How to Identify Scrap Lead

[eagle-man]

I found a scrap yard where I am able to get lead for a good price. $0.60 a pound. They have want the call hard lead and soft lead. It looks like they throw it on the ground and sort it by the sound it makes. Any way to tell what it is? I am casting in a Lee 90348 mold. It is supposed to give a 200gr bullet, I am getting 206gr from the soft lead and 205.5 gr from the hard lead.

I am going to see if I can find some time to alloy with this to harden it up.

Is it good / bad to look at the weight to determine the composition of the alloy?

Thanks!

[slim1836]

Is it good / bad to look at the weight to determine the composition of the alloy?

I was just wondering, since ( I'm presuming) mold stated weight of a cast boolit is based on a 20:1 mix, would a heavier cast boolit mean more lead and thus softer and a lighter boolit mean more tin or other admixtures?

IOW, can you get an idea of hardness based upon the weight of cast boolit?

Slim

[454PB]

There are ways to test an alloy for content, but they are not available to the common boolit caster. Most of us use weight, castability, and hardness as a means of guesstimating what the alloy is. In general, pure lead casts heaviest, as the percentage of antimony and tin increase, the weight drops. Antimony causes more weight decrease than tin.

Personally, I don't care. If it casts well and is reasonably hard, I use it for whatever application it fits. If it's soft and heavy, I call it lead and use it for alloying with other elements, and I suppose the black powder shooters would use it straight.

[John Boy]

How to Identify Scrap Lead Easy, look for sheet lead that is between Bhn 5 and 6. The other 'hard' stuff - no telling what the hardness is unless one tests it before they buy it

Between sheet lead - Linotype and wheel weights - any alloy hardness can be made

[runfiverun]

you just have to try and get what you know.
i picked through the scrap yards "dunno" bin a while back and got a bunch of roof boots,telephone pipe lead,and a bunch of linotype spacers for 40 cents a lb.

[a.squibload]

Last time I bought lead from a scrapyard they were happy to show off
their x-ray scanner gun, gave me a breakdown on the components
(percentage of lead, antimony, tin, etc.).
Got some 26-lb ingots marked "Liberty" and some small isotope cans,
both slightly harder than clipon WWs. They also had a bucket of bullets
about 30 cal., should be soft but were jacketed. And plumber pipe which
is always soft.
Sometimes you just gotta go with the thumbnail test!

[eagle-man]

Sounds like your scrapyard is a little more high tech than mine!

[a.squibload]

Trouble is they charge like they're high. Er, high-tech.
Haven't been there for a while.