Preparing dirty range lead. How to start?

So now that the cold weather is here, I'm thinking I may take the first step in casting. Namely, I have about 100 # of "lead" reclaimed from an indoor range that I would like to turn into ingots and eventually bullets) The lead is as it came out of the bullet traps. Complete with jackets, dust etc. Pretty ugly stuff. So my question is: How do I get all the impurities out of this stuff so I can ready it for bullet casting?
Do I just melt it in a pan and scoop the crud out?
Should I preheat my 1# ingot mold before pouring the molten lead in?
Any tricks/ watch I items I should be aware of?
I read somewhere about adding sawdust???
I'm a complete newbe to this so any help greatly appreciated!

Melt outside or extremely well ventilated area. As you melt the range lead the junk will float to the top. Flux the lead after you have scooped out the junk. I use beeswax to flux the lead. Some use sawdust to flux. I don't preheat my ingot mold. If you don't like your first ingots remelt them.

What are you going to melt the lead in?
What are your using to heat the lead?
How are you going to monitor temperature?
What are you going to use as a mold?
Are you aware of all the hazards involved?
What are you going to use for flux?

Lots of questions need answering before you have hope of doing this safely. More than can be answered in a couple of forum posts. Don't let that discourage you. Learn before you do something dangerous.

There is wealth of information on smelting lead at cast boolits.com. It's a good place to start learning about it.

Wee Hooker said:

[...] Do I just melt it in a pan and scoop the crud out?
Should I preheat my 1# ingot mold before pouring the molten lead in? [...]
I read somewhere about adding sawdust??? [...]

Click to expand...

I have cast many tons of scrap lead into ingots including reclaimed range lead. The 1st sentence I quoted is the simple answer.

Any piece of metal that you mix with molten metal needs to be warmed enough to be certain you are not getting the tiniest amount of water below the surface of the liquid metal. This can not be over emphasized. If you start stirring the flux in with a damp tool the water will evaporate so quick the resulting lead "explosion" will spread lead splatter all over the ceiling. Guess how I had to be reminded of this. I thought my the table knife I was stirring with was dry. Warm your molds before pouring in lead.

I do not know of any use for saw dust. It would float and burn off pretty quick.

Sand, dirt and bullet jackets are eager to float to the top. However, while skimming that "crud" off you do not want to loose the most expensive component of your alloy, the tin. A little stirring will get any tin that is on the surface into the lead alloy and usually bring a few more bullet jackets to the surface. Before stirring put flux on the surface. Candle wax makes great and very inexpensive flux.

The other safety issue is ventilation. Breathing fine dust risks lead poisoning. Casting scrap into ingots usually produces a lot of foul smoke. A light wind outside will do. I have used cast iron kettles on white gas Colman stoves and campfires. The campfire requires long handled scoops and tools. A box fan set on a window sill drawing air over a pot set up just below the window also works well.

If anything was left unanswered, just ask.

Edit to add: I have not seen saw dust suggested for flux before. It might work fine but is not in reloading books.

Reclaimed lead from berms should give you a 50 to 55%return from the gross weight(100pds of what you gathered will give aprox 50# lead the rest being jackets,sand,rocks and lots of unidentified stuff).
I smelt the stuff in a ''creuset''pot my wife wanted to junk away.It will hold aprox 125#lead.I have an exterior fireplace and smelt there.Rule no 1,make sure it's not going to rain.It'll empty your pot in an explosive way(don't ask me how I know!).
After making a vigorous fire from all kind of scrap wood(preferably on a day with a very slight wind because rule no 2 try to stay upwind),I pour the stuff in the smelting pot,put the lid on it and do something else like reading a book about guns for aprox 10 to 20minutes then remove the debris on the surface of the molten lead,being careful not to remove all of it(otherwise,the precious tin and antimony would be also removed and we want these back in the final product).Refill the pot as needed and repeat the process.
When I feel that the pot is getting comfortably heavy,I use a heavy laddle and after cleaning the debris again,I flux with sawdust.Rule no 3 your sawdust must be dry or it'll make the lead boil up;while a little boiling is good(autofluxing I might call it)too much of a good thing is still too much.Then,I pour lead into a high tech ingot mouldld muffin mould again requisitionned from my wife's kitchen. Do not preheat the ingot mould because you want them to coll off as quickly as possible to repour some lead.And even if the lead has some wrinkles,you don't care because it is going to be remelted for making bullets(refluxing then will still be necessary).Have fun!
Qc

Almost anything will work for the ingot mold. I used cornbread stick molds because the one I found made small ingots. Smaller is better because they remelt easier. Reread the part about making sure the scraps are dry. Might not be too hard, you can always just simmer them for a while and the water hisses off. No way I'd add dirty scrap to a melted pot. I used to pick scrap on rainy days or snowy days. Water can live for a long time in that stuff.

Wow a lot of mis info going on as well as the sky is falling stuff. Range scrap from an indoor range with steel traps will be just lead & jackets, maybe some bits of paper & a little dirt. No need to do anything with it prior to melting. If it has rubber in it, i wouldnt even bother unless you live well out of town, lots of smoke. Being upwind, outdoors is good.
I use a cast iron dutch oven, but stainless or even alum works, just make sure it is sturdy enough to support 30-50#. Then you need a good high heat source. I use an old turkey fryer. Put on the pot, fill the pot 1/2 full, put on the heat. If you have a lid, put that on loosely. When the mix becomes molten, stir in a handful of sawdust, works better than anything else i have tried. I use a large slotted ss spoon. Stir it really well, until the sawdust has burned & turned to charcoal dust. Skim off the crid with the slotted spoon, then ladle into your ingot mold.
The mold should be iron or alum, ss will also work. No need to preheat, but as noted, make sure there is zero moisture in it. When the lead surface cools, you can turn the ingots out & cast again. Respect the molten lead but its not rocket science, barely hs chem class. Wear gloves & safety glasses.

To clarify, I have melted lead years ago to make fishing sinkers. I am aware of the hazards and will work outside. I have a new Lee Electric smelter but figured I'd use a old cast iron sauce pan to to the initial melting/cleaning over a propane fired turkey fryer base. (I'm thinking the crud in this mix could clog/do harm to the electric smelter?)
I have a ( Lyman?) mold that makes 4, 1# lead ingots.
I have no idea about how to go about fluxing. Am I supposed to stir in sawdust or beeswax? The purpose of the flux is to make the lead flow/pour better??

The flux helps combine contaminates for removal. You can use any carbon based matl, i prefer sawdust, seems to work better. Stir in your chosen flux after the lead has become fully molten. Stir it until it is reduced to carbon. If you use a eax, dont have your face over the pot, it can flash fire, the sawdust tends to just char.eberything non lead floats to the top for skimming.

625smith said:

Melt outside or extremely well ventilated area. As you melt the range lead the junk will float to the top. Flux the lead after you have scooped out the junk. I use beeswax to flux the lead. Some use sawdust to flux. I don't preheat my ingot mold. If you don't like your first ingots remelt them.

Click to expand...

Don't scoop out anything before you flux or you'll be scooping out alloy... Melt the lead and the alloy will separate. toss a small bit of paraffin wax in it and light it up with a match. stir it well while it's burning. ( You light it to burn off the wax fumes or you'll be working in a cloud of smoke) As you stir, the wax acts as a flux to recombine the lead, antimony and tin. I flux, stir and scoop off ONLY the brown dirty dross that will float on top. Then I do it all over again to insure I have good well mixed and clean alloy. NEVER scoop or throw away the silver looking stuff that will initially float on top prior to fluxing. Only scoop off the dirt. Lastly, Always do it outdoors and keep the pot down wind of you. The fumes while fluxing are HIGHLY toxic. NEVER let even a drop of sweat fall into the molten lead or it may spit molten lead on you. Don't ask how I know that. It hurts..

Sheet metal muffin pans work well for casting ingots. But they produce round muffin-like ingots. Melt, stir, flux, strain off everything that floats. Work outside, and wear safety glasses or goggles and gloves. The Lyman cast bullet handbook will tell you everything you need to know.

Well, since you clarified that you do have some experience at it, you should not have any problems. The cast iron sauce pan over the propane fired turkey fryer base should work fine. That Lyman mold should also work fine.

As has already been said, you want to preserve the tin in the lead. That is what adds some hardness to the lead, and you want to keep that. Dead soft pure lead is fine for fishing sinkers, but it does not make an ideal firearm projectile. You need to heat the lead enough to melt it, but not enough to oxidize all the tin out of it. That's where a good thermometer helps.

I use Cheapo candles from the local Dollar General store for flux. It's the best bang for the buck.

I've used recovered lead from our outdoor range for about 15 years.
It's great "free" lead, lots of good info here, one point I have noticed is that the lead in jacketed bullets is softer than all lead bullets.
I think it may be pure lead but I can't say for sure. A few jacketed bullets seems okay but I don't think I want to shoot a cast bullet made from lead from only jacketed bullets.

l have melted quite a bit of lead in my time.. Right now l
have a good stash of range scrap from an indoor pistol range
l used to shoot at...Got a real SURPRISE going thru some of
the stuff awhile back... A LIVE 22 rf round!!!... Now l am
more careful than before..l pour out a quantity of the stuff
BEFORE it goes in my pot... Takes more time.. but remember..
S A F E T Y--F I R S T

Very good, Smelting lead in the smelting pot & clean ingots/alloy in the casting pot.

Don't mix the streams!!!

Propane turkey fryer base, excellent!!! Big surface are, stable, lots of btu's.

You need to re-think your smelting pot, the bigger the better. You want to do #100 at a time if you can. The more of the same alloy you have to work with the better/easier it is to cast with and get the same results/bullet performance. For decades I used nothing more than:
Range scrap (air cooled) for low velocity/low pressure loads.
Range scrap (water dropped/cooled) for high velocity/high pressure loads.
Range scrap 3 parts/mono-type 1part and water dropped for high velocity/pressure rifle bullets.

Myself I use a turkey cooker base and a old propane tank for a smelting pot.
Old propane tank;
The valves on them are brass/bronze. They do not spark when cut. I cut them off flush with the top off the tank. The end result is a lid with 2 small (1/4") holes in the top of it that lets out smoke. There's a center line weld in the propane tanks that hold the 2 halves together. There's also a support ring inside the tank. The 2 halves of the tank ar wlded to that ring.
Cut the valve off of an old tank.
Fill the tank with water using the 2 holes you greated in the top/lid of the propane tank.
Use a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 1/16" thick cutoff wheel and cut the tank apart just below the weld line in the center of the tank. You only want to cut thru the 1/8" thick lower 1/2 of the tank leaving the inner support ring atatched to the top 1/2 of the propane tank. This takes less than 5 minutes to do. The end result is you now have a smelting pot for the top of your turkey cooker that will hold 100# of cleaned alloy. That has a lid that will not fall off and vent holes in the top of the lid. What mine looks like. Note the inner ring/inner lip on the top (right) of the tank that is still in place. That holds th lid on tight.


Simply fill it up with lead that's to be smelted, put the lid on and fire up the propane. Come back around 20 minutes later and open the lid to check to see if the scrap lead is melting. That lid will stop any popping, water splatters or anything else.
I use a ss slotted serving spoon and a ladle to process the scrap lead after it's melted. I will use the slotted spoon to skim off anything that large that's floating on the surface of the melted lead. Things like jackets, dirt, sand, rocks, etc. Then I will flux the alloy with sawdust, wax, bullet lube on old bullets. Simply stir the flux into the mix (flux ='s carbon) and flux a couple of times mixing any antimony or tin back into the alloy along with bringing any junk to the surface to be skimmed off.
After you've smelted, cleaned the large pieces of junk out of the alloy & fluxed. Your ready to make ingots.

I also fill my casting pot with the alloy (big ingot) and when I do a large volume of casting I'll use the smelting pot/fryer setup along with my casting pot. I'll have clean smelted, fluxed alloy in the #100 smelting pot. As I cast empty the 20# casting pot I refill it from the smelting pot.
Wash rinse repeat

A side note:
Not use about your area but where I'm at I save the copper jackets and take them to the recycler's for $$$.


I do this every year, it isn't a lot of $$$ but it pays for the propane/electic, primers, powder, molds, whatever.


Just be safe and if you can use something with a lid on it to smelt in. The lid keeps everyone safe and takes less time for the scrap to melt. Holds the heat/btu's better.

Keep any and all moisture out of melt.
For fluxing in this instance Marvelux works best. It's a commerical flux made for lead . It will not burst into flames (wax and beeswax will flash fire ) it doesn't smoke like sawdust .
Use a cast iron or heavy steel pot , outside on a propane turkey frying or crawfish boiling rig...something that will produce a large amount of heat.
Have a long handled ladle for dipping the alloy and pouring into small ingot moulds - Wilton all aluminum mini-muffin tins or the cast iron small cornbread stick pans are good .
Wear some hand and eye protection and use common sense while doing this.
Gary

Got a few minutes? Jerry Miculek can show you his method:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSgQ82Kqhzo[/ame]

Folks, thanks much for the thorough replies!! This gives me plenty to digest!

DWalt said:

Sheet metal muffin pans work well for casting ingots. But they produce round muffin-like ingots. Melt, stir, flux, strain off everything that floats. Work outside, and wear safety glasses or goggles and gloves. The Lyman cast bullet handbook will tell you everything you need to know.

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Be very careful choosing muffin tins. More than one person has welded the ingots to the steel. Leaving them out to rust helps, but alum or iron are pretty goof proof.
If you have acces to a welder, cheap scrap steel angle or channel makes great ingot molds.

gwpercle said:

Keep any and all moisture out of melt.
For fluxing in this instance Marvelux works best. It's a commerical flux made for lead . It will not burst into flames (wax and beeswax will flash fire ) it doesn't smoke like sawdust .
Use a cast iron or heavy steel pot , outside on a propane turkey frying or crawfish boiling rig...something that will produce a large amount of heat.
Have a long handled ladle for dipping the alloy and pouring into small ingot moulds - Wilton all aluminum mini-muffin tins or the cast iron small cornbread stick pans are good .
Wear some hand and eye protection and use common sense while doing this.
Gary

Click to expand...

The issue I have with Marvelux is it seems hydroscopic. I use it for smelting but NOT in my casting pot. It seems to promote rust. All I do in my casting pot, clean alloy, stir it with a wooden paint stick after adding new alloy, all the fluxing it needs.