Cleaned out my rubber mulch trap, now what?

[mackeral5]

Last weekend project....

The dirty lead is about 7.5-8" deep in this 5 gallon bucket.  easily weighs upwards of 150#. 

Most of this was from JSB and NSA....I don't even want to do the math and convert weight to $$$$, lol.

I used a blower to remove most of the finer rubber and threads, but there's still a good bit in there.

I assume I just melt this down into clean ingots?  Is there another step to reduce the rubber contamination?

[BSJ]

 Is there another step to reduce the rubber contamination?

Probably not.  Be sure to smelt it outside with a good wind. Gonna be stinky and not good to breath...

[A moron]

Fish cooker ,old junk pot melt it down make ingot take to scrap yard sell for what ever price lead is per pound.  Use money buy pellets or something.

Or buy a mold that makes something you use like fishing weights.

[steveoh]

Last weekend project....

The dirty lead is about 7.5-8" deep in this 5 gallon bucket.  easily weighs upwards of 150#. 

Most of this was from JSB and NSA....I don't even want to do the math and convert weight to $$$$, lol.

I used a blower to remove most of the finer rubber and threads, but there's still a good bit in there.

I assume I just melt this down into clean ingots?  Is there another step to reduce the rubber contamination?

Dump it all into a large container such as a cheap plastic concrete mixing tub, and fill with water. The lead will sink and the rubber should float. It's worked for me to retrieve massive amounts of lead, that goes right into my pot.

[Madd Hatter]

Following. I'll probly need to do this in the future for my crono back stop container but it will get recast as slugs and pellets.

[mackeral5]

I'm sorry I  could have been more clear.  The intent is to ultimately turn this lead into pellets and slugs. 

I am curious if there is another step of processing prior to melting down and making ingots.

[INnavyvet]

If you use water to float off rubber make sure pellets are bone dry before melting.

[Insanity]

Just melting the lead will drive out a lot of FOD but get some 20 mule team borax to help further clean when you smelt. Sprinkle some and stir it down into the lead. Makes a mess but pulls out a lot of impurities.

[triggertreat]

Last weekend project....

The dirty lead is about 7.5-8" deep in this 5 gallon bucket.  easily weighs upwards of 150#. 

Most of this was from JSB and NSA....I don't even want to do the math and convert weight to $$$$, lol.

I used a blower to remove most of the finer rubber and threads, but there's still a good bit in there.

I assume I just melt this down into clean ingots?  Is there another step to reduce the rubber contamination?

That was a great idea using the blower!  I just sorted similarly last fall.  When I got down to the level you are inquiring about, I just placed approximately 10 to 15 pounds in a separate bucket.  I then tilted the bucket heavily and used the water hose to flush out the small and floating remains while swishing the lead around with my hand.  I then poured the lead into a strainer.  This worked quite well and lead was clean enough for casting in the Lee pot, once fully dry.

[shibumei]

Check my math but 150 lbs of lead would be about 75,000 using 14.3 grain pellets..   I figure about 10 seconds a shot.  So about 8 days to shoot all that lead.  What fun!

[A moron]

When we shot BB's in traps we used sand . With sand or rubber mulch or rubber beads ( we just used sand).   Smaller then the BB's we could use a screen to sift out the sand and collect and reuse the BB's.   

I don't know how uniform yoru "trash" part is if you could do that as well to separate what you want to keep from what you don't.

Go check a reloaders forum and see what the hey do to recycle and recast.    Most all times the crud floats on top and you can skim it off.

[mackeral5]

All great info, thanks for chiming in. 

The blower was just a small Ryobi One unit that doesn't move too much air, I blew the debris against my garage door and the swept it up. 

I may go one more round with the blower and see how it does. 

Then (if my pot will ever get here) melt down a batch and see how bad of a process it is to smelt it out.  I've already molded a few 125gr .357's by heating the ladle with a torch---and of course burning off the debris in the process.  It is definitely not something you want to do inside.

Worst case I may wash it off, but there is a lot of fine dust that I don't want to lose.

[Back_Roads]

 I use a dedicated cast iron pot on a turkey fryer burner to render out the nasties, such as duct seal putty and rubber mulch and other shattered target material, I bring it up to 1200 degrees then lower the temp, add borax then skim off the floaties, pour into ingots for my casting pot.

[Flatpicker]

I recently cleaned out a trap which had pellets and tiny pieces of cardboard and shoot-n-see target residue.  Used an old lead pot on my fish fryer and ladled it into an ingot mold. I SHOULD have dumped it into a bucket and floated the debris out, but being in a hurry I figured I would just skim it off later.  That was some really noxious nasty stuff as it burned off and when I skimmed it with a ladle (into a porcelain pie pan) it got more interesting as a gust of wind caused it to ignite releasing a BIG cloud of yellow foul smelling smoke.  It was like a miniature A-bomb cloud.  I had fourteen pounds in the trap and after a lot of skimming I fluxed the lead with some pine sawdust a couple times then skimmed again and poured it into ingots.  One pound ingots are really handy when casting small caliber stuff- remember, there’s 7000 grains in a pound, so that’s basically a tin of pellets be it a 500 count in 22 or a 350 count in 25 per pound. They will fit in your pot easier too.  Be sure to wash your pellet material before you start.  No sense getting some weird lung disease from something that was in your trap debris.

[Insanity]

That rubber is nasty when it starts to smoke.

[A moron]

All great info, thanks for chiming in. 

The blower was just a small Ryobi One unit that doesn't move too much air, I blew the debris against my garage door and the swept it up. 

I may go one more round with the blower and see how it does. 

Then (if my pot will ever get here) melt down a batch and see how bad of a process it is to smelt it out.  I've already molded a few 125gr .357's by heating the ladle with a torch---and of course burning off the debris in the process.  It is definitely not something you want to do inside.

Worst case I may wash it off, but there is a lot of fine dust that I don't want to lose.

The fumes ,. Be in well vented area. And stay upwind ..lol..

Maybe good hot gloves to be safer never know when a oops moment pops up.

I use to lead cast iron pipe and solder copper and electronics.  I think back and kinda wish I did not.   May back in my birth to 7 she no telling how much lead paint was still around(mmmmm.. paint flakes are yummy). No just joking.

Just remember it's lead it's molten and releasing fumes to the air around you when molton/ cooking.

[triggertreat]

This a picture of the 34 pounds I reclaimed out of a large rubber mulch filled tote by using a hose in a bucket tilted and swished by hand after sifting through a 3/8" square plastic mesh sheet.  I was able to get all of the ugly stuff out with these two methods, and well enough that I haven't had a bad experience using the lead in the Lee pot.  Very little to scrape off the top as well, but some.

I also had sort out an old rubber floormat worth of nylon.  I used a broom to sweep off most of that when piled up on the shed floor.  The blower method would have probably saved a little water, but not a lot as all had to be washed anyways.  It did take a little time on a beautiful day outside, but well worth the effort in the end when needing to add lead to the pot in small amounts to keep the flow at a steady pace.

[mackeral5]

I put a portion through a second blower session.  A lot more debris was removed than I expected.  It still isn't 100% cleaned, however when I melted down a ladle full it didn't flame up like it did before.  It still smelled, but not as bad as before.  This is the level I am going to leave it until the melter arrives, which has been stuck with USPS in St Louis since Feb 14. 

I will add this.  If I had it to do over again, I would look for a rubber product that did NOT have fabric/threads.   the threads are what is the most difficult to remove.  I've seen a video where some guys used what just appeared to be rubber ground to a kitty litter consistency, that would be the best to use in a trap.

Here is 25# after the second round with the blower. 

[Back_Roads]

 There is a finer particle rubber mulch , mainly used on astro turf to keep the grass upright. Might be worth looking into.

[A moron]

Playground pellets

https://www.genan.us/products/pellets/

But like me sands free and sifts easy