Melting lead today to make ingots

[Dumpstick]

FWIW, nobody here is involved in 'smelting' lead.
Smelting involves very high temps, and rocks, and getting the mineral/element out of the rock in which it is trapped.
What we do is more like rendering. Melting it down to liquid, and removing impurities.

There is a big difference.

 

[swampratt]

I will be melting more today.
I wheel and deal and I bet I have less than 50c per pound in my lead.
last check standard scrap iron sold it for 80 cents a lb.
People toss metal all the time and i collect it from them many times they bring it to me .I take it to standard scrap iron and get money.
With that basically free money I can buy steel sheet scrap or lead or aluminum and even got brass cases from them.
Win Win.
I figured it up a few years ago and 3 bucks for 50 rounds of cast bullets at the most is what it cost me.
That is loaded ammo.

 

[Pokinfun]

Dennis,
Thanks for the warning, I had already been considering the dangers of lead. I think I would get an actual lead melting electric pot to regulate the temperature.
Where is everyone buying lead from?

 

[swampratt]

scrap yard and sometimes craigslist.

Lead itself does not put toxic fumes off until you boil it. We are far from boiling.
The contaminants in it can and will put off toxic fumes.
I melt outside in this shed. shed is open but no car in there currently.

Pretty safe bet on safety in there with gravel floor

 

[DRC458]

@swampratt , so I just started this whole roll your own thing and have everything I need except lead... where do you recommend I get it?

Check around the tire shops in your area. Sometimes you can buy their old wheel weights from them. There's a pretty good market for them actually, with people casting fishing weights and bullets. i know some tire shops have customers who buy every old wheel weight they've got, so that supply is already committed. Just have to look around. Then, be prepared to sort out all the trash and other materials you cannot use before you start melting. I recently bought an overflowing 5-gallon bucket that weighed 147 pounds for $35. I still haven't sorted out all the trash, zinc, steel, aluminum, etc. to know how many pounds of useable wheel weights I've got!

 

[CHenry]

Maybe you need to come by CHenry and make some. maybe make some bullets to take home with you to poke holes into things with. That is the fun part.

I should. I feel like there is much to be learned from the swampratt lol

 

[dennishoddy]

Ok, I used the wrong term in smelting. We had a zinc smelter in the area that I worked at for a very short period of time back in the day, that is now one of the worst superfund sites in the country and the term stuck with me.
Don't think that just melting lead is safe.
http://epibulletins.dhss.alaska.gov/Document/Display?DocumentId=1783

http://www.dph.illinois.gov/sites/default/files/publications/lead-safety-fishermen-041516.pdf

 

[swampratt]

Yes you need to use some common sense .
I do wash up before handling anything after messing with lead and that includes making loaded bullets I will wash after i leave the loading room.
Bathroom is right there.
some more reading,, take precautions use common sense.

https://www.shootersforum.com/bullet-casting/11858-danger-exposure-lead.html

 

[swampratt]

I did not melt any yesterday but I will today.

 

[D. Hargrove]

Picking up 50 lbs tomorrow, the melt is on Sunday...