Lead

Pretty much every time you fire your pot up it will generate oxides of some sort. If you cast little bullets like 22's, you have to have the heat high enough to change color or the mold wont stay hot. It's not a bad thing to make the alloy change color on top, it just changes the absolute blend ratios a bit, which is happening anyway even at low temp. I don't know many molds that will cast at 500 degrees. And that about as high as you can go without some form of oxide generation.

So cast away with the color change, maybe put foil on top of the pot to keep air from freely circulating over it but dont flux often. Every time you open the top layer to air, the oxides will form. But the oxides will seal the balance of the load form air. So that layer will prevent deeper oxidation. If you flux or stir the load, you will expose more clean alloy to air.

So the bottom line is leave the oxides when you roll the pot real hot so that you get as little loss as possible....... but your going to loose the top layer.

Unfortunately the alloy will separate a bit and the bullets will get a grain or two lighter from first bullet to last. But typically I have found that the heat treatable status of the various bullets remains unchanged. So the bullet that is 2 gr light, last bullet, HT's as well as the first heavy bullet. So I don't believe the alloy separates enough to cause the arsenic and antimony to be liberated or condensed into the top or bottom layers.

AS for the toxicity.... the pot is a waste dump, period. If it went in the pot, whats left will kill you slowly or maybe a bit quicker. Color wont matter, it's all bad. Arsenic! It's a heavy metal salad of oxides that we cant even see, the white stuff is just the noticible one. Yellow powder, thats a good one too. I get that all the time.

Just dont eat it, smoke it and remove it to a proper waste location when it is consolidated.

I know that the statement that I made about “flux infrequently” completely bucks the system and goes against all that is scriptural BUT>>> I don't loose alloy over and over and over, all night long. I loose a specified and controlled bit of alloy and I get a lightening of bullets but I have yet to find after bullet sorting, any issues with the final bullets, accuracy, leading, flyers, consistency, loadability, sizing, etc.

This is my experience since I joined the CBA and I only know what I have read and learned on this board and have experienced during my loading sessions. You may have other experiences that contradict what I have found to be true. I almost always have to cast making the rainbows in order to get proper mold fillout, keep mold temp up and get good bullets.

70% of my molds are LEE molds. Thats makes for a hot pot usually and is the reason (more than likely) for my rainbows.