Armory Sponsor
Posted: 2/16/2016 11:32:01 PM EDT
|
Long time member, reloading for about 5 years now, probably about 50-70k reloads under my belt across 13 calibers. Boatload of supplies but for some reason figured i'd like to try my hand at casting just to round it all out.
Have my 58,000 BYU camp burner, 5 quart pot, spoons and ladle with wood handles, 2 lyman ingot molds, rcbs thermometer. going to hit the depot tomorrow and grab my welders gloves, face shield and p100 respirator (oh and sawdust :-) ). Then it's time to make ingots! Have about 8 lbs of range lead that's going first just to get the hang of it. Then FREE wheel weights :-) I grabbed and sorted. Guess i'll see how well I identified the zinc ones when I see any floaters. 15 lbs of stick on wheel weights, i'll probably take this off for trade for hardening agents or something since I don't currently load round ball. 126 lbs of wheel weights. figure I should easily come out with 75 lbs of usable lead minus clips unless I did a poor job on the zinc ones. I'll process all I can in a few hours sitting, then some future date get my molds for 7.62x39 and venture to the bullet making side. I'll also look into getting the hardness tester so I can determine each bars hardness and if I need to add anything to it when I drop them into the pot. Anyhow.....just sharing, you guys have helped a lot along the way with reloading and I know several of you cast, so you've converted another :-) Now it's shoot, pickup brass, mine the berms if they are open. lord help me. |
|
Quoted:
Or just run your pot at sub 700 F and the zinc will float Quoted:
Quoted:
Be sure you understand how to identify and keep zinc wheel weights out of your mix. Zinc wheel weights will ruin your mix. Zinc have a slight ring to them while lead weights have more of a thud. Or just run your pot at sub 700 F and the zinc will float Yep, try to manually sort out the zinc then get the floaters. |
|
A good pair of diagonal cutter can help you. Take a known Zn and attempt to cut it with the cutters, then a known lead. Big difference. Then drop each of them on a concrete floor. You'll hear the difference in the sound they make, a ring for zinc and a duller thunk for lead.
|
|
Save the zinc for the recyclers.
Another option is there was a gentleman in Montana I believe that used to trade people pound for pound lead/zinc. I believe he made cannonballs out of the zinc. I think it had to be 40+ pounds for him to even consider it. You would contact him to agree to the deal and exchange information. You send your Zinc to him in a flat rate box, a few days later a flat rate box full of lead shows up at your door. Do a google search for lead zinc trade with the site mentioned above. |
|
Well I sorted all the WW and believe I have culled out all the zinc. But I plan to melt below 700 anyhow.
Steel was easy. Zinc if marked. I also found some that were covered in a thick plastic. Not wanting to dig through the thick cover I just tossed them assumed as zinc. I noticed the zinc was just as hard to scratch and dig as the steel, but I did find some WW that were not as easy to scratch as obvious lead ones but they did scratch with effort. I also found an awl was much easier vs dykes. |
|
I am sure you know this but just in case... make sure all of your range lead has absolutely no water in it. If you drop range lead or anything with water trapped in it and it goes below the surface of your molten lead... steam kaboom, lead everywhere.
Start at 3:48 (his problem may have been humid air or just air trapped in the pipe but it is the same result, quickly expanding gasses in molten lead) 
|
|
You really don't need a lead hardness tester. A $8 walmart drawing pencil set wil work.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pro-Art-Drawing-Set-18-Pieces/24693745?action=product_interest&action_type=title&item_id=24693745&placement_id=irs-2-m2&strategy=PWVAV&visitor_id&category=&client_guid=4341df47-20af-44c0-b297-738b3fecc8e7&customer_id_enc&config_id=2&parent_item_id=24419092&parent_anchor_item_id&guid=f1ea3aae-6aa2-4aba-9878-a65b149194ad&bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&beacon_version=1.0.1&findingMethod=p13n Use the different pencils on lead alloys that you know what they are to calibrate/confirm what alloy matches your pencils and make a chart.  " />
A bullets hardness is ssssoooooooooo over rated!!! 1000's of caster have gotten by with nothing more than ww's and water putting countless 1,000,000's of bullets down range. If strait ww's air cooled didn't work then they're water dropped to make them harder. ww's are to hard then mix them with stick on ww's. I've shot nothing but range scrap for 3+decades. I either cast and air cool or water drop for harder bullets. That range scrap has covered 99% of my cast bullet/shooting needs. I don't shoot as much cast bullets as some members on this forum but I manage to get around #300 of lead down range a year using 9 different calibers. Keep it simple and enjoy |
|
Quoted:
I am sure you know this but just in case... make sure all of your range lead has absolutely no water in it. If you drop range lead or anything with water trapped in it and it goes below the surface of your molten lead... steam kaboom, lead everywhere. Start at 3:48 (his problem may have been humid air or just air trapped in the pipe but it is the same result, quickly expanding gasses in molten lead)  https://youtu.be/50T3sxiExbMAKA. The tinsel fairy will visit you and fill the air with hot moulting tinsel. Don't ask how I know. 
Motor |
|
so heres my post on another forum the cast boolits one.
My first Smelt It went well and yes...empty pot and never adding to it works wonders for avoiding the tinsel fairy. quite simple way to avoid major issue. |
Armory Sponsor