Just smelted some wheel weights for the first time

[HighUintas]

Hello all,

I just melted some of my first wheel weights. And I was wondering if there's any issue to that my "stainless" pot and spoons seemed to start rusting after a bit of stirring and fluxing?

I used candle wax to fflux. Also, it seemed that the film (dross?) on top of the melted lead would NEVER go away completely even after fluxing a few times. Is this film actually just slightly cooler lead? Or is the spoon I'm using leeching into the lead and causing more dross? It doesn't say stainless on it, but it seemed very much like it was... Until is started rusting mid smelt!

[JimB..]

Is it rusting or just accumulating junk on it? If you’re not sure, leave the spoon in the melt for a few minutes. When it’s hot the lead won’t stick.

The film on top is oxidized lead, tin, etc. It forms more quickly at higher temps, but it always forms. I prefer pine wood shavings plus a little wax for fluxing, it makes a dust that’s easier to remove, wax alone always seems to be a little oily for me.

[HighUintas]

Is it rusting or just accumulating junk on it? If you’re not sure, leave the spoon in the melt for a few minutes. When it’s hot the lead won’t stick.

The film on top is oxidized lead, tin, etc. It forms more quickly at higher temps, but it always forms. I prefer pine wood shavings plus a little wax for fluxing, it makes a dust that’s easier to remove, wax alone always seems to be a little oily for me.

I left the spoon in there for quite awhile and the film on top would just want to stick to it most of the time. It was definitely hot enough. I think I may have had the heat too high and that could be why the film formed so fast. The film that would stick to my spoon and that I'd skim off looked shiny like lead :/

A. I don't want to keep skimming and skimming and skimming and wasting my lead if that's what it is I'm skimming off.
B. I think I might steel my kitchen spoon I know is stainless if the rust is causing the excessive dross.
C. Hopefully the cheapo spoon I picked up from the thrift store isn't leeching some other metal into my lead ruining it

The picture shows what looks like rust on my spoon.

[imashooter2]

Doesn’t look like rust to me. Regardless, rust will not cause / promote dross.

[kevin c]

Looks a little yellow colored to me. Maybe some lead oxides?

[HighUintas]

Maybe! I just did some more and stole a spoon from the kitchen labeled stainless. No rusty looking stuff. I kept the temperature lower, used a different wax to flux, and it seemed to work a little better. It seemed like the film or dross, still not sure if that what it is, still formed faster than I would think but it went much better!

[JimB..]

That looks like you were way hot. Are you using a thermometer? If so, what was the temp of the first pot vs the second?

[243winxb]

Just skim off the heavy chunks after fluxing and start casting. My spoon metal is not stainless, but the knife is. Both look real bad. Not an issue, or anything i worry about. But if you melt the spoon, that would be a problem.

[lightman]

It sounds like you are off to a good start. That stuff looks like oxides to me. Flux it and try to induce it back in. I smelt in bigger batches than you probably do and I save all of the dross from one melt and dump it into the next one. I prefer stainless tools for stiring and cast iron for my ladles.

[HighUintas]

That looks like you were way hot. Are you using a thermometer? If so, what was the temp of the first pot vs the second?

Nope. I'd planned to use the thermocouple I have for my multimeter and then realized it's the bare wire and beaded tip type rather than having a stainless probe. On the second pot, I had my propane burner, which is the typical turkey fryer type, at a low lazy blue flame.

[HighUintas]

Is there a thread on here someone can point me to that has details on how to know when you're done fluxing, why/when to use sawdust instead of wax, what kind of sawdust, etc?

[243winxb]

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellFluxing.htm I just use bullet lube, 50/50 Bees wax/Alox. Or RCBS Pistol lube.

[HighUintas]

Thanks for the link!

And ugh!!! I think I removed a bunch of my time and tossed it in my steel we bucket due for recycling I'll have to dig what I can back out and see if I can get it reduces back into the ingots I made.

[John Boy]

The spoon I use is stainless and is always coated black ... not an issue stirring through the flux which has turned it black with dross

[HighUintas]

The spoon I use is stainless and is always coated black ... not an issue stirring through the flux which has turned it black with dross

After using some cedar shavings for flux, it seems to have cured the ills of my "rusty" spoon. It's now just black.