Do you save your dross?

[PBaholic]

Well, I do as it's full of lead!

I skim off my dross, but before I save it, I put it in a pot and hit it with a propane torch. I bounce it around the pot, and pour off any pure metal that puddles for my next melt. What I end up with is powdery dirt, which I save.

The other day I was trying to decide what to do with the dirt, so I stuck it in a 5 gallon bucket and flushed it with my garden hose. A lot of lighter stuff floated out, and I just let the hose run for a while. I poured off the water, and rinsed what was left some more, and let the lighter stuff spill out. What I was left with was a heavy, dark, chunky substance.

I use an electric hot plate (with the thermostat bypassed) to melt my alloys, so I just stuck it all in the pot, and plugged it in. 2 hours later I looked at it, and there was a lot of lead alloy in the bottom. I poured off 5 pounds of lead, and let it cook some more and got a few more pounds before I gave up on it.

This alloy measured much harder than my normal alloy, but some of the dross was from my pewter smelting.

Anyone else remelt their dross?

[Bookworm]

When I render, I do scrape the gunk off the top, and throw it in a coffee can. When the can is full, I have remelted it, and gotten 8-10 pounds of alloy out. I usually throw out what's left from that, which is a powdery, heavy dirt.

After reading your account, maybe I need to process it further. I never thought to wash and remelt again.

[lightman]

I don't. I smelt in batches of about 400# and I dump the wheelweight clips, bullet jackets, sawdust ashes and dross all in the same container. There is no doubt lead and tin being scrapped off but it hardly seems to be worth the trouble to me. Maybe I should consider it?

I have a couple of buddies that come over and we cast together and in the interest of saving them the effort of loading and hauling so much gear I will furnish things like stirring spoons, a hot plate and a can for the dross. I may dump that into my next smelt.

[JBinMN]

I have been saving mine, but what is left over after reheating will be used for fishing jigs & sinkers I make. I suppose I could use it for casting bullets, but being an "unknown" in regard to content/alloy makeup, I would just as soon use it for those fishing items, rather than use them for boolits. I am lucky enough right now to have a pretty decent supply of pure lead & WW right now for my shooting needs.

Of course, to each their own... but , yes I do save mine to try to squeeze the last cent out of the stuff.

:)

[725]

I re-melt but not to the degree of effort you do. I get lead back out and toss the second generation of dross.

[DerekP Houston]

If I get just powdery ash type residue no. Lately though it has been what to my untrained eye looks like antimony not going in to the mix so I have a few lbs piled up. When I do my next large (s)melting batch on the turkey fryer I will dump it back in and flux the tar out of it and see if some goes back into suspension. Some of my ingots are on the high side for antimony (95/5) so I mix it with the range scrap I purchase off the forum and have had good success with all my castings.

[dg31872]

Honestly, I never considered it. I just disposed of it and continued to smelt. I will looked closer at it the next time.
Thanks, PB!

[Hammerlane]

I have a hole cut in the side of my wind break and place the cast iron ladle right on top of the burner and super heat it. pour of the lead on the bottom and toss out the ash and dirt.

[10 ga]

I save mine until I have a 5 gallon can (I use metal paint/deck coating/roofing compound buckets) about 2/3 full. Then give it a wash of used motor oil and a toping to full of sawdust. Then put a cover on and put it in a fire of yard waste with a brick under 1 side to cant it. When your waste burned and can cool dump out the smelted dross and I have a great big cookie wedge of lead/tin/antimony alloy in the bottom. Whatever is left goes in the metal scrap pile into some old refridg/AC or whatever and to the scrap yard. The "rendering" is a tough alloy and I remelt and make ingots for adding to make soft lead harder and better flow. My experience, yours may be different. 10

[white eagle]

skim it off the melt put it next to my pot while casting and throw out
way to much effort for the minuscule gain for my liking

[OS OK]

204241

I save this that comes off the pour pot...then run it back through in an ingot smelt when running COWW's or Range scrap from the backstop. My batches amount to 40 lbs., I don't have a huge pot so this minuscule looking amount of dross actually will enrich a batch.
I wouldn't run it in a soft Pb batch.
This pour pot dross is rich in Sn and Sb.
Whatever dross and steel scraps that comes off the ingot smelt gets trashed.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I save mine, I have at least 4 gallons of it, with some clips in there, 10ga has a good idea, and I am going to do that sometime. I will use my stainless frying pot, since I don't have a metal paint bucket, and I use a half propane tank for smelting now.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I collect the skimmed dross in old metal coffee cans over the year. Usually in the Spring I dump the can into a smelt pot and see what I can use again.Robert

[EMC45]

I have never saved it. I usually double flux my melt (wooden paint stir stick and beeswax or an old lubed bullet) so when it comes time to skim the dross, it consists of powdery "dirt". Never see any metal make it's way to scrap bucket.

[MaryB]

I save and resmelt it when I have enough(enough to end with 10-15 pounds), lot of sawdust or bedding pine, chunk in a candle piece or two...

[rmark]

dross with obvious metal in it gets put back into the last load of a smelt to be run through again, then trashed.

[DerekP Houston]

So this has me curious and I've got a 3 day weekend coming up thanks to overtime this last weekend. I'm going to run a pot of fresh range scrap ingots on my turkey fryer and see how much of my "dross" will come back out. Mine is definitely the metal looking type as I just flux with beeswax and scrape the top layer off my casting pot. The only time I get the ash type residue is if I use a ton of sawdust or corncob media when making ingots. I'll take before and after pics and see how much I salvage. Probably have a few lbs of dross at this point, I'd been throwing it out for awhile but got cheap again when my wife put a 'lead embargo' on the house and I wasn't allowed to order any more :D.

[JBinMN]

I know all about the "lead embargo" on the house, as per the missus.. But I have "friends"...
;)
LOL
;)

G'Luck!
:)

[alamogunr]

I don't. I tried it one time but the yield wasn't enough to fool with it. I've got more lead than I can use in my lifetime and I'm a little short on time, so I don't want to waste it on unproductive activities.

[DerekP Houston]

I don't. I tried it one time but the yield wasn't enough to fool with it. I've got more lead than I can use in my lifetime and I'm a little short on time, so I don't want to waste it on unproductive activities.

*shrug* its a fun and interesting hobby that keeps me out of trouble. If I spent the same amount of time watching sports no one would blink twice at it. I'll be outside scrubbing rust off some equipment anyways so I'll do double duty and fire up the ol' melter and see what I get.

My plan is to weigh the dross before hand, and weigh what I scrape off afterwards. I'll need a trip to home depot for some fresh sawdust too but that's on the agenda already.

[alamogunr]

*shrug* its a fun and interesting hobby that keeps me out of trouble. If I spent the same amount of time watching sports no one would blink twice at it. I'll be outside scrubbing rust off some equipment anyways so I'll do double duty and fire up the ol' melter and see what I get.

My plan is to weigh the dross before hand, and weigh what I scrape off afterwards. I'll need a trip to home depot for some fresh sawdust too but that's on the agenda already.

I've been told that you need to be careful of that big box sawdust because of the plywood glue in it.

[JSnover]

I just dump mine in with the next batch of scrap when it's time to make more ingots. That way it doesn't cost any more time or effort.

[DerekP Houston]

I've been told that you need to be careful of that big box sawdust because of the plywood glue in it.

Hmmm hadn't thought of that. I'll make my own with the chop saw and my bbq wood then. Thanks for the info

[OS OK]

It'll cook down to a glob of carbon something or other...it'll come out with the dross. I've got plenty of melamine white backed composite board shavings in my table saw and plenty of multi layered cabinet plywood sawdust too, it doesn't cause me any grief in the ingot smelt...generally there's a lot more other foreign matter in there with the dirty wheel weights or roof sealant and paint with the flashing Pb.
The sawdust does it's job and seals off the melt if you use enough of it. In a 40 lb. pot of Pb I usually have at least 4 cups of sawdust in there...don't really measure it, just pile it in as the melt starts so it will cook down and cover the smelt from the beginning.

[Tripplebeards]

No, I give it to my buddy who scraps it.

[Drew P]

Doesn’t washing and fussing with dross increase your exposure to bad stuff and also contaminate your property?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I save and resmelt it when I have enough(enough to end with 10-15 pounds), lot of sawdust or bedding pine, chunk in a candle piece or two...
Yes, I do as Mary does, but I just resmelt it during the next smelting session with whatever amount I have saved up.


Doesn’t washing and fussing with dross increase your exposure to bad stuff and also contaminate your property?
It could...but if you just save it in soup cans or such, then just process it with other scrap lead, then I can't imagine you are increasing your exposure...you are just exposed as you would be, without re-processing the dross. Always take appropriate precautions when handling lead...washing your hands before eating/smoking/drinking is a BIG one.

[Drew P]

Yes, I do as Mary does, but I just resmelt it during the next smelting session with whatever amount I have saved up.


It could...but if you just save it in soup cans or such, then just process it with other scrap lead, then I can't imagine you are increasing your exposure...you are just exposed as you would be, without re-processing the dross. Always take appropriate precautions when handling lead...washing your hands before eating/smoking/drinking is a BIG one.
I was thinking of this as I smelted 700 lbs of lead yesterday. That small box of dros left over surely contained a few boxes of 45acp worth of lead, but I was happy to remove it from my property rather than expose my self to it yet again for maybe 1$ worth of lead. I know we are cheap but I draw the thrifty line there personally.

[RogerDat]

I have dross, and pot skimmings, and drips, and chips, and rejected bullets, and <whatever else> in bread loaf pan. When I get a couple or three filled I dump in dutch oven and use a wooden 2x2 to crush the stuff against the bottom to work the lead out. Let cool, dump remaining ash/dross and keep slab of lead in bottom. I may pursue the metal can on campfire approach in one of the posts just because I burn stuff and would save cost of propane. I NOT cheap, thrifty. Very thrifty.

I have 3 slabs that total around 20 lbs. from doing this. XRF said it was low grade COWW lead with a few percent of tin. Will melt one in bottom of 100 lb. batch of Wheel Weights and should be pretty good. Or I could melt them together and get tested so I could "adjust" to a known good alloy. Bottom line is 20 pounds of lead is 20 lbs. of lead. Be very odd indeed if I were to be throwing that out.