Pain of sorting WW's

[odinohi]

I know this has been covered before and I should be able to find info on it, but time is the key here, have to get going to work soon.
I've been sorting ww's by using a pair of side cuts and starting to form a blister on the palm of my hand. It seemed that when I smelted my first time that my turkey cooker didnt get my cast iron skillet above 600 degrees and I didnt find any zinc ww's in the batch. These were sorted. Am I safe just to dump them in the skillet and skim? One other question and I think I know the answer, some of the ww's have a coating of paint or something on them. Will all this crap float to the top after I flux with sawdust? By the way, of the 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket that I've sorted I have only found a handful of zinc and steel, only one of the zincs were marked Zn. Thanks for any and all, Tom

[Andy_P]

I stopped trying to sort out zinc WW almost from day one. I said try to sort them - you will miss some, then what? If you keep the heat just above the temp required to melt the lead WW, the zinc will always float to the top intact. It's not as tricky as some would suggest, as there's a wide difference in melting temperatures between lead and zinc, and you have to really crank it up and neglect the pot to have them melt out. Stay active - as soon as the melt goes from slush to liquid, skim then pour. Add more raw WW, when it goes from slush to liquid - repeat.

Take a few zinc WW and a clean pot, and try to melt them at you usual settings. I did once, and with it cranked to max, it took about 10 mins and the melt went back to slush and solid very quickly as I poured it (I kept an ingot as a souvenir). Do that and it will build some confidence in this approach, and teach you a bit about zinc, it's melt point, and your smelter.

[imashooter2]

I sort them with the turkey fryer method as well. I always shake my head in wonder at the guys that sort, wash, primp and prep their WW for melting. It doesn't make any sense to me.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Everything from the five gallon bucket goes into the smelter. Valve stems, chromies, cigarette butts, chaws, dust, twinkie wrappers, 1/2 eaten ham sandwiches, zinc WWs. As stated above, a thermometer is a good investment and will save you a lot of time. Zinc WWs melt at I believe the 780-ish degree range, so if you keep your pot around 650-700 you will have no problems and the Zinc WWs will float to the top and can be skimmed off. If you do a cold smelt, where you just have one pot full of WWs, a thermometer is not needed because the Lead WWs will melt far before the Zinc ones will so you will have plenty of time to scoop them out before teh pot reaches 780 degreesand they melt. I always have more than one pot of WWs to smelt, so I will fill the pot up, melt it down, scoop unwanted stuff out, flux, pour ingots untill the pot is about 1/2 empty, and then add more WWs so they melt faster using the molten lead left in the pot. I mainly use a thermometer for piece of mind.

[Andy_P]

I sort them with the turkey fryer method as well. I always shake my head in wonder at the guys that sort, wash, primp and prep their WW for melting. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Yup - every aspect of the shooting sports has its "Bogeyman" and zinc is the one for casting. We do it to ourselves to some extent by glorifying the frequent claim of an experienced caster ruining a thousand pound melt with one zinc WW.

A few others I've noticed:

Corrosive ammo - if you don't apply full-strength Windex within five minutes your barrel will turn to dust

Smokeless powder in antiques - blackpowder only or it will explode

Headspace - have it checked by a qualified gunsmith between shots

Load data - use only data found in at least 10 reputable manuals and use the lowest load you can find and reduce by 10%

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

^^^^^ *Laughing and shaking his head in agreement, because he has seen hundreds of posts about such topics*

[FISH4BUGS]

....nuff said....just take out the tape on pure lead ones and you are good to go.

[peter nap]

Yup - every aspect of the shooting sports has its "Bogeyman" and zinc is the one for casting. We do it to ourselves to some extent by glorifying the frequent claim of an experienced caster ruining a thousand pound melt with one zinc WW.

A few others I've noticed:

Corrosive ammo - if you don't apply full-strength Windex within five minutes your barrel will turn to dust

Smokeless powder in antiques - blackpowder only or it will explode

Headspace - have it checked by a qualified gunsmith between shots

Load data - use only data found in at least 10 reputable manuals and use the lowest load you can find and reduce by 10%

Yep...I'm chuckling too...

Those things and more do a lot of damage though. It either scares people off from the sport or causes folks to completely ignore sensible safety rules.

[DLCTEX]

I don't flux until after skimming the clips and junk.

[James C. Snodgrass]

I came up with a lazy mans way of doin' it I dump them out on the garage floor and pick out the strips and obvios trash . Then pick up dust with shop vac and shovel into buckets or lead pot . I use a 18qt dutch oven and a weed burner and try to melt at least 400 or 500 lbs at a batch and have had good consistency . As everyone else said the zinc and steel will float and are not a issue . James

[Hardcast416taylor]

Seeing as how I`ve been retired for more than a few years I sort all my ww. I use a long handled pair of end nippers to test each weight for Zn or Fe. I also use a 1"round, 6" long magnet waved over the weights to pick out the most prominent Fe ones and clips for stick ons. I just finished doing 4 half full 5 gal. pails of weights. I also used the magnet to pluck the steel clips out of the melt pot, much easier. I then skim the dirt out and flux with wax and then make ingots. I have found only about a 3# coffee can of Zn and Fe weights thus far. I plan to sell or trade these weights and the steel clips to my local re-cycle center eventually. I use a home made electric melt pot that holds about 50 lb. of molten Pb. when full. I only run the bottom melting coil for smelting and check the temp. often. So far not a single foreign weight has made it to the pot. I still have 2 more pails to smelt down that I have sorted. I realised 168 lb. from the half pails when I did the smelting, this number was arrived at by counting the ingots.:castmine:Robert

[Old Ironsights]

I enjoy my sorting time almost as much as casting. People leave me alone.

Sure, I miss a few - very few - zincers & steel, but usually no more than 3 or 4 per sorted bucket. (I sort by eye. I only use cutters/a knife to check the odd ones... and they usually turn out to be plastic or some such.)

Plus, I get the advantage of smelting trash-free WWs that are also sorted by size.

[Trey45]

I feed my lead melter a handfull at a time when I'm ingotizing. 9 times out of 10 as I'm adding the weights I can "spot" the zinc ones before they even make it into the melt. If I do happen to miss a zinc it floats on top of the melted lead along with the clips. I quit sorting WW with side cutters since it's so much easier to do it my new way. The only real sorting I do anymore is seperating stickons from clip ons. All my ww ingots are clipons, when I get a couple 5 gallon buckets full of stickons, I'll ingotize them seperate from the rest. I don't wash WW before smelting them, about the most prep I do is remove valve stems, lug nuts, wads of chaw, and any other noticeable trash. Rubber grommets do NOT make good flux.

[fredj338]

I enjoy my sorting time almost as much as casting. People leave me alone.

Sure, I miss a few - very few - zincers & steel, but usually no more than 3 or 4 per sorted bucket. (I sort by eye. I only use cutters/a knife to check the odd ones... and they usually turn out to be plastic or some such.)

Plus, I get the advantage of smelting trash-free WWs that are also sorted by size.

THis is how I sort also. For rural guys, dumping everything into a smelt may work fine, but my neighbors would not appreciate the smoke & crap from melting rubber. After awhile, yo uget where you can visually tell most zinc & all steel so sorting goes quite fast. I can sort a 3gal bucket in about 20min.

[Old Ironsights]

...but my neighbors would not appreciate the smoke & crap from melting rubber. ...

+1000. I smelt between my condo and the one next door.

I REALLY try to keep the black smoke to a minimum... [smilie=1:

[Jumptrap]

^^^^^ *Laughing and shaking his head in agreement, because he has seen hundreds of posts about such topics*

Thank god, you boys are quick on the uptake.....some of them never....EVER learn. 'They' are also over on the antique tractor board and every other day, they ask what kind of oil their 1954 tractor needs...or does spec. OICU812 hydraulic fluid meet the requirements of a a 1978 Mowzall machine...or my favorite....what kind of oil does my 2 cycle engine need?

If Siggy Freud were alive today....he'd be a multimillionaire just treating the anal compulsive's living amongst us.

Bottom line: use no more heat than it takes to melt the WW's....the zinc and other flotsam will come to the top and contaminate NOTHING. You just skim it off and toss it in your neighbors yard. Dirt simple, like so many minds.

Oh yeah....one more pet peeve; "I need a load for......" Translated, this means the author is either too damned lazy to do the leg work or too stupid to even be reloading in the first place. Yes Bret, I'm back to my vociferous self today.....hehe!

[mike in co]

consider the alternative.......not having ww's to sort.......


now its not so bad. i to hand sort, but have given much thought to the dump it all in and then sort what floats...


mike in co

[Maven]

"Oh yeah....one more pet peeve; "I need a load for......" Translated, this means the author is either too damned lazy to do the leg work or too stupid to even be reloading in the first place."

Jump, What a coincidence! I expressed that very thought in a PM to mike in co yesterday. Welcome back!

[leadman]

I dump the bucket of WW out a little at a time into a mud pan from Home Depot. Take out as much trash as I can so the neighbors don't get pi--ed and I don't risk any more smoke than necessary.
I can usually spot the Zinc and FE WWs by sight. If I see an odd looking weight that is when I use the side cutters. We are getting alot of different styles from abroad now with different coatings on them.
And the above posts are right. A thermometer is your friend. At 600' the lead should be melted, scoop out everything else.

James C. Snodgrass, I would not recommend a shop vac for cleaning up the dust with a shop vac unless it has a HEPA filter. Not so much the lead in the dust as the asbestos dust from the brakes that gets all over the weights and things. Yes, they say there is not asbestos in the current brake linings, but unless it is more than 1% it does not have to be listed. I worked as a safety officer for the City and contacted the brake manufacturers about this. There is still asbestos in the linings.

[Nate1778]

I have nothing to add as I am new and this thread has been very informative.


To Jumptrap, I agree with a couple of acceptations.

1. I have 3 manuals, non of which handle all my reload needs, and even with the powder sites and Handloads.com not all of them are covered, so for those off the wall loads I find it acceptable and honestly I don't want another manual.

2. 00 Buckshot loads, WTH I cannot find decent 00 loads. Yes I can use 1oz load data for birdshot but what about those loads that push the envelope. I have yet to find a recipe for these. I am open for suggestions, but find heavy shotgun loads come down to interwebs guinea pigs and there previous trials and tribulations.


Great thread guys and for someone that is about to fire up the burner and a bit concerned about contamination, you guys bring me piece of mind......

[peter nap]

I hesitate to post on this since I'm a newbie and therefore.....stoopid, but I collect the clips wit a magnet and flux before picking them up. I found without fluxing, I was picking up a lot of lead with the clips and I assume, right or wrong, it was mostly alloy floating on the unfluxed lead.

The clips just come out cleaner.

I'm not sure you can overflux but I do it again after getting the clips, then I go after the dross.

[Rick N Bama]

Guys, we're forgetting that the only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.

Frankly I tried sorting them out before the smelting, but I found that I missed as many as I found. So I took everyone's advice & learned to keep the smeling temperatures as low as possible.

Rick

[odinohi]

I'm gonna skip the painstaking sorting and let my blister heal. Now I need some more ingot molds so I can get cranking and make room for some more ww's in my little shop. Thanks again, Tom

[troy_mclure]

consider the alternative.......not having ww's to sort.......


mike in co

thats me right now.
:(

[Jumping Frog]

I always have more than one pot of WWs to smelt, so I will fill the pot up, melt it down, scoop unwanted stuff out, flux, pour ingots untill the pot is about 1/2 empty, and then add more WWs so they melt faster using the molten lead left in the pot. I mainly use a thermometer for piece of mind.
I follow your approach in terms of throwing it all in the pot and let the crap get skimmed out.

But I handle multiple pot loads a little differently. My smelting pot holds about 100 lbs., so I do 100 lb batches. However, I pour ingots until the pot has about 10 lbs left, then I turn the gas off and let it solidify. I'll add the next batch of cold wheelweights on top of the now solidified bottom lead, recrank up the propane and do it again.

I take this approach in case any of the wheelweights have moisture in them. For example, one shop I get them from has the old wheelweights outside in back where the old tires are. They can get rained on.

If I am starting from a solid, then any residual moisture evaporates long before the lead melts. However, if I dropped cold, moist wheelwights into already melted lead, well we all know how that story ends. :shock:

[ghh3rd]

After a few dutch ovens full of melt, and all of the work trying different methods to sort WW, I finally settled on just feeding a couple of handfuls into my large ladle, and lowering it into the melt. That cools it down to slush -- I skim it as soon as it gets liquid again, while stirring it.

My confidence builder: I keep a ZN WW tied with wire to the handle of my pot and let it float the entire time I'm smelting. It hasn't melted yet.

By the way, I was surprised to see that those rubber stems and other rubber parts just float on the lead and don't melt. If some get into the dutch oven I just leave them until I'm ready to skim. They come out looking the same as when they went in.

Just keep the heat low, and skim as soon as it goes from slush to liquid.

Randy

[Gunslinger]

Another easy way of identifying zinc is simply to drop it on concrete, no more than 3-4 inches and you'll notice the difference. Lead goes thud and zinc and steel go cling. WHEN I sortet WWs I did so sitting down, so this method was easy. I now have a source whose weights have been inside for 10 years, no dirt, no sandwiches not even valve stems! They have four 50 gal. drums, and the two in the back hardly have any weights in them that aren't lead!

And yeah, I too noticed the peculiar behavior of vavle stem VS smelt. How come those valve stems don't melt?

[uncle joe]

Everything from the five gallon bucket goes into the smelter. Valve stems, chromies, cigarette butts, chaws, dust, twinkie wrappers, 1/2 eaten ham sandwiches, zinc WWs. As stated above, a thermometer is a good investment and will save you a lot of time. Zinc WWs melt at I believe the 780-ish degree range, so if you keep your pot around 650-700 you will have no problems and the Zinc WWs will float to the top and can be skimmed off. If you do a cold smelt, where you just have one pot full of WWs, a thermometer is not needed because the Lead WWs will melt far before the Zinc ones will so you will have plenty of time to scoop them out before teh pot reaches 780 degreesand they melt. I always have more than one pot of WWs to smelt, so I will fill the pot up, melt it down, scoop unwanted stuff out, flux, pour ingots untill the pot is about 1/2 empty, and then add more WWs so they melt faster using the molten lead left in the pot. I mainly use a thermometer for piece of mind.

That's the way I do it. BUT I did learn that you need to be completely outside, not in the carport, because them dang valve stems STINK. Just keep stiring, and first remove all the stems, keeps the stink down a little. Then while it's melting remove any suspect WW. If they are zink when you drop them on the concrete they will sound like a silver dime does when you drop it with other change.

[Jumptrap]

I have nothing to add as I am new and this thread has been very informative.


To Jumptrap, I agree with a couple of acceptations.

1. I have 3 manuals, non of which handle all my reload needs, and even with the powder sites and Handloads.com not all of them are covered, so for those off the wall loads I find it acceptable and honestly I don't want another manual.

2. 00 Buckshot loads, WTH I cannot find decent 00 loads. Yes I can use 1oz load data for birdshot but what about those loads that push the envelope. I have yet to find a recipe for these. I am open for suggestions, but find heavy shotgun loads come down to interwebs guinea pigs and there previous trials and tribulations.


Great thread guys and for someone that is about to fire up the burner and a bit concerned about contamination, you guys bring me piece of mind......

Nate,

I would hope, that, other folks would stop and think before they act....in other words, consider the endeavor before they begin.

The root of asking a question such as; "I need a load for....." leads one to think the advertiser expects a magic formula to be handed out and in fact.....there is no such thing. There is no one load fits all in this very inexact science we are practicing. Note that keyword, 'practicing'. We are all practicing a sort of Alchemy here and for your particular needs, you need to concoct your own 'secret recipe' by trial and error. If one is unwilling to do this, go buy a box of factory ammo....which has been assembled in way considered safe for all arms so chambered.

If you advertise yourself as a reloader, then hunker down and do your homework......work up a load and see what happens. What experimenting I have done may not apply to your situation at all, even though it may appear too. I have seen perfectly safe loads in one gun, flatten primers in another gun of the same caliber and manufacturer.......just because they both say caliber XX on the barrel does not imply they are identical in every respect. This is knowledge I would assume EVERY reloader knows and respects, if they don't, they damned well better learn before maiming themselves or an innocent bystander.

As for referencing manuals; if your manual(s) contain no info, why would you think mine does? No matter what I am reloading, I ALWAYS refer to a manual FIRST and go from there. That isn't to say if no written load is listed, that one cannot be concocted. What it means is that you have to sally forth and tread that ground on your own. That is how you learn/expand your personal knowledge.

Back to smelting zinc wheelweights: This is a stupid assed question in the first place. If the folks experiencing contaminated smelts had ever educated themselves in the most rudimentary manner, they would never have this problem. Lead and lead wheelweight alloy melts at a much lower temperature than zinc does. So, what is the big SECRET? Do not run the heat up to the melting temp of zinc......duh! Gee SpongeBob, who wudda thunk it!

Those that read my comments tend to think I am an ******* because I tell it like it is. Well, quite the contrary......I want folks to pull their heads out of their rectums and think a little. It is so easy to learn the melting temperatures of the materials we commonly work with.....Google is as close as your fingertips and the keyboard.

The main reason people melt zinc and all, is they just fire up the burner wide open, never monitor the temperature and then whine like a pack of retards because they forked up the whole pot of alloy. The fix doesn't even require a thermometer! Gradually increase the heat until the lead alloy wheelweights begin to melt. By careful monitoring and adjusting the heat, the 'good' WW's will melt and the bad ones will float. Skim them off and discard....it's just that simple.

I have melted tons of WW's and have never owned a lead thermo. I have never had a contaminated batch of alloy either......simply because I followed my own advice. I knew before I started that zinc melts at a higher temp. WW's melt at around 505 F, lead melts at 621.5 F, zinc melts at 787.2 F. That's a 155+ degrees MORE than pure lead and 282 degress more than WW's! For melting temps, here is a good site to reference and whole bunch of other good stuff:

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[Rockchucker]

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
Can't believe I just read the whole article, great site, thanks for sharing.

[Nate1778]

That I absolutely agree with, it does take a sense of hands on, or brains if you will to reload. That said I got a bunch of powder that will work for calibers that I do not have data on. I have worked loads from those that I like and am happy to share with others that may be dealing with the same quandary.



Now what chaps my nipples is when someone post about reloading 9mm and want to know load data for a 115 FMJ bullet using Unique and what primer size is used. That is a blatant sign of laziness.



I don't take you as an ******* by any means and appreciate your knowledge, but there is info you can share with other "non" lazy newbs and we appreciate it.

[Jumptrap]

Nate,

I'll share a little something with you and the rest of the audience:

I took a long hiatus from the CB's and only recently crawled out from under my rock and began to participate again. From way back...before there was Cast Boolits, I hung with the rest of the old alums here on this board. There are folks here, that have forgotten more than I will ever know. Then there are some that hail from way back, that still never cease to amaze me with some of things they say or ask.

There some sharp cookies here. Most are far more diplomatic than I am and have the patience of Job. I tend to grab the jawbone of an ass and clobber folks with it:).

If I were your old high school shop teacher, I'd be the one you either loved or loathed, depending on your own disposition. I had teachers like that, blunt and sharp spoken, but never failing to amaze me at what they knew.....and if I showed an ounce of inclination, they'd hang right with me until I 'got it'. When I did get it, they didn't pat me on the shoulder..they just walked away. They just assumed the student had some gray matter between their ears and learning was what we were supposed to do.....sans congratulations.

[DLCTEX]

I take the approach that anyone asking such a basic question is a beginner and as I don't wish to discourage anyone from the shooting/reloading/casting sport (we do need all the allies we can get to keep the "banners" at bay) I usually try to help if I can. Sometimes I bite my tongue, hard. Maybe some of this comes from my dad always taking time to answer questions (six boys, four girls= full time job). I also learned some patience by being a houseparent for boys homes for 7 years and raising 5 boys of my own. So ask away. If I get tired I can just take a break.
Nate 1778, I see no one replied to your buckshot inquiry. You can find some good buckshot and slug info in Lyman's Shotshell Handbook. If you will PM me with the specific shell, wad , powder, and buckshot size you want to load, I will look it up for you.

[carpetman]

Theres a bunch of folks here and from Shooters that have rubbed elbows for over 10 years. Yes, there are questions that surface every few months that have been hashed so many times can't be counted. Btw did you know you can use a muffin pan as an ingot mold? Now who would have ever thought that? Wonder what would be a good source for muffin pans?

[Jumptrap]

Theres a bunch of folks here and from Shooters that have rubbed elbows for over 10 years. Yes, there are questions that surface every few months that have been hashed so many times can't be counted. Btw did you know you can use a muffin pan as an ingot mold? Now who would have ever thought that? Wonder what would be a good source for muffin pans?

C-man,

how you been getting along? I often think of you during the spring...when those purple martins and damned starlings begin to show up. I just wanted to say......the cheerleader chick you have there, ought to be a grandmother by now.....hehe!

[carpetman]

Mark---Doing pretty good---keep getting skin cancers from too much sun in the past---wear hats and try to stay out of sun and still get them. A few years ago I reconfigured my house, had front porch added and converted the old patio into a sun room and moved the patio from the center of house to one end. Used to be I went out my back door and was on my patio and I kept air rifle by the door and while setting on my porch swing I could shoot the starlings and sparrows. Now seems I go on the front porch and have not paid as much attention to the martins as I had in the past. Don't shoot as many sparrows and starlings. This year I never even lowered the martin houses to check nests and to set up the traps for the sparrows--getting old or lazy I guess. The martins will be leaving any day now. Started riding a bicycle and usually ride atleast 5 miles a day. You miss driving those trains? I'm going to xenia,Ohio in a couple months--possibly be close to where you delivered coal?

[Esau]

I wondered what those were! [smilie=1:

[Jim_Fleming]

Duh... I dunno...? Mebbe Wally-World...? ;)

Kidding about the Duh part, but C-Man the cheapest place I know we can get muffin pans is to steal them from the wife, but there again when you do that, you wind up buying Muffin Pans that're twice as expensive as the ones that are easily had at Wal-Mart, for real...




Wonder what would be a good source for muffin pans?

[462]

Jumptrap and Dale, I have to agree with both or you. Seems contradictory, what? However...

As a new boolit caster, but a reloader of 15 years experience, I needed some help regarding a leading situation that was frustrating me. After trying many powder recipies and numerous alloys, I wasn't able to come up with an answer on my own. I'd read Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook as well as numerous other books, manuals, and some web-sites. I spent months trying to solve the problem by myself, but wasn't making any headway.

Finally, I discoverd Cast Boolits and lurked here for many months, gleaning as much information as I could. Finally, out of desperation I joined and sheepishly posted a thread describing my dilemma with as many facts as I could remember. Many site members gladly chimed in with their opinions (often differing, but more than helpful, nonetheless) based upon their casting and reloading experience. With their help, I was able to solve the problem, and can now enjoy the gun.

Because of all the help those unselfish members gave me, I decided that I'd do my part to help other new members as much as I could. That said, I stay away from those posts in which I think the person is being outright lazy and unwilling to research the answer prior to asking for help. I don't have patience for those who refuse to help themselves.

[reddog]

Maybe I'm just slow, but I dont really have a problem sortin them out. The tape ons, the clips and the zinc ones all look different to me. Course I have to say countin colors in the crayon box will keep me busy all day, but I like to sort those things out, it seems like part of the fun. A good ingot sure is a proper reward for a bit of time sortin. I'm keepin all those zinc chicklets in case I can ever do something with them, but those clips I get rid of right away. Man do I love this stuff. Reddog

[reddog]

Oh yeah, Jumptrap, if I could talk as purty as you, thats exactly what I would have said. Just say the way it is and nobody can call you wrong. Reddog

[Jumptrap]

Jumptrap and Dale, I have to agree with both or you. Seems contradictory, what? However...

As a new boolit caster, but a reloader of 15 years experience, I needed some help regarding a leading situation that was frustrating me. After trying many powder recipies and numerous alloys, I wasn't able to come up with an answer on my own. I'd read Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook as well as numerous other books, manuals, and some web-sites. I spent months trying to solve the problem by myself, but wasn't making any headway.

Finally, I discoverd Cast Boolits and lurked here for many months, gleaning as much information as I could. Finally, out of desperation I joined and sheepishly posted a thread describing my dilemma with as many facts as I could remember. Many site members gladly chimed in with their opinions (often differing, but more than helpful, nonetheless) based upon their casting and reloading experience. With their help, I was able to solve the problem, and can now enjoy the gun.

Because of all the help those unselfish members gave me, I decided that I'd do my part to help other new members as much as I could. That said, I stay away from those posts in which I think the person is being outright lazy and unwilling to research the answer prior to asking for help. I don't have patience for those who refuse to help themselves.

462,

Rome wasn't built in a day and as long as humanity has existed, and as long as people had looked into the heavens, it wasn't but 40 years ago that man finally walked on the moon....if he actually did at all. Whatever your endeavor, it requires time and determination to bring it to fruition. The fact that you took the necessary steps to begin casting bullets were your one giant step for mankind! You (we) are on an Odyssey and along the way, there are many stumbling blocks to be overcame. Your mentoring force, are those in this audience and wherever you find them. By and by, you'll be able to glean the worthwhile and discard the old wives tales......separate the bull from the ********.....and be well on your way to casting good bullets and all the while, knowing why you are getting positive results.

I find that so many folks are unwilling to think outside the box....or beyond the Lyman Cast Bullet manual. Most of the info in the Lyman manual is very dated and rudimentary at best. It is a McGuffey's primer for bullet casting, at best. In fact, I wish there was a manual authored by the folks here at CB's.....a sort of New testament of Bullet Casting....published that would dispel all the old notions and guide folks in the right direction.

Carry on, you are doing well and on the path to enlightenment.

[sundog]

Jump, the entire planet Earth is littered with junk yards, uh, excuse me, recycle centers. As to thinking outside the box -- I have been, ever since Niel Armstrong inspired me to take a giant leap for mankind. Anyway, my idea has always been to have a salvage yard in space kinda like here when you need a heater core for an old Vega. One of these days when folks are zipping around there, it would a one stop shop for some ole gizwhizmo off an old space craft that they need to keep things working - like their cloaking devise so they stay under the goobermint's radar. Unfortunately, it's just an idea. Can't find a way to make it profitable, and it's way too expensive for a hobby.

[Bret4207]

Thank god, you boys are quick on the uptake.....some of them never....EVER learn. 'They' are also over on the antique tractor board and every other day, they ask what kind of oil their 1954 tractor needs...or does spec. OICU812 hydraulic fluid meet the requirements of a a 1978 Mowzall machine...or my favorite....what kind of oil does my 2 cycle engine need?

If Siggy Freud were alive today....he'd be a multimillionaire just treating the anal compulsive's living amongst us.

Bottom line: use no more heat than it takes to melt the WW's....the zinc and other flotsam will come to the top and contaminate NOTHING. You just skim it off and toss it in your neighbors yard. Dirt simple, like so many minds.

Oh yeah....one more pet peeve; "I need a load for......" Translated, this means the author is either too damned lazy to do the leg work or too stupid to even be reloading in the first place. Yes Bret, I'm back to my vociferous self today.....hehe!

Boys, you all missed some classic Jumptrap during his oil treatise over on YT. He had some of those "farmette" and "ranchette" types doing the Mr. Hyde. Such foaming and frothing at the mouth, such passion, such wasted bandwidth! Why someone would make a such a fuss over oil used in a 60 year old tractor or 15 year old chainsaw is beyond me. Jump took the common sense course that we weren't dealing with flux capacitors and plasma relays and the difference between Wally World oil for example and Megasuperexpensivetacticalextreme 17-38 wt multi grade teflon enhanced double extra virgin oil was pretty much in the buyers mind. The gnashing of teeth was loud and violent. I just sat back and watched the master pull the strings and rattle the chains.

It was a slaughter.


So hows the garden doing Mark?