rendering lead pure?

[whitetrash078]

Today at work I had a discussion with a fellow co-worker who thought it possible to make wheel weights into pure lead by cranking the heat on the furnace and skimming the slag and fluxing repeatedly until no more slag came to the top. Now, I don't if he is right or wrong so I said little when he was talking. Is it even possible for someone at home to make wheel weights useable for frontstuffers?

 

[ChrisPer]

The silicates, sand and grit, should come off OK. However, I can't see you separating the antimony and bismuth that make it so hard. I would like to know how myself...

 

[twotoescharlie]

have to keep heating and skimming the lighter metals will eventually float to the top, don't flux and stir as this mixes the metals back together. even at this you will not be able to come up with pure lead. best to just start with pure lead to begin with.


TTC

 

[MSW]

well, insert political tirade here. suffice it to say that, due to policies of various previous administrations, we have the hightest electric rates in the union here in the peoples' republik of vermont, so i am more than a little bit sensitive to the price of watts.

it is possible, i believe, to 'purify' your lead from wheelweight. but stop, take a breath, have a homebrew (all i can afford after my latest set- to with the tax man) and consider...

am i spending more on this problem than what it's worth?

with the 'going rate' of scrap lead at about fifty cents a pound, you would do well do invest in less electricity and more in a hardness tester (if you're interested in tha stuff; if i can dent it with a thumbnail, i'll call it soft enough to shoot).

well, my opinion is often worth what you just paid for it, but there it is nonetheless.

msw

 

[Jeffrey Hecht]

Ah yes, in the olden days Alchemists were trying ways to turn lead into pure gold, but today we are trying to turn lead alloys back into pure lead. What will people think of us in 600 years?
Jeff :hmm:

 

[whitetrash078]

I figured it was probably more trouble than it was worth, but I was curious if it could even be done or if the guy was feeding me :bull:

The only way I could see making it worth is if one were to melt down say 50 lbs or more of the stuff at a time.

 

[rice1817]

I don't think that under normal conditions it is possible to separate the alloys from the lead in wheelweights. It can be done with an industrial type setup, but not with the equipment that the home caster would have access to.

 

[Slamfire]

Refineries can do it, but I doubt you can do it at home. :surrender:

 

[bmues]

Here is one writers opinion that I had found on this subject when researching lead.

The following is an excerpt from this site:[url] http://tinyurl.com/ysgusr[/url]

"There is no safe way that a person at home can remove tin, antimony, etc from lead. Once it is alloyed, it requires a refinery to remove. By actual test (using an alloy that started as 95% lead, 2.5% antimony, .5% tin, .1% arsenic, and 1.9% trace elements), after 12 hours at 850 degrees F skimming every 20-30 minutes (about 30 times), the alloy was 95.21% lead, 2.51% antimony, .31% tin, .07% arsenic, 1.9% trace elements."

 

[whitetrash078]

:surrender: Ok I'll just get the thought out of my head and go to the scrap yard. Oh and I'll have my friend read this post

 

[Wes/Tex]

You can render lead softer by heating balls or slugs @ 400 degrees for half and hour on a cookie sheet in the oven. Then turn the oven off and crack the door and let the projectiles col to room temp. They will be softer but probably never to pure lead standards.

 

[mike alexandre]

I'm told the factory process involves injecting compressed air into the bottom of the molten lead. Not something I'd like to do in my workshop.

 

[MercerLake]

Anything is possible, but not always desirable! The refinary process is done in an air tight retort so that the resultant various oxides of Antimony, Arsenic, Cadmium, and what ever else that all are poisonous may be contained. the lead alloy is brought up to temperatures above 1000 deg and has air forced through it to oxidize the impurities, not something to be done at home in the kitchen.
Stipling the surface of the hardened lead balls will allow the patch to grip the ball causing it to follow the rifling. Stipling may be done easily by randomly rolling the ball across a file for quick trial. I use two sheets of coarse sandpaper glued to two boards. Then I roll the lead balls between the boards until the stipling is uniform over the ball surface. Works for me. :grin:

 

[redwing]

All you will get skimming and not fluxing is a hard ball that does not pour well. The hard balls shoot just fine. And has been said they are wrapped in a lubed patch. Now how in the H+++ is that going to wear a bore anymore than a pure ball of dead lead?

 

[CoyoteJoe]

All you will get skimming and not fluxing is a hard ball that does not pour well. The hard balls shoot just fine. And has been said they are wrapped in a lubed patch. Now how in the H+++ is that going to wear a bore anymore than a pure ball of dead lead?

I don't believe that barrel wear is the objection to hard alloys. The soft lead ball, even though wrapped in a patch, is indented or engraved by the lands of the bore. If you recover undamaged balls, such as those fired in deep snow, you can clearly see the pattern of the rifling and the weave of the cloth patch pressed into the surface of the ball. The marks are longer and deeper over the lands. A hard ball will not engrave so easily, will be hard to load, and likely less accurate due to slippage of the patch.
They do work fine in smoothbores however. :grin:

 

[CrackStock]

You can render lead softer by heating balls or slugs @ 400 degrees for half and hour on a cookie sheet in the oven.

And then the only person who would bake cookies in your oven would be Hillary??? :rotf:

CS

 

[redwing]

I think you need to shoot targets other than snow banks. It has been proven over many times the hard balls shoot very well. I think the Bevel Bros. tested them and found them to do very well. If you think that they are slipping in the patch just rough them a little. And NO the soft balls are not always engraved:hmm: I think you will find the low charge 25yd. target loads for example in perfect condition and very accurate. :thumbsup:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Today at work I had a discussion with a fellow co-worker who thought it possible to make wheel weights into pure lead by cranking the heat on the furnace and skimming the slag and fluxing repeatedly until no more slag came to the top. Now, I don't if he is right or wrong so I said little when he was talking. Is it even possible for someone at home to make wheel weights useable for frontstuffers?

Meself, I would not even try mucking about to separate the alloys.

I got a five gallon bucket 3/4 full of the stick on WW from local tire shop for 15 bucks. Almost all were soft lead.

 

[spudnut]

Ah yes, in the olden days Alchemists were trying ways to turn lead into pure gold, but today we are trying to turn lead alloys back into pure lead. What will people think of us in 600 years?
Jeff :hmm:

I wear a wizard hat when I run ball just to get the old ladys goat :blah: