Smelted Up About 60# of COWW yesterday

[Jim22]

I put my new 8" smelting pot to work. It took an hour or two. Biggest delay was waiting for the ingots to freeeze in the Lyman ingot mould. So I got online and ordered a second one. After skimming off clips and dross, fluxing, and pouring I wound up with a total of 52 cast ingots of nominally one pound. Haven't weighed them but that's what they are supposed to be. I als have a Lee ingot mould but I don't like it much because of the little ingots in the center.

Now I feel rich.

Jim

[1942farmall]

I'm at 351 lbs of various 1 lb. ingots. All are reclaimed range lead, clip-on weights, stick-on weights, roofing sheet lead and plumbing lead all stamped with what they are... Still have about 60 lbs of range lead to melt.
I'm sure I'm sterile by now...

[Bazoo]

Cool. I use muffin tins for ingots moulds as well as a Lyman. I prefer the square ones but I deal with the others cause they were free. I got 200 pounds I need to smelt. I’m almost out of ingots. Praise God I have a source for wheel weights and they are accumulating.

[lightman]

It sounds like you did a nice days work! But be careful, its addictive! I'm hoping that me and a buddy can get together this Friday and have our annual smelting. I have about 2-1/2 buckets of sorted weights and he probably has about the same.

[VariableRecall]

given today's shortages, where can you find COWW that are lead, not zinc, these days?

[kevin c]

Good work!

My personal experience is that the one pound molds give you one pound only of pure lead and when filled to brimming.

[William Yanda]

Did you have a damp towel to speed cooling of the mold? If it works for boolet molds, why not ingot molds. Changing water to vapor takes a lot of energy speeding the cooling process significantly.
That being said, I find having two molds is very convenient when making ingots.

[lightman]

given today's shortages, where can you find COWW that are lead, not zinc, these days?

Wheelweights are still out there. You just have to look. And ask your friends, family and co-workers to look for you. I call this networking, and it works. Every so often I have a bucket of weights or a chunk of lead show up in the driveway

Small "Mom and Pop" shops are usually more likely to let their weights go than bigger stores. Start with the store where you buy your tires or get your car serviced at. Driving by and talking in person will be more productive that calling on the phone. If you score some weights do something to make them remember you. Consider transferring your business to them. I take my guys a box of donuts every so often. A lot of the bigger chain stores have contracts with recycling places. Car dealerships have not been good producers for me. A very high percentage of their weights are non lead.

Good Luck!

[lightman]

I put my new 8" smelting pot to work. It took an hour or two. Biggest delay was waiting for the ingots to freeeze in the Lyman ingot mould. So I got online and ordered a second one.

Jim

I run between 7 and 9 molds when I'm smelting. Even then I'll occasionally have to stop to let them cool. I haven't ever tried cooling them with water. I just don't want water near my smelting set-up although it does work. I also don't want to risk cracking the cast iron mold by cooling it too rapidly. By the time I've run 4 or 5 cycles I don't mind taking a break and letting them cool.

[Jim22]

As far as lead wheel weights go I am wlling to pay for them. I have a local scrap yard guy who will sell to me. He prefers to sell me random stuff - lead wheel weights, zinc ones, battery cable ends, partial rolls of solder, etc. but if I tell him I will sort and he can weigh it seems to work OK.

As far as quantity on hand I have more than 200 lbs of COWW, #2 alloy, pure lead, and a couple other small alloy batches. Prolly closer to 300#. I'm glad I built my bench stout. Prolly time to start storing the bins on the garage floor.

Jim

[JoeJames]

given today's shortages, where can you find COWW that are lead, not zinc, these days?

A farmer's tire shop. Often a quarter mile down a gravel road and out of town.

[Chaparral66]

For my smelting setup I have a dual squirrel cage fan set that I have blowing on my two Lyman molds. Casting on a cool or cold day helps. On my last smelting run it was 27 °F.
Local tire shop is my COWW/SOWW supply. I stop by once a month and trade a bucket of scrap clips, zinc, steel and plastic weights for a bucket of assorted weights. Hmmmm... the donut idea is good but they are next door to a Dunkin's, or maybe a 12 pack of beer or a handful of nips.

[imashooter2]

No reason not to use the 2 large cavities in the Lee since it’s already paid for… the small cavities will be nice when you start scrounging pewter.

[Bazoo]

given today's shortages, where can you find COWW that are lead, not zinc, these days?
My buddy has a source. He gets the weights, and he gets all the bullets he can shoot. It’s a blessing to us both.

[Targa]

The only part of casting that I dread…..processing lead!! Just a nasty job.

[Jim22]

The only part of casting that I dread…..processing lead!! Just a nasty job.

You're right. It is... But if you take safety procedures to heart and don't do anything foolish it is rewarding. I probably only have a smelting session a few times a year. That's really the nasty, dirty part. You have to get rid of the stuff that floats to the top, flux, stir, and try to contain the mess. Compared to it pouring alloy into boolit moulds is a pleasure. Nice shiny silver projectiles piling up. Could be worse.

Nice looking Golden Retriver.

Jim

[Bazoo]

I don’t find smelting to be the dirty part. Sorting them to remove the zinc ones is the dirty part.

[Targa]

You're right. It is... But if you take safety procedures to heart and don't do anything foolish it is rewarding. I probably only have a smelting session a few times a year. That's really the nasty, dirty part. You have to get rid of the stuff that floats to the top, flux, stir, and try to contain the mess. Compared to it pouring alloy into boolit moulds is a pleasure. Nice shiny silver projectiles piling up. Could be worse.

Nice looking Golden Retriver.

Jim

I completely agree.

And thank you, yep that’s my buddy his name is Red.

[Targa]

I don’t find smelting to be the dirty part. Sorting them to remove the zinc ones is the dirty part.

You are right, sorting wheel weights is a very nasty business. I have recently struck reloading gold with a free bucket of range lead when the trap gets cleaned every 3 to 4 months.

[oley55]

given today's shortages, where can you find COWW that are lead, not zinc, these days?


alteady plenty of answers, that being small independent tire shops. My reply is to the “not zinc”. In the last couple years I have never found more than 8% zinc weights, as opposed to 39% Fe (steel) weights. Just saying there are way more steel than zinc to worry about. Unfortunately it’s a wee more difficult to sort out the zinc.