WOOT - A nice find

[Kevinkd]

Well, I asked around the trap club if anyone had any lead. One guy whom I shoot alot of pistol with (let him shoot my 38 and 45 alot) said he had grabbed 2 very large forklift lead counterweights 10 or more years ago. He said they weighed 2100 lbs each and he gave them to his father to make jigs and downrigger weights for fishing. He called Friday to say he had about 4 5 gal pails for me. Turns out his dad has been melting off some of the bars and making small bars. Below is my haul.



First is 2 pails of small ingots that are ready for the Lee pot. Second (on right) is a pile of looks to be small pot filled and allowed to cool (many times over). Second (on left) are 3 140lb counter weights that are not part of original forklift weights. Third picture is a pail of more pot fills (I think he hung up one forklift weight with chainfall, melted lead with torch into pot). Notice downrigger fish weight-about 8 to 10 lbs). Fourth is another 140lb counterweight.

Notice in pic 2 the bottom left of counterweight is where I scratched off oxide and used muriatic acid. I did same to a bunch of random pieces. No reaction from any. WOOOT

Total of 1350lbs. Going to remelt all bottoms and counterweights, clean off dust/spiderwebs/oxides etc and pour into muffin molds. Looks to be alot of pure lead, but I still have 150lb or so of linotype so should set for a long time now.

Peace

[Yodogsandman]

Very nice haul!

[Scooby]

That is awesome! There must not be anyone at your club making shot. Once the guys at my club found out I make shot they pulled lead out from everywhere spider webs and all. I like lead that you don't end up loosing a lot like ww or range lead. nice score.

[Frank46]

Very nice score. That will keep you busy for awhile. Frank

[flint45]

Great score nothing better then a big lead score well a free gun i guess good shooting brother.

[RogerDat]

Nice score those counter weights ran to many different flavors of lead alloy. Have you thought about getting some XRF gunned to find out the content? I had a chunk of one that was COWW plus decent percentage tin. I think they made them from whatever lead they could get, might be better stuff than you think.

[stag15]

That is a nice haul!

[Kevinkd]

Nice score those counter weights ran to many different flavors of lead alloy. Have you thought about getting some XRF gunned to find out the content? I had a chunk of one that was COWW plus decent percentage tin. I think they made them from whatever lead they could get, might be better stuff than you think.

Yeh, I think the counterweights have a fair bit of tin in them. They seem to 'ring' more tinny than pure lead. And are no where near lino. Now the fun begins LOL

[mfraser264]

Good for you, get the word out to all you know that you are looking for lead and it is amazing what has arrived for me over the years. Many people cannot deal with the weight, it's a big hassle and so on. Sometimes folks are happy to move it on and no longer have to deal with the junk in the corner.

[Kevinkd]

Well, I ended up cutting the 4 counterweights in half using sawzall, so had 8 70 pounders. Dang good workout!!! Today I melted them down and have two overflowing 5 gal pails of muffin tins. They aren't as hard as my Lino, seem to be a bit softer than my Lead shot ingots and alot firmer than the pure lead. Also when smelting down there seemed to be a ton of 'tin' trying to come out (yellow dross on top constantly), so maybe some good tin in them Also the muffins ingots ended up filled out perfectly, with that crystalline look to their bottoms (almost looks like galvanized metal or chip board a bit). If I remember correctly (which isn't too often LOL), I think that's antimony that causes that. Regardless it went well. Next up if to smelt all the pot 'bottoms' and that fish LOL...

Peace

[472x1B/A]

WoW 1350 lbs., will go a fair ways for making pistol boolits. These kind of hauls are always the best, maybe some work involved but, still worth the final out come. Good deal on you Kevinkd.

[Kevinkd]

So it seems my 'ad' at the trap club paid off again. An old farmer (really nice guy) dropped off about 150 lbs of 'lead' for me. First pic is the front and back of a solder bar labeled 'Cable Wire Solder' with 926 on it (a few of them) - about 3 pound strips. Picture 2 is closeup. Picture 3 is another solder bar (say 65/35 on back - about 5lb bar). Picture 4 is the solder 'toolbox' LOL. Seems to be an old wood tool box with rope handle. About 40 lbs of 50/50 and other solders in it. Picture 5 is a large box of 'strips' of softer lead (seems to be almost pure). Note in the bottom of picture 5 what looks like a cannon ball. Its a large downrigger type fishing weight. Someone had put a piece of metal in the middle with a hole in it. Its VERY hard (almost rings). Acid test on various pieces shows no zinc. Also in the 'solder' box are 4 'rings' that look like small donuts that are very hard also. No zinc, so probably some Sb and Sn in them. Not sure what they were used for (not toilet rings, way too small and hard). They were in with all the solders, so must have been used for something.

So, lots more smelting on the way to ingotize (a word? LOL) and clean up the various bars etc.

Peace

[RogerDat]

One of the things I have found works well for actual scrap solder, or assorted small pieces is to cast "coins" in a muffin tin. By doing a bunch of mystery or assorted solder in a batch I can then get a single coin from the batch tested and label all the coins. Have them in zip lock baggies. My labeling with a marker it makes them look like some are bags of 26 cent pieces and some are 33 cent, and those are 44 cents

Nice haul. You can't beat just getting the word out. Well at least not easy to beat considering what you have so far.

[Walter Laich]

Way to go! Everyone needs to have a lead haul or two in their lifetime

[BigMagShooter]

Way to go!

[Grampo]

Very nice haul!

[Geezer in NH]

Great networking!! Kudoos

[robg]

Ain't life good when people are kind like that.gave some of the guys in my club some basic loading instruction ,one of them gave me a load of old lead gas pipe .helping another to set up his man cave tomorrow, kind of paying back the guy who helped me start loading years ago.

[NYBushBro]

Upon reading your post, one word comes to mind...BABBITT.

So it seems my 'ad' at the trap club paid off again. An old farmer (really nice guy) dropped off about 150 lbs of 'lead' for me. First pic is the front and back of a solder bar labeled 'Cable Wire Solder' with 926 on it (a few of them) - about 3 pound strips. Picture 2 is closeup. Picture 3 is another solder bar (say 65/35 on back - about 5lb bar). Picture 4 is the solder 'toolbox' LOL. Seems to be an old wood tool box with rope handle. About 40 lbs of 50/50 and other solders in it. Picture 5 is a large box of 'strips' of softer lead (seems to be almost pure). Note in the bottom of picture 5 what looks like a cannon ball. Its a large downrigger type fishing weight. Someone had put a piece of metal in the middle with a hole in it. Its VERY hard (almost rings). Acid test on various pieces shows no zinc. Also in the 'solder' box are 4 'rings' that look like small donuts that are very hard also. No zinc, so probably some Sb and Sn in them. Not sure what they were used for (not toilet rings, way too small and hard). They were in with all the solders, so must have been used for something.

So, lots more smelting on the way to ingotize (a word? LOL) and clean up the various bars etc.

Peace