Good day at the dentist

[skeeter1911]

I was due for my "bite wings" x-rays. I asked dental assistant who took the pictures what they do with the lead. She checked and gave me all they had, 44 lbs worth!

Sorry flash created orange tinge on the lead in the picture, not really there in the bucket.

[blaster]

I never even thought of getting lead from the dentist. From the picture it looks like lead foil. Does it have a plastic coating on it? From the picture it sure looks like it would be great to smelt.

[skeeter1911]

I picked out maybe 6 pieces of plastic, the rest was all lead foil.

[chemist308]

would the plastic help flux it?

[HammerMTB]

The plastic really stinks when it melts, so I avoid it in the smelt.
It is close to pure lead, but not quite. Not sure what else is in there- maybe a little tin. I have not tried to find out what it is.
Collect all you can while you can. Dental offices are going to digital x-ray machines, and one day won't have lead backs anymore. Last time I scored the final bucket from my dentist's office, they were in the process of putting in the new digital machines. My wife's office did it a couple years back.
The price of progress..... [smilie=s:

[montana_charlie]

I don't get much (weight) of that dental film, but I really like it for BPCR bullets.
My ingots always test at 7.8 BHN.

CM

[lwknight]

Digital X-rays!! There goes another source, by the way side.

[leftiye]

Isn't that an oxymoron?

[lwknight]

That was an unintentional pun in a way. Even digital X-rays have a source (radioactive material) so thats not going away. But the source of lead from film X-rays will evidently be going the way of the wheel weights. Its a PRETTY UGLY picture.

[Pitmaster]

I did the same thing and the dental tech said she takes some of it home so her husband can make sinkers out of it. She got a sad look on her face when I asked the dentist. He's a shooter, life member of the local gun club, and has never sold any gun he's bought. He doesn't cast so he gave me quite a bit of it. But its not worth the hassle since I have 1000lbs hoarded.

[kingstrider]

I'm a dental student and have been getting all the x-ray lead from my college for some time. Unfortunately we're switching to digital x-rays in the weeks ahead so that source will too come to an end. There's still a lot of old timers in practice though who will likely never switch to digital radiography though.

[jlchucker]

Once you cast up that radioactive lead do your bullets give off a green glow in the dark? Wonder if that would make a nice tracer round?:-D