Melting lead in the cold-my new experience
Posted: 13 Dec 2017 20:52
Hello all,
Today I finally found an old, leftover piece of lead flashing that I have had for 18 or so years. it was almost 3 feet long, maybe 10 inches wide. I have looked high and low for it recently because I wanted to use a 2 quart cast dutch oven I have to melt lead and wanted to test it with the flashing. Someone here mentioned that they had used the side burner on a grill to smelt with a small pot so I wanted to give it a try. This would be my very first attempt at melting lead.
I got everything together, my plan was to melt, flux with wax, clean the scuz (it is dirty and cruddy from being outside in a tin shed and even had mouse droppings on it) and try to pour into a tin that I used to clean small parts in, since I don't have real ingot mold yet. It was around 20 degrees Fahrenheit here when I started heating the dutch oven on the grill side burner. It took a while but melted pretty well and I kept adding little pieces until there was a decent little puddle. The scuz really separated itself very well and then I fluxed and let it smoke real well, everything looked great. There was a small chunk that seemed like it just would not melt all the way and I realized it was probably cooling off and hardening in that spot. I left the lid on for a while and came back and that helped but still there would always be an area, maybe a little bigger than a quarter where the top would harden. I fluxed and cleaned and the same thing kept happening. I left it in the pot and let it harden completely.
It appears that the temperature of the mix and amount of BTUs from the side burner was not enough to overcome the cold air and it just got hard spots on top. Does this sound possible? I have never done it before so it is all new to me. I am pretty happy with the results so far. Next I want to try the turkey fryer with the same 2 quart dutch oven. It cleaned up nicely so far, I will put the piece that I cleaned so far in the pot and start fresh, adding the rest of the lead as I go. Same fluxing and cleaning and mixing. Hopefully the heat from that fryer will get it hot enough to liquefy everything. Also, I don't want to 'over cook' the lead. Anything I should look for? Signs of too much heat or not enough? Thanks for listening.
Today I finally found an old, leftover piece of lead flashing that I have had for 18 or so years. it was almost 3 feet long, maybe 10 inches wide. I have looked high and low for it recently because I wanted to use a 2 quart cast dutch oven I have to melt lead and wanted to test it with the flashing. Someone here mentioned that they had used the side burner on a grill to smelt with a small pot so I wanted to give it a try. This would be my very first attempt at melting lead.
I got everything together, my plan was to melt, flux with wax, clean the scuz (it is dirty and cruddy from being outside in a tin shed and even had mouse droppings on it) and try to pour into a tin that I used to clean small parts in, since I don't have real ingot mold yet. It was around 20 degrees Fahrenheit here when I started heating the dutch oven on the grill side burner. It took a while but melted pretty well and I kept adding little pieces until there was a decent little puddle. The scuz really separated itself very well and then I fluxed and let it smoke real well, everything looked great. There was a small chunk that seemed like it just would not melt all the way and I realized it was probably cooling off and hardening in that spot. I left the lid on for a while and came back and that helped but still there would always be an area, maybe a little bigger than a quarter where the top would harden. I fluxed and cleaned and the same thing kept happening. I left it in the pot and let it harden completely.
It appears that the temperature of the mix and amount of BTUs from the side burner was not enough to overcome the cold air and it just got hard spots on top. Does this sound possible? I have never done it before so it is all new to me. I am pretty happy with the results so far. Next I want to try the turkey fryer with the same 2 quart dutch oven. It cleaned up nicely so far, I will put the piece that I cleaned so far in the pot and start fresh, adding the rest of the lead as I go. Same fluxing and cleaning and mixing. Hopefully the heat from that fryer will get it hot enough to liquefy everything. Also, I don't want to 'over cook' the lead. Anything I should look for? Signs of too much heat or not enough? Thanks for listening.