Kind of stinky and smokey

gnmontey

gnmontey

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A friend gave me 5 lead rings approx. 4" dia that he salvaged from some sort of building renovation. They actually looked like very corroded pieces of cast iron. Today I was bored so I decided to melt them down to clean ingots. They produced a rather black smoke and didn't smell all that great? Lots of light brown powdery slag some of which glowed red on top of the melt. Scooped a screw out of the mix as well. After cleaning the melt up and fluxing, the lead appeared to be boiling (as in slow boil)? Never seen that before. Made me a little nervous. Is this boiling phenomenon a normal occurrence?

My hardness tester indicates it's very close to pure lead.

M
 
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Sounds like solder from the joints in cast iron plumbing pipes.
Probably has a high tin content, like 40 to 50%.

I have a bucket full of these waiting in the garage so thanks for the stink warning :)
 
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bertn said:
Sounds like solder from the joints in cast iron plumbing pipes. Probably has a high tin content, like 40 to 50%.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting comment? I fished some rather large pieces of metal out of the slag I skimmed off. I'll have to take a closer look at that stuff. Seemed harder than lead. Did I skim a bunch of tin out of the melt?

Ya, the smell was something like what you might smell coming out of an old drain pipe.

M
 
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bertn said:
Sounds like solder from the joints in cast iron plumbing pipes.
Probably has a high tin content, like 40 to 50%.

I have a bucket full of these waiting in the garage so thanks for the stink warning :)
Click to expand...

That would be my first thought as well, old plumbing lead.
 
Here is a pic of my poo pipe joint solder.

LxHvpSb.png
 
Picked through the slag I skimmed off yesterday and found lots of metal that appears to be harder than lead. Is that the tin?

Also, found the piece that was floating around glowing in the slag. Cork or something to that effect.

M
 
gnmontey said:
Picked through the slag I skimmed off yesterday and found lots of metal that appears to be harder than lead. Is that the tin?

Also, found the piece that was floating around glowing in the slag. Cork or something to that effect.

M
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the harder pieces are cast iron flakes. Just check it with a magnet.
The tin is sort of dissolved in the alloy so it can't be tin.

The cork like piece might be a chunk of the oakum yarn that was used to seal/waterproof the joint in the drain pipes.
These fittings slide inside each other for a few inches, then the oakum yarn gets hammers in the joint, fills up most of the space and the last 1/2 or 3/4 inch got filled with molten lead to keep the joint/pipes rigid and together.
 
Actually, Tin has a lower melting temperature than lead, so the chunks would not be tin, for sure.
Probably cast iron from the piping. It would float, being considerably lighter than lead or Lead/tin alloy.
Eagleye.
 
bertn said:
I'm guessing the harder pieces are cast iron flakes. Just check it with a magnet.
The tin is sort of dissolved in the alloy so it can't be tin.
Click to expand...

Well it's not magnetic and is in the form of melted blobs. Maybe it is lead that I managed to scoop up with the slag? There was lots of slag to scoop off.

M
 
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gnmontey said:
Well it's not magnetic and is in the form of melted blobs. Maybe it is lead that I managed to scoop up with the slag? There was lots of slag to scoop off.

M
Click to expand...

Yes probably lead tin alloy. Just throw it back in a lead pail and mix it in with the next melt.
 
bertn said:
Yes probably lead tin alloy. Just throw it back in a lead pail and mix it in with the next melt.
Click to expand...

That's what I did alright:)

I think the boiling activity I thought I saw was just my pot vibrating. Sometimes it hums at the high heat setting.

So that's what poo pipe smells like eh. Yuck.

M
 
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