brass at that point and worth more than red brass or copper.

[dragon813gt]

I never understand when a yard wants them lead free. I take in brass fittings all the time. They want the copper pipe cut off as close as possible. So they're getting a brass fitting, copper pipe and the solder. Which can be a lead bearing alloy. And they pay #1 brass price for it all. I know it depends on who they sell to but there is no consistency at all.

[BK7saum]

you could melt the whole pile down and pour into ingots.
scrape the top of the pour before it solidifies and you'll have clean brass.
it's yellow brass at that point and worth more than red brass or copper.
Run, are you saying content makes it yellow brass or the fact that it's in an ingot so the yard classifies it as yellow brass?

Since yellow brass is 33% zinc and gilding metal is 5% zinc...

[BK7saum]

Hey, now I know how to get rid of all my zinc wheel weights...alloy them with my bullet jackets, and get paid way more than wheel weight prices for them.

[308Jeff]

you could melt the whole pile down and pour into ingots.
scrape the top of the pour before it solidifies and you'll have clean brass.
it's yellow brass at that point and worth more than red brass or copper.

Great idea. I have a little backyard foundry that will do the job nicely.

[Forrest r]

Around my little neck of the woods they call the copper bullet jackets with lead on them #2 copper. They also call copper pipes with solder on them #2 copper.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/prices2015_zpss5j8jmzg.jpg.html)

I take the jackets I get every year in and get #2 $$$ for them.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/bulletreceipt.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/bulletreceipt.jpg.html)

You should be asking/taking in some copper pipe with solder on them in and see what they say.

[triggerhappy243]

what i took them to show looked like the bullets had moly coating on them.

[btreanor]

I use my wet tumbler to clean jackets and get #2 copper price for them. I remove the stainless pins, fill it half-full with the jackets, and then use 2 x the "normal" amount of Dawn detergent. After rinsing and drying, I check them for jackets that still have lead, small rocks, etc. in them. Then I use a magnet to remove copper-washed steel jackets from the batch. It's a fair amount of work but I only do it every couple of years and get a couple hundred bucks for the effort.

[RP]

When your smelting your range scrape flux with used motor oil and light it up the extra heat will remove the lead from the jackets. When I sold my jackets they called it red brass scrape was high at the time so I got a better return on jackets. I been thinking of building a foundry to smelt my scrap brass.

[triggerhappy243]

picture this if you may.................. so far I have 7 full 5 gal. buckets of this scrap copper to re process.

[btreanor]

Gotcha. When I'm smelting jacketed bullets, I use a steel mesh basket (like the one used for deep frying) to shake the jackets back and forth to get the lead out/off of them. After doing this, the only stuff remaining on my jackets is dirt residue that comes off in a wet tumbler with Dawn detergent. If your scrap copper looks like lead after processing through a cement mixer (I'm guessing with lots of water and Dawn detergent?) then I would guess that the lead is melted onto the copper. If that's the case, I'm not sure that trying to reheat all of those 5 gallon buckets of jackets to get the lead off would be worth it. I would try to find a recycler who would take them "as is", maybe for a slightly reduced price. Good luck with your project and please keep us posted! That's a lot of copper!