Best way to smelt brass?

Alarion

Alarion

Joined
Nov 26, 2001
Messages
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I have a lot of old spent cases I can't reload again, and I'd like to smelt them to get brass ingots to form into guards, pommels, bolsters and such.
How should I proceed?
I thought using a half (non re-usable) empty oxygen bottle as a crucible over the coal forge. Any advice?
 
do not breathe the zinc fumes whatever route you go, I do occaisionally melt brass in a refractory crucible, at brass melting temperatures your steel bottle will quickly oxidize spilling molten brass into your forge, if you are going to try melting brass, use an Alumina or Clay-graphite crucible, and please I know you will, take precautions to prevent inhaling any zinc fumes

-Page
 
I used to melt quite a bit of the stuff down in the form of reclaimed plumbing fixtures, etc. As others have said, avoid the fumes!

If you forge you're half way there. The typical foundry is essentially a vertical forge. The forced air burner comes in at a tangent at the bottom. The opening is in the top lid (not the side as in a forge). A graphite or high fire porcelain/ceramic upright crucible sits in the insulated well with an inch or two of space all the way around it so the flame/heat can spiral up and around it. Crank her up and get it down. Use copious amounts of flux (borax is our friend). Work outside and stay clear of all fumes, smokes and vapors!!!!!!!!!!

The lifting and pouring is your last challenge. Appropriate tongs, ingot/mold layout and work space are imperative. As with forging, clothing made of natural fabrics and closed toed shoes are a must. (I know you know this, but safety stuff ALWAYS bears stating.) Walk through all the procedures a few times to choreograph all your moves and arrange everything and everyone where its needed (including ventilation/exhaust) before commencing to smelt.

Unless reclaiming the brass of the casings has personal meaning to you or a client, you might want to consider scrapping them out and buying the brass stock/alloy you want to work with, thus avoiding the toxic exposure.
 
Brass is cheap. Scrap the casings and buy fresh stock.

Or, try the search function, this topic comes up every few weeks :)
 
Thanks guys.
Yes, I know about the fumes, and I planned doing it outside, gauging the wind and keeping away from it all as much as possible.
I don't need smelting a pound of brass at a time, though.
Some ounces at a time would be enough for my needs.
I'll evaluate the situation with due calm. After all, it's not as if I'm starting smelting brass tomorrow. Before I even lighted my first brick forge I read about forges for about a year. ;)
 
If you're just going to do a couple ounces at a time a hand held crucible and oxy-acetylene torch will do to pour into an small adjustable ingot mold.

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Interesting thread that I will watch and read as I am interested in this topic. I fashioned a crude crucible/mold from stainless steel, put the brass in it, melted it down and let it harden in the crucible that I then peeled away....not the cleanest approach because the stainless steel could not quite take the heat. My next plan is to fashion a mold from pottery clay that is first fired to about 2000 degrees. I'll then try metling in that mold and breaking the pottery mold away after it cools....will let you know how it turns out.
 
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