Zink v.s. Lead

gnmontey

gnmontey

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
GunNutz
Rating - 100%
123   0   0
Location
AB
Was trying to melt what I thought was a lead pipe yesterday.

It refused to melt at lead temperatures?

What is it? Zink? It's heavy and soft like lead.

M
 
What temperature did you reach?

Zinc is definitely harder than lead.
If you drop it on a concrete surface what sound does it make?
If its zinc then it "rings", if lead than it won't "ring"

Might be some alloy that melts at a slightly higher temperature.
I had some lead plumbing pipe that took longer to melt than the rest of the batch but eventually melted, still way below zinc melting temperature.

Hope this helps.
 
Had the heft of lead. An axe left a pretty good cut in it. Just refused to melt down in the molten lead?

M
 
gnmontey said:
Had the heft of lead. An axe left a pretty good cut in it. Just refused to melt down in the molten lead?

M
Click to expand...

Zinc is harder than lead youd know when you try to put a cut in it. If its soft enough to take a good cut from an axe id say its not zinc.

And a magnet doesnt stick to it? If a magnet doesnt stick then im sure thats gotta be lead. Turn your heat up and give'r.
 
53Izzy744 said:
Zinc is harder than lead youd know when you try to put a cut in it. If its soft enough to take a good cut from an axe id say its not zinc.

And a magnet doesnt stick to it? If a magnet doesnt stick then im sure thats gotta be lead. Turn your heat up and give'r.
Click to expand...

^^this.
If you are doing the wheel weight melting thing you might want to consider getting a thermometer so you are not accidentally melting the zinc ones.
Saves you sorting through all of the weights to pull the zinc ones out.
The sorting is the worse part.
 
It's all good.

Was a 10lb piece that I left with a cannon guy that melted my 60lb pigs into usable ingots.

Was just wondering what it might be? I'm thinking lead still?

It wasn't going to melt with the other stuff 7%ant 2%tin


M
 
Last edited:
I have heard that the oxide layer on lead can stop it from melting, happens with reclaimed shot. Try scraping the surface or cutting it in to pieces to expose bare metal, may melt then.
 
It left a very strange scum in the the pot when we tried to melt it?

Black oily crap.

M
 
Last edited:
Might be cooling as your trying to heat it as air in the pipe will take heat away . of course if you had it fully in your melting pot this idea might be out
 
bertn said:
^^this.
If you are doing the wheel weight melting thing you might want to consider getting a thermometer so you are not accidentally melting the zinc ones.
Saves you sorting through all of the weights to pull the zinc ones out.
The sorting is the worse part.
Click to expand...

I did have a thermo there at the time but we were just making ingots so wasn't concerned with the temp. I have used the same burner/pot to melt WW and had no trouble getting the temp up to the high 800's then and suspect the temp the other day was close to that as we had the torch at a pretty good rumble ( we melted 110 lbs of pig in about an hr and a half so no shortage of heat). The piece Monty is referring to sat in 20 lbs. of lead melt for 5 min or so and the cut edges didn't even show a bit of rounding off or any effect from being submerged. I'm pretty sure it isn't lead.

I have a couple of 80 lb pure lead pigs that I plan on ingoting today so will give the "mystery piece" another go and confirm the temp.
 
fingers284 said:
I did have a thermo there at the time but we were just making ingots so wasn't concerned with the temp. I have used the same burner/pot to melt WW and had no trouble getting the temp up to the high 800's then and suspect the temp the other day was close to that as we had the torch at a pretty good rumble ( we melted 110 lbs of pig in about an hr and a half so no shortage of heat). The piece Monty is referring to sat in 20 lbs. of lead melt for 5 min or so and the cut edges didn't even show a bit of rounding off or any effect from being submerged. I'm pretty sure it isn't lead.

I have a couple of 80 lb pure lead pigs that I plan on ingoting today so will give the "mystery piece" another go and confirm the temp.
Click to expand...

Good luck today.
 
Pure lead has a melting temp of 621 degrees but tin reduces leads melting point and the more tin the lower the melting temp. That's why 60/40 solder melts at 363 degrees, even the lead in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom