My 1st melt UPDATED

camster said:
less than a year ago for me, and it seems sooooo fast.
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...eights-and-some-quot-what-not-to-do-quot-tips

A quick sort, make first melt downwind of anything you care about (it does stink), leave a 1/2" of "known good" in your pot, and it becomes pretty tricky to screw up...
Lots of slung lead, and still a "float" of 80lbs in ingots later I have found the hobby of bullet making, and reloading as pleasurable as shooting.
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Some good info there
 
Armored Metal said:
Will sawdust make the temperature go up like wax does?

Before I fluxed, I was having issues with lead solidifying on the edges of my pan. Once I fluxed, it all went liquid and ready to be poured.
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I don't think fluxing had anything to do with your observation. Were you using a thermometer?

M
 
gnmontey said:
I don't think fluxing had anything to do with your observation. Were you using a thermometer?

M
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I was not using a thermometer. I was struggling with my batch wich was melted in the middle but hard all around the sides of the pan. I stirred and stirred and the lead went completly liquid only when I fluxed with wax.

Was it just a coinsidence?
 
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Armored Metal said:
I stirred and stirred and the lead went completly liquid only when I fluxed with wax.
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So you added wax and shazam the whole pot went molten or the whole pot was totally molten once the flux flames died off?

Magic wax?

M
 
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Armored Metal said:
I was not using a thermometer. I was struggling with my batch wich was melted in the middle but hard all around the sides of the pan. I stirred and stirred and the lead went completly liquid only when I fluxed with wax.

Was it just a coinsidence?
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Typical. Your burner is smaller than your pan. Any wind will cool what is not directly over the flame. Put the sucker close to the ground and put up some baffles to keep the wind off the pan. Or get a bigger burner.
 
Nice Job, l would like to get into this but I just don't have the time, is it still fairly easy to get lead wheel weights?
 
The proper combined alloy has a lower melting temp than pure lead does. I'm no expert, but I lab tech'd civil engineering labs for a few years. I've also noticed it when I'm adding a pure ingot to my pot. It will float around in there for quite a while if I'm not really hot.


QUOTE=Armored Metal;14106219]Will sawdust make the temperature go up like wax does?

Before I fluxed, I was having issues with lead solidifying on the edges of my pan. Once I fluxed, it all went liquid and ready to be poured.[/QUOTE]
 
odsixer said:
Nice Job, l would like to get into this but I just don't have the time, is it still fairly easy to get lead wheel weights?
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Thank you. It has been a bit time consuming so far when you put it all together.

I visited 2 scrap yards and only collected 70lbs of WW, of which 1/4 were zinc or steel. I was slow at first sorting them out but got faster the more I did. I pre-burned the non stick coating of my muffin pans with a blowtorch. I read and watched a lot of videos + read a lot of threads on different forums. So, yes. You do need time to start off but just like reloading I figure I'll just get better in time and require less time to do it.

I just hope I can find more WW. Still got 2 other scrap yards in the area that I have to check out.
 
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Just did batch #2 and it went really well! I followed Maltextract's tips. I put my pan close to the ground, put up a wind break and covered it with a lid.

I ended up with 25lbs of minimuffins WW ingots in 1 1/2 hour of work. Pretty happy about it.
 
Armored Metal;14128298I said:
I ended up with 25lbs of minimuffins WW ingots in 1 1/2 hour of work. Pretty happy about it.
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Looks good! What was the bottle neck on that melt? Waiting for the muffin tins to solidify? I haven't done a big batch on my own yet, so I'm curious.

M
 
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