lead smelting

[silentvoice71]

Ok im new to lead smelting. What do i spray on my muffin tins to get the lead to release?

 

[T/C Guy]

. . . What do i spray on my muffin tins to get the lead to release?

Lead and lead alloys shrink considerably as they cool. I've never had ingots stick in my cast iron muffin pan or in my commercial cast aluminum ingot molds. Test your tins by pouring a little lead in/on them - it will probably fall off easily when the lead sets up.

 

[scattergunner]

A word of caution here make sure that your muffin tins are dry, you do not want oil, water, spry etc on them. The molten metal can turn these things into steam immediately and in a sense it explodes. Dry and clean is the best advice here.

 

[nucone]

An old bullet caster told me that prior to pouring his ingots, he soots up his ingot molds with a candle. The lamp black acts as a release agent.

 

[silentvoice71]

Ill try soot and letting them cool longer

 

[T/C Guy]

A word of caution here make sure that your muffin tins are dry, you do not want oil, water, spry etc on them. The molten metal can turn these things into steam immediately and in a sense it explodes. Dry and clean is the best advice here.

Excellent point !
Silentvoice - the above advice holds true for any point in the smelting cycle when the lead is liquid. Sweat dripping into your melting pot or adding scrap with moisture on it to your pot can cause an explosion.

 

[Double T]

Let them cool completely and they should drop out plenty easily.

 

[mac45]

Never had to soot mine, but it can't hurt anything.
Do make sure everything is dry.
Water and molten lead will get you a visit from the tinsel fairy.
Trust me....that's not a good thing.

 

[Slawburger]

Some lure molders use candle soot as a release agent. I have never found it necessary but that would be my first remedy if sticking became a problem.

Agree with the others on water (any liquids). Molten lead in the air = bad day at the mine. I avoid even dripping sweat into my lead melter. I don't know how much steam is required to create a pocket that results in lead leaving the pot and I don't intend to find out empirically.

 

[Cat-Herder]

I have received a visit from the Tinsel Fairy, and can assure you. you do NOT want water/moisture/sweat/ getting into your melter. I now keep my quenching bucket FAR away from my melting pot.
A stray drop of water from a bullet splash made it's way against all odds into my pot...luckily, I was far enough away from it that I didn't get hit...but cleaning it up was time-consuming....

 

[wolfman]

Ok im new to lead smelting. What do i spray on my muffin tins to get the lead to release?

Rust
Keep them damp for a few days till they turn brown with rust, then let them dry and the ingots will fall right out when you turn them over and tap lightly on the bottom.

 

[warthog]

Let me first tell you what you are doing isn't smelting. You are either alloying your lead with other metals to get your hardness up to avoid leading in the barrel or simply making ingots out of your lead for future ease of use. Unless you really are starting from ore than removing the metal oxide from the rock then reducing it back into lead, you aren't smelting.

not looking to start any arguments or cause anyone embarrassment, just looking to expand the knowledge base.

As for making ingots, with muffin pans, I simply poured the lead into the cups and let them cool to the point they will fall out and not pour out. Then I let them cool enough to move by hand and stack them up for future use. I take a marking stamp and stamp a capital "L" into ingots of pure lead and for the alloys I make I stamp the number of the Brinnell Hardness into them so I am not looking at a bunch of things that look the same wondering which is which. This is especially helpful when you knock over piles and they all get mixed up. Ask me how I know.

 

[woodsie57]

Rust
Keep them damp for a few days till they turn brown with rust, then let them dry and the ingots will fall right out when you turn them over and tap lightly on the bottom.

Wolfman nailed it

 

[ifr2]

Cat-Herder I enjoyed swapping stories with you last night. Let me know when you're ready to go send lead down range again.

 

[PapaScout]

Excellent point !
Silentvoice - the above advice holds true for any point in the smelting cycle when the lead is liquid. Sweat dripping into your melting pot or adding scrap with moisture on it to your pot can cause an explosion.

So does trying to make a metal cast in a turtle shell. Not one of my finer moments...

 

[jcwit]

Let me first tell you what you are doing isn't smelting. You are either alloying your lead with other metals to get your hardness up to avoid leading in the barrel or simply making ingots out of your lead for future ease of use. Unless you really are starting from ore than removing the metal oxide from the rock then reducing it back into lead, you aren't smelting.

not looking to start any arguments or cause anyone embarrassment, just looking to expand the knowledge base.

Also not wishing to start an argument. BUT, its common knowledge amongst folks who cast whatever, be it bullets or toy soldiers or anything ease, its commonly called smelting when melting down range lead or any other scrap lead. At least this has been my experience since I started casting in the 1950's, amongst my fellow muzzleloaders at that time and ever since.

We all know what we're talking about, this is similar to is it a clip or a magazine, or is it an automatic, is that full automatic or semi auto? Is it a crick or a creek?

But you are correct in your description if we wish to be absolutely correct.

 

[warthog]

call it the wrong thing long enough and folks think it's right. or is it that you DO intend to start a pissing match?

Is this your argument? It's folks like you making English one of the hardest languages to use scientifically where it was once the common tongue of science after GERMAN & FRENCH. Now, we are back to German & French for serious scientific papers and finding. Looks like the USA slips down another notch again due to mediocrity and people who just need to correct folks who are right in the first place.

 

[jcwit]

call it the wrong thing long enough and folks think it's right. or is it that you DO intend to start a pissing match?

Is this your argument? It's folks like you making English one of the hardest languages to use scientifically where it was once the common tongue of science after GERMAN & FRENCH. Now, we are back to German & French for serious scientific papers and finding. Looks like the USA slips down another notch again due to mediocrity and people who just need to correct folks who are right in the first place.

Did I not say in my first comment that I did not intend to start a "PISSING MATCH" which I used decent English in referring to it as an argument. I ment exactly what I said and nothing less or nothing more. You seem to be the one wishing for the argument as you brought it up again attempting to refute me, and what I said.

Go somewhere and argue with yourself, I refuse to bring myself down to your level.




Please Note! I stated you were actually correct with the last line of my post. Make note of that.

 

[wolfman]

call it the wrong thing long enough and folks think it's right. or is it that you DO intend to start a pissing match?

Is this your argument? It's folks like you making English one of the hardest languages to use scientifically where it was once the common tongue of science after GERMAN & FRENCH. Now, we are back to German & French for serious scientific papers and finding. Looks like the USA slips down another notch again due to mediocrity and people who just need to correct folks who are right in the first place.

Here is a link to a forum with almost 30,000 members who "ALL" call it Smelting. Like it or not, in the bullet casting world, which you appear to not be a part of, the process of melting down scrap lead and removing the unwanted material is called "Smelting".

Cast Boolits

 

[17 squirrel]

Lead smelting

Plants for the production of lead are generally referred to as lead smelters. Primary lead production begins with sintering. Concentrated lead ore is fed into a sintering machine with iron, silica, limestone fluxes, coke, soda ash, pyrite, zinc, caustics or pollution control particulates. Smelting uses suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. Reduction is the final, high-temperature step in smelting. It is here that the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment (often provided by carbon monoxide in an air-starved furnace) pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal.

Lead is usually smelted in a blast furnace using the carbon from the sintering machine to provide the heat source. As melting occurs, several layers form in the furnace. The molten lead layer sinks to the bottom of the furnace. A layer of the lightest elements, including arsenic and antimony, floats to the top and is referred to as the speiss. A "matte" layer also forms from the copper and metal sulfides. Finally, a layer of blast furnace slag, which contains mostly silicates, also forms. The speiss and the matte are usually sold to copper smelters where they are refined for copper processing. The slag is stored and partially recycled, if the metal content is sufficient.

The lead from the blast furnace, called lead bullion, then undergoes the drossing process. The bullion is agitated in kettles then cooled to 700-800 degrees. This process results in molten lead and dross. Dross refers to the lead oxides, copper, antimony and other elements that float to the top of the lead. Dross is usually skimmed off and sent to a dross furnace to recover the non-lead components which are sold to other metal manufactures. The Parkes process is used to separate silver or gold from lead.

Finally, the molten lead is refined. Pyrometallurgical methods are usually used to remove the remaining non-lead components of the mixture, for example the Betterton-Kroll process and the Betts electrolytic process. The non-lead metals are usually sold to other metal processing plants. The refined lead may be made into alloys or directly cast. [1]

People who operate or work in such plants are also referred to as smelters.

Lead ores

Secondary lead processing

Lead exposure

History

Active lead mines and smelters

See also

References

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