WarezWally Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 I found 3kg of lead sheeting under the house and tonight I decided to cast it into small ingots. After melting it down and removing the crud with a spoon it had taken on a blue / green tinge. I then poured it into small muffin moulds and to my horror this is what fell out 10 minutes later: http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4876/img0001gn7.jpg Note the good ones to the right, they were from a diffrent batch. http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/4142/img0005wf7.jpg I have had a few look a bit like this but they only small divots and a few had a yellow tinge which is normal if you overheat the lead. Any ideas?
TheSidewinder Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 Something tells me those sheets weren't pure lead. The color change is a clue, but I don't know where it leads.... It almost looks like water bubbles formed during casting, but that would have produced explosive amounts of steam. A chemist will chime in here, I'm sure. M
oskarchem Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 Just define for me the word "Lead sheeting"... ANd then I would be able to bet taht te color is due to the Lead/Antimony mix (lost the wright word)... But the bubbles
Mumbles Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 I've never seen anything that extreme, but smaller dimples and divots can come from lead not being hot enough when it is cast. Might want to try a flux next time. Honestly I have no idea what happened there.
asilentbob Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 Your muffin tins didn't happen to be coated with anything did they?
oskarchem Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 Tell, me were your muffin moulds in Aluminium? EDIT: Was the inside of the moulds attacked by the lead?
h0lx Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 The lead probably contains tin, because of the blue. The bubbles could have been created by something like moisture or grease evaporating in the molds.
WarezWally Posted December 12, 2007 Author Posted December 12, 2007 Moulds were clean and had been used fine for about 50 times prior.
Pyro55 Posted December 16, 2007 Posted December 16, 2007 http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/in...php/t-8032.html
Mumbles Posted December 16, 2007 Posted December 16, 2007 That still doesn't explain the extreme dimpling though.
WarezWally Posted December 16, 2007 Author Posted December 16, 2007 Looking around at some casting sites hey think it may be caused by gas dissolved in the molten lead. I don't really know what to make of it though.
tentacles Posted December 16, 2007 Posted December 16, 2007 Lead sheeting/flashing is normally "dead soft" or pure (99%+ anyway) lead. I have a piece about 1/8" thick x 18 x18 and I can crumple the whole sheet in my hands and then pull it flat again.
psyco_1322 Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 I cant see the pics but the dimpals might have been from boiling the lead. It cooled with air pockets in it. Had it happen the other day.
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