Pitch as flux

[Curly James]

I just finished melting all the lead I have raked up from the pistol bays at my club. There was a lot of junk in the bucket along with the lead, mostly just normal stuff like shotgun wads, empty cases, live 22 rounds .....yeah that got real exciting for a few seconds the first time when I didn't sift the lead for such stuff. One thing that is almost impossible to pick out of all that lead is broken clays from the CAS vomit targets. When it melts it smokes and bubbles and may actually act as flux but I don't think the mess left behind is worth it. I will say that the lead when stirred vigorously is very pretty and clean but you have to scrape and stir a whole lot. I got about 100 pounds of lead for 30 minutes raking and an hour and a half melting time, now does anybody know how to remove melted pitch from inside a cast iron pot. Despite that problem I am going to continue to "clean up" our pistol bays with a rake. CJ

By the way, surprisingly, the lead seems very hard, I will cast a few soon and test it to see how hard the mixture is going to be.

[OeldeWolf]

What kind of shape is it in? I mean is it hardened, or soft?

You are probably going to have to chip or scrape it out. Dissolving it out would use way too much expensive solvent (which has its own disposal problems), and obviously its ignition point must be awfully high.

[44woody]

oeldewolf I just got a wire wheel for my side grinder it will take paint rust and any thing else off metal will even take about 10 layers of skin off in a heart beat don't ask about my boo boo I would bet that that will work for you I can send a picture of it if you want one to see what I am talking about 44Woody

[RayinNH]

Curly, why not just get a good warm wood fire going and burn it out...Ray

[jhalcott]

Just how BIG is the pot you need cleaned? Building a fire in MY smelting pot might be more work than it's worth. It is a large ,deep cast iron frying pan. It will easily hold 50 pounds of molten lead,wheelweights or Linotype. My CASTING pots are Lee bottom drippers(10 pounders)

[Wayne Smith]

Traditional way to clean cast iron cookware is to toss it onto a hot fire. I've done it in the fireplace more than once. I have some cast fry pans that my dad had. Use them about every day.

[Curly James]

Well, I ended up using a wire wheel brush on my drill, it worked, and the pot is really clean now . When I smelt the next batch of range lead I'll have in my possession a box of PatMarlins California Wonder Flake Flux. We'll see if that handles the pitch problem.. I also intend to try the CWFF in place of the cat litter on top of the melt in my bottom pour pot. CJ.