Jusr sorted thourgh my 1st batch of WW now a ?

[brow_tines]

Ok I just sorted my 1st score on ww, not the biggest score but it was free. After sorting I ended up with about a 1/4 bucket. Now should I take a water hose and spray out the oil, dirt, grease? or just let it burn out while melting it down? Thanks for the help

[Chunky Monkey]

melt em down!

[HammerMTB]

Just light the burner and melt 'em. When I sort, I take out the valve stems, ciggie butts, tire labels, etc. The rest goes in, and the heat will clean it all up. Have some sawdust on hand to flux your treasure.

[runfiverun]

dirt floats
grease and oil are flux.
i rinse mine off.

[Markbo]

dirt and brake dust float too. Water is bad joo joo in the smelting pot.

[idahoron]

Just melt it. Ron

[FAsmus]

Ron;

Don't even think about cleaning off WW with a hose and water! In the first place it won't work and second, more important, it is dangerous, possibly very dangerous to mess around with wet or even slightly damp WW and molten lead.

Like the other members say toss them into your pot after removing obvious contamination such as tire labels, valve stems etc.

Once they are all melted down, flux with some olive oil and use one of those spoons with holes in it from your wives' kitchen to remove the clips. Don't plan on re-using the spoon for food!

Watch for WW that do not melt. These come in two kinds; pure zinc WW that will eventually melt into your alloy if you get them really hot and steel which will never melt using mere lead-capable heat sources.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

[home in oz]

Through them in the melting pot.

Melt outside the main living are-in a detached garage or building is great.

[63 Shiloh]

Yes, melt them down mate.

See if you can keep your melt at around 680-700F, you will have any zinc WW float to the surface as this temp will not melt zinc. Remove the zinc and flux well.

You are better off melting your dirty WW in a separate pot than your casting furnace, use a slotted spoon to remove the clips and zinc as well as large amounts of dross after your fluxing.

Pick up some cheap muffin pans and you have a great ingot mold, I mark my ingots with a letter punch to identify the alloy used.

Enjoy!

Mike

[a.squibload]

I scrub each WW thoroughly with a toothbrush and some tetraetracleanizol,
then polish them with shop rag made of the finest frog hair, then...

naaah, just throw 'em in the pot, then heat it up, any water should evaporate before they melt.
Don't wanna get water under the surface of liquid lead.
Preheat spoon, dipper, etc. before plunging it in.

And welcome to CB! They treat ya pretty good here.

[NSP64]

You can wash them if you want to mess with it. Mess it will. most of the stuff is not water soluable so it just smears everywhere. The valve stems will stink to high heaven. Keep the heat as low as possable to keep from melting zinc. once it melts flux good so you dont scrape out the tin and attimony. Have fun, be careful.
Water is no big deal as long as you dont add to liquid lead . If they all start off wet, the water will evaporate before the lead melts. If you add to molten lead it will turn to steam under the surface and errupt violently all over everything(a visit from the tinsel fairy).

[chris in va]

Oh heck no...don't wash them with water. I got some WW from the scrap yard that had been rained on. Thinking they were dried off enough after a week, I threw them in the pot and...

FSSSSS...POW!!

Tinsel fairy.

[a.squibload]

Hope you're OK. Don't mean to make light of it but you just gave me an idea
(I know, that's rare for me).

Here it comes:

CastBoolits Bandaids! With the flying boolit girl logo on 'em.
Heck, I would buy a box...



(Self correction): Stop that! Get back on topic!

[alamogunr]

I have a short, steep driveway. In summer only when it is 95º+F, I will spread a bucket on the concrete and spray it with the hose to clean off what I can. Then leave it there for a few hours until sundown. Then I just shovel them back in the bucket. I don't do this until I have sorted out the zinc and steel and rubber parts. In cooler weather, I follow the same procedure as the majority.

John
W.TN