A Whole Lot of Lead with a Question

[hothands906]

A good friend of mine gave me a what appears to be a solid brick of lead. The thing came form a friend of his that is in the medical field. Had something to do with medicine. Anyway I have a picture to scale 8x4x2 and he said it weighs 25 lbs.
Does anyone have first hand knowledge of the composition and where I stand. (All new to this casting Boolits)
Thanks
[smilie=s:

67517

[lup]

That's most likely nuclear isotope casing. Hospitals use it to store radioactive test materials. Relatively soft lead.

[runfiverun]

drop it about a foot off the ground.
if it goes ptud it's soft lead like the ones I have had.
if it goes patink it has something else in it.

[hothands906]

I guess I'm searching for what to add to it before casting. I'm going to get the Lyman Casting book soon, so I don't have to ask a whole lot of questions.

[dbosman]

Depending on when the manual was published, there may not have been much isotope lead on the market.
Try runfiverrun's drop test. Thud will be soft.

[x101airborne]

If you can scratch it with a thumbnail, it is dead soft. Add 1/3 wt of linotype, 1/5 wt of monotype, 100% of clip on WW's. Air cool for most pistol and water quench for most rifle. At 1900 fps from any 30 cal, the damage is incredible. I mean I feel sorry for the hogs I shoot like that and it is hard for me to feel sorry for a hog. You will never have to track one even with a poor shot.

[runfiverun]

you have to have a reasonable guesstimate of what it is before you fix it.
101's mixes will work well for the ones that go tudud.

[SciFiJim]

I ran the math and a block of pure lead to those dimensions would weigh 26 lbs.

If it weighs 25 lbs, it is an alloy and may be good to shoot just like it is.

[dualsport]

drop it about a foot off the ground.
if it goes ptud it's soft lead like the ones I have had.
if it goes patink it has something else in it.On concrete.

[justing]

On concrete.
just not on your foot:kidding:

[hothands906]

Well it didn't go thud. It along with this new one I got today (pics. included) both have the same pitch with a little ring sound to it. Both can be marked with my thumbnail and can shave a sliver off with a pocket knife if I try hard enough. Both heavy as lead and I'm very sure there's something else in there with the lead.
What do I do, smelt and cast and see what happens. 677116771267713

[tweigenant]

Well it didn't go thud. It along with this new one I got today (pics. included) both have the same pitch with a little ring sound to it. Both can be marked with my thumbnail and can shave a sliver off with a pocket knife if I try hard enough. Both heavy as lead and I'm very sure there's something else in there with the lead.
What do I do, smelt and cast and see what happens. 677116771267713

I would melt a sample of it and cast several air cooled boolits. Get a hardness tester or find someone who would be willing to test them for you. I would think that you could at least find out how hard (or soft) it is and alloy from the results. If it checks out, i would see how much more of that your buddy could get you!

[runfiverun]

the second one is an isotope core.
http://fellingfamily.net/isolead/
should find it here.
i'd call it 1/3/96 otherwise.

[jonp]

If it was used to shield and store radioactive material wouldn't it have picked up some of the radioactivity? Lead is a good shield but does adsorb it.

[leadhead]

That brick is pure lead.... I worked in the nuke field for 36 years and we had
hundreds of those bricks we used for shielding from radiation. And no, lead
does not absorb gamma radiation. It could possibly have alpha contamination
which can be washed off. Makes wonderful muzzle loading balls.
Denny

[hothands906]

Don't think the brick and the isotope core are pure 100% lead. Neither one has a thud what so ever and both have a little ring when they hit the concrete from 1 foot high.
I assume that after I smelt and cast these two finds, just cast a few boolits and do a good examination of the barrel and go from there, to how accurate the boolits will be.

[ku4hx]

If it was used to shield and store radioactive material wouldn't it have picked up some of the radioactivity? Lead is a good shield but does adsorb it.

Basically, pure lead can't be activated; it absorbs beta and gamma pretty well but not neutron and it's neutron capture that cause activation. Neutrons are best stopped but substances that are high in hydrogen content such as borated polyethylene. http://www.marshield.com/page/borated-polyethylene-neutron-shielding

When most people talk about "radiation" they are really talking about contamination which is bits and pieces of stuff that has become activated or may actually be pieces of the actual radioactive material. In the nuclear industry, surface contamination inside primary system piping systems is referred to as "crud". Certain actions during refueling outages will cause that surface contamination (planed and unplanned) to be loosened. When that happens, it's call a "crud burst".

During the cold war days, there was much concern about "fallout". Fallout is simply another term for contamination. Contamination can be washed off non porous surfaces easily (other surfaces face different challenges) hence the term "decontamination".

[supv26]

I picked up some "medical" lead and it did not have any ring to it at all!!! Strictly thud!!! Scratched very easily with a thumb nail too. Ok, now I am thinking this "pure" lead can just be melted, fluxed and poured. My problem is the brick is way to large to fit in the melter................. I tried a saws all to cut it, that didn't work. Tried a jig saw, that didn't work. Finally fired up the log splitter and presto!!! The log splitter pushed the wedge through it like a hot knife through butter!!!

[hothands906]

My buddy said his friend who gave him the brick said it was perfectly safe. The core on the other hand has been sitting in the floor of a body shop for years and someone here said it was a isotope core.
I guess the good thing is, this may be a cheap way to pour some night tracer rounds -----:)
I'm going to cast a few and see what I have. As the famous words of runfiverun "it's all an educated guess,,,, till the trigger is pulled".

[popper]

I think most of the 'core' lead has SB due to handling requirements. All the other stuff is pretty pure.

[canyon-ghost]

The core is definitely an alloy. You can mix in an equal amount of wheelweight for the brick but, might be better off just mixing the two leads together and casting. Hardness isn't all there is to casting bullets. Getting the mold hot enough to pour without wrinkles, that takes doing.