What Is the best way to dispose of dross?

[mrappe]

What do you do with it? I called the county hazadardous household waste disposal representative and she acted like she did not have an idea what I was talking about.

[hexed775]

i've been keeping the ww clips & dross in a 5 gal bucket to take to the scrap yard. To take a little money back in the process.

[fryboy]

What do you do with it? I called the county hazadardous household waste disposal representative and she acted like she did not have an idea what I was talking about.


ummm apparently to the anti's it's only hazardous in solid lead form ( soz i couldnt resist as it seems to have a ring of truth to it ) i'm with hexed , it goes in along with other scrap metal to the crusher ( usually gets dumped in a old car body they run thru the shredder ) but if ur referring to the dross from the casting pot vs. the smelting pot ... it goes in with my next smelt

[evan price]

I save all my clips and dross in a galvanized bucket, that bucket gets dumped in the trunk of a car that I take to the shredder, or else it gets dumped at the junkyard when I scrap out my small stuff- mower and appliance parts, car parts, scrap from work, that sort of stuff that tends to accumulate. I dump scrap at least every couple months. Only getting $200 a ton for that sort of stuff, but better than nothing!

You could also put it in a couple of bags (I save pet food or water softener salt bags for this sort of work) and seal it up and put it in the trash.

[GabbyM]

Two weeks ago I took in my scrap accumulations.
Five gallon bucket about full of dross. Weighed out at 240 lbs and paid out ten cents for $24.15.
720 pounds of WW clips paid $54.00.

Of course that's a lot of material fro the average hobbyist to collect. Still compared to most places whom tell me they'll allow me to leave it there as if they were doing me a favor it's not bad.

Perhaps a gun club could post a scrap drive once every two years or so? Take lead scrap in with all the 22 rim-fire brass from the barrels. Never seen it done but never was in a club where more than a handful cast bullets. I've never even seen a range with a brass only barrel. Just the trash can for dumping range sweepings. Getting a lead scrap barrel would be a stretch.

Ranges never cleaned up the trap fields until government required it. Then they realized there was money in them thar fields. Local club two years ago had IIRC fifty-four thousand pounds of shot up for bid after a cleaning. Even after paying the clean up contractor they make money.

[mrappe]

ummm apparently to the anti's it's only hazardous in solid lead form ( soz i couldnt resist as it seems to have a ring of truth to it ) i'm with hexed , it goes in along with other scrap metal to the crusher ( usually gets dumped in a old car body they run thru the shredder ) but if ur referring to the dross from the casting pot vs. the smelting pot ... it goes in with my next smelt

I am not sure how your casting pot dross differs from the smelting pot dross except in quantity. Maybe it is because I have not used and have no access to ww lead. In my case I don't think I would put either back in. Why, unless, there is a lot of lead or tin in there.

[WILCO]

The little bit that I had, I gave to the scrap collector as he was making his rounds through the neighborhood. I put it in a charcoal bag and he took it.

[fryboy]

I am not sure how your casting pot dross differs from the smelting pot dross except in quantity. Maybe it is because I have not used and have no access to ww lead. In my case I don't think I would put either back in. Why, unless, there is a lot of lead or tin in there.

my smelt dross is nasty and full of crud ( plus clips bolts etc ) my casting pot has nothing put in it that hasnt been smelted first (ie; fairly clean ) however i still get a heavy dross , sometimes i scrape up tin or antimony from the pot and put it in my casting pot dross can , with the exception of the unburned carbon based flux ( such as sawdust ) this is good metal and shouldnt be wasted , when a lil tuna can full of dross weighs 4-6 pounds that's metal , it's also easier for me to get the old sawdust and dross out if i scoop a lil metal with it , all that goes into that lil tuna can and consequentially back in the next smelt , as for the smelt dross ... i tried to resmelt it once ..... 2 gallons gave me about one pound of mystery metal not worth the effort lolz but as they say ur mileage may very

[sagacious]

What do you do with it? I called the county hazadardous household waste disposal representative and she acted like she did not have an idea what I was talking about.
She may not have any idea what you meant. Ask what your local waste disposal dept recommends for foundry slag waste.

If you are concerned about lead-content, your local waste dept or fire dept probably has a hazardous-waste disposal amnesty day. You can turn-in dross on that day/days.

'Skimmings' of solid lead can be processed for the lead content. Flux generously with paraffin, and the skimmings will be refined into lead and a powdery carbon/metal oxide dross. Do not allow powdery dross to accumulate in living areas.

Powdery dross can usually be disposed of at your local landfill if it allows construction and demolition waste. This info can be obtained online. Good luck.

[imashooter2]

Clips, dross and trash from smelting gets taped up in flat rate boxes and dropped in my trash can. Dross from skimming the casting pot goes into the pot for the next smelting.

[Dale53]

Lead dross, at my house, is saved for the twice a year or so, for hazardous waste day. I take the trouble to drive there (it's five or six miles), tell them what it is (so that they can put it in the correct place) and leave it.

That way, I am NOT part of the problem but part of the solution.

FWIW
Dale53

[imashooter2]

Lead dross, at my house, is saved for the twice a year or so, for hazardous waste day. I take the trouble to drive there (it's five or six miles), tell them what it is (so that they can put it in the correct place) and leave it.

That way, I am NOT part of the problem but part of the solution.

FWIW
Dale53

Huh! Define the problem.

[Dale53]

imashooter2;
I think that dumping lead waste "just anywhere" is not a good idea. No more than dumping used oil from your automobile into the sewer system. Our county has a set up for properly handling hazardous waste and I take advantage of it for no cost except driving to the location. I just consider it part of being a good citizen.


Dale53

[imashooter2]

Huh! Lead isn't hazardous waste. I imagine you dump a fair bit of it into the earth every year. Why do you feel sending it to the landfill is an issue?

[Bwana]

Goes in the trash. Lead solder used to join copper pipes is more of a hazard than my dross. And people using ferterlizer in excess or incorrectly does way more harm to the environment. I do take my used oil back to Wal-Mart.
Tell you a story. About five miles from me is an old dump. This dump was operated by a private peson for years (decades). You had to pay to dump there. It was closed years ago. Everything was dumped there. When it closed they covered it with about two feet of dirt.
Here is the kicker: The north edge of this dump (about 15 acres) borders the North Canadian river which runs by my city and right through the middle of OKC. Nobody says a word about it.

[GabbyM]

As far as haz-mat goes my laypersons knowledge would tell me flashlight batteries with there mercury would be far more hazardous than lead. Florescent lights along with many other common items would also top lead.

[publius]

Put it in my enemies hot water heaters. :)

[.357]

i throw them in the trash.

[D Crockett]

what I do with my dross is put it into a 2 lb coffee can till I get 6 or 8 of them dump them back into my smelting pot and remelt them you will be surprised as to how much lead you will get back from it but you do have to flux it a lot more than regular lead but I do feel it is worth the work to get it out D Crockett

[GabbyM]

Flux? As in a quart of used motor oil along with good breeze to blow the smoke away.