First Time Melting - Observations and a Question
I finally had the combination of time and circumstances today, so I melted my first wheel weights into ingots. It went smoother than I had expected, but not as smooth as I’d like.
First observation: being prepared is a Very Good Thing. I used a face shield instead of just safety glasses, and I’m glad I did. It’s pretty warm out today (about 88-90), and of course I sweated a lot. The shield kept my sweat away from hot stuff very well.
Second, on advice of some veteran casters, I laid hands on a cheap aluminum muffin pan. I thought I was doing great by getting a 12 hole pan. Nope. The pan is too flimsy to support filling many of the muffin spots without a LOT of support - which would have to be provided by holding the parts that were already full of slowly cooling lead. Oops...
Since my last wood working project was quite a while ago, I had no saw dust of any kind handy, so I got some shredded aspen pet bedding for flux. It worked OK, but I’ll need to do something to make it finer the next time I use it, because the larger pieces (like large chunks of what comes off of a manual pencil sharpener) took plenty of time to char and break down, making it smokier than I would have liked.
Now a question: is it normal for wheel weight alloy to stick to aluminum? Those ingots seem really stuck in the cups. I was assured that no “mold release” was needed, but was there some other kind of prep I need to have done?
Thanks!