Treated Indoor Range Lead won't melt

[RobsTV]

Came across a barrel of around 400lbs of lead that was from an employee of a gun makers indoor test range.

It appears they treated the indoor range with a greyish chemical and collected all the stuff off the floor. It is (was) mostly lead, just based on how heavy it is. It will not melt. If I put a torch to it, as shown in photo, it turns brownish yellow. Wait long enough and I do see a couple shiny silver drops, but that's at over 1800F.

My hope is that there is an easy fix like put in large pot, add water, heated water seperates the crap to surface and dissipates, then left with something useable (LOL). Zero chance of that I'm guessing. Looking for some quick answers before I dispose of it. Maybe add other chemical to separate safely?

Thanks!

[Markopolo]

Looks like dross?

[RobsTV]

Perhaps, but the weight leads me to think maybe not.

A quart sized container of it weighs about 10 lbs though, and that seems to be including at least some spent casings.

For reference, a quick look shows most consider a 5 gallon jug of wheel weights is around 120lbs before processing, which puts 1 quart of wheel weights at roughly 6 lbs (with clips and space between weights).

[country gent]

What foes this gun maker specialize in .22 rimfires shot guns handguns rifles? 22 and shot are high antimony that raises melting temps. The "green handgun ammo is a sintered bullet not lead. You may have range material thats more alloys and other materials than lead

[RobsTV]

What foes this gun maker specialize in .22 rimfires shot guns handguns rifles? 22 and shot are high antimony that raises melting temps. The "green handgun ammo is a sintered bullet not lead. You may have range material thats more alloys and other materials than lead

They specialize in AR15's (adamsarms if I recall). You can see a few casings in the bucket photo above that appear to be .223/5.56. Guy told me they only tested the guns with lead jacketed and did not sell anything at that manufacturer's location. Got this a year ago, and guy has since moved away, so can't get more info about it. Was not expecting much, but hoping for 10% or so to be recoverable, and a great day would be 50%.

I'm seeing chemicals now used like ECOBOND and Ledizolv to clean indoor ranges, but can't find anything helpful (to later reverse) besides it as an option to get the lead out of an area.

[GregLaROCHE]

I collect scrap from my club’s indoor range. There’s a lot of junk that needs to be fluxed out of it. Dross is pretty heavy too. I once tried remelting some dross because it was so heavy. I got about ten percent more lead, but used more than twice the propane.

[JSnover]

Looks like dross to me. You could feed a small amount into a pot of molten lead, that might work but it will take some time. I've recovered lead from my dross using a lot of heat.
One time I melted a load of heavily oxidized lead shot that took an abnormal time and temperature because the surface was so contaminated, like each pellet had a shell; It was melted but had to be mashed in order to break the crust.

[Winger Ed.]

You're trying to find treasure in the trash.
But it isn't there. I'd dump it like the first guy did.

[RobsTV]

You're trying to find treasure in the trash.
But it isn't there. I'd dump it like the first guy did.

Yep, that looks like the plan.

Thanks to all that chimed in!

[GregLaROCHE]

Be careful. In some places you can get in trouble for just dumping it. Maybe that’s why the original owner still had it. I leave mine next to the batteries at the local dump.

[243winxb]

See post 7. Smash it, place in HOT pot of lead. The crust on the outside needs opened to expose the lead.

I had to grind or scrape this scrap so it could melt.

[Winger Ed.]

See post 7. Smash it, place in HOT pot of lead.

I've gotten some Lead back that way by smashing the crud up against the wall of the pot and sort of squeezing it out.

[TurnipEaterDown]

Here's what I did w/ a can full of dross that I accumulated over years of casting, which I reduced and from which reclaimed a few pounds of good metal:

Old heavy steel / iron pot, fill 1/2 way w/ dross, fill rest of way w/ saw dust, cover, put in outdoor firepit w/ wood fire going (wind away from house), every now and then check to see if ash inside pot still contains wood/char/basically visible carbonaceous material - if not add more sawdust & recover, roast for a few hours this way, take off while good and warm, tip pot and pour metal while liquid into another container, inspect remaining ash for signs of remaining metal (shiny little droplets), repeat if desired.

A lot of metal can be recovered this way, though slow to migrate through the ash produced by heating this material in the oxygen depleted atmosphere of the closed container. I did "poke at" this heated material now and again to encourage the metal droplets to agglomerate and get heavy enough to flow into the bottom of the pot.

Leftover ash is bound to be toxic as the reclamation of metals is far short of 100%, and there will be oxides and other compounds in this ash you don't want to handle / breathe , so decide how to dispose of ash. However, a considerable amount of metal can be recovered for casting, and the remainder is likely better for where ever you will put it than dumping all the original material.

Probably work for this mystery metal as well.

Wear some protective "stuff", and wash up after handling or dealing w/ this ash, if you decide to follow such a path.

[jsizemore]

Does the stuff break or crack when smashed with a hammer or sledge? Could be that they run it through a crusher before extracting the lead and copper.

[Retumbo]

What I have done as a test before is to throw 1 or two big candles in the pot along with a handful of shavings.

Light that sucker up when it starts smoking.

Lighter stuff will float on liquid wax, heavier will sink.

Let it burn out. If your lucky you will get most of the lead. I'm still working on a 3-400 pounds of rangelead.

Fill up a cast iron pot. By the time the fire and smoke stop I end up with about 1" of lead on the bottom and about 1" of chared material on top.

[RobsTV]

With all the additional replies, figured one final test. 4 lbs lead plus 4 lbs "indoor range stuff" that I used a heavy Tamp to smash up. Firing up now to very hot.

UPDATED 1 hour later:
Thanks, the tips above worked!

Now have 7 lbs of mixed lead from the 4 lbs of seed lead. The 4 lbs of junk yielded 3 lbs of range lead!

Things I think did the trick were smashed junk and much higher heat, (along with plenty of sawdust and wax).

[OS OK]

Oxidation forms a shell around the metal, the metal on the inside is not affected once the oxygen is removed. With steel the oxidation layers break free exposing fresh steel to the oxygen and the oxidation process starts over again & again until the steel is all eaten up.
With lead and it's components I haven't a clue about the oxidation process other than it forms a protective cover on the lead fragments, don't have any idea whether or not it ever comes off exposing more lead to the air?
I have waited too long to make ingots of my range collections and have regretted it because all the thin fragments seem to be completely oxidized from all sides.
With an enormous amount of heat and time & with the pot covered in several inches of sawdust with a lid on the pot...I got back maybe 10%.
The dross is thick, clumpy & heavy...I know there's got to be some fresh lead in there but I haven't a clue as how to economically get it back out of the oxidation.
My solution is to collect my range lead every 2 months and the melt goes much better. I also keep my collection bucket covered so the sprinklers don't add to the oxidation problem.

This may be a total loss...



If there was a way to grind this up and expose the encapsulated lead the outcome might be different but...I wouldn't want to be around the process, grinding is going to make a heck of a cloud of oxidized lead dust.

[RobsTV]

Updated post above. It worked! Recovered 75%.

[OS OK]

Updated post above. It worked! Recovered 75%.

I just saw that & that is encouraging!

[super6]

Where their is a will, their is a way. That will be 75% less lead in the dump.