Gents:
Another Shooters orphan here, & a frequent lurker & learner from you guys, about the black arts.
The thread posted below, from The British Militaria Forum, discusses "cooking" the melt to remove tin, antimony, etc.
Any thoughts on the viability of this procedure in order to obtain pure or nearly pure lead from wheelweights or range scrap?
I ask because I'm not a chemist, nor do I play one on TV.
Thanks. http://pub182.ezboard.com/fbritishmilitariaforumsfrm5.showMessage?topicID=49.topic

WBB...My shooting partner's practice was to "cook" his melt for 30 minutes before casting.

A light skimming was then done to remove any foreign material.

Then the melt was fluxed and allowed to sit for about 5 minutes before casting.

Sprues and rejects were not added to the melt during casting.

He obtained very nice bullets.

This works but most casters don't have the time to go through this ceremony prior to casting with the limited time available to them./beagle

Lead melts at ~671 degrees, antimony melts around 1170 degrees and tin about 450. BUT, the vpor pressure of tin is 12 orders of magnitude lower than lead or antimony and antimony is 2 orders of magnitude lower than lead.

Once the alloy is hot enough for these to separate, the lead will vaporize before the other constituents. I read the other thread and what that individual is scraping away is just oxidized alloy.

Nitroman, what you are referring to is pretty much what is termed by us shooter's orphans as the slush stage of a melt. The games you play during the heat-up is different for the same you play during the heat-down process of metal seperation. If you expect a serious bad lead mix, then it is best to not flux after a heat-up and just throw away that which is resting on top. On the converse, throwing away that which is on top after a slow cooling is just throwing away (should be kept) is excess tin, antimony, copper or whatever. Alloys which exhibit no or just a little slush stage are those that are at the individual max capacity of whatever are the constituents. ... felix

I cast last weekend, first time in several months. The alloy that had been left in the pot during that period was very badly eroded on the surface - solid actually gone. The pot had been left sitting on my casting table in the barn. This stuff had been cold since Memorial Day. Apparently during the last cool down whatever (I suspect tin) was on the surface separated enough to be ozidized. What was in the pot, No. 2, cast just fine. In fact that is what Waksupi is getting in 35-200-FN.

Felix, I have 2 one pound coffee cans of 'slush' that we should throw in the next batch of WWs. Waddya think? And more importantly, whendaya think? It's finally cooled off enough to enjoy doing something outside other than soaking in the pool. My next three Saturdays (Sept 13, 20, 27) are matches, every one of which I will shoot cast boolits - Mil Bolt, Single Shot, and High Power. Looks like watch the wx, and maybe I take a day off work - yea that sounds good. sundog

Yep, Sundog, the weather is great for a change. Probably won't last long, but that's OK. Plenty of good times ahead. Lew must get his stuff down to you before we do the melt. Lew, do you hear that? It's time to ship!!! Yeah, we can throw that slush into the pot allright. The WW will adsorb it fine. A weekday is mow-betta' than a weekend, it appears. ... felix

Felix (and all the other subscribers to the FWFBL melt): You may find your have a problem with cashing "stale" checks, since you've had to wait 4+ months for cool enough weather (NOT a complaint!!!). Useta be, checks lived forever (except U. S. Gov't. checks, which had a three-month lifetime). Now, some banks are getting chinchy about cashing old checks. If you have ANY problems here, just let us know. On my part, I could write you a new one and ask you to "void" the old one and just stick it into the packet. Check with your bank and see what they say. floodgate

OK, Doug, point well taken. I'll ask the bank to cash them anyway, and tell them to hold those that don't clear within a week or so. Then I'll send emails and post on the board, or send letters depending on how many went south. ... felix