PSA: Dont cut lead with a Plasma Cutter

[NVScouter]

OK so I've scored about 600# of pure lead so far. Some of it is in 50-75# bricks and obviously wont fit into my smelter.

I tried cutting it with a sawzall and it is very slow work. Then I tried my air hammer and that works well cutting off chunks at every pass, but its slow.

so my Genious self looks at my plasma cutter and says "What the Heck" the first pass on lowest voltage cuts about 1" deep and looks like crap. Second pass playing with drag speed etc is just as bad but finer.

Third pass I feel a nice fast HOT splatter on my face and neck:roll: Yup molten lead pushed straight back at me via the air supply. Then I'm thinking " O yeah, Duh"

So I wasted some lead and got freckles for a day or three.

PSA: DONT BE DUMB

[454PB]

I'd also be a little worried about the lead vaporizing at those temperatures.

[VTDW]

There may be too much mass there but you might try a oxy/acet torch with a rosebud or large cutting tip and maybe by directing the flame at the edges of your piece you can get the lead to drip into a pan underneath.

I dunno:-?

Dave

[StrawHat]

Don't know how big the blocks are but I have used a sawzall with the coarse toothed wood blade and it worked okay.

Not the one for pruning trees but a coarse demo blade.

Good luck

[lathesmith]

Like Strawhat, my method is a reciprocating saw+woodblade+WD40; this is the fastest and safest way I have found to cut large chunks of lead. Torches either vaporize lead or splatter it everywhere; metal blades are too slow; and cursing and kicking doesn't seem to cut much metal at all. Just my personal experience...
lathesmith

[montana_charlie]

OK so I've scored about 600# of pure lead so far. Some of it is in 50-75# bricks and obviously wont fit into my smelter.
If all 600 pounds were in 50-pound blocks, that would only be 12 blocks.

I tried cutting it with a sawzall and it is very slow work. Then I tried my air hammer and that works well cutting off chunks at every pass, but its slow.
So it's slow. It won't take your whole life to chop up 12 blocks.

Besides, a fifty pounder is not all that big. Won't it fit in your smelting pot if you just cut it in half with the chisel?
CM

[VTDW]

Charlie,

I wasn't suggesting he use the air trigger on the cutting torch, just the heat like with a rosebud. My concern would be the lead might act as a heat sink therefore using up too much oxygen and acetylene. It has to be frustrating, especially if you do not have the right tools. I got about a dozen or so 1/2" thick lead plates a while back and luckily I had a contact that used a metal shear and sheared the plates in to 2" wide strips.

Dave

[Springfield]

Ya need a bigger pot. I bought an old 1600 lb sailboat ballast and it was cut up into 130 lbs chunks, but they still fit in my pot. Easier than cutting it up. But then I use a turkey fryer to melt my scrap.

[grumpy one]

I've milled lead successfully by using a large-toothed saw blade at low speed, running it dry. There was no build-up on the teeth and the finish was good.

My guess would be a circular saw runs much too fast, and you might get lead build-up on the teeth. However it could be worth a try, using slow feed with a normal wood blade. If it shows any sign of build-up on the teeth, you could try putting a suitably-rated light dimmer in the power line then controlling the feed rate to keep the saw running slowly but without humming or stalling, which would burn it out.

[NVScouter]

I tried the sawzall first with both rough and fine Bi-metal "Rescue" blade and it was wasting a large ammount of lead. I guess a scavenger plate could collect it but then I went to the air chisel, and it wastes nothing and is slow but steady.

I was thinking about getting a bigger pot and it may be worth it since I got about another 150# today and should be getting another 200-1K# of it.

The blocks are 9" long, 6" wide and 4" deep. So if Cast lead weighs 708lbs a cu Foot, and the blocks are 216 cu inches that means that eight fit in a cubic foot. So a 88.5lbs a piece.

So that means I have 973.5lbs in blocks now and around 200# that was mic. scrap.

Woo I knew the bricks were heavy so I guessed 50-60#. I may have to bring one in to weight it on a calibrated scale at work.

[S.R.Custom]

I was laughing as soon as I saw the thread title... :-D

[No_1]

My lead comes in 50# bricks. It is easy to store in that size but does not fit the pot so every once in a while I break out the turkey fryer burner and my trusty smelting pot for a mini muffin session. It does not take long to melt / flux / cast the smaller ingots. I generally do enough on each smelt for a 5 or 6 casting sessions and leave the rest for another day.

R.

[9.3X62AL]

A couple years ago, Marie's uncle was building a sailboat--and bought 2500# of what he called "TJ Alloy" just across the border from San Ysidro. I don't know many EPA or other tree-hugger alphabet-soup organization regulations were violated by bringing it across--but it ain't like the stuff had serial numbers.

The material was wheelweight metal (mostly), with a few lots containing iron filings like that you would take from beach sand with a magnet. The entire amount was poured into 1" x 4" and 2" x 4" ingots that looked just like lumber painted battleship gray. Marie's uncle cut these to fit the hull bottom/ballast for the boat, and there was about 60# left over in end cuts and left-overs, and a like amount of lead "sawdust". The cutting I needed to do was accomplished with both a Sawzall and a circular saw, coarse tooth blades.

[NVScouter]

I was laughing as soon as I saw the thread title... :-D

Its always good to poke fun at oneself after doing something dumb. I'm not sure that some people got that PSA means Public Service Annoucement :mrgreen: however. LOL

[AZ-Stew]

Sawzall or band saw with a COARSE blade, not a "metal cutting", hack-saw-type blade. You gots to get rid of those chips. Takes BIG saw blade teeth to do the job right.

Regards,

Stew

[spurrit]

Once I get my shopsmith up and running again, I think I'll have to try running it on a high torque, low speed setting with a dado (wide toothed) blade. (unless Santy brings me a band saw attachment, which is damn unlikely.)

[wookness]

This is almost too simple .. use a good old hand saw, not a hacksaw, a hand saw with a straight set [ cross cut teeth ]. Rub the blade & teeth with a block of parafin for lubricant. Parafin is readily available at the grocery store as its used for canning.

[spurrit]

You gonna pay for my shoulder surgery?

[Winger Ed.]

I was laughing as soon as I saw the thread title... :-D

When I saw it, I thought, "Ohh,, this is gonna be good"....

Like the guy a few years ago that made the observation:
'You should never unload your .45ACP while standing over a water bed'.:)

[DeanoBeanCounter]

Is "PSA" short for "public service announcement"? It's not on my list of abbreviations. "Abbreviations", what a long word for such a short meaning.
Deano