Cleaned out my rubber mulch trap, now what?

[triggertreat]

I wouldn't mind using sand as far as sifting out the lead, but sand is much heavier than rubber mulch to tote out to the markers and back.  The problem I see with sand is the sand running out of the large holes formed by groups.  I also like using the large chunk varieties of rubber mulch for the same reason.  I guess there are different sands to be had, but I just don't think, having never used sand, that sand would be better than using rubber mulch overall.  Besides, the rubber mulch is surely much easier than sand to recycle, which I also do.

With using 1/8" Luan plywood as a front face on my totes and screwed down, this holds the rubber mulch back for a lot of shooting sessions verses just the plastic tote lid.

[A moron]

I wouldn't mind using sand as far as sifting out the lead, but sand is much heavier than rubber mulch to tote out to the markers and back.  The problem I see with sand is the sand running out of the large holes formed by groups.  I also like using the large chunk varieties of rubber mulch for the same reason.  I guess there are different sands to be had, but I just don't think, having never used sand, that sand would be better than using rubber mulch overall.  Besides, the rubber mulch is surely much easier than sand to recycle, which I also do.

With using 1/8" Luan plywood as a front face on my totes and screwed down, this holds the rubber mulch back for a lot of shooting sessions verses just the plastic tote lid.

I guess...  I did not tote the traps to much pretty much set up and that's where it Stayed.   Seemed like best I can recall for the bb traps only took like a 1" or2 o sand.

In the end it's what you find works best for you.   I never used the traps to pellets just bb's. To reuse.

Good luck

[mackeral5]

I wouldn't mind using sand as far as sifting out the lead, but sand is much heavier than rubber mulch to tote out to the markers and back.  The problem I see with sand is the sand running out of the large holes formed by groups.  I also like using the large chunk varieties of rubber mulch for the same reason.  I guess there are different sands to be had, but I just don't think, having never used sand, that sand would be better than using rubber mulch overall.  Besides, the rubber mulch is surely much easier than sand to recycle, which I also do.

With using 1/8" Luan plywood as a front face on my totes and screwed down, this holds the rubber mulch back for a lot of shooting sessions verses just the plastic tote lid.

I don't transport my trap, it is only used for indoor chrony testing.  The old trap I just cleaned out was a 5 gallon bucket--over a few years it became 1/2 filled with lead..  The new one is a 30gallon plastic barrel filled with 6 bags (IIRC) of mulch.  The target end is sealed off with duct tape.  After several dozen shots in the same general area and  it gets a hole large enough for mulch to leak out, I duct tape over the hole. 

[Hoosier Daddy]

So... I have a indoor 10m pellet trap that uses "Duct Seal".
 Plucking pellets out is a sticky, gooey, mess but I do it with needle nose pliers.
I have several pounds of reclaimed pellets with "Duct Seal" impregnated... am I screwed?

[A moron]

Some fun time with a shirpie

Would this work?   Angled back to force pellet down sloped bottom on 4 sides to funnel in to empty bucket or catch pan.

No mulch or sand required ?   Just take trap off and empty bucket or pan?

Sideways again , sorry

[Back_Roads]

So... I have a indoor 10m pellet trap that uses "Duct Seal".
 Plucking pellets out is a sticky, gooey, mess but I do it with needle nose pliers.
I have several pounds of reclaimed pellets with "Duct Seal" impregnated... am I screwed?

 Duct seal burns off, if done in an outdoor area to avoid the smoke and fire, takes care of the first need of any borax or sawdust.

[Hoosier Daddy]

^interesting to know... thanks^

[mackeral5]

I melted down 10 or so lbs of the lead yesterday.  It smoked pretty good, but once melted the rubber was easily scraped off the sides and skimmed off the surface, then the fumes/smoking stopped----it was bad, but not as bad as I expected, especially since i didn't have to wait for all of the rubber to burn off. 

Overall I am happy with the state the lead is in, it is good enough for now.  Once my ingot mold comes in I'll turn it all to ingots and then the smelting process will be much cleaner.   

[mackeral5]

I finished smelting it all  into ingots today.  Along the way I've cast probably 40# or so into ammo. 

This was the original bucket.



Here is the stack of ingots.  I haven't put forth the effort to count them.

[JuryRigger]

That's a lotta lead!-Will be a whole bunch of future shooting 
Jesse

[lorka42]

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. 

There is a product called purge used in plastic extrusion, it is basically pvc with +1/8" pieces looks a bit like kitty litter, but larger pieces. it works good for weight bags or gun rest bags as well. it would all float off.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Purge (purging compound) is usually acrylic.
PVC does not play well with some other plastics and is really bad if to get too hot.
When it does, it will start creating it's own heat and degrade. Then it gives off (poisonous) Hydrogen chloride gas.

[mackeral5]

I would be willing to try something other than the rubber mulch next go round, which will likely be over a year from now.

In the end, the mulch separation process wasn't too bad.  One thing I will note is this 5 gallon bucket trap was long overdue for refreshing.  Much of it was lead dust due to mulch being displaced by lead.  The trap's volume had become over 1/3rd lead.  Combine that with many, many rounds of 250-500fpe slugs and you have pulverized lead dust.  Had I refreshed it much sooner the process would not have been quite as tedious, I think.

The primary reasons for my using this style of trap is simplicity, readily available materials, lack of noise (as long as you are shooting mulch, not solid lead dust, lol...)  The only periodic maintenance is patching the duct tape sacrificial lid/cover.  I very rarely use it for anything other than chronograph testing.  it is not intended to be used as an indoor target shooting backstop.

I replaced my 5 gallon bucket trap with a 30 gallon barrel trap.  it will be some time before cleaning it out, before then I'll end up buying a pig of pure lead from roto metals.  The lead salvaged from my trap is a bit harder.  The way I can tell is I have a fishing weight mold for split-shot, and the lead from my trap isn't very practical for this use, it requires a bit too much force to crimp the split shot onto fishing line.  After seeing this I look forward to casting and shooting some pure lead ammo. 

Here is the new trap.  The old trap is the white bucket sitting beside it...

[triggertreat]

I believe I would go back to the bucket.  It is going to be quite the task when you do finally sort the 30 gal.  I did reduce my four bag mulch bin capacity down after my last sort to probably a bag and a half, maybe two bags.  IDK cause I reused the bigger chunks from the also sorted mulch.  Sorting should be a breeze next time is my thinking.  Hopefully that holds true.

[mackeral5]

I believe I would go back to the bucket.  It is going to be quite the task when you do finally sort the 30 gal.  I did reduce my four bag mulch bin capacity down after my last sort to probably a bag and a half, maybe two bags.  IDK cause I reused the bigger chunks from the also sorted mulch.  Sorting should be a breeze next time is my thinking.  Hopefully that holds true.

 It has already gained a good bit of weight.  When it comes time for the next cleanout, I'm thinking most of the lead should be less than a foot deep.  I am hopeful that I can just shovel it out with an E-tool.....we will see how that goes.

The larger target area is a plus. 

[mrbulk]

I've been using this type of mulch from Home Depot, it is comprised of random angle shaped pieces which are not really that small, plus they float:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-0-8-cu-ft-Cedar-Red-Bagged-Rubber-Mulch-HDVCRMN8CB/203714941

[Greg_E]

You could use cotton cloth, but 30 gallons is going to be a lot. I found that I didn't really have enough old clothes to fill a 5 gallon bucket and ended up with mulch.

You may want a 20:1 alloy for casting, pure lead doesn't fill as well as the alloys. I got a slightly cheaper price from a company on Amazon for the lead I just ordered, coming in next week and I'll check hardness with the pencil method.

[mackeral5]

I've been using this type of mulch from Home Depot, it is comprised of random angle shaped pieces which are not really that small, plus they float:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-0-8-cu-ft-Cedar-Red-Bagged-Rubber-Mulch-HDVCRMN8CB/203714941

My trap has 4 bags of that same mulch. 

[triggertreat]

I believe I would go back to the bucket.  It is going to be quite the task when you do finally sort the 30 gal.  I did reduce my four bag mulch bin capacity down after my last sort to probably a bag and a half, maybe two bags.  IDK cause I reused the bigger chunks from the also sorted mulch.  Sorting should be a breeze next time is my thinking.  Hopefully that holds true.

 It has already gained a good bit of weight.  When it comes time for the next cleanout, I'm thinking most of the lead should be less than a foot deep.  I am hopeful that I can just shovel it out with an E-tool.....we will see how that goes.

The larger target area is a plus.

I was thinking of that as well but left it out.  If nothing else, you should be able to shovel out the bulk of the lead and not worry about the small stuff until maybe the next time.