Lead casting round balls

[Elkworks]

New (very) to the lead pot process and I have only made about 200 round balls total. I use a Lee electric melting pot (with the stem that runs down the center of the pot) and the sports shop that set me up with the pot and round ball mold sold me six one pound ingots to get started. I used four of the ingots last month on a nice 60 degree day and got around 100 round balls and noticed little contaminants. I had bought 10 pounds of lead from a guy in Washington state who said it was very pure lead, but when I got it, it was in one large ingot that I had to melt on a camp stove and pour into one pound ingots. They look great and are shinier than the ones the sports shop sold me.
Today I melted the last two original ingots and added one of my new ones. The day was cold (about 30 degrees) and I kept running into the spout clogging on the melting pot. I kept cleaning it with a small nail periodically and that seemed to work. I started noticing a lot of what I would refer to as contaminants floating on my melted lead. I skimmed them off and set them aside. I have included two pictures of the material. My cast round balls look like my first batch and "seem" ok. What I am asking is if anyone knows what this material is and if its is good or bad and if I am doing something obviously wrong, such as casting when it may be too cold etc. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BCRider]

I get the same thing regardless of what lead I'm casting. I don't know what it is. I just assumed that it was various impurities in the lead and maybe the corrosion normally on the surface of the chunks of old scuba weights that I've been melting down.

 

[Gemmer]

It's called "dross" normal when melting lead.

 

[72coupe]

Are you fluxing regularly?

Fluxing is adding some sort of organic material to the lead and mixing it to keep the mixture in suspension. I normally use bees wax or bullet lube for flux but many other things will work. Even a wooden popcicle stick.

But there will always be slag.

 

[J-Bar]

You can reduce bottom spout plugs by running your pot a bit hotter, casting faster, or allowing a little molten lead to run through the spout to heat it up before allowing it to flow into the mold. Put a little muffin tin under the spout to catch the initial squirt. If that doesn't work, keep a propane torch handy and warm the spout as needed. The nail is a last resort in case you get crud in there that won't melt easily.

The stuff in your photos is normal, skim it off before it gets to the bottom of the pot. You can reduce it by fluxing your molten lead with sawdust. Sprinkle the sawdust on top of the molten lead. It will start to smoke...light it with a match and stir the lead while it burns, then allow the charred residue to sit on the surface of the melted lead to form a protective layer. You will still get crud, but a bit less. I clean the pot after each casting session, including removing the valve rod. Scrape the crud off the inside of the pot then use steel wool to remove the small stuff; polish the end of the valve rod with steel wool too.

Casting fast and hot reduces crud formation.

Buy a copy of Lyman's "Cast Bullet Handbook". It will save you a lot of trouble.

In the meantime, some good stuff here:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm

 

[4v50 Gary]

That's why you throw in wax and skim the top. Remove all that nasty stuff.

 

[44 Dave]

"Old plumber" here casts from my lead pot with a ladle, the oxidation stays on top of the ladle and good stuff goes in the mold. I have a big spoon to skim off the oxidation when it in needed. Most of my lead is recycled and needs the oakum and dirt cooked out (not an indoor job) then cast into ingots for later use.

 

[tactikel]

Flux to remove contaminants, they are normal.
I have the same Lee pot, and to lessen freezing of lead as you pour,run the temp hotter, keep the pot more than 1/2 full. Good luck, you are doing everything right!

 

[EljaySL]

As they say, fluxing will help. Even with really pure lead you'll get a certain amount of crud. I think some of it's just lead oxide.

I have a Lee bottom pour pot and prefer to use a ladle. Don't have to worry about clogging, or stuff settling down to the bottom, and if you cast larger round balls it's a lot easier to get good results with a ladle in my experience just because of the high flow rate. (I cast up to .735 for some context).

 

[D. Buck Stopshere]

Generally, if you knock two ingots together, and they sound to have a little ring, it's not pure lead. Pure lead has a "dead" sound, like "thud" instead of "ding".

Pure lead can be cut deeply with thumbnail, lead alloy will show little or no furrow in the lead. Buy "plumber's lead" from plumbing supply in 5 lb ingots and melt down into 1 lb ingots for future use. Scrap yards also have pure lead for sale, like old lead sheathing that was used on telephone cables back in the seventies, before we knew about fiber optic cable.

Some say wheel weights are mostly pure lead now, but hard to count on it. Sometimes, colleges and hospitals will tear down radiology labs, whose walls are sheathed in sheets of pure lead, 1/4" thick, and 12" squares. I bought 700 lbs of those 12" squares. I suspect I'll be glowing in the dark as I continue to use that for casting .457 RB for my Remington Deluxe .44 Pietta revolver from the '80's.

Make sure you have adequate ventilation when casting inside or out, lead fumes tend to "collect" onto you lungs and stay there for your lifetime.

 

[Field Tester]

^^^ Actually wheel weights are anything but lead now. They used to be a high lead content alloy, but no more. I believe they're Zinc now.

 

[Pete D.]

lead dross

It's called "dross" normal when melting lead.

Yup. And since we are dealing with lead....that stuff is toxic. Be careful how you handle it and how you dispose of it.
About lead fumes......lead must be boiling to produce fumes. That means temps in excess of 1200 degs. Normal casting is at half that or less. The fume idea has been the subject of much discussion over the years....lead must be really hot to produce fumes. Most contamination occurs from sloppy handling.
One must be careful, though, of particulates that may rise with the smoke and flame when fluxing...outdoors please.
Pete

PS: I used to use a bottom pour pot. Nowadays I use a Rowell #1 bottom pour ladle.....a great tool.

 

[Armored farmer]

Just a word of caution for the new casters:
Always wear your safety gear. glasses, long sleeves, gloves, etc. I have been casting for a long time and I had a glob of lead pop out of the pot and land on me. I'm glad it didn't hit bare skin on my face. It was just luck that it didn't.
Casting your own bullets is fun and rewarding, but a big ol' 3rd degree burn would take the fun right out of it!

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

dross

Really pure lead will produce a bluish gold haze on the surface, even with no contaminants in the lead. this is natural.
It will when scraped to the side form a crust.
Try as you might you can not flux this back in.
I skim with a spoon and throw it in an soup can.

less than pure lead will also get crud on top. some is dirt that won't flux in,
perhaps some old paint etc. this will just char to a crust.

Other less than pure lead may have tin or anitmony mixed in. This is used to harden the lead. How hard? You need a tester to know.
The hardened lead is normally used in modern smokeless weapons.
In our BP C&B weapons we prefer pure lead but it is permissible to go up to about 10% tin / antimony.

You can flux the tin and antimony and other lighter metals by adding a piece of paraffin, beeswax, or alox to the top of the lead and stir. caution the fumes can ignite.
But in reality,once the lead tin antimony are melted together at factory they really don't separate much if at all in a melting pot
In our C&B I wouldn't bother fluxing. just scrape it off.

Also those bottom pour pots have been a pain off and on for a long time.
I reshaped a large stainless steel table spoon, added a wood handle to the end and use that as my dipper.

Not all wheel weights are lead these days. both clip on and stick ons are using different alloy and they won't melt.

I'm lucky we got a scrap metal salvage yard here that sells to public. they have always had scrap lead in hand and a scanner to read it.
My lead is always 97% pure or better.
And I pay a reasonable price for it.

 

[Noz]

I buy roofing lead from a salvage yard. If I can take a piece 1/4" thick and bend it like cardboard, I'm happy.

 

[Elkworks]

Thank you all for the input. I greatly appreciate it. It raised a couple of additional questions:
1) I do drop a small amount of bees wax in the pot, but I don't really know how often to do that. I read that you should do that when you add lead, but I am always throwing in my small pieces from then I open the mold to drop the balls out, so that seemed unrealistic. Should I be adding the scraps less often?
2) I think I may have some of the dross adhering on the sides and bottom of the pot, should i take the unit apart and try to get that stuff out? If so, what is the best way to do that.

Thanks again, you all have been helpful and have put my mind at ease a good bit.

 

[J-Bar]

Thank you all for the input. I greatly appreciate it. It raised a couple of additional questions:
1) I do drop a small amount of bees wax in the pot, but I don't really know how often to do that. I read that you should do that when you add lead, but I am always throwing in my small pieces from then I open the mold to drop the balls out, so that seemed unrealistic. Should I be adding the scraps less often?
2) I think I may have some of the dross adhering on the sides and bottom of the pot, should i take the unit apart and try to get that stuff out? If so, what is the best way to do that.

Thanks again, you all have been helpful and have put my mind at ease a good bit.

#1: I use canning paraffin as a flux as well as sawdust. It's a lot cheaper than beeswax and works just fine. (save the beeswax for bullet lube) I will actually throw a dab in the pot before the ingots have melted...when the wax melts and starts to smoke, I will light it with a match. Having a fire inside the pots speeds up the melting considerably. Then add another nickel-sized chunk after all the lead has melted and stir it gently to get as much crud to the top as possible, and skim it off after the fire is over with. ABSOLUTELY imperative to have a fan behind you and blow the smoke to the outside if you are not outside already (I do it just inside my open garage door). You are not going to damage the molten metal with too much flux (wax or sawdust), you will just waste it and make enough smoke that your wife will complain. Don't ask me how I know. I do not flux after this initial bit. I routinely let the sprue fall back into the pot as I cut it, and I see no need to flux unless more ingots are added to the pot. The new ingots may contain some impurities, but the sprue is the same composition as the rest of the pot...no problemo.

#2: Completely drain all lead from the pot. Remove the valve stem by unscrewing the adjusting screw that interlocks with the top of the stem itself. No need to remove anything else. In fact, you don't even need to remove the stem unless there is a lot of scale on the stem itself or inside the spout. Scrape the inside walls and bottom of the pot. I use an old screwdriver; doesn't take much force to knock scale off the walls, then follow up with steel wool to get the last bit off. Make sure the valve stem is clean by giving it a steel wool rub down. Hit the bottom spout with a propane torch on the outside to melt and drain out any remaining lead from inside the spout itself. If you suspect there is scale still inside the spout, you can rub that out with some steel wool wrapped around the tip of a nail. I wipe the inside down with vinegar on a paper towel until I don't get much stain on the towel, but I have been accused of obsessive behavior at times.

I do not do a wash out after every pot; maybe every 6 to 10 pots, or if there is a lot of crud evident on the inside walls.

Sorry for the edits...I keep thinking of stuff.

 

[ontarget]

I use a cast iron cauldron in a bed of hot coals to melt my lead. I don't use any thermometer and don't have any idea of the temperature. I have always gotten the same stuff floating on top and just skim it off and keep going. but I use candle wax to flux and that seems to work ok.