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Thread: Removing rubber from lead

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Market, Iowa
    Posts
    1,466
    If it were me, I would pick a day when the wind is the right direction, set things up on a picnic table, and have at it. My nearest neighbor is a full 1/4 mile away. They might smell the smoke, but it wouldn't be a problem.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Rapier's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2020
    Location
    NW Florida
    Posts
    1,449
    If you have a large cast iron pot with a heavy stand, just bring the alloy pot temperature up to 700 plus degrees, antimony and arsenic, with a gas flame up over the top, it will burn all flammables off. Make sure the stand can take the heat and weight with heat. If the smoke and gases do not burn, toss a small block of bees wax in and light that off. Burn the fumes. Flux, flux, flux, I get paint and rubber all of the time.
    Sand will go to the bottom of the pot.
    “There is a remedy for all things, save death.“
    Cervantes

    “Never give up, never quit.”
    Robert Rogers
    Roger’s Rangers

    There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
    Will Rogers

  3. #23
    Boolit Master


    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    NH
    Posts
    3,783
    Big pot, lot's oh heat, light the smoke with a torch.

  4. #24
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    5
    Well I had a chance today to give y’all’s suggestions a try. I used a wheelbarrow, dumped about a quart of the raw material and set my shop vac to blow. I waived the hose over the pile and after a few minutes of sifting with a scoop while blowing, I was able to blow maybe 90%-95% of the rubber either to the end of the wheelbarrow or floated over the side. The stuff that floated outside was small and was sometimes some small lead flakes and jacket material but when I swept it up it really was mostly rubber debris. The lighter lead flakes and some loose jacket material went to the front of the wheelbarrow. The stuff on the back was mostly the larger lead chunks. So I set those aside. The front pile was mostly small lead flakes, jacket material and the majority of the rubber. It was about 15%-20% of the initial quart. I did another batch like that and then dumped the pile with the rubber into a bucket and easily floated the majority of the rubber off while agitating the lead slush at the bottom. I torched some of the dry lead and the fumes were nominal so it was a huge improvement. It may take a while to process it but at least now I have a technique that will be pretty effective to eliminate most of the rubber. I am hoping when I get the melt pot going the jackets and penetrators will float and separate easily. My local scrap yard buys dross but I would love to separate the jackets to try to smelt into a copper ingot. I read that jackets are only 95% copper and 5% zinc. I don’t really have the capability to remove the zinc so it is as good as I can get. If not then the scrap yard buys the jacket fragments but at dross price which is next to nothing.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check