Is lead pipe good for casting?

[Jerry Lester]

If I want it, I can get quite a bit of old lead pipe. My uncle has a stock pile he saved off a demolition project years ago. He used a bunch to make lead egg sinkers, and the rest has been laying there ever since.

He told me tonight that I could use as much as I want as long as I don't start selling bullets, or something like that with it. He estimates that there's around 3/4-1 ton laying in the pile. He said it's kinda soft, and that it came from a plant that used it for pumping some sort of acid/chemicals. He said it was safe(washed I'm guessing), and that he had no problems casting sinkers with it.

If it's too soft, what would I need to do to make good "boolits" with it? I'm not wanting rock hard "boolits". I'm just wanting a good alloy to cast for my 32 magnums, and at velocities from 700-1100 fps.

If you think it's usable, I'm gonna run up there tomorrow, and pick up a couple hundred pounds of it to try.

Thanks!

[NVcurmudgeon]

that old lead pipe should be close to pure lead. Excellent for muzzle loader boolits as is, but willl need some hardening for good pistol boolits. Check the formulas in Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook. You can mix the pipe with wheelweights, or tin, or linotype to make about any alloy you need. That's quite a haul your uncle is letting you in on!

[357maximum]

I have worked underground utilities for 12+ years...lead pipe is a great thing to have around, and is quite useable....I am fortunate to have aquired mass quantities of it...

I left it laying on several pallets in the back acreage for years figuring I would use it in a frontstuffer someday,,,,that is until our resident mad boolit designer taught me how to use it...


I mix it 50/50 with clip on wheelweights and water drop it directly from the mold....after a week or so it will run 20 to 21 BHN and make thee best mushrooming boolits, just make sure to wait until it cures up to its "final" hardness in a week or so. I have used it gas checked --357 max at 2000+fps mostly, but also in 35 rem,35 whelen, .32 H&R, 32/20,and in 30/30 both tame and near max loads with excellent results so far......It is now my alloy of choice as I have tons and tons of both materials... Tough/ yet mallable without being brittle like lino can be, plus it will take abuse (and dish it out)..simply a win win situation. I cannot think of a better whitetail killing alloy,,,I would not try to stem to stern one with it,,but it still might work...I hope I never know...


I make a 200 pound batch at a time for ingot consistency.

[Buckshot]

................Should be good stuff. Any joints will probably be tin rich. Cut them out and set aside for thier tin content. For light target loads you can use the pure lead as it is so long as it casts large enough from your mould. I shoot pure lead 148gr WC's (Tumble Lubed) in my K-38 with the ubiquitous 2.7grs of BE with zero leading and really great accuracy.

..............Buckshot

[DPD]

mixed 4 to 1 with linotype and a small amount of tin, the lead pipe makes a great
alloy for cast boolits. I've got ingots that I'll propably never use in my lifetime.

[OLPDon]

That stuff is no good forward all you have to us @ CastPics
We can get rid of it for you.

Don

[454PB]

I mix pure lead and linotype 50/50 for a very castable magnum handgun alloy of BHN 14. It's kinda like a tin rich wheelweight alloy.

[Ricochet]

Like 357Maximum, I've been mixing it with wheelweights and water dropping it. If I use about 1/3 wheelweights and the rest soft scrap, it gets hard enough after it's set up that I can't push an 8mm boolit through a .323" Lee sizing die to seat a gas check with my loading press. I have to oven harden them and do the sizing really fast while it's still soft. It does make a very malleable, ductile, nonbrittle alloy. I'm working on higher percentages of the soft stuff, aiming to get a heat treated alloy that's about the hardness of air cooled wheelweights. (Guessing wildly at it, since I don't have a proper hardness tester.) Looks to me like a little antimony goes a long way when it's quenched and aged.