Any casters out there?

First topic message reminder :

Last Saturday being a really nice day, I spent much of the day on the porch smelting down lead from my local scrap yard.   One of my really great finds was a bunch of brand new, never used lead wheel weights that must have come from a truck garage.   A lot of these wheel weights were 4 to 5 inches long and heavy.   Since NY hasn't allowed lead wheel weights to be installed for many years, I figure they sat on the shelf for a long time before the garage finally took them to the scrap yard.   Being new and clean was a big bonus, but the biggest bonus was the lead to steel clip ratio; I got 82% of the pre-smelting weight in lead.

Don

USSR wrote:

Aufidius wrote:[size=32]smelt¹[/size]
smelt/
verb



No one here, I hope, is doing any smelting.

Aside from it's original connotation, the word "smelting" is commonly used by casters to describe taking lead in it's original form and pouring it into ingots to be used in casting bullets.

Don

Sorry USSR- it is the denotation which I cited; and it's connotation regarding how it is used here, rather poorly, sorry to say!

My English teacher would be so proud of me for knowing the difference 30 years later; of course, neither English or math has yet to save my life- which I was totally told was going to happen. By now. Any day now.

STEVE SAMELAK wrote:If you're using a range backstop for your base, it can end up being about as much work as refining ore.

+1

Sort of like the folks who (used to?) reclaim shot from the trap/skeet range. Is that even done any more?

I haven't pulled the Model 12 out of the safe in a long, long time. Maybe go break some clays soon!

Reclaim shot is a really nice casting material... I bought 25 lbs a decade or so to try... should have bought a ton for the price... and it smelts WAY better than lead reclaimed from a rubber backstop...

Aufidius wrote:

USSR wrote:

Aufidius wrote:[size=32]smelt¹[/size]
smelt/
verb



No one here, I hope, is doing any smelting.

Aside from it's original connotation, the word "smelting" is commonly used by casters to describe taking lead in it's original form and pouring it into ingots to be used in casting bullets.

Don

Sorry USSR- it is the denotation which I cited; and it's connotation regarding how it is used here, rather poorly, sorry to say!

My English teacher would be so proud of me for knowing the difference 30 years later; of course, neither English or math has yet to save my life- which I was totally told was going to happen. By now. Any day now.

Check the dictionary Aufidius, there's a lot of words out there that have more than one meaning.   I can only suppose you and your English teacher are not in the fraternity of casters or you wouldn't have a problem with this.  

Don

USSR wrote:
Check the dictionary Aufidius, there's a lot of words out there that have more than one meaning.   I can only suppose you and your English teacher are not in the fraternity of casters or you wouldn't have a problem with this.  

Don

Oh, for sure, people use words incorrectly all the time and consider it perfectly acceptable, e.g. irregardless.

What I didn't know was that smelt is also a fish, and oddly for such a small creature, has a longer definition in the OED:



Also, has anyone ever used the word smeuse? Even the spell check is highlighting it.

Well Aufidius, if you lived in lake country where the smelt run in the creeks that empty into the lakes, you would have realized that "smelt" has more than one meaning.   Whatever you do, DO NOT go onto the Cast Boolits website where they intentionally misspell the word "bullet" so as to distinguish cast bullets from jacketed bullets.   You and your English teacher will have a coronary.

Don

Trouble with old (field pickup) lead shot is the oxidation makes it hard to get heat into it, gives a lot of dross (like old lead pipe), but worst of all it has arsenic which counteracts tin by making the metal clump instead of flow. A small amount is ok as it gives hardness.  I would have to find the spec limit but it is under 10%by weight.