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Old September 24, 2009, 03:12 PM   #1
trip_sticker
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Smelting lead question

I just finished melting down 70 pounds of wheel weights. I scored just over half a 5 gallon bucket from a tire shop that I hadn't tried before. Anyway, when I melted them down cleaned off the dross, and fluxed them, I kept getting a bright gold colored film over the surface. I haven't seen this with other batches before. Any idea what this golden color is?
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Old September 24, 2009, 08:00 PM   #2
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Some metal oxides change color with temperature. I am assuming it goes away when the alloy cools? Chances are if you used a slightly lower melt temperature you wouldn't see it. What it is an oxide of, I can't say? I assume wheel weights have a number of contaminates because there is no motivation for them to spend money on pure alloys for the purpose.
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Old September 24, 2009, 08:17 PM   #3
trip_sticker
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No, the yellow color was still there when the ingots cooled. I'm not really worried about it, I was just curious if other peolpe had seen this before.
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Old September 24, 2009, 08:20 PM   #4
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new one on me.... ive never seen that before on mine... tho i have heard that they are adding new alloys to the new weights...
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Old September 24, 2009, 08:55 PM   #5
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It might be real gold. Did you get your wheel weights from a leprachaun?
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Old September 25, 2009, 10:33 PM   #6
Rusty W
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I've seen the same gold tint in my Lee pot when I was casting some bullets just the other day. I added about 1/2 of a pound of 60/40 solder to 10 pounds of wheel weights to make some 44-250-KT's. I think it's the tin content making the gold color. I've smelted pure lead and it gets a blue/purple color to it sometimes.
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Old September 26, 2009, 06:01 PM   #7
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Hmm. I'd still look for an oxide layer. Did you score an ingot with a file and see if it is through and through, or just on the surface?

Another possibility is some kind of scum from the stick-on wheel weight glue. Just don't know?
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