pouring lead

You might try a clay based ladle wash.

The lead casters that I've known just leave it there. When my uncle passed away his iron bullet and fishing-sinker ladle had a layer of lead in it that had been there for 50 years or so; for 20 of those years that I watched him cast bullets, jig heads, and sinkers, I never saw him clean it out.

If it offends your aesthetics , you could use the clay wash (buy a small bag of slip-casting clay from your local crafts shop, and mix it to the consistency of heavy cream; slosh it around and pour it out; let it dry

*really* well) or smoke it good with an acetylene torch...until you get tired of that nonsense and just leave it in there.

-- Ed Huntress

.

I Just set the ladle back in the pot for a minute or two and the lead will melt and stay in the pot

Oh, jeez, I had a senior moment there. I was thinking about the pot, not the ladle. Thanks for waking me up.

We've always done the same thing when casting sinkers and jigs.

-- Ed Huntress

Are you saying that the lead is actually tinning to the ladle, or are there just a buch of "crumbs" sticking to it after 95% of the molten lead drains out?

My ladles for lead are rusty enough that its not a problem. I don't keep them in the hot lead. but of COURSE I preheat anything well above water's boiling point before putting it into the molten lead.

Pete Stanaitis

--------------------

mark wrote:

instead of pouring cleanly out from the lip of the laddle, it sticks to the lip and rolls under the laddle and there is always a film of lead on parts of the laddle, soem parts are perfectly clean.

Smoke the ladle with a wax candle. Make it black. Some carbon might float in - but it floats.

Mart> Is there any tricks to stop lead from sticking to my laddle when

Yup, I had spoon I used with marvelux flux that I didn't preheat once. Oh that was exciting.

Wes

Yep, a lot of people, myself included, acquired some "instant dancing skills", in moments like this.

i

When I was a kid I salvaged a lot of lead from smashed batteries in the river behind the auto-parts store and cast it in a foundry way out behind the house. At first I sand-cast it but couldn't get all the shapes I wanted, so I tried carved wood molds. They worked well once or twice, then heated up enough to char. A plaster lining didn't last long. Playing around I discovered that I could fill the mold with water and pour the molten metal right into it, the metal was hot enough that a steam film formed and the metal didn't lose its heat quickly, in fact molten copper would continue to glow red for a while under the water.

The surface finish of the castings was beautiful and I thought I had stumbled onto a really good idea until an old nail hole trapped a bit of water under the molten lead. BANG! like a firecracker and everything nearby including me was covered with a thin film of metal. I was lucky, I wear glasses and the layer was thin enough that I wasn't burned.

For many reasons I'm lucky to have few scars, both eyes and all my fingers. I was usually the one watching and holding the beer.

jsw

Jim Wilkins wrote: > When I was a kid I salvaged a lot of lead from smashed batteries ...

They don't make 'em like that anymore. A few years ago I was looking for lead & opened up a battery from the dump. The lead was in some kind of matrix, or itself was a spongy form that yielded 90% dross & 10% lead when melted.

Bob

Smoke residue (soot from a candle flame works), and cooking spray will both work.