Packs it together is an understatement!

Imagine dirt, ten time heavier, in a bucket of rocks! It's like that.

Some of it may be the jackets that have been obliterated by hitting the traps just right. Some of it may be the other ingredients that are put into the lead in the original alloy that need hotter temps to melt, antimony and such like. To be honest it may just be dirt, but some of it won't melt at the temperature I cast at, whatever that is!

All in all, wheel weights are a better deal for recovery rate but this lead is MUCH softer.

I haven't cast any bullets with it yet. When I do I'll be sure to post a report.

Did I say SOFTER?

I'll have to test them in a little while. I went to size one in my Lyman #45 luber/sizer and the top punch I am using(which probably isn't the right one)left a mark all the way around the ogive!

I coated them with White Label Liquid Xlox and am letting the dry. Probably wont be ready for shooting until Monday. But then again, I do have that day off!

If you're going to use Xlox, do a test between sized and unsized. I bet you'll find that you can not determine any difference in grouping. And if unsized shoots the same as sized, you might as well save that time. That's how it worked out for me...

IMA,
If I can get the to chamber OK as cast, I'm not going to size them as my experience is the same as yours.

Especially being so soft.

I thought about what that "powdery" stuff was. There is a lot of shotgun slug and rifle shooting that goes on in there. They even rent Class III stuff. I'm thinking that because of the ventilation, which is superb by the way, some of that has gotten into this stuff.

At any rate, I have some near pure lead and now all I need is a cheap source of tin.

I recently got a "Carolina Cooker" and it melts everything with ease, including huge chunks of lead that barely fit into my skillet. Once I make the ingots I don't have to worry about any Production Pot issues.

There is a rumor floating around that new wheelweights contain powdered tungsten which can be quite problematic. Does anybody know if this is true? One of the guys at the City garage gave me one to examine and while I can see that it has a thick coating of a blue/gray substance (paint?) I'm still not sure if there are any other materials mixed in with the lead.

Dave Sinko

I have had some of those but didn't notice any difference except the smoke.

I have had some wheel weights I threw in the pot that didn't dissolve, I think that was a good thing!

I try to cast as cold as I can though. I know that frosty doesn't hurt but I like shiny best.

quote:

Originally posted by imashooter2:
LOL! I'm in suburban Philly, so I have neighbors too. I try to be decent about things and smelt in cooler weather when the windows will be closed, etc.. Bottom line though, this is my property and there isn't any law or ordinance to prohibit what I'm doing.

It is warmer today so I probably shouldn't have done it BUT I just had to try it.

I used the other pot that came with the turkey cooker. It is heavy aluminum so I thought it would stand up to the heat. It deformed some but made it through a whole 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights with no problem. I have to come up with some better ways to get the scrap off of the top of the melt. I went through that bucket in about 1 hour. That was about 1/10th the amount of time if I would have used the Lee pots to get the same amount done. I need some more ingot molds, I thought about those corn cob corn bread molds. They should work fine, cheap too. (I like that!)
I can only imagine what I looked like to the neighbors though. One great big hill jack I bet!

Oh well, they'll either get over it or they wont!

Take a look: