fluxing issues please help

R

riverratt

New member
I have some used roofing lead that a buddy of mine has been saving from jobs that he did over the summer. When I was melting it down into ingots i noticed that the surface had a golden hue to it. I fluxed it twice with paraffin wax and after skimming off the top the hue came back forming a layer of slag. I fluxed it again with the same results.

I am assuming that this hue is coming from the roofing tar but i don't know. So how do i stop this from happening or should i even worry about it?
 
It happens and I believe it's mostly from the melt being too hot. But I could be wrong it happens to me also and I noticed it's after the melt sits in the pot, however I don't have a thermometer to verify this. I Flux with saw dust and get better results than using wax.
 
DS is correct. It is just too hot. Lower the temp some and use sawdust to flux...... it'll clear up and be nice and shiny. :)
 
Roofing sheets are pure lead. Whenever I ingotise pure lead, I get that purple sheen on the surface right after skimming the crud off. It's the reaction of the atmospheric oxygen with the lead to form lead oxide. Perfectly normal. In fact if you do NOT see it, you're too cold, not hot enough to be reclaiming lead oxide back to it's metallic state. That's called reduction.
 
As snuffy said , you`re purty close to pure lead when gold/ble/purple hues come over the top of ya melt.The hotter the melt the qwiker it happens.
 
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