Just found a great way to clean my lead pot.

[Saint]

Not sure If this could hurt anything to do but I just found a great way to clean my lead pot. I got all of the lead I could out of the pot and heated it up enough to melt any remaining lead. Then I got an old pair of kitchen tongs and a 0000 fine steel wool pad and wiped out the inside of the pot. All of the remaining bits of lead in the pot were absorbed into the steel wool. It did start smoking a little bit but I was outside with a fire extinguisher handy. After Wiping out the insides of the pot the only thing left was some fine black powder which I would imagine to be iron oxide. I then let the pot cool down for several hours and cleaned it out with some alcohol and it is spotless. Let me know if I am doing something I shouldn't be. It worked great and the only possible issue I could think of would be the possibility of the steel wool bursting into flames.

[compass will]

Sounds like it would work to me. The steel wool is acting like solder wick and all the lead is sticking to it. Maybe use a heaver steel wool. we used to use 0000 in boy scouts for starting fires with flint and steel :-D Yes 0000 will burn, but you might have seen the oil in the wool smoking as well.

[Bret4207]

It's the oil in the steel wool smoking. Thats why you have to degrease steel wool before using it to apply cold blue. I don't think anything will burst into flame. When steel wool burns it sort of glows with not much flame.

[copdills]

good Idea

[smokemjoe]

Thats a good idea, I will try it. I get all the lead out 1st. Let it cool down and then boil water with a little soap in it. All the slag and what ever else falls off, Thats in a RCBS- 20 lb. pot. Hope this helps also. Thanks for reading, Joe

[Marshal Kane]

Lyman recommends there be alloy in their pots when heating to casting temperatures. That being said it seems to me that cleaning a pot happens so seldom that it probably would not hurt anything by following your cleaning method.

[joedapro]

i don't understand your concerns.

i smelt the lead in my pot to clean out the junk. then just let the lead cool in the pot. when cool i turn the pot over. out comes a large chunk of clean lead ready to be re melted at a later date. there is never any leftover lead in the pot. the pot is always clean.

after casting while there is a still a small amount of lead in the pot, i add wheel weights to be smelted, and repeat the above mentioned process.

[gon2shoot]

You can clean those things????? :-D