KELTOI Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 okay, so I don't know if anyone here really has any experience with this... I am wanting to be able to do some small scale casting, and I have a few questions: (1) First off, I have several pounds of spent bullet casings, which I would presume to be cartridge brass...am I right in this? (2) I am having trouble getting these to melt!...If they ARE cartridge brass, then, they should be melting around 900-1000+ degrees....at least according to the metals chart I have. (3)What is the best material from which to make a crucible? (4) lastly...what are some good mediums for which to cast into/into?(as in molds...) I know there is the sand mixture, and soapstone, but does anything else work well? I would appreciate any help I can get! Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Owen Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Hello Brad- Try Metal Casting Home They may have all your answers. It's an online group of 'Backyard Casters' and they have forums like IForgeIron does, where you can ask questions, see pictures, etc. Hope this helps you out! I'd love to hear the answer on the spent cartridges... Peace, Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgtwister Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 well most cartrige cases are brass but i have seen a lot the big cartriges from the A10 warthog plane that are steel (i live a few miles from there range and seen them out side there range on the ground )as melting brass it melts around 2300 f and if your doing this make sure you are were protective clothing i have seen this DO MAJOR damage to some ones body i have never melted cartriges but have melted hundreds of pounds of brass with my buddy makeing turn of the century motorcycles parts so every thing we have melted is thick brass witch is harder to melt i'm not sure of you furnace setup we use a reverbatory furnace with a stock becket oilburner with a gallon an hour tip it melts a pot of brass in about 45 min Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt87 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Brad, most cartridge cases are, as you say, brass. Rimfire cases specifically are a brass alloy that allows a lot of drawing but that's not very relevant right now. Some low-cost manufacturers don't use brass but instead use mild steel or aluminium (aluminum) due to lower cost. 'Wolf' for instance is a popular and inexpensive manufacturer which commonly uses lacquered mild steel cases. It is not practicable to cast mild steel at home. Aluminium on the other hand is easier to cast than brass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 The best material to make a crucible is platinum though it would be very hard to work with if you wanted to make your own. A good and fairly cheap material would be graphite and much cheaper to buy than to make your own. Safer too. Molten brass is much more dangerous than steel that even hundreds of degree's hotter. If you drop steel it heads towards the center of the earth and stops---molten metal *splashes* and if it comes in contact with water it explodes. I know a fellow who ended up in the hospital for several hundred thousand dollars worth of work because *1* drop of sweat fell into his mold unnoticed when he was setting up for a pour. When remelting cartridge brass watchout for "dud" rounds that can cook off and ruin your entire day---and the rest of your life. Watch out when adding in more scrap preheating it to make sure there is no possibility of any moisture in it (and note if you heat it over the furnace water can condense out of the exhaust gasses on cold scrap so make sure it can't drip into the furnace! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KELTOI Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 Okay thanks. I have already discovered that residual powder in the shells will cause a rather unnerving pop resulting in a few flying shells...I was trying to melt down .22 rim fire shells...I think they are Mag something or other brand...Anyway, when I started to heat them they lost their brassy color turning a metal gray instead....this could I suppose be a result of the equivalent to tempering....if brass will do that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgtwister Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 have you tryed putting a magnet to see if it sticks to it to tell if it steel what are you using to melt them? if your furnace is geting hot enough them thin cases should melt like butter i'm not sure what your makeing but if you get them melted i would do it twice like melt skim it pour in to bilit mold and them do another melt for the the casting pour so you get another skiming done as the emety cases have a lot inpuritys in side them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Budd Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 just in case they are brass, watch out for the fumes. Brass contains zinc and that can really ruin your day, well, kill you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 At casting temps the zinc will be burning off with a weird bluish flame down in the crucible, So the longer the metal is at temp the less zinc it has and the less fluid it is for pouring. Modern american pennies (post 1984) are copper plated zinc and so make an easy metered ammount to add back in, stirr and pour! Metal Fume Fever is to be avoided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KELTOI Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 I'll give all this stuff a shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I use crushed glass as a cover flux to keep the zinc from burning off so much. It reduces the problem Thomas identified and helps prevent metal fume fever, too. The molten glass will be thick and viscous, and you'll need to skim it off before the pour. What are you using as a furnace? I find it more difficult to melt in an open, solid fuel forge than in an enclosed melting furnace. Cartridge cases have high surface area relative to mass. In other words they're very thin. That means they'll be prone to oxidizing more than melting, so you can lose a lot of brass as dross. The best approach to this problem that I know of is to start with some larger chunks of brass in the crucible. When those liquefy you can add your cases, and the pool of already molten brass will help protect the cases from oxidation. You can buy commercial clay-graphite crucibles relatively inexpensively. For brass I'd recommend that you do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KELTOI Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Thanks Matt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acoop101 Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Another website you might want to check out is melting metal in a home foundry, backyard metalcasting, metal casting and the forums on their website. As for using brass cases I have cast with them before and they work well just make sure you don't over heat them and once the metal melts don't hold it at temperature for more than 5-10 min to keep the zinc loss to a minimum. I also used a layer of charcoal over the top of the melt as a cover to keep the air contact to a minimum, there are people over on backyard metal casting who used smashed up glass for the same reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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