First pot of wheel weights

[Robert lehman]

Melted my first pot of wheel weights this afternoon and have a couple questions.
After skimming the top at least half a dozen times when i would not stir the lead it would get a yellowish tinged skin on it. Is that normal or is the lead still dirty? And i didn't have any bees wax for fluxing is there anything else that you guys use? I was using a cast iron pot on a turkey fryer if that makes a difference.

[boondocker]

You will see colors,not to fear. You can use a piece of crayon, parafin wax, candle wax and or sawdust to flux with. Stir it in and skim the top off, remember you do not want any liquid or sweat to hit the mix or you get a lead bath. Make sure anything you add is dry, no moisture.    Boon  { You can light the wax fumes to consume the smoke}

[Nobade]

It's too hot. Go just barely beyond slushy, no more. Once melted, drop the heat way back. You don't want to go melting any zinc weights or the zinc coating on the clips.

[Dezynco]

Like boondocker said, use a piece of candle, crayon, or run down to the hardware store and get a beeswax toilet bowl seal.  I like to keep a box of matches handy when I first put in the wax to go ahead and light the fumes.  It won't smoke so much that way, plus the wax has a tendency to go "POOF" when you stir it in (will scare the crap out of you, might make you splash lead on yourself!)!

Lead melt will often have some sort of color on top, depending on the alloy.  A good bit of the color will go away when you flux the lead.

[Tom W.]

the wax has a tendency to go "POOF" when you stir it in (will scare the crap out of you, might make you splash lead on yourself!)!

Or worse..............

[Robert lehman]

Thanks for your help guys. I through that batch back into the pot this after noon backed the heat weigh down asked my wife for some old candles threw part of one in lit it waited till it burned out and stirred it with a wooden paint stick skimmed the dross of the top and had a nice silver looking pot. I believe Boondocker was right it was way to hot and i fear hot enough i might have melted a zinc weight. When laddleing my mold i would get clumping in the pour and my a cast iron corn bread skillet with pie shapes in it was put on a burner in the house on high for half an hour to preheat it. After that batch i cleaned the pot and Threw in two ten pound brick of lead and some lead scraps from lead flashing off a roof and kept the heat low low enough the pot started to set gave it a little more heat skimmed the trash off the top and had a nice blue swirl threw the lead poured in my molds and it stayed visible in the lead after it set up. Whats that all about?

[docmagnum357]

Blue is a common color, too.  I use a lot of recovered .22 bullets, some of them have a copper plating.  i always thought the blue was copper, but I really have no ide.  The important thing is most everything detrimental will float, and not alloy, except zinc, as you already noted from newer weithges, and cadmium, from a battery.  Both are badd news for a melt.

[Nobade]

The blue is oxide on relatively pure lead. Wheelweights usually won't do that, but mostly straight lead will.