brass re-cycling !!

[the artfull-codger]

(04-23-2013, 07:49 PM)f350ca Wrote: I have a surplus of clean bronze cuttings, about 70 pounds, can they be melted down to make ingots, or is there too much surface area to oxidize? Ended up with a propane fired furnace that I need to get using.

Greg
I'm not an expert but I only melt swarf down usually after I've got a melted pool in the crucible so as it doesn't oxidise as you say, I only make alloy ingots as it doesn't seem to harm the metal, keeping pistons & crankcases for the important jobs & the extruded stuff/greenhouses & the like for decorative jobs that don't matter so much & never make brass ingots & don't re-melt brass sprues I just use them to turn up as brass bar as it's not the easiest metal to cast 'cos if you're not carefull you can boil the zinc out of it[dirty metal] as for bronze it's a lot easier than brass but I usually just melt as required & don't bother ingoting it. Hope this helps
Graham.