How pure is my lead?

[tinbum]

My Lee production mk4 arrived earlier this week and it's great! It gets to temperature and melts really fast, it has a new design of tap which (so far) hasn't dripped and is allround a great thing.

I have scavenged lead from the range and now have over 9kg of pure-ish ingots, basically stirred and scraped until nothing else came to the surface. I made and used lots of 12g slugs from this stock, but now I have a mould for .357. Do I just use this grade lead or does it need treating with wax first?

I did flux a batch but I didn't really see a difference, am I doing it wrong?

Last question, one ingot fell in half when I lifted it, was this just because it was too hot? Once it was cool it marks with a nail etc.

[IMG][/IMG]

[JB101]

I would always recommend fluxing every batch of lead being melted .
The ingot break does not look right but as you said could be because it was hot when dropped and broke.
If the lead is pure in the pot you’ll notice an almost iridescent finish on the surface of the melt.
Could be that you need to turn the heat up a bit in the pot .
No doubt you’ll get more replies from people with a lot more experience of casting than myself.
ATB
James

[TALL]

is the range scrap all slugs or various cals of bullets?

[tinbum]

is the range scrap all slugs or various cals of bullets?

All sorts including lots of lead dust from the knock-down hoppers

[TALL]

range scrap is usually very hard, not good for slugs,
roofing lead and pipe is a good source of pure-ish lead,
yours will make nice rifle bullets,
good luck,
T

[tinbum]

range scrap is usually very hard, not good for slugs,
roofing lead and pipe is a good source of pure-ish lead,
yours will make nice rifle bullets,
good luck,
T

I melted some lead, did some fluxing and tried my new .357 mould. They look pretty

[IMG][/IMG]

[tinbum]

Thankyou James. I am a complete beginner and this forum is a great resource of info

[loiner1965]

Thankyou James. I am a complete beginner and this forum is a great resource of info

if you can scratch it then its soft lol....
looks like the ignot wasnt fully hardened when dropped

[WebleyWombler]

I would always recommend fluxing every batch of lead being melted .
The ingot break does not look right but as you said could be because it was hot when dropped and broke.
If the lead is pure in the pot you’ll notice an almost iridescent finish on the surface of the melt.
Could be that you need to turn the heat up a bit in the pot .
No doubt you’ll get more replies from people with a lot more experience of casting than myself.
ATB
James

Pure lead will bend and stretch, not break when hot. That ingot has a lot of either antimony or tin in it, i suspect antimony. Good for casting metallic auto bullets but I wouldn't use it for shotgun slugs without a sabot