Melting, purifying and pouring bars of Cu, Al, Pd and Zn?? Mucho questions
TexasNationals
Posts: 3,837 ✭
Part is out of boredom part is out of curiosity but I would like to try this. For the last several years I have been collecting copper pipe and wire (legally from construction sites and have actually bought spools of copper wire "on sales" from places like harbor freight that sold on close out at 50% or less of melt. So I have all this laying around and bought a cool wire stripper, but the pipe has caps that have solder (lead, zinc and god knows what else) so my idea was to melt them, pure them into 10 pound pars after I purity them and store them. I also have a ton of aluminum broken manifolds (eldlebrocks) heads, screen frames and cans and would like to do the same.
Now I did for a while used to pick up for free all of he 1-5 gallon buckets at the the tire shops of removed lead weights, added a chemical (don't have anymore) and poured them into RCBS iron molds (1 pound molds). I have a few hundred and have stopped as I reload and was casting my own .38 and .45 SWC or WC bullets for reloading as I shot alot. Now that powder, brass and primers have gone up I stopped and stored the bars in the corners of the garage. That was easy, propane stove, coffee can and leather gloves.
So the question, I have a ton of spent shell casing I would like to get the copper out of, all the copper, the lead and zinc if can be separated) and aluminum. So my questions
1) Cheap, but reliable and hot smelter (need be 110 or 220)
2) Crucibles and tongs
30 Chemicals to separate the zinc and lead and how to go about the brass casings?
4) Where and what kind of molds?
Figured someone would know and I planned on pouring and saving as they pay .35/pound of aluminum and under $1 per pound for copper at recyclers here, what a bunch of BS. Probably because so much is stolen, but I figured if I showed it was legit I might get some fair prices? Any help?
Now I did for a while used to pick up for free all of he 1-5 gallon buckets at the the tire shops of removed lead weights, added a chemical (don't have anymore) and poured them into RCBS iron molds (1 pound molds). I have a few hundred and have stopped as I reload and was casting my own .38 and .45 SWC or WC bullets for reloading as I shot alot. Now that powder, brass and primers have gone up I stopped and stored the bars in the corners of the garage. That was easy, propane stove, coffee can and leather gloves.
So the question, I have a ton of spent shell casing I would like to get the copper out of, all the copper, the lead and zinc if can be separated) and aluminum. So my questions
1) Cheap, but reliable and hot smelter (need be 110 or 220)
2) Crucibles and tongs
30 Chemicals to separate the zinc and lead and how to go about the brass casings?
4) Where and what kind of molds?
Figured someone would know and I planned on pouring and saving as they pay .35/pound of aluminum and under $1 per pound for copper at recyclers here, what a bunch of BS. Probably because so much is stolen, but I figured if I showed it was legit I might get some fair prices? Any help?
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Comments
Just keep in mind that zinc toxicity can cause death, copper toxicity can cause liver, kidney, and brain damage. And zinc and copper may be the triggers behind Alzheimers. Lead poisoning can cause a wide variety of really nasty symptoms from organ failure to brain swelling to death.
And if that isn't enough to keep you from trying this at home, your local EPA office will probably confiscate everything you own and declare your property a superfund site if they find out about it.
Just be careful.
--Severian the Lame
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Then I wondered why you would want to spend money on the energy and equipment to melt this stuff into bars when I would guess it would be more cost effective to sell the metal as is to a scrap yard?
Figured someone would know and I planned on pouring and saving as they pay .35/pound of aluminum and under $1 per pound for copper at recyclers here, what a bunch of BS. Probably because so much is stolen, but I figured if I showed it was legit I might get some fair prices? Any help?
I am NOT melting coins, the prices they pay on scrap are BS so I would rather consolidate it, stack it and sell it later!
Besides the dangers and environmental risks, lets say you do produce some ingots that look like copper. Who are you going to sell them to? Why would any industrial user assume that you, an unknown name in his industry, know what you are doing?
Copper wire can be tolerably assesed by eye. A mysterious ingot is automatically suspicious, and will be bought at a greater discount and re-refined so that they know what they have.
TD
Too dangerous. Please sell the damn metal to a smelting company for the sake of your family.
You are not set up with all of the ventilation and safety equipment that will be needed. Copper
is up a lot, you should be able to make some money on your holdings.
Camelot
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
LOL, that's funny. I wished I had a nickel for every small time scrapper that thought they should get comex spot. People underestimate the cost of refining and middleman overhead.
You will not be able to get a "Fair" price until you deal directly with the end refinery. Fair being a relative term. There are few actual end user refineries in this country. In order to do business with one of them at the better prices, you have to be a business. Be approved thru their Patriot Act requirements, and be able to do a hell of a lot of business, or they simply will not deal with you, period. You have no choice but to sell to a middleman at their going rates. Most business that call themselves a refinery, are actually just a middleman. If getting full melt value for metal was as easy as comparing it to spot prices, everyone in the country would be a scrapper.
<< <i> Now I did for a while used to pick up for free all of he 1-5 gallon buckets at the the tire shops of removed lead weights >>
when my dad used to work at a service station, we melted the lead into fishing weights.
On your copper....if it is bright---just sell it. Easy to find prices for different grades on the net. Don't let the counterman try to BS you on what you are bringing in. Know what you have.
wheel weights are a problem as they are an alloy(which you know if you've ever tried to size a bullet with the stuff--it's useless) and even with PB as high as it is...if you ingotted the individual weights and declared it as lead---you'd only get around 40 cents/lb.
There's a glut of aluminunum right now and isn't even worth the energy for you to smelt it.
Even the price of steel may be high right now---scrap is high but there is also a glut.
The big fish eat the little fish in scrap biz and indeed the individual person is the littlest guppy.