Lee Loader

Horseman wrote:Larry Is the melt like that all the way to the bottom of the pot or is it a thick "film" on top. As best I can tell from the picture it does look like a Zinc contamination but you're not hot enough to melt Zinc. I'm an idiot, that's probably why it looks like oatmeal...

Howdy Gus, I would imagine it's all the through ? It looked fine until it started to cool.
Sure hope I don't have any more, my lead stash is very small & don't have a source
for more..

larryw wrote:
Howdy Gus, I would imagine it's all the through ? It looked fine until it started to cool.
Sure hope I don't have any more, my lead stash is very small & don't have a source
for more..

Well, heat er' back up, cast a few and see what they look like, then weigh them. If the bullets are running light it could well be Zinc but if they look alright I'd shoot a few and see what the results are. Zinc sure won't hurt the barrel and will still kill a can...

You and I are in the same boat as far as a lead "stash"....

Zink won't hurt anything? I can live with that. Think I'm gonna try what you said, tossing
that much lead makes my stomach turn, Thanks Gus.
Since wheel weights have become extinct, what is everyone doing for lead,
especially New & intermediate casters, buying it from Roto Metals ?

There's more to worry about with SOW than zinc. SOWs have all manner of make up now.

If it is zinc, It can be cleaned out with sulfur or copper sulfate. Lead alloys can have 1% zinc in them without causing casting problems. 1% zinc will make the alloy harder. If cleaning out the zinc with copper sulfate it will add copper to the alloy. .5 % copper in the alloy will make it harder and tougher. ' Do not clean this up in your Lee melting pot. Use a larger pot over a burner. It looks like about 20 pounds in that pot, and I am too cheep to throw it out.
Good luck.

Zinc IS a hard metal, but it's very brittle. Much lighter than lead in weight. A long time back there was a brand of bullets that used zinc as a "kinda" gas check. Don't remember much about that, it's been awhile, but seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. Over on Cast Boolits there are a few threads from fellas working the zinc boolit "experiment". Quite a few problems involved.


It also melts at a higher temp than lead alloys, so "generally" if you have a pot set at 700 degrees or so, if zinc is added to the melt it will become evident (doesn't melt readily). If it's already been smelted into a lead alloy from a higher temperature pot, I'm not sure if it will "rise" to the top of the pot once the "lead" from THAT "alloy" has melted at a lower temp or not. I have not had that issue (yet)....interesting conundrum though....well, not for Larry at this point...

It's a head scratcher for me that's for sure, would love to know the details though ????
I'm going to do what Horseman suggested, remelt, cast a few & weigh ??????
When Daboone gets back from his really nasty, hard, yucky trip to his beautiful
place in Hawaii, we're going to fire up his rig & re-smelt everything & try to see
what's going on ???

Yep it a hard nasty life over here on Kealakekua Bay. Snorkeling everyday, watching the eruption up at The Volcano National Park, when not weeding, fixing the sprinkler system, planting papaya trees in between eating mangos from the 2 mango trees. It a nasty job but someone has to do it.
I looking to hire a part time pretty lady who could put up with me for the duration of this trip. No references required but be able to drink enough to not choke when she see this ornery old ugly grump.

When I had 40 pounds get contaminated I luckily had some road flares on hand I used to skim because of sulfur content. Took me two hours and saved me about 15 pounds of lead. The rest was thrown out. May not be worth it. It wasn't to me as all my WW were free.

larryw wrote:Since wheel weights have become extinct, what is everyone doing for lead,
especially New & intermediate casters, buying it from Roto Metals ?

I'm getting my fix of lead ingots from evil bay. look for lead ingots, range scrap etc.
Can get them shipped for $1.30-$1.50 if patient enough.
Most of that is good enough for non-magnum pistol loads.