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It seems like you could superheat alloy in a closed container, put some vacuum to it and draw out the unwanted stuff. Running the vacuumed vapor through a condenser would trap the metals and...

And Thank You, for the comments!
I've played with this concept, and honestly, I don't really think it has a lot of usefulness to us 'boolit casters' but this site has so much good information that...

One of things I found interesting with the few seconds of video dealing with the caustic was that the lead mass seemed to be heavily agitated. I expect that whatever reaction that goes on is only...

Yes, that kind of exactly the rabbit hole I'm going down.
Or maybe I'm just tired of the scamdemic and need a distraction.

Either way, it's interesting...

It seems like there's two different processes. The first is removing binary alloys from a lead base and the second, at much higher temp is trying to remove lead and other impurities from a copper...

I haven't totally wrapped my head around it yet, but it seems that the whole thing revolves around the 'vapor pressure' rather than the actual boiling point.
By applying a vacuum, a certain metal's...

The sky is falling! the sky is falling!

I use NaOH all the time. Its not nearly as bad some internet quarterbacks make it out to be.
It's part of an industrial process. Let's SHARE...

I think this is more about the idea and 'can we do it' rather that the economics of it.
Like you, I have more than enough 'stockpiled'

I see this as more about the academia rather than...

Long boring winter, time to investigate some ideas.

It's seems that there are 3 major ways to purify (or refine) lead and related metals.
1) Electrolysis - the gold standard for purity
2) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZMxW5UKRFA

An interesting video, mostly concerned with the making of Coke from coal. The last couple of minutes reference using coke in the lead smelting...

Sure. Facts are always good.
BTW, I do appreciate your posts on a regular basis.

~J

Ok, fair enough.
I appreciate your opinion on it.

As someone who handles this stuff on a regular basis, I have done exactly what the original poster has inquired about, and I hope he has...

Just a question: Have you ever had experience with pure antimony and it's uses? Or are you just an internet expert with an opinion based on no practical experience?

~J

Been there, done that.

Melt the antimony first, it takes lots of heat, definitely can't do it in an electric pot. Slowly add lead and as the lead melts in, the alloy fluid temperature will...

I have had similar colorings and slush with unknown alloys. My research leads me to think the bright blue coloring is some kind of cobalt oxide/salt. It tends to hang with copper/nickel, and...

To answer the question that everyone seems to be wondering: Can I take W/W and remove the SN/SB to get pure lead. In a word, no.
I think the caustic acts as a 'chemically reactive' flux.

I did...

It sucks being a hoarder.... doesn't it?

I've have run into a particular blue tinge in a couple of mystery metal batches.
It will form on top of the ingots when cooling. Near as I can figure, it's related to a colbalt oxide and more of a...

I had a beer or two.

Does that count?

And one final thing for those of you who ARE going to try this at home....

What do we do with the bucket of caustic solution?
Apparently adding lime (calcium cabonate) will precipitate out any...

Teck has always had a fertilizer plant that uses up most of their acid streams.
They are actually a pretty clean operation and they have been working pretty hard in recent years to get their...

Hey Bent R,

I have to respond to this just for historical reasons.
I used to work for Teck, Trail back in the 90's. At that time they were still running the roaster plant, doing exactly what...

Bonus points to someone who can tell me how to handle to NaOH and metal salt solution in the bucket....

If the the NaOH slurry, becomes dry and crystalized, it is saturated and should be skimmed off and the process should be repeated with fresh caustic and salt.
That didn't happen to me as I was using...

Todays results:

I took about 10 lbs of 'roofing lead' which obviously had some tin and or antimony content and melted it down with 1/4 cup NaOH and about a teaspoon of sodium nitrate.

Due to...