Treated Indoor Range Lead won't melt

[243winxb]

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).


Attachment 311634

Now we need a report on how the cast bullets turn out.

[The Dar]

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).


Attachment 311634

Looks like you have the sawdust and candles in a cold pot. Try melting the lead before adding either, you should get better results.

[Charlie Horse]

I've got half a kitty litter bucket of this stuff. It forms a crusted layer underneath the angled backstop plate. I've got to really hack at it with a spade to get it to chip off. And it is wet. I've melted sauce pans of it and got an inch of lead and several inches of dross. I'm saving this stuff for hard times.

[daengmei]

I leave an inch or so of lead to cool in the cast iron pot. When this becomes molten again the next time, I put those nasty roof and sewage pieces into the melt, folded and maybe smashed flat with a hammer. They melt and slowly shrink into the pot leaving ugly dross. WATCH FOR any wet pieces and don't get yourself over the top or in front of the folds. Yea, there is a BUNCH of dross. Using a slotted spoon, sawdust and casting flux, I removed many full spoons of dross that still had some lead, what a real mess. You will spend some time on dirty lead. I reclaimed a batch of dross 1 time for not much lead considering the time and fuel.. With a better technique maybe it's worth it but I'll just keep the dross for a while till I'm real bored.