Smelting?

[bowenrd]

Why do so many peole not know the meaning of the word "smelting?"
Most casters melt lead to cast bullets. I don't know anyone who smelts galena ore to make lead.

[zxcvbob]

I don't know anyone who smelts galena ore to make lead. I don't smelt galena, but I do smelt lead oxide to make lead when I've accumulated enough to mess with. Mix in a little old motor oil and/or sawdust, and cook it at high heat in a tightly-covered stainless steel pan until the oxides reduce back to lead/tin metal. (I figure I need the metal more than the landfill does)

[mooman76]

There may be a technical difference but that's what we call it so people understand that we are talking about making ingots and removing the excess garbage we don't need instead of boolits. I'm sure you noticed also that bullets is not spelled boolits either. You should comlain about that too!

[docone31]

He is correct, however, here it is kinda shorthand for taking wheel weights or whatever and making useable casting melt.
Even though uncomfortable, I do not think it hurts to bring it up once in a while.
It is an heck of a job, but someone has to do it.
I think.....

[Dennis Eugene]

Oh relax, hell we're not stupid we know the diff, we'er just not so anal as to make a big deal out of a small thing. Dennis

[rhead]

You are correct of course. Smelting involves the chemical reaction of reduction usually by Carbon or Hydrogen. Sometimes preceded by a roasting process to get the metallic oxide.
I think that at least most of the members know that the word is being missused. It is kinda like the term boolit, if you use it around a non caster you may get some strange looks. Does anyone have any idea when the term first got into our own private vocabulary?

[guninhand]

I go smelting this time of year. Auger a hole in the ice, use lard soaked bread for bait, get a big mess of smelt in no time.:mrgreen:

[carpetman]

Having never been around mining, I admit to having been ignorant that what we do is not smelting. Someone pointed that out a couple years ago and I appreciate it.

[waksupi]

Well, I know we have at least one member, who smelted lead for many years at the Helena operation, and several others here directly involved in the business. And I believe they have also called it smelting. If you get hung up on terminology, this board will be an absolute horror to you!

[snaggdit]

I used to go to Lake Superior in the spring with my seine and waders and fill coolers with smelt. We called that smelting, too! Maybe that is a regional thing. They are good eating... LOL

[Recluse]

Why do so many peole not know the meaning of the word "smelting?"
Most casters melt lead to cast bullets. I don't know anyone who smelts galena ore to make lead.

What makes you think we don't know the meaning of the word "smelting?"[smilie=1:

Boolit casters have their own world of slang. Doesn't mean we're ignorant as your post implies. Just that we'll call it whatever we please. :wink: Hell, we're already politically incorrect and don't give a damn. Why should we care what the Speech Police think?

:coffee:

[Whitespider]

This world, our language, is full of improper terminology usage. Boolit casters are a subculture of sorts, so it stands to reason they’d develop their own language, their own improper terminology usage. That doesn’t make them ignorant of the dictionary meaning(s), they’re just communicating amongst themselves in shorthand, of sorts.

Have you ever stepped on the gas pedal of your car, or set the emergency brake? Well stupid, it’s accelerator pedal, it doesn’t deliver more gas to the engine and people will still be calling it a gas pedal when, or if, we go to an alternate fuel source. And the parking brake was never intended or designed to be used in an emergency.

Have you ever turned up the air conditioning to make your house cooler? Don’t you realize you’ve just turned the thermostat down?

How many times have you actually ran to the store, wouldn’t it be quicker to just drive?

I don’t know anybody that still has a dial on their telephone, do you?

When you wash your hands do you turn on the water, or do you open the faucet valve?

And I suppose you think I typed this reply, don’t you?

Some of the misnomers used by us may seem strange to the uninitiated, but as the saying goes, “When in Rome....”

[Bret4207]

Why do so many peole not know the meaning of the word "smelting?"
Most casters melt lead to cast bullets. I don't know anyone who smelts galena ore to make lead.

If we're going down this road friend then use spell check- there are no "peole" here and we don't melt lead, we melt lead alloy.

Jeeze, joined a month ago, got 5 posts and he thinks he's running the place.....:coffee:

[cajun shooter]

Bowenrd, I think you should wait before coming up with little bits of knowledge that you think the "PEOPLE" (spelled correctly) of this forum need to know. This forum is filled with some of the best forum members around. I started casting in 1971 and thought that I knew about casting until I signed on. I have improved both my casting and brain stores by reading the post here. This is not a click thing but the members need respect before you decide they need a education.

[bbs70]

I use the word smelt to mean I'm melting down lead scrap to make ingots.
And the word casting to mean I'm using my furnace to make boolits.

It is easier to explain to people when asked what I do with the lead.
I just say.
"I smelt down lead for casting boolits."

[Jbar4Ranch]

Well, I know we have at least one member, who smelted lead for many years at the Helena operation...

East Helena, actually. Twenty three years of melting rocks and making lead. Surprisingly, even though we shipped out some 200 tons of lead every day, our biggest product was "food quality grade" sulfuric acid, a by-product of the smelting process.

[docone31]

I would have enjoyed that job. I have always been fascinated in excavating, minerals, metals, lapidary, other such stuff.
If I had my druthers, I would be back placer mining. Didn't make much, but, I felt good about it.

[bbs70]

]

I didn't take offense to your post.
I took it as a reasonable question.
But the way the question was stated ( I believe ) was the reason for the response it got.

Sometimes I type messages meaning one thing and they are misunderstood as meaning something else.

I hope you will stay and get to know some of the people here, they are a bunch of great people with a lot they want to share.

As for the 5 posts, we all started with 0 posts.
You gotta start somewhere.:-D

Hope to hear from you again.
Bill

[azcoyhunter]

Why do so many peole not know the meaning of the word "smelting?"
Most casters melt lead to cast bullets. I don't know anyone who smelts galena ore to make lead.

I do not get affended very easily, and you are correct, we do not "smelt" our lead, it is already in LEAD form, we just change the shape of it.

The people on here are amazing, they would give you their shirt if you needed it.
I come here alot and look, I have very little to add to most conversations, but when I ask a honest question, I will get answers, some are a little SA, but it is their honest opinions, Where I come from I only know one fellow caster and I have learned more from him in one hour than I have learned in a month doing it myself.


:drinks:

[Cap'n Morgan]

In the Danish (and Norwegian) language the word for "melting" is "smelte" - so... "smelting" is fine by me :)

[zxcvbob]

Some of you are way over sensitive.Oh, the ironing! :roll:

[joeb33050]

Have you ever stepped on the gas pedal of your car, or set the emergency brake? Well stupid, it’s accelerator pedal, it doesn’t deliver more gas to the engine and people will still be calling it a gas pedal when, or if, we go to an alternate fuel source.

If the left hand pedal is the/an accelerator pedal, so is the right hand, often called "brake", pedal. Both cause the automobile to accelerate.
Nyah, nyah!

..”
(since dv/dt = a)
joe b.

[Whitespider]

:lol: Touché, joeb, touché :mrgreen:

[shoot-n-lead]

And the parking brake was never intended or designed to be used in an emergency.”

Ah contraire mon friar , the emergency brake is just that, an emergency brake, it is a manual override(mechanically activated) of the hydraulic brake system that was placed on vehicles to be used in the event of loss of hydraulic pressure in the standard braking system.

[fredj338]

People here are using hte word correctly:
–verb (used with object)
1. to fuse or melt (ore) in order to separate the metal contained.
2. to obtain or refine (metal) in this way.
It's what most of us do getting ww down to clean alloy; refining the metal.[smilie=f:

[lwknight]

Wheel weights are an ore of sorts by that definition.
I do consider picking up lead scraps from the berm to be a mining operation of sorts and refining the scraps and chunks to separate the dirt , clays , copper , and miscellaneous organic materials to be technically a "smelting" process.

[Markbo]

So melting wheel weights into a useful lead alloy is not smelting?

Smelting: A metallurgical thermal processing operation in which the metal or matte is separated in fused form from nonmetallic materials or other undesired metals with which it is associated.
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Sure sounds like it to me!

[wills]

I smelt, but we got indoor plumbing and now I take showers.

[RP]

interesting to say how different ones take the ? thats what makes this board so great.

[462]

Separating lead alloy wheel weights from steel clips, dirt, grease, oil, adhesive backing and other contaminats is smelting.

[Az Rick]

I think every specialty or area of expertise has it's own vocabulary or nomenclature, boolit casting is no different. We are Specialist, in the big scheme of things only a small percentage of people cast bullets. j-word, smelt, bhn, you know what I mean. It's our language.

Stick around, glad to have you. You'll get the "hang" of it.

Best, Rick

[zxcvbob]

He who smelt it, dealt it.

(almost 8 months and nobody said that yet??)

[lwknight]

I think every specialty or area of expertise has it's own vocabulary or nomenclature, boolit casting is no different. We are Specialist, in the big scheme of things only a small percentage of people cast bullets. j-word, smelt, bhn, you know what I mean. It's our language.

Stick around, glad to have you. You'll get the "hang" of it.

Best, Rick

Its called : Jargin or Jargan , I can't remember
Anyway its a trades word that those in the trade use and understand.

[Echo]

I smelt, but we got indoor plumbing and now I take showers.

I hear the showers didn't change things much...

[wills]

Its called : Jargin or Jargan , I can't remember
Anyway its a trades word that those in the trade use and understand.

Jargon

[lwknight]

Yeah , what he said.

[uncle joe]

East Helena, actually. Twenty three years of melting rocks and making lead. Surprisingly, even though we shipped out some 200 tons of lead every day, our biggest product was "food quality grade" sulfuric acid, a by-product of the smelting process.

Ok Jbar, I don't think I needed to know that a BYPRODUCT of lead production, or smelting, since that's what the post is about, is used in some type of food production. One more reason to quit buying processed food.
[smilie=b: