lead impurities

[redear]

I melted a bunch of lead down today that was so full of impurities that I had to scrap the whole mess. It was coils of lead wire about 1/4" thick and hollow and steelhead fishermen use it for sinkers, the impurities rose to the top as a thick black scale that would never stop comming. lol and it plugged the spout up too, and when I would spoon the gunk out of the pot it was like a powder when it cooled, and alot of it was a sulpher yellow color, some of it was a brick red color. Just curious, what was this stuff? I was heating with a lee pot set very hot for the tiny heads I was attemting to pour. I even contaminated my good lead with this stuff. oh, the top of the pot had some slight rainbow colors when I scimmed it.

 

[Ron Don]

Redear it is best to clean the lead in a pot other than your lee and pour it up in ingots. Then use the ingots in your lee pot.

Theres some good info on here about cleaning lead. IM sure someone will link it.

 

[meltleadalot2693]

If you don't want that contaminated lead, I want it. If you want to give it to me, Private Message me if you want to give it away.

 

[Fatman]

Redear

Don't toss it!!!!! I've seen this happen before when I've cleaned out old lead water pipe - It's just a bunch of crap that's built up inside of it. If you already melted all of it down get an old cast iron pan, fire it up and flux the heck out of it. Then scim all the crap off the top of it and flux it again and scim again. Then pour it into ingots. It should be fine!!!!!!!

If you any of it left - take a coat hanger and run a rag through it and get out any crud you can and follow the steps above again.

 

[CrappieHappy]

What Ronny, and Doug stated. I would not use the Lee pour pot to clean the lead, but sounds like you just need to heat and flux the mess out of it with candle Wax etc a few times.

let us know how you do...

 

[SaltyBuckster]

I also had a batch of the same exact looking stuff.It was from some lead that they poured around cast iron water pipes.It had a sulpher looking stuff on top with all kinds of crude that turned to black and red dust floating on top.I was melting it in a large cast iron pot and after many skim jobs and fluxing multiple times it came out as really nice looking ingots.It's just too easy to use a big cast iron and save yopur pour pot for exactly what it was made for,"Pouring"Plus you can just keep filling a big pot and melt so much more lead and clean it well.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Hmm, hollow "wire" 1/4" thick sounds like electrical sheathing, so it might have grease residue on the inside surface. That would create extra slag + foul smelling smoke during burn off. Then again,
"thick black scale" could have been hardened grease or a corrosion surface layer coating.

I agree, sounds like cleaning and fluxing in a separate pot might be a good idea. Usually, a rainbow colored surface skin after skimming indicates quality soft lead. Hard or zinc contaminated lead will have a grainy silvery melt surface.

High heat also increases the rate of slag formation. Even my good clean soft lead will continually form powdery black & yellow floating dross when doing a really hot pour necessary for certain jig heads.

 

[redear]

thanks guys for all the advice, what do you heat the cast iron pot with? this hollow wire was made for fishing by danielson co. and it appeared soft, but when it melted , alot of it just floated on top like powder. even after skimming, the lead never had a glossy shiney look, it had a ssemi krinkled texture to it. I poured it all into little ingots with the warming cavity of a mold. I won't toss it and will definitely feflux and skim in another pot of some kind. thanks guys.

 

[redear]

If this stuff has zinc in it, is there still a chance I could clean it enough for use?

 

[SaltyBuckster]

I use a propane burner.If you could just get it hot enough to melt the lead,say like 600 degrees,you might be able to get rid of some or all of the zinc,not positive about that though.Hawnjigs knows though,lol.

 

[Fatman]

There was a guy over at Cast Boolits that had zinc contaminated lead adn he put sulfur in it
it and kept stiriing. He poured a few bulled heads with what was lft It sill didn't look good.

 

[Hawnjigs]

My expert lead casting mentor suggested that there is no practical cost effective way to clean zinc contaminated lead. Best used for sinkers.

 

[LedHed]

Ditto on the sinkers.

 

[meltleadalot2693]

And that is what we cast is sinkers, so no harm done in that because they will all be lost in the water eventually.

 

[Fatman]

Just clean it up some more I don't think you have anything to worry about - and if you're still worried after after you've cleaned it more, pour all of that batch into jigs and paint em then your done with it.