SSN Vet
Member
I be smeltin' NOW WITH PICTURES
I finally got some time off on a day that had decent weather and conducted my first smelting ops.
Started with a single burner Coleman white gas camping stove, a 7" cast iron skillet and a box of wheel weights complements of the garage where I get my auto work done and a pair of long welders gloves.
I was very concerned about...
1. burning my tootsies
2. ruining my good pair of needle nose pliers
3. botching the whole smelt with a zinc wheel weight
All went reasonably well. The stove didn't take to long to melt the lead and the dross and lead came off my tools with minimal effort.
I eventually switched to dropping in the wheel weights without the gloves, as there was no splatter and I figured the risk of bumbling with the golves and knocking the whole set up over was greater.
First observation......lead is heavy! duh!
Second observation.....zinc wheel weights are easy to identify, when you're working with this kind of marginal heat source. At one point I dropped in 8 weights, and after fishing out 7 clips it dauned on me....."this one wheel weight hasn't even begun to melt"
I got two zincs out of a box of a hundred or so weights.
I was up to my elbows in aligators when I remembered the need for flux, so I quickly scounged up some dead pine needles and gave them a go. It seemed to work but in the end I found that stiring the melt with a dead stick was much easier.
So I'm now the proud owner of sixteen ingots of lead-tin alloy.
Time to fire up that little Lee pot and cast me some boolits.
I finally got some time off on a day that had decent weather and conducted my first smelting ops.
Started with a single burner Coleman white gas camping stove, a 7" cast iron skillet and a box of wheel weights complements of the garage where I get my auto work done and a pair of long welders gloves.
I was very concerned about...
1. burning my tootsies
2. ruining my good pair of needle nose pliers
3. botching the whole smelt with a zinc wheel weight
All went reasonably well. The stove didn't take to long to melt the lead and the dross and lead came off my tools with minimal effort.
I eventually switched to dropping in the wheel weights without the gloves, as there was no splatter and I figured the risk of bumbling with the golves and knocking the whole set up over was greater.
First observation......lead is heavy! duh!
Second observation.....zinc wheel weights are easy to identify, when you're working with this kind of marginal heat source. At one point I dropped in 8 weights, and after fishing out 7 clips it dauned on me....."this one wheel weight hasn't even begun to melt"
I got two zincs out of a box of a hundred or so weights.
I was up to my elbows in aligators when I remembered the need for flux, so I quickly scounged up some dead pine needles and gave them a go. It seemed to work but in the end I found that stiring the melt with a dead stick was much easier.
So I'm now the proud owner of sixteen ingots of lead-tin alloy.
Time to fire up that little Lee pot and cast me some boolits.
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