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View Full Version : Some scrap lead scored today. Question



cohutt
06-19-2007, 10:38 PM
I picked up about 70-80 pounds of scrap today; it was an odd assortment including:
a large brick sized ingot of what i believe is pure, had what looked like large dripping bonded to it
a couple or other factory ingots including one "Gopher Lead" stamped on it.
a few other odd ingots, smaller ones
a larger, lighter ingot that looked like it had been used as a sledge hammer on one end.
a handful of wheel weights
about 30lbs of lead pipe
what looked like the bottom 1 1/2" of a wheel weight smelt pot about 8" across. looks like they just quit and dumped the cooling blob out once it was semi solid.

and finally- some large drippings stuck together, filthy, looks like what might have hit the floor when someone sealed some pipes with molten lead or something (?). It appears to be pure lead, but maybe something off the floor of a radiator shop? 60/40? What does the solder from radiator shops look like when salvaged? maybe it had some tin, will look more closely tommorrow when i have time. It looked like it may have even been from the same origin as the giant ingot with the drippings stuck to it. I'll be pretty psyched if the large ingot is 40% tin as the whole thing must go 20-25 lbs or so

It was all so filthy i didn't do much other than rinse it off and inspect it when i unloaded it.
I tipped the yard worker who pulls lead aside for me with 50 rounds of milsurp 308 for plinking out of his deer rifle; he was so excited i'm sure he will keep the eye out for me. (He got some nice handloaded 308 hunting rounds for the 450 lbs of wheel weights he pulled for me a while back. )

My lovely spouse, as usual, was unimpressed but amused about my "treasure", so i had to tell someone who would understand. So there you go.......

GP100man
06-19-2007, 11:44 PM
cohutt

nice scrounging !!!
if i want my wife to leave me alone for a while illstart talking about boolits or lead& casting ,i look up & shes vanished for at least 1/2 hr.

GP100man


:cbpour:

ANeat
06-20-2007, 04:06 PM
Cohutt there are a few ways to try and figure out what an alloy is. Start with a hardness test, that will eliminate if its pure lead or something harder. Then you need to check the melting point, that requires an accurate thermometer.
After that you can cast a few bullets using the mystery alloy, when you do that quench a few and let some air cool.
With the bullets you can check the diameter as cast and the weight, also the water quenched ones, if harder will indicate antimony or arsenic in the mix.

The melting point will be the biggest indicator if you suspect some tin/lead mix.


As for wives, my wife puts up with it. The real shocker was Saturday. I was out shooting and a guy called and dropped some lead off at the house unknown to me. My wife took the call, gave the guy direstions, had him weigh everything out and paid for it:drinks:

WHITETAIL
06-20-2007, 04:59 PM
Cohut, Just put it aside for now. I collect all year. Then I smelt it all together and make ingets out of them. Then you melt some of it and make afew boolets out of the new batch.
Then you can test them for hardness. If they are too soft then you can add some lead shot. This will give you a harder mix.

ANeat
06-20-2007, 06:28 PM
I would just be cautious if I suspected a large quanity of a lead/tin alloy. No sense in mixing it in as scrap if you can determine what it is.

If its 60/40 solder it will melt at 361 degrees F.

cohutt
06-20-2007, 06:40 PM
Cohutt there are a few ways to try and figure out what an alloy is. Start with a hardness test, that will eliminate if its pure lead or something harder. Then you need to check the melting point, that requires an accurate thermometer.
After that you can cast a few bullets using the mystery alloy, when you do that quench a few and let some air cool.
With the bullets you can check the diameter as cast and the weight, also the water quenched ones, if harder will indicate antimony or arsenic in the mix.

The melting point will be the biggest indicator if you suspect some tin/lead mix.


As for wives, my wife puts up with it. The real shocker was Saturday. I was out shooting and a guy called and dropped some lead off at the house unknown to me. My wife took the call, gave the guy direstions, had him weigh everything out and paid for it:drinks:

you pay for lead? Can you do that? :mrgreen:

A fellow member has graciously offerred to do some hardness testing for me on this and some shot i ingotized last weekend.
Also got off my cheap assssssss and bought a good lead thermometer, planned on doing some experimenting.
Thus far i was very confident in what i have in ingots except for the shot. I haven't even considered messing with the odd pieces i've picked up along the way until now. i think i look into the drippings tonight.