Ingots left out?

[tddeangelo]

I've been working my way through several hundred pounds of xray room sheeting, melting/cleaning/fluxing and then pouring into ingots. I'm probably better than 3/4 of the way through the stuff, and so far so good.

Yesterday, I left about 20lbs of ingots on patio paver blocks to cool. I promptly forgot about them, and they stayed out through a rather intense thunderstorm, so they got soaked.

Would it be best to remelt them and recast them to be sure there's no moisture in them anywhere?

[dragonrider]

No that is not neeeded, When I am casting and ready to add ingots to the melt I hold them with a pair of pliers and heat it with a propane torch. Wave the torch all over the ingot until it just starts to melt then add it to your melt, doing this drive off all moisture and it does not reduce your melt temp much.

[dilly]

If it were me, I'd use my powder coat oven; less work and mess and danger than just remelting them.

[tddeangelo]

I don't have a powder coat oven, lol, but I do have a MAPP torch, I guess careful use of that would do the same as dragonrider suggested. MAPP is hot, so I'd have to be careful, but it makes sense that they would be "dried out" before going into the casting pot then.

I wonder, if I'm planning on a long casting session, if it wouldn't be a half-smart idea to light the burner on the fish fryer and bring ingots up in temp, not to melting, just warm them up....drive out any moisture in the process, then just scoop them out with the big spoon I use (they're 1lb Lyman mold ingots) and transfer into the pot.

I'm also thinking for casting round balls for my muzzleloader that I'll ladle them, and if so, I may just use the fish fryer with a big pot to melt the ingots anyway, so if I started with these from cold, that'd solve the problem. Casting 62-cal balls will eat up lead fast, so I figured I'd do a 20lb batch of lead at a time anyway.

Thanks!

[JSnover]

I wonder, if I'm planning on a long casting session, if it wouldn't be a half-smart idea to light the burner on the fish fryer and bring ingots up in temp, not to melting, just warm them up....drive out any moisture in the process, then just scoop them out with the big spoon I use (they're 1lb Lyman mold ingots) and transfer into the pot.

...so if I started with these from cold, that'd solve the problem.

Thanks!

That is all you need to do. I pile scrap as high as I can in my pot, light the burner and wait. Any moisture is gone by the time it starts to melt.
If I'm adding ingots to a batch I park them on the lid to preheat. It dries any surface moisture and doesn't cool the batch as much as cold lead would - takes less time to get back to casting temperature.

[MUSTANG]

It's always a good practice to warm an ingot to remove moisture before placing in a pot to avoid the tinsel fairy. In the desert at our house in Moapa NV I can get away without doing so because of the low humidity; at the Kalispell MT house humidity condensing on the ingots makes it a must to pre-heat (even in dry times).

If you use an electric hot plate to preheat/maintain your molds at temp, you can simply keep an old pot or large can around to set the ingot in for a minute or two so the moisture is evaporated off, then transfer it into the pot.

[lightman]

I would just let them sit on the rim of my casting pot to pre-heat. I probably would not remelt them, although I smelt in large enough batches that 20# would not be a big deal. If you are really worried about them having moisture in them, keep them separate and start them off in a cold pot.

[bangerjim]

I store LOTS of lead ingots outside in the hot/cold/rain/dust. No harm. Just use some beeswax in your casting pot when you add them. Sawdust if you want to plug your bottom pour spout.

Warm them in the sun or on your mold hotplate (you DO use one right!!!!) or your PC oven to be sure all moisture trapped in any voids is driven out B4 dumping them in a melted pot of Pb.

[bhn22]

Just put them in the cold pot, then plug it in. Any water will be long gone before the ingots even consider melting.

[Springfield]

In my experience, as long as they weren't stored underwater they will be fine.

[sqlbullet]

LIke others, I have used plenty of ingots that had been wet at one point or another.

After my pot is full and reaches temp for casting, I set one or two ingots on the rim on the pot to preheat while I cast. After 100 bullets or so the sprue and ingots go into the pot and two more ingots get "staged". Never had an issue.

It is worth noting I don't take wet ingots to the pot. If an ingot has been wet, it will sit in a known dry place for a couple of days/weeks before I will use it.

[tddeangelo]

Thanks everyone.

I actually recast them. I was working through my pile of sheet lead and I let the pan cool a bit after finishing a batch, then put the ingots in and fired the burner back up. They were melted and recast in a few minutes.

[odinohi]

I have done the same thing. The rain will easily get into all the tiny crevices. I have left a pile of the rain soaked ingots on top of my promelt and that didn't dry them out. Every time I added one it bubbled like crazy. Kinda scary. It's only 20lb. I would just resmelt them if it were me.

[NavyVet1959]

I've had a visit from the Tinsel Fairie while smelting from just a steel ingot mold that had been sitting in my garage for a few months. My garage doesn't leak, so it was "dry", but the humidity in the air was enough that when I poured lead into it, I ended up with a nice surprise. Since then, I have always preheated my ingot molds by placing them around the burner of my smelting pot. When I'm casting bullets, I preheat the ingots by placing them on the top of the casting pot and then lower them slowly into the melted lead. If there is any water in them, you can hear it turning to steam before you reached a point where there could be a violent steam explosion.

[.22-10-45]

solid lead isn't like a sponge! and even if they were stored underwater..so what? The lead we use has been underground since the world was created. As long as any moisture is driven off before adding to a pot of molten alloy your fine.

[lancem]

I store mine outside, never did any casting immediately after a rain but haven't had any problems in the last 3 years.

[JSnover]

solid lead isn't like a sponge! and even if they were stored underwater..so what? The lead we use has been underground since the world was created. As long as any moisture is driven off before adding to a pot of molten alloy your fine.

That's what I'm saying.
One of these days I want to put a pile of cold ingots into a cold pot, fill it with enough water to cover them, light the burner… and watch nothing happen until the water has boiled off. 400-500 degrees later, the lead will begin to melt.

[zuke]

I store mine outside year round. So far no fairy's