Help casting issues

Striker33

Striker33

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Hey guys...

I thought I would try my hand at melting and pouring lead... I am just using a pot and colman stove. I started melting wheel weights, everything seemed ok... I fluxed 3-4 times, and started to pour... It went all grainy, and not at all what I was expecting ( was pouring into lee molds).

Did I ruin the pot with zinc? did I over heat it? Or do i just need to flux more?
 
Sounds like zinc. Look for the W/W's with Z or ZN on them and collect them to sell to scrap yards. If you haven't melted a whole lot you might as well save that for scrap sale and start over.
 
I found coleman stove to be marginal for heat, especially if your pot holds more than 5 pounds. Sort out the zinc ww first! Castboolits forum has ID for different wheelweights. When I had zinc contamination the alloy surface looked like porridge, lumpy/ not grainy. By grainy, do you mean frosted?(not a serious problem.)
 
It looks like sand! wet sand when it is drying... I dumped the 8 lbs and am going to try a SMALL pot of JUST lead... I sorted out the zinc ( I thought) but apparently not. It looks fine when it is hot... shiny and fluid.
 
It may also be that your mould was not hot enought. If the mold is cold the bullets will come out very poor. Try heating your moulds or just keep casting for a bit until your mould gets hot and see if the bullets start looking ok.

Graydog
 
I've seen that texture in WW alloy before. You aren't nearly hot enough.
Propane stoves and the like are often great for smelting wheel weights into ingots but not hot enough for actual casting.
The sandy texture comes from the heat being hot enough to melt a portion of the lead but not hot enough to melt it all so metal crystals remain solid in the molten portion.
I often get that texture when adding cold ingots to my pot when it's low on lead. The ingots first break down into a sandy texture and after a few minutes more of heating they melt totally into the liquid phase.
 
Lee Moulds are hard to keep the heet into, I never worry about what the ingot looks like. If I do want a pretty one, I will heat the mould. Last casting I did, the WW lead was barely warm enough to pour and solidified in the mould in seconds, ugly ingots but production was good. It was about -5 deg Cent outside the last time I did WW lead into ingots :)
 
Chances are the sandy texture is still in it before it pours but it's in the bottom.
I use a $20 electric hot plate from Canadian Tire to smelt into ingots but it still isn't hot enough for casting.
I use a cheap Lee pot for casting and it works just fine.
If you are just casting ingots for melting later the grainy texture doesn't matter as some have already said.
If you overheat molten lead it just oxidizes faster and gets a layer of slag on the top. You can't ruin it by overheating unless it all oxidizes (which would be difficult to do).
 
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I use a Coleman propane stove, an old stainless pot and a lee ladle , makes perfect boollits and slugs.
I don't premake ingots. What ever the lead pieces are go straight in the pot , drop a chuck of candle
Wax in then scoop out the slag. Nice brite shiny slugs
 
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