Lead water pipe?

[Shooter6br]

Maybe able to get lead water pipe. Is it pure lead? Any info Thanks Rick

[outdoorfan]

Pretty sure it is, and if you can put a nice big gouge in it with thumb-nail pressure then you know you're on the right track.

[tinsnips]

General rule most of it is considered pure lead . I have used a boat load of it as i get it free being a plumber. The joints in the pipe were wiped with solder in [a bonus ] so it will work just fine as pure lead.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I have melted down pipe before and it was real soft. I cut out the joints and just melted the pipe. The joints went in with the WW that I had. Watch out for moisture trapped in the pipe. The pipe I had was almost clogged with gunk that built up over the years. I cut it in pieces that fit in my dutch oven and started everything out cold and did not add anything to the melted lead.

[Matt_G]

I did some pipe a while back. Here is the thread if you're interested.
The stuff I have isn't pure. I just retested some of the ingots from that melt with my Cabine Tree tester and they are testing out around 8.5 to 9 BHN.

One mistake I made doing that smelt: I didn't melt the joints separately. I wish I had. By the time billyb made his post in my thread I had already melted all of the pipe.
Those are the ingots that tested 8.5 to 9 this morning.
The other ingots from that smelt, from the plumber pot ingots, are testing at 10 BHN today.

[Lloyd Smale]

pipe can be cast out of about anything. Im sure it depended on the application. Most ive run into is no harder then 10bhn though. Very little of it has been pure.

[idahoron]

Matt G that is what happened to me. I melted a bunch and left the joints. I got lead that ended up 9 BHN on the Cabine tree. If I would have know it at the time I would have cut them out. Ron

[303Guy]

The tin content allows you to dissolve copper into the alloy making it tougher. Only 0.06% copper is needed.