Does this look right? Molten lead

[Tenring]

The balls do look a little off for even a cold mold, I just never seen a copper looking scum on top like that ,and you say it won’t go away even after fluxing numerous times is very weird. Just never in countered that before hope it’s not Toxic.

 

[dave951]

Same here the bluist tint says to me the lead is too hot and the wrinkles say mold is too cool.

Not if you're casting minies. That's the sweet spot for great minies

 

[waksupi]

The color is just oxidation. Don't worry about it. At worse, it may be a bit of tin in the alloy, which allows for easier mold fill out.

 

[necchi]

Preheat the mould by holding over an open flame

I had to learn a lesson the hard way about pre-heating the mold in the flame.
I set a Lyman mold next to my pot, letting the flames lick at it, long story short, the spur plate warped.
Thankfully you can get new plates for the Lyman,
I now "float" the mold in the melt for a little bit.
I still need to get that rhythm going to get the mold temp right, but pre-heating cut's the culls down to 4-5 instead of 12-15..
That's another lesson, aluminum and steel molds heat/cool differently

 

[necchi]

but I think that that "skim" kept me from filling the ladle enough. Every time I tried I wasn't getting enough lead in and on top, to fill.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with your fry-pan, but a deeper pot makes that a lot easier

 

[Horse]

Looks like the bean & corn soup floated to the top

Make sure your mould blocks are degreased and oil free before casting as that can cause poor results.

 

[45man]

You must clean the lead, it is not pure. You need a thermometer and melt the lead to 600 degrees and DO NOT FLUX. Skim all off the top that floats. This will remove most contaminants and zinc.
Then cast at 800 degrees for pure in a hot mold.
There is no reason to flux pure lead as it makes other metals alloy in. Fluxing does no harm if contaminants are removed. But for pure it is a feel good thing.
Calcium from old water pipes seems to be what I see.

 

[Lynnhawk]

I'm melting ingots, for the first time ever, and I haven't seen what I thought would be clean lead, so to speak.

I have skimmed the top a few times, only to have more of this copper looking slag form again. I've fluxed twice with paraffin wax.

Cast 4 balls, and they look...odd?

I have melted and poured lots of lead and regardless of how hot or to cold I have never seen anything this color…I would be somewhat suspicious of what you have there…after removal of slag it would be or should be shiny….

 

[kh54]

Preheat the mould by holding over an open flame such that after about two minutes when you are holding the mould up to your cheek that you can feel the heat emitted from!

I just had to laugh as I was reminded how when I was five years old or so I held an iron near my cheek to see if it was indeed hot. 60+ years later I still have the scar on my lip where it slipped. If I can feel heat with my hand a few inches away that's close enough for me!

 

[Jaeger]

Looking at your pictures....at first glance I thought "Dang, that's some good-lookin' chile!". You just need to use an old tablespoon and skim that manure off until the surface is all silvery-looking. Agree with the others: mold is too cold. Carefully put those wrinkled puppies back into the molten lead. Also, I hope you are not pouring from that pot. Looks too big and too heavy to maneuver well. Or maybe your wrists and forearms are as big around as stovepipes.....

 

[Crockford]

I would agree with your mold being to cold. Also a continuous smooth pour will help with lines and wrinkles. Once you start pouring into the mold don't stop until it overflows a little, if you stop for a millisecond it can create a cold joint in the ball leaving a line at the point you stopped.
As for the stuff floating on top, I have never seen anything exactly like that, but whatever it is skim it off. The molten lead should have almost a mirror look to it in my experience when the heat is right.
The great thing about casting balls is if you are not satisfied with the way they look just put them back into the pot.

 

[New bp shooter]

I'm with Phil Coffins on this one
The lead in your pan is way too hot, it's "oxidizing". aka; burning
You can flux as much as you want,, but ya have to "skim" the crud from the surface,, that's what fluxing is supposed to do,, make the impurities float.
Ya scrape/skim the nasties out of the pot. (that's hard to do when it's the pure lead itself that's scorched)
Your mold won't cast proper cold, once you develop a "cadence/rhythm", a series of 15-20 ball will get the mold (and you) in sync with a proper temp,, it's about timing, again a "cadence".
(those first 15-20,, go back in the pot next time)
I struggled with the same "temp" learning curve when I first began. I finally broke down and bought a casting thermometer, when I used the device to see where I actually was and got the temps where they should be, it was much easier, much more successful.
Within a few months, the thermometer use languished, it became easy to see the condition of the lead in the pot.
There is an apparent "visual/apearance" to molten lead that changes within the proper range that becomes easy to identify once you learn it.
I like to run mine a little on the hot side,, 740-780 for my best results, I cast in early spring or fall when outside temps are in the 40-50's

This is probably a dumb question.... But what would happen if those round balls that are wrinkled like that were shot... Is it an accuracy thing or dangerous thing or we just don't know?

 

[maillemaker]

This is probably a dumb question.... But what would happen if those round balls that are wrinkled like that were shot... Is it an accuracy thing or dangerous thing or we just don't know?

Wrinkly bullets will vary substantially in weight from one another. Like 5 or more grains. I was astonished when I started weighing bullets how bullets that I would have passed visually were significantly under weight.

 

[maillemaker]

I have always been skeptical of fluxing pure lead. If it is pure lead, there are no impurities to flux out. When molten lead is exposed to the air, it will immediately begin to oxidize. When near the melting temperature, the surface of the melt will turn shiny silver for a bit. But the hotter your melt is it will start to turn blue and violet and rainbow colors quite quickly. You can flux and flux and flux and all you are doing is removing lead oxide dross from your melt and exposing a fresh layer of lead to turn into lead oxide.

I have tried fluxing with beeswax and found that indeed some of the "scum" on the melt seems to go away (back into the lead). I don't understand this. In period, the dross - lead oxide - was salvaged by heating it up to over 1200 degrees F - hot enough to disassociate the oxygen and lead atoms. This was done in a furnace with carbon sprinkled on top of the dross. The driven-off oxygen would then bond to the carbon, which it prefers over lead, and would be driven out of the furnace as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. This would leave the lead behind, which could be reclaimed. I would not have expected fluxing to achieve this at normal casting temperatures.

I usually cast between 850F and 900F. You can get away with lower temps for round ball.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Yep wrinkles in yer balls is a bad thing.

 

[necchi]

But what would happen if those round balls that are wrinkled like that were shot... Is it an accuracy thing or dangerous thing

It's an accuracy thing.
Because the spherical thing we're supposed to cast,, aka: round ball,,
,isn't really round when it's all messed up with wrinkles..
It'll shoot just fine. No problem. But if all the round ball's don't have the exact same wrinkles, (?)
One might have a deep wrinkle on the bottom, another might have two wrinkles on one side,,
One will place up,, one will place left,, the next will,,?
It's the similarity we seek, consistency,, each one the same, as best we can.

It's a learning curve. It's pretty simple with experiment,, but there is a learning with casting that comes with practice.
Observation and repetition.
Don't be de-swayed, jump in as soon as you can and stay with it

 

[hanshi]

Your mold is definitely too cool. When I've cast in the past all the dross has been a gray color like ashes. I skim it off when it gets too heavy. But I like the lead pot as hot as I can get it. If the ball has a bit of that frosty look that's fine and doesn't bother me. The way I shoot with bad eyes a wrinkled ball is just as accurate as a perfectly smooth one. Also I don't flux soft lead.

 

[Eterry]

More nuggets of information. I tried dipping the corner of a mold, both steel and aluminum, in the melted lead. All I got was a freaking nightmare! The lead clung to the mold and refused to give way. And once, although the mold was closed when I put the corner in the lead, it came slightly ajar, getting lead in the fins. Brother what a pain THAT was to remove.

Now I either sit the mold on top of the pot or if an electric one sit the mold under the pot.

Either way, don't stop casting if the bullets don't look right, keep casting until you get it right. Don't waste the time, effort and energy to bring a pot to temp just to cast a few and give up. Like most things practice make perfect. Oh, dedicate an old all-cotton bath towel to casting. Fold it a few times and drop the RBs on it. Use a small nylon hammer/ dowel rod, or piece of hardwood to tap THE HINGE of the mold to make the bullets drop from the mold, NOT the blocks, or you'll ruin the mold. And de-grease the mold; I use alcohol.

Once more... if the lead/ mold are cold, the bullets wrinkle like those in your pics. If too hot they have a frosted look. Some say if cast too hot they'll be harder. I'm not an authority on that, I just segregate the culls in a corner of the towel and when cool to the touch gently drop them into the mold. Use Descretion here.
Just keep punching, you'll get there!

 

[rodinal220]

https://www.lymanproducts.com/digital-lead-thermometer

 

[BruceHH]

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the reddish color is not from your lead, but from the skillet you are using. I will bet it was seasoned with something very different than lard.

In others words, the coating on your skillet is the culprit.