Heavily oxidized lead

[Charlie Horse]

I shoveled up as much lead spatter from behind our pin table as I could carry. The flakes of lead are all white. When I melt this, what will happen to the lead oxide? Will it mix back into the melt, or will it get fluxed off with the dross?

[farmbif]

not sure what a pin table is. but the only way to know for sure is to make sure its all dry, put it in a pot and heat it up to melting. be sure to wear proper safety protection garb. if it melts together flux with some dry sawdust and scoop the dross off the top.

[Charlie Horse]

Pin table = a metal table where you stand up bowling pins then kill them with a handgun before they can kill you. Ours has a slanted sheet of metal behind it. The boolits ricochet off the metal plate then pile up in a layer on the ground.
Yes, the lead is wet. That's why it oxidizes so badly.

[Winger Ed.]

The oxidation will float up with the dirt and other trash.
Stir the pot like it owes you money.
Skim it off, and it's gone.

[BNE]

Put them into a cold pot. Cover the top of the lead with sawdust and then heat it up. Keeping the oxidized lead covered with sawdust ash, will reduce a lot of that oxide back to lead. Once you have a melt, stir the lead, scrape off the ash and pour your ingots.

BNE

PS - You may want to do this outside!!

[gwpercle]

Sometimes the white oxidized lead acts like it doesn't want to melt ...
white boolits will float ... add heat or knock some of the white oxidation off ... it will eventually melt and the white oxide will float on the melt surface and be removed when fluxed and skimmed .
Gary

[justindad]

Maybe lots of flaming sawdust and wax? Would the fire consume the oxygen part of the lead-oxide?

[uscra112]

The purpose of any flux is to grab the oxygen, letting the pure metal go back into the melt. Lots of sawdust and rancid bacon grease would be my choice.

[Rapier]

I would run my alloy 100# pot up to a high temperature so the unknowns have a better chance to mix, plus allow the sand to go to the bottom as you stir. You really have no idea what folks have used to make their bullets. I prefer a commercial powder flux. when making alloy. Give the mix a liberal dose or three.

[lightman]

Like the others have said, flux it a few times and skim off whats left floating on top. I've melted wet lead a few times. Just put it in the pot and then light the burner. Do not add wet lead (or any lead) to a pot that already has molten lead in it. Also do this outside and try to stay upwind. You don't need to breath that white stuff.

[uscra112]

Um, sand won't go to the bottom of a pot of molten lead.

[Winger Ed.]

Would the fire consume the oxygen part of the lead-oxide?

Good question. I only got 'B's and 'C's in High School Chemistry, but I'd guess, 'probably not'.

I don't think the oxygen would come out of the Lead Oxide any better than using fire to get the oxygen out of water,
burning rust gives back pure Iron, or burning salt would separate out the Sodium from the Chlorine.

[Charlie Horse]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to melt it with my turkey fryer when the wind is blowing over the field behind my house and not towards the yard. I'll make sure and use the sawdust flux.

[uscra112]

And stir it in vigorously. For the flux to work, it has to be mixed in with the lead. Fire on the surface takes its' oxygen from the air, which does you no good at all.

[Rickf1985]

Good question. I only got 'B's and 'C's in High School Chemistry, but I'd guess, 'probably not'.

I don't think the oxygen would come out of the Lead Oxide any better than using fire to get the oxygen out of water,
burning rust gives back pure Iron, or burning salt would separate out the Sodium from the Chlorine.

Um, fire mixed with water produces hydrogen and oxygen, so yes, fire does "get" oxygen out of water. Burning rust with a torch will definitely show that what little bit of steel that is left in the iron oxide does return to it's original form, which liberates the oxygen in the oxides and salt, well, I would have to revisit my chemistry and physics books for that one. But 99% of the time heat will break down an oxide, or most any chemical, into it's base elements under the right conditions. Mainly the amount of heat needed.

[Kosh75287]

Has anyone tried melting heavily oxidized lead (PbO), then fluxing with candle wax or a similar paraffin? Based on heats of formation, the reaction should go forward, readily.
The hydrogen-rich paraffins would combine with carbon to form CO2 and water, which leave on formation, leaving metallic lead (Pb) in the molten solution. Just wondering if the relatively contaminant-free paraffins might be an advantage over sawdust, in the reduction process.

[uscra112]

Good point - the more hydrogen in the flux the better. I think the sawdust idea is to keep air away, so that the flux isn't being used up combining with ambient oxygen.

[dale2242]

When I flux, I cover the top of the alloy with pine planer shavings and add some candle wax and ignite it.
You get the best of both worlds that way.
It has worked fine for me.

[243winxb]

Sometimes the white oxidized lead acts like it doesn't want to melt ...
white boolits will float ... add heat or knock some of the white oxidation off ... it will eventually melt and the white oxide will float on the melt surface and be removed when fluxed and skimmed .
Gary

This. I had to scrap off part of the oxide/dirt to get plates to melt.https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?media/melting-lead-scrap.3500/full

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?media/lead-that-son-found.3501/full