Possible to ruin the batch?

[Jech]

Still gearing up to actually cast my boolits, still need $$$ for moulds, etc, keeping myself busy playing with my burner/pot. I don't have a properly sized ingot mould yet, just an old rusty cast-iron flower pot that holds about 50lbs. I've been filling it about halfway, letting it set overnight, dropping the chunk, and filling it again.

I'm doing this in a 6qt harbor freight dutch oven over a 60k BTU propane burner that I run as low as I can but I really have no idea what temp I'm at. So far, all 350lbs of lead I have all goes "ping" when it hits the ground, have I ruined it by melting it too many times at unknown heat levels?

Is it even possible to "ruin" a melt? Very new to this...

[imashooter2]

In my experience, when melting that quantity of wheel weights, there is a long time between when the lead is melted and fluid and the melt temperature of zinc. It is unlikely that you have ruined anything.

I'm not sure I understand the utility of casting ingots at 25ish pounds though. They're unlikely to fit in your casting pot. Seems you're just wasting gas...

[Jech]

I'm not sure I understand the utility of casting ingots at 25ish pounds though

I don't have the cash for a production pot, boolit moulds, a proper ingot mold etc just yet so I'm keeping myself from going crazy by melting what I have :P

Also, I should have mentioned that I'm not melting wheelweights. The majority of my cache right now is hand-sifted range lead. The rest I got from a recycler, 1lb ingots stamped with "SAECO" ...I would venture a guess that they came from a local gentleman who felt he was getting a bit too "seasoned" to cast his own. They were pretty dirty like they had been sitting out in the elements for quite a while so I melted them down to get the **** off of them.

[imashooter2]

In that case, it is highly unlikely that there are any contaminants in your source metal to start with. Melt away.

[John Boy]

I don't have a properly sized ingot mould yet, just an old rusty cast-iron flower pot that holds about 50lbs.
Jech, any muffin tins in your kitchen? If not, go to Walmart or KMart and buy several. Then put some flowers in that cast iron pot your using

[Jech]

There *was* a muffin tin in the kitchen...I tried pouring ingots with it but the lead adhered to the cups so well that attempts to knock out the ingots completely dislodged the cup from the tray's frame ><

Lucky for me, Mrs. Jech never makes muffins and hasn't noticed the absence in her cupboard xD

[lwknight]

I keep most of my smelted lead in 25 pound bricks too. I will remelt a couple of them when I make alloy and cast the alloy into 10 pounders that do fit into the casting pot.
Bigger bricks are easier to deal with and can stack higher. Also easier to count.

I also use an old lee pot to melt the 10 pounders and dip up 2-3 pounds from it into my main casting pot. That way I do not have to assault the casting pot with cold alloy.

[Jech]

A friend of mine who happens to be a certified welding instructor whipped up a quick ingot mould for me from a 36" piece of 2" angle iron and it works great! We used a picture Dale53 posted of a 3-cavity design that used three 6" sections capped by two 8.5" pieces at a slight angle to ensure easy drop-out.

Anyways, a we were waiting for a batch to set up in the mould, I kept a vigilant eye on the pot, watching for anything strange. I noticed that a thin wrinkly crust, greyish in color, kept forming. When I dropped in a pinch of paraffin wax, it didn't want to mix back in...am I losing a valuable element from my alloy or is this just normal oxidation?

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Stir slowly, it'll go back in.

Sam :D

[lwknight]

That thin layer of oxides is just part of it. As you get it reduced back in more is forming.
It don't hurt a thing.

[Freightman]

You do not have to have a "Production Pot" all you need is a ladle and a pot of lead and a mould. took me years to get a "electric" pot. Colman stove is what I started with and a 10# cast iron plumbers pot I found in my Father in laws stuff when I was cleaning out his garage and he passed 25 years ago.