1st Pewter melt

[ritzblanco]

So, Before I began to melt I read about making sure the weighted candlesticks have all the filler **** in the base removed before tossing in the pot. I also smashed out the glass in the bottom of numerous steins and tried to remove as much of the goop used to hold the glass in place. everything was going smooth till the 3rd pot when some of the candle base filler material must of gotten in there. I lit off the smoke coming off pot and it readily ignited. Sorta smelled like burning pine trees. Anyhow, I poured that pot out on a big piece of plywood and let the remnants of the filler substance smoke off the now empty pot. I made four or five more pots after that no problem. I tried to remelt the pot from previous and it seemed to clean up well after the filler substance burned off. I couldnt remove it with the ladle even though it was floating on top of the melt. So this a.m. I went to put the new pucks away and noticed that many of them have a yellow tinge to them. It is not just surface discoloration. Is it the mystery filler substance or can you heat pewter up to high that the metals separate or crystalize or something? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Bookworm]

The yellow/gold tinge is the tin. No problems.

All the junk that burned off was just that - junk. Burning it off is sometimes smelly, but perfectly normal. Just skim the dry ash off the top when it's burned out.

To answer the question you didn't ask, yes it would be okay to melt/render the pewter at a somewhat lower temp.

[Shiloh]

They often used pine pitch to weigh the bases. I've seen it mixed withstand or plaster of paris. That is your pine odor.

Shiloh

[DerekP Houston]

Did better than my melt! I didn't notice all the candle wax in the bases and had a right stinky time of it. Good thing a little pewter goes a long way. I wouldn't worry about the color, it 8s normal for tin.

[Nose Dive]

No worries... I have 'done this before' myself. I mean...dump it all in the pot...FIRE UP... paper weights, candle sticks...hmmm a big pitcher with a fat base.... Did not remove the crud from the sticks or anything else. And...sure nuff...stink...smoke... man.... BUT...I am used to that as I smelt some pretty rank stuff all the time. So...I did my old "triple play' on the pewter smelt....

1. Add some sawdust and mix...scrape the sides of the pot....MORE SMOKE...MORE SMELL...STAY back at the smelt will 'pop and spit at you'.
2. Do it all over again...yep...read step one...do it again my friend.
3. Now, YOU WANT SMOKE..STINK...here she comes my friend.... add some elemental sulfur, mix well and GET BACK... WOOO BUDDDY!
4. now mix well and scrape sides of pot and add some WAX... this helps clean and burn the nasties too...shouldn't stink too bad....
5. Now pour out your ingots and let cool. I use PIE PANS...NO...cup cake pans... and let them set up... MARK THEM PEWTER...

Now,,,when you have some 'rank road crud' LEAD SMELT...I do the same above BUT...always start with a COLD POT and about 4" or so of saw dust, then bring in the heat.... This is of course, OUT SIDE and MASK on... and with the lead... I sulfur treat TWICE, then finish with wax. Pour out ingots and take a look. YOu should have been scraping and straining the smelt to get the grud out....

SO, now you should be ready to make some good lead and pewter alloy ingots. Read on this site 'how to mix the stuff'.... or, how much lead and how much pewter. the Brinnel you want should be your target. And ....on occasion,,,due to my 'crud lead smelt' pot practices, I do indeed have to resmelt some of the cupcake biscuits to get the too alloy right. The process for this is 1 through 5 above...

And, like you, i have learned to 'chop' up the stuff to clean out the trash they may be stuffed with. It it a time SAVING PRACTICE.

Nose Dive
Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[Yodogsandman]

Once I have a pool of molten pewter in the bottom of the pot to work with, that's when I melt off the bottom rims of steins. I take the stein and rotate the bottom rim in the molten pewter a little more than half way around until it's melted away and then take the glass out in one piece. This works most of the time but, remove the glass away from the pot just in case the glass breaks.