Dumb question about lead.

[Obsolete]

In my attempts to try to find decient lead I ran accross someone who recoved what he claims is pure lead from X Ray equipment.

I'm not very well versed in this but does lead absorb any radiation ? Or mearly shield against it without absorbing the radiation ? IE : Would this lead be safe to use without any exposure to radiation ?

Sorry for the dumb question.

[Ohio Rusty]

It should be radiation free. Lead is extremely dense, and the isotopes are reflected away instead of absorbed. I have a pure lead canister that radio-iodine capsules were stored in, and the containter is radiation free. If you can get that really pure lead, the muzzleloader guys will beat a path to your door !!
Ohio Rusty

[454PB]

I sure hope it's safe, I've used a lot of it!

[Obsolete]

hmmm I take it neither of you glow in the dark then ? :drinks: ... I thank you as this is good news.I thought it would be safe , but just wasnt sure. Unfortunetly he doesnt have much of it but around here even decient wheelweights are hard to get.

[Ricochet]

Yes, it's safe.

[Beerd]

every third round is a tracer :kidding:

[Obsolete]

Thanks Ricochet !


Beerd ,8-) .... gee I had no idea it was that easy to cast tracers hehehhhe.

[hunter64]

No it is definitely contaminated and you must get rid of it immediately, you will glow in the dark shortly and will never be able to father children. Please send it all to me for proper disposal.:mrgreen:

We have a hospital that is getting torn down in the next little while I have for the life of me tried to get a hold of the property manager to get some of that nice lead, hopefully in the next little while I can get in there before the recycler crooks get at it.

[floodgate]

Obsolete; hunter64:

It SHOULD be a VERY pure lead. While lead itself doesn't pick up anything nasty in a radioactive environment (X-rays are basically gamma rays), many of the potential contaminants do, so shielding lead is normally very highly refined.. But verify it with the X-ray tech at your local hospital, or the original one it came from. I cast many years back using lead blocks from a university cyclotron lab with no problems (and that extra arm comes in handy!).

floodgate

[Obsolete]

No it is definitely contaminated and you must get rid of it immediately, you will glow in the dark shortly and will never be able to father children. Please send it all to me for proper disposal.:mrgreen:

We have a hospital that is getting torn down in the next little while I have for the life of me tried to get a hold of the property manager to get some of that nice lead, hopefully in the next little while I can get in there before the recycler crooks get at it.

Yup... thats my problem here also... the recycle guys have the market cornered.I have to get creative to find it... talked a guy out of his lead ballast when he was selling his race car.. same with some diving weights at a garage sale, a broken keel off a boat... lord only knows what sort of lead this is but... around here ya take what you can get...The Eco nuts want it all banned and are trying to scare everyone out of useing it for anything.

[Obsolete]

Obsolete; hunter64:

It SHOULD be a VERY pure lead. While lead itself doesn't pick up anything nasty in a radioactive environment (X-rays are basically gamma rays), many of the potential contaminants do, so shielding lead is normally very highly refined.. But verify it with the X-ray tech at your local hospital, or the original one it came from. I cast many years back using lead blocks from a university cyclotron lab with no problems (and that extra arm comes in handy!).

floodgate


Thanks floodgate... thats good to know.

[eka]

Yes, it's safe.

Coming from a guy that's lost a lot of hair lately.:mrgreen:

Keith

[45nut]

banning lead why I wonder.. to be used somewhere else of course. You all know how "deadly" mercury is considered now but more than one of us here has probably tinkered with it in the past. I certainly won't confirm the presence of any small bottles in MY residence but I know it was used to great effect in de-leading bores in the past. Oh ,,,and despite how "deadly" mercury is and how nobody in the U.S. is allowed to have even the millionth of a nanogram in any of OUR products it is quite another matter to mandate the phase out of incandescent light bulbs in favor of the compact fluorescent style. Oh,,all manufactured in India or China and each containing 5 milli-somethings of mercury. Drop one and break it in your home and tell anyone and your home becomes a haz-mat superfund site. At your personal expense of course.
Myself,,I am not giving up my Edison Style just yet.
Remember, when they outlaw incandescents, only outlaws will have them.

[DLCTEX]

They want to mandate that we use them, then if one gets broken in your home the thousands$ in clean up is your problem. You can go to jail for tossing one in the dumpster. What a wonderful idea. Dale

[dbotos]

You can clean up a broken CFL yourself as well as dispose of it (recommended to put both broken and intact ones in a plastic bag before chucking them):

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/compact_fluorescent_lights_are.php

[rhead]

Hunter 64 is wrong you will still be able to father children. However all of them from now on will be born naked and toothless. They may be bald also. It is safe but soft use it and enjoy.

[hunter64]

rhead: Dam that about describes me right now, toothless and bald, lol.

I work for a utility gas company and I do house calls, Gas odors, furnace not working, etc. and any of the simple thermostats all have mercury in them. We carry replacement thermostats that are digital type and when we remove the old one from off the wall you would think that we are holding a nuclear bomb or something. That sucker drops and breaks and we immediately have to call in the enviro guys to start ripping and tearing to the tune of about 1000.00 . We give the old thermostat to the home owner and basically say "you deal with it". We had one serviceman that was taking them home and breaking the little glass container and dropping the mercury into a quart jar. In his infinite wisdom he decided to bring it into work for proper disposal and made it 3/4 of the way across the parking lot and tripped and fell and the jar broke. Well once the 7th calvary had done there thing from the hazmat nazi's they promptly handed a bill to the company for 65,000.00 . They had to dig up the ground all the way around it and they were cleaning there for about 3 days solid. Didn't we used to pass this stuff around in 3rd grade and play with it in our hands?:veryconfu

The recyclers in my neck of the woods give 15 cents a pound for WW and sell them for 45 cents. Most tire shops are getting harder to buy from, even if you offer them twice as much, even had one guy say that he wasn't allowed to sell it to someone without a license. I asked him "what license do I need" and his answer was a scrap dealers license, I walked out the door laughing under my breath. I have had that response from a couple of places so I wonder if it is the industry or the recyclers that are getting to them first.

[charlie / sw mo]

gents i need some thoughts -- my son teaches a concealed carry course and while i dont usualy pay much attention to the classroom part of it (he uses my loading area and ranges for the class). this time i caught something im not sure i agree with. he teaches from a text he got from our sherifs dept (dont know where they got it) it states that you should not use your cap for policeing up brass as you can get lead poisoning thru your scalp from the residue on the cases. what say you ---are they correct?

charlie in sw mo

[Blammer]

I've gotten and shot lots of lead that was used to hold radiation stuff from a hospital.

problem is, I can't hide in the dark anymore, and come to think of it when it is dark I don't need a flashlight either... hmmm.

btw just send it all to me I'll dispose of it for you... :D

[John Boy]

every third round is a tracer Beerd, Great Line :drinks:

My next dentist's visit is next Wednesday. And I'll be bringing home 50+ pounds of X-Ray shields as I do every 6 months. Tis 100% radium free and near 100% pure Pb!

[Ricochet]

I'm skeptical about that absorbing lead from brass in the cap. Lead from primer residue is going to be initially in oxide form and what's going to be available to mobilize it from a hat is stinky old sweat. A scalp is pretty greasy, a fact that I can readily confrim, and bacterial action on sebum (fancy medical name for skin grease) liberates lots of free fatty acids. Fatty acids reacting with metal oxides produce soaps. Lead soaps aren't very water soluble. My hypothesis, and it's only that, is that any lead in your hat is likely to remain in highly insoluble oxide or soap forms. But I'll bet if you worked it right, you could get a big government grant to study it.
:mrgreen:

[Charlie Horse]

Don't know about the scalp, but we were taught that the crotch absorbs toxins faster than any other skin area. So don't use your underwear to police-up brass.:mrgreen:

[leftiye]

Don't know about the scalp, but we were taught that the crotch absorbs toxins faster than any other skin area. So don't use your underwear to police-up brass.:mrgreen:

Actually you COULD use your underwear. Either you don't put them back on, or they arrest you for running around without your pants.

[BAGTIC]

They are hoarding all the mercury so that the next time I go the the dentist he can put it in my fillings.