pearson1662
12-11-2009, 12:35 AM
About a year ago, before I owned a thermometer, I melted down my first 1/2 bucket of WW's. That evening I found a thermometer and the next day melted down the second 1/2 and controlled my temperature better. IOW, the first time I melted them on high even though I knew to look out for floaters, but I got to worrying that I had probably mixed in some zinc because I had run it so much hotter than I did when I had the thermo.
I didn't get rid of the first batch and as I have read more on this site I have considered that maybe I hadn't contaminated it with Zn and I would try the muratic acid test advocated by another poster. So I take it outside, put on my safety goggles and gloves and poured about five drops on a muffin sized ingot and waited for the reaction and was pleasantly disapointed that there was not anymore than a several small bubbles and a little bit of black residue. No foaming or clouds of noxious fumes (although I avoided breathing around it even for the short period of time that I spent examining it). I ran the same test on my known good alloy and there were NO bubbles and NO black. No reaction at all in about one minute.
My thinking is that perhaps there is some small amount of Zn in the alloy but not enough to keep me from trying it. I will keep it segregated from my known good alloy untill I'm confident it's usable for boolits. Or, should I just sell it to the scrap man?
Does this sound like that I have performed the Zn/Muratic acid test appropriately and if so that my analysis is accurate and if so my strategy sound? I don't want to ruin what I know to be good but I don't want to waste either. WWs are getting more precious. Thanks for helping out a noobie.
Jay
I didn't get rid of the first batch and as I have read more on this site I have considered that maybe I hadn't contaminated it with Zn and I would try the muratic acid test advocated by another poster. So I take it outside, put on my safety goggles and gloves and poured about five drops on a muffin sized ingot and waited for the reaction and was pleasantly disapointed that there was not anymore than a several small bubbles and a little bit of black residue. No foaming or clouds of noxious fumes (although I avoided breathing around it even for the short period of time that I spent examining it). I ran the same test on my known good alloy and there were NO bubbles and NO black. No reaction at all in about one minute.
My thinking is that perhaps there is some small amount of Zn in the alloy but not enough to keep me from trying it. I will keep it segregated from my known good alloy untill I'm confident it's usable for boolits. Or, should I just sell it to the scrap man?
Does this sound like that I have performed the Zn/Muratic acid test appropriately and if so that my analysis is accurate and if so my strategy sound? I don't want to ruin what I know to be good but I don't want to waste either. WWs are getting more precious. Thanks for helping out a noobie.
Jay