Horrible Freight strikes again - you guys were right; and other musings

[80hp]

A few casting tips:
1. You can sort lead ingots for hardness by the sound they make when you drop them on a concrete floor. Pure lead will make a dull "thud". Harder lead will "ring" when dropped. With practice, it is easy to sort by hardness.
2. Better yet is the Lee Hardness tester. It can be a bit hard to read. You can test any ingots that are small enough to fit into the press frame. After I test them, I stamp them with the hardness value.
3. Beware of any flux that is hygroscopic (absorbing or attracting moisture from the air). Many powdered fluxes are. It will cause rust on any thing it touches. My Lee pot had a nice blued interior for many years until I tried one of these and it rusted. It can also be dangerous, my Lee dipper picked up enough moisture lying on the table so when I tried to stir the pot again , lead splashed out from the water turning to steam.
4. I have tried various fluxes:
Candle stubs- beeswax- works well, but wife objects to smell, and it catches fire during use (no big deal).
Crude beeswax- from a bee-keeper friend- worked well, but "candle moths" got into it and I had to throw it out.
Bullet lube that has wax in it-
Sawdust- works well- hardwood is best.
Powdered charcoal briquettes- works well
The most convenient so far is- wooden paint stirring sticks (FREE from the paint store). Use them to stir the pot and scrape the sides. They will char and catch fire and pieces will fall into the pot (works like charcoal). Just keep a metal can around to store the still burning stubs.
5. I use an old chisel to clean and scrape out the pot occasionally. If you drain the pot, and let it cool, there will be a thin coat of lead in the bottom. You can catch the edge of it with the chisel and peel it away from the pot.
6. The pot will melt the lead faster if you leave about a half inch in the pot from the previous use. It will be 100% in contact with the pot so the heat will transfer faster. Ingots will take longer to melt as the heat will transfer from where the edges contact the pot. The molten lead will transfer heat to the ingots faster than the sides of the pot.
M.