Originally Posted by
jeff michel
i wouldn't want to ruin your experiment, but here's a couple suggestions.
1) use a dedicated vessel to melt your alloy. Once you get zinc on the interior surfaces of your furnace, you will contaminate subsequent batches until you do a complete clean up.
2) do your melting out of doors, if you inhale fumes off of zinc, you will suffer from what is called "brass shakes" drinking milk will reduce the sensation, but trust me , it is not pleasant.
3) if you do arrive at a point where you can cast a usable projectile, it will likely be of a smaller diameter and accuracy and leading will result.
This may or may not be of value to you, but i have tried to salvage contaminated lead in the past and the expenditure of money/time compared to the results achieved has reaffirmed that using an alloy of known composition produces more predictable results, both in castability and results downrange. Good luck with your experiment and please post your results.