I bought some lead several weeks ago from a salvage yard.
Some pieces looked like they were poured into what looks like an oversized mold of some type about 5 lbs each (approx).
I melted these down in a dutch oven and poured them into Lyman molds, they seemed to melt at a different temp than what my ww and pure lead melted at.
Of course I kept these ingots seperate.
For Christmas I got a Lyman thermometer and decided to see what the melting point of these ingots was.
I completely emptied my 20 lb Lee pot.
I put 8 (cold) of these ingots into the pot and turned the control switch to its highest setting and inserted the thermometer and waited.
The thermometer was not touching anything except the lead.
The ingots started melting fairly fast and at 350 degrees they were completly melted.
Just out of curiosity I put 2 more ingots into the pot.
The temp dropped to just under 300 (this to be expected).
The 2 ingots melted fairly fast.
When the temp got back to 350 all ingots were melted.
The melt was nice and liquid and I could get lead from the pouring nozzle which usually means to me it is hot enough to pour boolits.
So, I unplugged the pot and left the thermometer in the pot to see at what point the lead would start setting up.
It took approx 25 minutes for the lead to cool down enough for it to start setting up partly due to the pot still being hot.
The lead started to set up at 300 degrees.
Any suggestions of what I have here?