How do you cut lead?

[armoredman]

If I cannot find a local supplier of cheap lead, I may bite the bullet, (no pun intended), and buy a 96/2/6 ingot from the local metal company. It runs over $110 for 63 pounds, smallest they carry. So, what would I use to cut a lead ingot? All I have right now is a handsaw I use to build target frames. BTW, thisis way off in the future, as I have some lead now, and cast slowly, not to mention always being on the short side of broke.
BUT, when I can, what would you reccomend?

[Blammer]

I would get a wide flat chisel and a big hammer and chisle off chunks that would fit in the pot. Sawing is not good as it will put lead dust in the air that can be inhaled, plus you have all those little "shavings" all over the place.

Just drive the chisle through the block and then repeat till a chunk comes off.

[Blammer]

or put the whole thing in a big smelting pot, melt and the dip into your ingots.

[cohutt]

IF.... you want to try sawing it.....
several folks here suggested to me that a sawzall recip saw works fine, but a circular saw balde tends to get loaded up with lead and bog down.

I'll leave mine as is for now though. One day I'll melt them into smaller ingots in my big dutch oven (22q). I imagine what you are looking at is one of the big "tabbed" ingots like these in the foreground:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/leadaugust2007003.jpg

[Sprue]

A Porta-band saw might be your best bet. Or a sawzall with a course blade. Possibly a hand torch (use a face shield). A Hack saw will just gum up for sure.

[RU shooter]

I just cut some a week ago with a Saw zall and a wood blade . the pcs were about 1.25 thick or more and it went through it fine , no small dust particles to worry about they were BB sized and those fell right into a box I placed underneath,no waste at all! I am guessing a hand saw with an aggressive tooth design would work OK too just alittle slower.

[9.3X62AL]

Marie's uncle used a Sawzall to trim 2400# of lead alloy 1" x 4" and 2" x 4" ingots for the ballast in a sailboat he is building. This yielded about 125# of end scraps and sawdust for yours truly. I'm not sure which recip blade he used, but he had no complaints about the cutting part of the operation.

[scb]

This probably sounds silly/stupid/dangerous but I had some BIG chuncks of lead to cut up and I used an electric chainsaw that I have. Worked very well. I don't think I'd try it with a gas powered saw. Steve

[Jim]

I had some pigs that had been cast in a S/S catfood bowl. Because they were about 1" too wide, I had to cut them down to fit in my Lee Pro 4 furnace. I put them in a vise and cut them in half with a "skil" saw with a carbide blade. The resistance was about like cutting Oak. I've tried a portaband and the blade bound up quick. I tried a sawzall and the blade clogged up.

[truckjohn]

The main problem cutting lead is you have to use a fairly
slow blade speed.... as it doesn't conduct heat well, so it
melts around the blade (And anneals it)

A wood cutting hand saw will work very well -- it will cut
lead like butter.... as lead is both softer and less
abrasive than most hardwoods.

A sawzall works very well too -- just use the coarse
fast-cutting blades (NOT the slow steel cutting blades)

A chainsaw works pretty well too... it just gums up the
blade and slings HOT chips all over.

If I had to choose on a budget -- I would buy a coarse
tooth fast cutting "Shark" type hand saw for wood.

If I already had a Sawzall -- I would buy a nice coarse
fast cut blade for it and go to town.

Thanks

John

[arkypete]

When I'm cutting lino bars into bite size chunks I use a propane torch.
Jim

[JRR]

I use a 14 in. cut off saw with a metal cutting ciramic disc. I wax the blade as if I were cutting Al and it works great and fast. Wear a dust mask and do it outside.
Jeff

[utk]

I had some ingots (cast in an angle iron mould) that were a bit too long to handle so I used an axe. A big hammer could come in handy to whack on the axe.

[AZ-Stew]

Bandsaw. Coarse blade. Medium blade speed. Slow feed so you don't clog the blade.

Regards,

Stew

[armoredman]

Thanks, guys. Can't buy any tools right now, dagnabbit. I might try the hammer and chisel method - I could buy a metal chisel pretty cheap, probably. If I A) ever get the ingot, and B) a tool to cut it, I'll post pics of how it goes. :)
Gotta wait for a while, was curious how you guys do it, thank you very much! Good info!:D

[zuke]

An axe, splitting maul

[454PB]

For linotype ingots, all you have to do is rest the edge of the ingot on an edge of some kind and hit it with a hammer. It shatters like a concrete block.

I melted two 30+ pound counterweights and another 50 pound chunk of pure lead using my "dollar smelter", and it would have handled even bigger chunks.

[fourarmed]

Haven't tried this myself, but somebody on here or shooters years ago recommended a circular saw with the blade turned backward.

[armoredman]

"Dollar smelter"?

[snuffy]

I've posted this here before, I use a skill type circular saw to cut lead. As long as the blade will penetrate all the way through to the bottom, it will cut just fine. With the blade facing the normal way, not backwards. Be careful, it flings hot, sharp chips, use personal protection on all exposed skin!

I haven't tried to cut something that is thicker than what the blade can cut all the way through with it set at max depth. I would guess that it would plug up and bind real quick. A table saw/miter saw, would also work.

[Springfield]

Armored man: seems like it would be easier and cheaper for you to buy some smaller ingots off e-bay.

[VTDW]

I am luck enough to have a big band saw and I have a nice blade on it for non-ferrous metals. I love the thing. You can find some good deals for what you need on E-Bay so you really do not have to pay that much for your alloys. BUT be prepared for me to drive up the price.:mrgreen:

Dave

[leftiye]

If you can get it to stand up in the pot so it isn't going to fall out with some melted lead in the bottom of pot, and the pot on the stove over heat, you can use a torch to melt it and make it slide down into the melt.

I guess you have to get it down to a manageable size first though. A large welding tip or cutting tip will melt a channel through a big piece. Yup, there's a lot of lead that comes out of the cut, so do this where the lead can collect and you don't lose it, or cause other problems.

[454PB]

"Dollar smelter"?

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=10127&highlight=dollar+smelter

[scrapcan]

another way would be to buy the ingot, buy a case of good beer, and find a fellow member here that is in your area and ahs a way to make ingots.

It will do two things, 1) get your ingots into a size you can use, 2) get a couple of cast booliteers together. If I were closer I would help you out, it is a fair distance in my case.

Another option is to build something out of scrap and use charcoal to melt the lead and make ingots. Look at the thrift shops, salvation army, etc for a pot and build you a fire pit in that forest of a backyard you have (just jesting ont hat one). You can even make ingots by cutting pop/beer cans in half/quarter and using an old soup ladle to fill up once melted. Since we all know you are crazy anyway, the above acts of getting lead formlarge to ever smaller pieces will only surprise the unkowing.

Also did you ever come up with another mould for the 38? If you have a set of handles that will work on a lyman 2 cav mould, I have a 2 cav WC that I might pass on ( I don't have the mouldnumber at hand number).

[armoredman]

another way would be to buy the ingot, buy a case of good beer, and find a fellow member here that is in your area and ahs a way to make ingots.

It will do two things, 1) get your ingots into a size you can use, 2) get a couple of cast booliteers together. If I were closer I would help you out, it is a fair distance in my case.

Another option is to build something out of scrap and use charcoal to melt the lead and make ingots. Look at the thrift shops, salvation army, etc for a pot and build you a fire pit in that forest of a backyard you have (just jesting ont hat one). You can even make ingots by cutting pop/beer cans in half/quarter and using an old soup ladle to fill up once melted. Since we all know you are crazy anyway, the above acts of getting lead formlarge to ever smaller pieces will only surprise the unkowing.

Also did you ever come up with another mould for the 38? If you have a set of handles that will work on a lyman 2 cav mould, I have a 2 cav WC that I might pass on ( I don't have the mouldnumber at hand number).

No casters nearby I know of. :( I have only the 10 pound pot, and again thanks very much to the individual responsable!:-D I do appreciate it!
I do have that single burner propane stove, but it sits on top of the bottle -I can see that puppy overturning in a second.
How about an old hibachi+cast iron dutch oven? I can hit the dollar stores/pawnshops later this week and look. Charcoal get hot enough?

[KCSO]

If you use a band saw for lead cutting add a chip brush. Thiis is a small clamp on rotating brush the sweeps the chips from the teeth of the saw. I made mine with a small drill mounted wire brush and some scrap.

[McLintock]

I've cut up 2 long rectangular chunks (170 #'s and 190#s) that were about 3 inches thick and 5-6 inches wide by two feet or so, and a 5-600 lb sailboat ballast chunk, with a circular saw with a carbide tipped flooring blade. Cut them into 50-60 lb chunks that I could get into my smelter. It only has 10-12 teeth on it so it's very coarse; went through good. If you put a large box in front of the cut direction you can control the chips pretty good also.
McLintock

[garandsrus]

Be careful when cutting lead with a torch as I believe that you vaporize some of the lead which can then be inhaled. I read somewhere that the folks that cut up lead sheets for a living got paid well but didn't live too long... I don't remember the source or the industry, but it was some type of salvage.

John

[standles]

Don't know about lead but I used a torch to cutup and scrap a large qty of galvanized metal once. Guess I didn't have good enough ventilation cause I ended up diagnosed with chemical pneumonia and wheezed for about 3 months.

Steven

[leftiye]

Standles,
Zinc fumes are possibly more toxic than lead fumes. I guess one should stand on the upwind side, or not do it. My experiences are that you don't produce any visible fumes with lead. It doesn't get that hot, just runs off. Zinc on the other hand on galvanized steel makes a lot of fumes probably because it does get very hot and evaporates as the steel is melted.

[RU shooter]

Yep! Zinc Galvanized steel is nasty stuff ! I burn ,weld and plasma cut and grind this stuff on basicly a daily basis. ventilation is a MUST!

[nighthunter]

HIT IT WITH AN AXE .... then turn it over and with one end supported up hit it with a hammer and it will break. I've used this method to break the 35 pound castings of linotype and I used to use it to bust up cable sheathing from the telephone company. It worked before and I'd bet on it today.
Nighthunter

[John Boy]

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/31T%2BqPVnU1L._SS500_.jpg
Easiest and fastest way to 'cut' lead - A Propane Torch

[Cimarron Red]

My silhouette shooting partner/spotter is a contractor, and he owns a jack hammer. Makes short work of the thickest lead.

[hydraulic]

Nighthunter has the right idea, only I use a splitting maul. Put the lead slab on the splitting block and hit it on both sides. You don't have a splitting maul? How do you split wood for the wood stove? Get a wood stove. When you have a good bed of coals, put the plumbers pot full of lead in among the coals and give it about 20 minutes, take it out and pour into a muffin tin. Total cost? Nothing. How do you accumulate all this stuff? Live till you're 70. Everything just appears out of nowhere.

[jrfixer]

I had the same problem with my 500lb blocks. I found that a demo hammer was the best choice. See this link http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=16655

I bought a Bosh Bulldog from Home Depot and it works great. I have enough lead for the next 20 years :mrgreen:

JR

[armoredman]

hydraulic...I have exactly 30 years to go before 70. I would like to get started sooner. :D