gonna try a new smelting technique

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

For the last few years I have smelted (yeah I know its not technically right) my range lead, fluxed, reduced and poured into ingots. Then I weigh the ingots and add my tin accordingly. Doing it this way might be a more accurate way to get my tin percentage but it is also a two step process. Next batch I'm gonna weigh the dirty range lead, (about 140#'s) and start smelting. I have a nice metal bucket that i'm gonna put all the skimmed sand,dirt dross in. Weigh the contents of the bucket and subtract from the original weight that went into the pot and add tin accordingly. This might be slightly less accurate but why waste the energy to get 140 #'s of lead back up to temp when it's already there?

Scott

[William Yanda]

Sounds like a plan

[country gent]

Weighing what you start with and the dross pulled out shoud be close. WHen I was smelting mixing I did the clean and pour test hardness and weigh then remelt and add to it. It was the third melting to make bullets LOL. This should work well for you as tin content can vary a little with out major problems. I havent smelted in several years now.

[runfiverun]

I clean and keep separate each batch, then blend the separate batches into one big batch.
this way my alloy gets cleaned more than once and blended into one big ol batch of same alloy.

[Michael J. Spangler]

I weigh and figure a rough idea of how much I'll lose depending on the type of lead. COWW BS roofing lead etc. Then I add some Lino to get close enough and when it's all said and done I weigh again and adjust the numbers in the alloy calculator if I was off on my guess on my yield. I'm always pretty close.

I like your idea though. Should get you much closer to the alloy you want. I'm not that fussy though as I pretty much only shoot pistol and cast friendly like 45/70.
Thanks for the idea!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Budzilla 19]

I like the way this man thinks!!! (I never really thought about doing it this way) seems like it would be pretty much spot on!! If you know what your melting pot weighs, then just do some basic math and you are there. Great idea, thanks for the tip.(and my high school math teacher said that I would never get it!!!!) Hahahaha!!!! Be safe.

[bullet maker 57]

Love new ideas.

[montana_charlie]

I have a nice metal bucket that i'm gonna put all the skimmed sand,dirt dross in. Weigh the contents of the bucket and subtract from the original weight that went into the pot and add tin accordingly. This might be slightly less accurate but why waste the energy to get 140 #'s of lead back up to temp when it's already there?

Scott

You melt it once to 'smelt' it, and you melt it again when you cast with it.
That second melting is where I add my tin.

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

You melt it once to 'smelt' it, and you melt it again when you cast with it.
That second melting is where I add my tin.

This would never work for me. I add about 1.5# every 5 minutes or so to the pot. I'd have to have tiny pieces of tin to add with it.

Scott

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

So it was a nice cool day here in the midwest (98ish) so I started smelting. Put 133.5 pounds of range lead in the pot and started the fire. I have a metal 4 gallon? bucket that looks like a miniature old trash can. Without the lid it weighed right at 3 pounds. Put it next to the melting pot and dumped all the sand and dirt I skimmed off. Came out to 22 pounds after done, -3pounds of bucket=19pounds of junk=124 pounds of good clean lead. Fluxed with sawdust and wax three times and if I remember right 42 ounces of tin went in. Then poured ingots. Done!
Scott

[Walla2]

Time is money and this saves time in my book. Great idea.