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View Full Version : Lead, a relaxing way to spend a day.



ghh3rd
05-22-2009, 01:11 AM
I was off today, so thought I'd do something productive and opened my "little black book" of lead contacts. Three of them each had a 1/2 3-gal bucket of WW for me, two were free and one was $5. My wife was in the truck for the third one, and couldn't understand why I wanted it when I already had two :???:

I fired up the turkey frier after the rain stopped about 10:00 pm and started smelting. This time, I melted everything in the dutch oven on a very low heat -- each time I added a couple of handfuls of WW the lead would get a bit slushy on the sides of the dutch oven. I had to wait a moment until it liquified again to skim off the clips. Although it was slower this way, it was easier since I was sure that any missed Zinc weights got skimmed off with no chance at all of them melting. I didn't have to spend extra time worrying as much about Zinc so overall, I probably broke even timewise.

I tried an experiment and tied a piece of wire to one WW marked ZN and left it in the pot the entire time. It never did melt, which proved to me that my method was working for me.

I have some large chunks of very hard wax, and couldn't break off a small piece, so I got lazy and chucked in a piece about 1"x1"x1". Wow, did that smoke for a long time, but that lead was sure pretty afterwards.

I only smelted one dutch oven full tonight, and got 57 lbs of ingots, according to the size of them, although this time I filled my Lee ingot mold to the very top so the two 1lb and two 1/2 lb ingots are all connected. I'm sure that I've actually have well over 60 lbs of ingots since the mold was so full.

I don't know why I didn't think of pouring ingots this way before now. It sure went fast, having the mold on a several layers of very moist towel cooled them off rapidly, and it was a lot easier to put away 19 3lb+ pieces than 76 individual 1 lb and 1/2 lb ingots. I found that they really aren't too hard to break apart when done this way, and they really stack up nice.

I have about the same amount of WW to smelt tomorrow. My 11 yr old son asked why I want to go through all of that again tomorrow, and I told him that I need to empty my buckets so I can get more lead :-P
Randy

hammerhead357
05-22-2009, 03:22 AM
Sounds like a good day to me. It would be nice if you could get your son involved we need all the help we can get from the younger people.
My 13 year old loves to shoot and I am teaching him to reload and he is watching me melt WWs and other lead. I am trying to teach him to wash his hands good after handling any lead but I worry that he doesn't pay much heed to my warnings so I limit his handling of lead as much as I can at this time....Wes

Slow Elk 45/70
05-22-2009, 05:05 AM
Sounds like "Good Therapy" to me:redneck:[smilie=l:

clintsfolly
05-22-2009, 06:48 AM
Sounds Good have 6 buckets of indoor range and 10 of WW! Think i,ll start monday maybe shoot some too!!!! thanks forthe Great Idea Clint :lovebooli :cbpour:

Doc Highwall
05-22-2009, 07:04 AM
That is the way I do mine except I use a 11qt dutch oven and use a 8" cast iron frying pan to make 20lb ingots and stack them and mark them, then when I go to add tin etc. I melt them in a 8qt dutch oven which allows me to take even more crap out of the lead from the first melt because the temp was kept low. After the second melt and fluxing I add tin etc and now I pour it into smaller ingots like the LEE and I know that it is an alloy and will fit into my LEE or Wage pot as a TWICE CLEANED AND FLUXED ALLOY that will not screw up my bottom pour LEE pots. I hope this makes sense.