Some other thoughts:
As I got to the bottom of my bucket of WW, I saw a lot of rust. That indicated the possible presence of the ever dangerous water but that rust really polluted my melt quite badly. That crap was tough to get out of the melt. Fluxing didn't help and actually seemed to make it worse on the second and third flux attempt.
Finally got it all out. It was like a red oil on top of the melt and wouldn't blend in, nor would it collect up in a way that made it easy to get out of the melt. At least it was on the surface but it was a pain.
Sweat was a problem. I had to keep remember to keep from leaning over the melt and dripping sweat into the melt. THAT would have been a disaster of epic proportions. I stayed arms length away and then, wouldn't you know it, leaned over the mold JUST before pouring an ingot. Caught myself just in time and sure 'nuff, a drop of sweat hit that cinder block right next to the ingot mold. Gaaaaaah!
Molds. To do this right, I need at least one more or two more such molds. Waiting for the ingots to cool was simply tedious and you're just burning fuel waiting to knock 'em out and pour again.
If I think of other things, I'll post up some more. I would have taken a lot of pics but it became apparent that taking pics was starting to compromise my safety and my wife was out to town shopping for sewing stuff or something equally girly with her sister. So, possibly more pics some other time.
I'm VERY open to suggestions. Being new to this, I don't yet know if I've done anything minorly wrong which will mess me up in the casting furnace. Overall, though, it appears that everything went well.
One thing is certain: Thank YOU, the people of TFL who posted up all the incredibly valuable information I needed to pull this off. The Lyman book was helpful, but TFL really filled in the gaps.
--Wag--