Casting bullets question...

[#BPBReloadingFFL]

Zinc ingots sitting around will form zink carbonate which turns green in time

If your fingers turn black in a couple weeks it's probably something else.

 

[Ceddie]

Well I got them as hot as I was comfortable with and the didn't melt. I'm guessing about 1000 degrees f.
They are hard enough that a hammer and anvil did no discernable damage
I'm just going to use them as inaccurate ammo for my wrist rocket.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

If jacketed bullets are melted down, it is possible that some copper will alloy with lead. It is why I never flux until all non melting junk is skimmed off. Keep the ingot pot at 600 degrees only. NO flux until the lead is skimmed clean.

Ive done range lead once. All the crap floated to the top and was scooped off.

DANG those Saeco lead testers got costly. Gonna go in the other room and hug mine.

 

[snakebit]

Some bullets manufactured for reloading centerfire ammo is not jacketed, but plated with something, to make them cheaper. Cant remember the name though

 

[Kansas Jake]

I generally use range lead for unmentionable pistol bullets. I melt it in a steel or cast iron container on my Coleman stove and skim the dross. If I was using muzzleloading range lead I’d probably use it for muzzleloading.

 

[ZUG]

This is from “The Engineering Toolbox”

Metals and Alloys - melting points for some common metals and alloys in degrees F

Melting point is the temperature at which a substance changes from solid to liquid state. Now you know --

Admiralty Brass 1652 - 1724

Aluminum 1220

Antimony 1166

Babbitt 480

Beryllium Copper 1589 - 1751

Bismuth 521

Brass, Red 1814 - 1877

Brass, Yellow 1706

Copper 1983

Lead 622

Solder 50/50 419

Zinc 419.5

 

[Ceddie]

This is from “The Engineering Toolbox”

Metals and Alloys - melting points for some common metals and alloys in degrees F

Melting point is the temperature at which a substance changes from solid to liquid state. Now you know --

Admiralty Brass 1652 - 1724

Aluminum 1220

Antimony 1166

Babbitt 480

Beryllium Copper 1589 - 1751

Bismuth 521

Brass, Red 1814 - 1877

Brass, Yellow 1706

Copper 1983

Lead 622

Solder 50/50 419

Zinc 419.5

Thank you, that is good info to have.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well I got them as hot as I was comfortable with and the didn't melt. I'm guessing about 1000 degrees f.
They are hard enough that a hammer and anvil did no discernable damage
I'm just going to use them as inaccurate ammo for my wrist rocket.

Better to discard them all together. Because they are a zinc alloy of some sort.

Zinc ingots sitting around will form zink carbonate which turns green in time

Give that man a genuine Daniel Webster cigar!

That green stuff is likely zinc carbonate, and it's impure, because it's contaminated with some copper, Hence the green color. IF it was contaminated with say cobalt, it would be purple-ish.

Zinc fumes can mess you up, so that stuff should go, rather than be near a high heat source

LD

 

[#BPBReloadingFFL]

Zink melts at just under 800'f

2 corporations In worked at had big plating rooms.
One was directly behind our engine room/power plant.

 

[ZUG]

I made an error in my Metals and Alloys - melting points for some common metals and alloys in degrees F above.
The melting temp for zinc is 786 degrees F - the temperature that I listed is in degrees C - my bad!

 

[Crow Choker]

I've been casting balls and bullets for 53 years, all the way from soft lead for black powder shooting to bullets for modern day smokeless powder handguns and rifles and have never seen green lead like the OP posted. Sure has some element of nastiness in it. Good rule of thumb in casting "If in doubt, don't use, don't run the risk of contaminating good lead and coating your lead pot/molds with undesirable elements". Sell it to some scrap yard, someone not needing lead with proper elements, or just bury it. I traded a quantity of questionable lead onetime to a duck hunter who casted his own duck decoy weights for some soft lead sheathing and pipe he had.