Job Description:

• 1) Controls automatic equipment to melt and cast lead into cylindrical billets, and extrude billets into wire for making bullets and cores used in small arms ammunition: Starts electric furnace, observes gauges, and turns rheostat to maintain specified temperature and pressure.

• 2) Charges furnace with lead pigs and scrap of specified alloy, using conveyor and elevating platform.

• 3) Skims dross from molten lead with skimming ladle.

• 4) Turns wheel to adjust flow of molten lead into mold.

• 5) Adjusts stroke of billet extractor mechanism, installs extruding dies, and regulates ram speed and flow of water coolant, using handtools.

• 6) Threads extruded wire over pulleys into slug-forming machines or through guide pipes to be coiled in drums.

• 7) Verifies wire size with snap gauges to ensure conformity to specifications.