Question about lead..............

[JohnK]

We are remodeling a fitness center in the building where I work. All the old shower pans are made of lead sheeting. It seems to be pretty soft and I'm curious if its pure lead or close to it. Will probably end up with 450-500#.

[NVcurmudgeon]

JohnK, Welcome to the board. I just examined an old shower pan, unfortunately already in the hands of a casting friend. Scratch and bend tests show it is pure lead. Also, that is confirmed by many past posts on this board.

[Ron.D]

Curmudgeon's right. I've been soldering the stuff for decades, as a plumber. Actually it's been taken over by plastics in the last couple of decades. It needs to be very close to pure lead or pure lead, in order for it to be maleable enough to form what's known as a pig ear. That's the water proof corner that plumbers make. Use it as pure lead and you won't go far wrong.

[grumble]

Now that the question has been answered, can I hijack the thread? I have another question about lead.

I got a big chunk, about 50-60 lbs, of lead. It passed the "fingernail scratch test" as soft lead, so I melted it and about 30 lbs of tape-on WW into ingots. The ingots came out nice and soft, but really extra shiny. They look almost as shiny as the 50-50 solder ingots I've made. Now I'm worried that the big chunk of lead had a sizeable amount of tin in it.

Any way to test for tin? I'd hate to waste it.

[fourarmed]

Grumble, I heated my soft lead pot the other day to cast some lapping bullets. They were the shiniest I've ever seen. The stuff that goes in that bucket is tape-ons, lead wool, lead pipe, and .22 LR scrap.

[grumble]

Thanks, Fourarmed! 'Preciate the answer.

The only soft lead I've ingotized before were the tape-on weights, and they don't look much different than regular WW ingots. Guess I'll just shoot the 'mystery mix' like it was soft lead and try not to think about any tin that I might be wasting. <G>

[HTRN]

Be careful about "assuming" - I'm sure you know what it makes!

Straight out of The Handbook for Commercial Bullet Casting by Paul B. Moore.

The vast majority of this material is cast from chemical lead, but significant amounts of it are produced from four percent and six percent antimonial lead

Remember, this stuff is rolled - which makes it significantly softer than it will be once melted down and cast...


HTRN

[Bass Ackward]

Yep. If it's close to what we consider pure lead, it will dull while being stored. At least mine does.

[grumble]

The ingots are still real soft, so I doubt there's much antimony or arsenic in it. It was just the surface shininess that caused me to wonder if maybe there was tin in it.