Iridescent balls

[RB POWELL]

To each their own, I bought some supposed to be lead back a few years ago, after casting within a short amount of time they actually expanded enough to cause issues when loading.. got rid of that manure.

I have used pure lead from Rotometals ever since.

Rotometals is very reliable. Fast service, also.

 

[Pratt]

What you see is the tin in the alloy floating to the top and oxidizing. I used to operate a soldering machine with a solder tank. Ever morning we would have to scrap off the DROSS as they called to have a clean tank. No big thing GI.

 

[NorthFork]

Rotometals is very reliable. Fast service, also.

Pure and alloys are what they say they are AND if you purchase enough ($150 if I remember correctly) shipping is free. And they have never charged me tax.

 

[FPDoc]

I'll keep it, and smile for every free ball downrange.

So..thats what free balling means.. now it all makes sense.

 

[IanH]

Tin does not separate and float to the top.

Some depletion of tin and antimony may occur in a ternary mix, but this is still debated. Some have reduced oxidized pot skimmings with greas/wax/oil and had the resulting metal assayed to find similar composition to the parent alloy. However, I have also read that Line-o-Type operators had to add tin/antimony rich "sweetener" alloy to the vat in order to counteract loss through oxidation and skimming dross, and I have obtained Line-o-Type ingots that were indeed very depleted, so there may be a disproportionately high loss of tin and antimony content through oxidation.

 

[Kansas Kid]

I use X-ray room shielding also and have several hundred pounds. Like several have said it’s almost too hot. I just switched from and old small LEE electric pot that didn’t get hot enough for me even when maxed out. It would not color the lead and made hardly any dross on top. Broke out a new LEE magnum pot that gets hotter than hades. It will color the lead at half the rage setting and make purple balls that are beautiful but lots of dross on top at the sake of overheating the melt. Pure lead needs to be almost too hot to get a good mold fill with no defects. Tin greatly aids in fill out and is why Linotype was made.

There’s nothing wrong with that lead.

 

[IanH]

Hot moulds make for good fillout, not overheated alloy. 100-200⁰ above the melting point is all you need.

 

[Kansas Kid]

And to keep the mold hot the lead needs to be reasonably hot.

 

[IanH]

Cast faster. More cycles per minute = hotter mould. Hotter mould = more alloy flow before it freezes. Tin makes the metal more fluid and lowers the melting point of lead, which also helps fillout, but it isn't always needed.

 

[GBG]

I call this book the Lead Bible.

Lead and Lead Alloys Properties and Technology 1970 - Wilhelm Hofmann
English Translation, Lead Development Association, London
ISBN 978-3-662-27030-1
SBN 978-3-662-28508-4 (eBook)

This is the English translation of the 2nd German edition, 551-pages. I'm sure there are editions and translations available that are newer than my copy.

 

[deerstalkert]

well so far there are close to 50 opines, and about 25 matching opinion's. isn't the inner web wonderful? everyone gets someone to validate their opinion!
i really think each opinion here has part of the answer. makes for great discourse!

 

[Billy Boy]

It appears to me that you have a batch of that 1960-70’s hippie lead from Berkeley or San Francisco.

Is it identifying as lead or something else……,,

 

[looney]

That is very cool.

Lead absorbing the x-ray stuff that's not supposed to get to us humans?

And wheel weights are bad for muzzzleloaders.

If your gun doesn't blow from not using pure lead, the projectiles will be so inaccurate that you won't be able to keep them in the same zip code when shot at a target.

What are you talking about??

 

[64Springer]

What are you talking about??

Please change the batteries in your sarcasm detector.

 

[michacooks]

I have run into this for the third time now whenever melting sheet lead from xray rooms.
Regardless of temp, as soon as it melts it goes pretty rainbow colors.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I run thus same setup with wheel weights or other lead sources and this doesn't happen.

Your not the only one, this happened to me this last week, lead was extremely dirty.

 

[French Colonial]

You guys, you guys, you guys.....

Do you worry as much about the radiation of the sun as you do about lead from an x-ray machine?

Do you think the lead absorbs the x-rays and then what? Reemits them?

 

[Dale Lilly]

Your sarcasm detector requires calibration.

My first wife's stepdad never understood sarcasm. He was often furious with what his friends [and I] said., Often screamed at people on TV as they spoke sarcastically. Poor guy. Polecat