Am I paranoid? Boolit pic.

[1Iron]

Ron,
Good tip. Thanks.

1Iron

[robg]

they look fine to me id just shoot em .if they shoot well that's what matters at the end of the day

[Shiloh]

I would think twice about shooting those.

Shiloh

[Ivan77]

Oh if yall have an iPhone/pad just hold the number 0 and the ° symbol pops up.

[BenW]

You mentioned your ingots look frosty.

If you dump them while still quite hot in a metal bowl or non-flat surface, are they prone to cracking? After cracking do they leave some "sand"? If so, that's the hallmark of a high (relative to tin content) antimony alloy. My clip on wheel weights do that all the time and look like they have a sand-blasted appearance. If you cast boolits straight from that alloy with no added pure or tin and cut the sprue too soon, it will not cut sharply and will leave a dimple in the base of the boolit, as well as leaving that "sand". That, along with frosting, is an indication that your mold temp may be a little high OR that you're cutting your sprue too soon.

As a side note, purple/blue ingots typically indicate pure (or very close to) lead ingots cast hot. Also look for a scaly surface on the air side of the ingots for colder-cast pure ingots. The scaly look will be like the sugar glaze on a cold donut.

Zinc will have a frothy "foam", often called oatmeal on top. This appears as low as 0.3% by weight zinc. High zinc alloys (meaning noticable amounts of zinc) need to cast hotter, and the crud won't disappear until the lot temp is around 750 or 800. The crud can be reduced somewhat by adding sawdust on top. Zinc/lead alloys will form a "skin" when pouring from a bottom-pour spout that forms a tube while casting, almost like a hose. It will "inflate" during casting and go flat after the pour has stopped. The sprue will be a LOT harder to break and when dumped into a metal bowl will have a high-pitched ring to it similar to a dropped penny, versus the thud from regular lead.