Pellet Lead Melting Question

C

Cactus

Regular
Rating - 100%
22   0   0
Location
Thunder Bay ON
A friend of mine that is an airgun shooter dropped off a coffee can full of pellets taken from his pellet trap. I want to make these into slugs but noticed that there is a lot of cardboard and duct seal bits in the can from his trap.

Can I melt and clean the lead from the can in my Lee production pot or will the bits of crap plug things up and cause grief or should I try to find an old pot to melt and clean the lead in first, then make ingots for the production pot?

Thanks
Cactus
 
You can do it in your production pot but I find it a little bit cramped for fluxing, stirring and skimming
I always clean and alloy my lead in a big cast iron pot on a gas-fired burner.
That way, I have enough space to clean the metal of any dirt. I flux often with Marvelux (borax is great, too) and stir a lot.
I made myself a skimmer by buying the biggest stainless spoon I could find and perforating it with small holes, about 3/32'' and insulating the handle with wood.
All the dross is kept in a closed metal container, ready for the garbage truck.
The production pot or furnace is best kept for final melting and casting purposes.
PP.
 
Thanks PP,

I used the Lee pot, it was easier than digging out my burner and other stuff. A full pot and a half of pellets after melting and cleaning got me 35 1oz slugs and another 5 or 10 worth of clean lead left in the botom of the pot.

All the crap that I was concerned about burned up and I scooped it off as ashes, then did the stir flux and skim untill the lead was clean and started to pour. the slugs came out great and the spout didn't plug or leak at all.

It was more work but I have been spoiled so far with nice clean lead and wanted to see how much of a pain the pellets would be.

Cactus
 
It's about the purest lead you can get; it's made for swaging.
For casting purposes, I would just add a bit of 50/50 solder to get some tin in that mix and give it even better casting properties.
What slug mould do you use? Lee or Lyman?
PP.
 
I use the Lee 1oz key slug mould. I have read that others use some tin in the mix but the Lee instructions say to use pure lead. Thats what I have been doing and the resaults have been great.

Or as good as can be expected out of a smoothbore shotgun.

Gotta get a round ball mould next and try those...

Cactus
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom