rusty ww

[targetshootr]

Picked up a bucketfull of ww last week that had gotten wet and had lots of rust. Will that cause a problem when they're smelted? Thought I better ax beforehand.

Also, what are the bronze colored, intact ww that I skim off the top every now and then?

[David R]

For the rust, just dry em out real good, OR you can put the rusty wws in a pot and let them heat up. When melted, skim, flux and pour ingots.

If there is a hint of moisture, don't put them in hot molten lead! The tinsel fairy will visit you ( Lead all over you and everything else)

I had a few buckets of wws full of water. First I drilled the bottom of the bucket. Let em sit for a while. Then I dumped em out on the garage floor to let them dry for a week. I then smelted them.

Good Luck and be careful
David

[44woody]

if you are using a turkey fryer the first batch can be wet but as the man before me said DO NOT PUT WET WW IN MOLTEN LEAD if you do bad things will happen and you will not like it at all but you can melt wet ones in a empty pot the bronze ones could be zink or steel I have been finding alot of steel ones lately take a magnet and test them :castmine: 44Woody

[grumpy one]

I find some of the zinc WW turn gold coloured after immersion in molten lead, and some do not. It looks as if the ones that turn golden have probably been coated with something, probably a lacquer, that is affected by the heat.

My local tyre store tells me that the zinc WW are original equipment on at least two popular Japanese brands, when the car is assembled in Japan. So far I find a few per cent of the weights I get are zinc. They do not cause me any problems, because I make sure I smelt WW at moderate temperatures. After melting is complete at 625 degrees F, I heat to about 650 degrees F or so and find there is a pause in temperature increase, due to an endothermic reaction taking place in the melt: the oxides break down. If I stir the melt after this process is complete and the temperature has started to rise again, all the crud comes to the surface, without even needing to use flux. At that temperature the clips are clean, because all the oxides have broken down, so I skim off clips, black powdery stuff, and zinc weights. I pour ingots at 700 degrees F. This is way below the melting temperature of zinc of 787 degrees F, so I have literally no problems with zinc weights. I also find that accidental additions of tiny amounts of water are a lot less dangerous than they would be at higher temperatures. WARNING: WATER IN MOLTEN LEAD IS VERY DANGEROUS, EVEN AT 625 DEGREES F. I'm just saying the explosions are rather less violent when you keep the temperature down, not that they don't occur, or that they won't injure you.

[Bucks Owin]

The last pail of range bullet reclaims I got was of course very dirty. I put them in a big ol' sieve and hosed a lot of the dirt off, then soaked them overnight in vinegar, dishsoap and water. Another good rinsing and they weren't bad. At least it was possible to tell what was jacketed and what was lead! (I process them seperately) Try that maybe....and DRY THOROUGHLY! :D

Any dirt left will rise to the top when you melt/flux and can be skimmed off...(along with the WW clips)

FWIW,

Dennis

[targetshootr]

Ok thanks. Didn't know if rust oxide would cause a problem. I suspected the bronze colored ones could be zinc since they're intact as the others are melting which means the temp is low enough that they should be easy to locate as long as I keep a close watch.

[PAT303]

Zinc weights are becoming more common,I've just got some more ww to replace some contaminated alloy I have and found a handfull without even trying.Unfortunately zinc in melts is going to become more of a problem. Pat

[0802]

What happens when the zinc melts? I ruined about 15 pounds of lead a couple of days ago and I think zinc might have been the culprit. It plugged up my bottom pour spout and made my melt really thick -- kind of like the consistency of mud. I ended up throwing it out (mistake?).

I'm getting ready for the movers to come this week, so I didn't really have time to mess with it. Anyway, advice on what melted zinc actually does in a lead melt would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I don't have a thermometer, so I don't know how hot my melt was when this happened, but it was as hot as my Lee furnace would go since I was melting stuff down for the first time.