if you are smelting a large batch ....this is very chancy! Especially if you have jacketed bullets in the batch! I have recorded in excess of 850 deg waiting for the copper jackets to release the pure lead! Never take chances always sort out the bad stuff! It will save a lot of headaches in the end!I don't sort at all. By the time you sort a large batch of lead you could have ingots and started casting bullets. Steel and Zinc melt at a higher temp and can be skimmed off the top of the pot. Just keep the lead temp below zinc melting point. Steel, like copper jackets, will never melt. Just the way I do it. YMMV.
The thing to remember is that the adhesive WW are extruded, not cast. When ingotized, you may get different test results.
Extruded lead is work-softened. When extruded lead is melted and cast into ingots, the ingots will usually be harder than the extruded lead wheelweights.When made into ingots results will be different from what? An ingot will cool much slower when melted and poured into a mold, extruded wasn't melted. What are you comparing?
Ian, that answers my initial question to a T. And matches my test results. Thank you.Based on a decent amount of testing, all painted stickies equal clippy alloy. Uncoated have about 1% antimony and almost nothing else important, so nearly equal .22 rimfire or jax bullet core alloy.
I keep a thermometer in the lead and turn down the heat if it gets too hot. Stirring the pot to get those jackets down in the molten lead helps expedite melt time. I also use a dutch oven pot and use lid to make it go faster. I normally melt range scrap (jacketed bullets) separately from wheel weights (rarely find any anymore) so I don't worry about zinc with range scrap. If doing wheel weights I watch the temp and there isn't any jackets in it to wait on. But I hear ya, that temp can creep up on ya and ruin a batch of lead if not watched. My batches are usually 25-40 lbs.if you are smelting a large batch ....this is very chancy! Especially if you have jacketed bullets in the batch! I have recorded in excess of 850 deg waiting for the copper jackets to release the pure lead! Never take chances always sort out the bad stuff! It will save a lot of headaches in the end!