Bright PURPLE LEAD!!

[Flintsmoke]

I just finished up casting a bunch of 370-grain Maxi-Balls, also using lead that came from an X-ray assembly. I was told that this is pretty pure lead, and I gotta tell ya, this stuff is DEAD SOFT! Once melted in the pot, shortly after I skim the top, the surface turns a very bright, vivid purple, then fades to gold, then turns kinda gray. Also, after a while, a gold scum develops, which I just skim off, bringing me back to the bright purple. It seems to cast as good as any other lead that I have used, but I did have to turn the heat up a bit. There are traces of purple and gold in the finished bullets, also. I am going to take some of them to work tomorrow, where I can weigh them on an NIST-traceable calibrated scale. If they come out at 370 +/1 grains, I have to consider them good shootin' stock because they are so soft. My hunch is that it came out of an X-ray machine, this stuff is as close to pure lead as you can get, as evidenced by the fact that I have to crank the heat up to get the stuff to pour (from a dipper), but I am not sure. I have never seen anything like it. Has anyone else ever seen this phenomenon and, if so, should I be concerned with shooting these bullets from my front-stuffer?

Flintsmoke

[Bass Ackward]

Flint,

Welcome to the board. Your conclusions are pretty much correct. All except the part about it being soft just because it comes from an X-ray machine. They use what ever they can get cheap. It's just balance weight. But odds are that it is more lead.

But to be sure, wait for 14 days and see if it still remains as soft as it is now. Allbullets will appear dead soft after they are cast unless they have substancial antimony content. But even those will harden more over time.

Anyway, welcome to the fold.

[Flintsmoke]

Thanks, Bass. I got about 110 lbs of this stuff about 5 months ago, and very soon after cast some 1-lb ingots. I noticed the purple problem then, but am just getting around to asking about it. As far as the ingots go, I can still score 'em up and scrape off some stock with just my thumbnail, so I think it's pretty doggone soft. Based on your reply, and those that I found in another thread - gold scum, Dr. Doug (which I just noticed), I think that I am on the right track in thinking that this is simply purer lead than the stuff I have cast before. I am still going to check bullet weights tomorrow - my hunch is that they will fall within the 370 +/- 1 grain tolerance. If they do meet specs, and if no one can give me a really good reason not to shoot them, it's a no-brainer. I will simply just learn to deal with the wierd colors and the gold scum. Thanks for your reply.

Flintsmoke

[Johnch]

I have had some lead with a purple tint .
I think it was from the heat , I was running the burner on high to melt the lead as fast as posible ( 95+ degrees that day ) and pour ingots
If I remember right , my buddy tested it with his hardness tester and it came out the same hardness as pure lead

We later cast Maxi ball with it .
It acted like pure lead , don't remember if the Maxi balls had a purple tint

Johnch

[felix]

I have noticed the oxidation colors as well, but mostly on fairly pure lead. I think it has more to do with heating/cooling changes, be it on top of a melt, or after being poured into boolits or ignots. "Pure" foundry lead from the Doe Run Mines is almost always bluish looking. However, I doubt this lead is lab grade, otherwise I would NOT have gotten it through the gun-nut channels. ... felix

[boogerred]

i too had some purple show up this weekend. i was melting ingots that i had made in a brand new muffin tin. the first 2 or 3 trays that i made into ingots were rough and bubbly textured. i thought it was the teflon cooking off. those all left purple and gold on top of my pot.

[bascom32423]

Nah, you guys got it all wrong. The color is due to the trapped radiation now being able to leak out [smilie=p:

Henry [smilie=l:

[The Nyack Kid]

Nah, you guys got it all wrong. The color is due to the trapped radiation now being able to leak out [smilie=p:

Henry [smilie=l:


I would not worry about trapped radiation leaking out unless you start to glow in the dark .

[C1PNR]

All I can add to the conversation is that if you want to have kids, don't carry any of the purple ingots in your front jeans pockets for a few days!;-)