Another Possible Source of Lead

[bowfin]

I haven't seen anybody mention these as a source of lead. I work at the local electric company and ran across some insulator pins in the scrap hopper. I soon made a deal to cast some sinkers for the linemen and stores keepers if they would throw these in a box for me. The lead alloy is in the threaded end. It doesn't seem to be pure lead, but possibly something close to wheel weights.

Anyhow, if this becomes a lead source for a couple of people who currently don't have one, it will be worth the thread.

[lightman]

I posted something about those a few years ago. I saved them before I retired. Each one has about 3 or 4 oz of lead on it and the hardness is consistent with wheel weights. They take up a lot of space in storage and are slow to melt unless you cut the threaded part off. They make decent bullets! Every new source is a good source! Good Eye!

FYI, if your company still uses metal meter seals there is about a 22 bullet size lead slug in them. Also keep an eye out for lead pole tags. Our phone company used them years ago.

[bowfin]

There is a lot of steel that goes with these. Once I get about 500 lbs. of steel, that goes to the scrapyard and the proceeds credited to the upcoming Christmas. The first load I took to the scrapyard, one of the employees came hotfooting it out to make sure I had melted the lead off of them first so as not to "contaminate" the steel.

I will follow up with pictures on a very easy way to get the lead melted off of the steel.

lightman, I was recipient of about 1,000 lbs of lead sheathed cable from an old timer who knew where some was stashed in the boneyard. I helped him a lot with his computer problems without making him look like an old timer. He took me out and I grabbed some. He said "What the Heck, don't be bashful! That little pile you took ain't enough to make it worth hauling home!" There again, I saved the lead and sell the "leftover" copper.

[mozeppa]

gee ...and i thought by "new source" someone had discovered my sister's head."

[bowfin]

I had tried to melt the lead of with my regular pot and propane, but the steel pins stuck out so high out of the pot that they acted as radiator fins. Plus, they made the pot liable to tip.

Now, I use the wife's fire pit in the back yard. It has a concave bottom and the lead flows to the drain holes, where I catch it on an oven pan. I just line the pins up like wagon spokes, one layer on top of the other. I build a fire on top (plywood squares work well, as they trap the heat underneath while they burn) and just sit there and watch as it drips down into the pan.

[PaulG67]

Excellent method Bowfin.

[lightman]

Thats a neat idea. I just put them in the smelting pot and turned up the heat. They melted slower than my other stuff because of the poor contact with the side and bottom of the pot. Biggin, a new member here and a Lineman, and my Friend, cuts the threaded part off with a hacksaw. Its really mild steel and cuts easily. I was never around any lead covered electrical cable but my phone company buddies have given me a lot of theirs. I've even scored some solder from them!

[RogerDat]

Seems like if one were to have some WW's already melted in order to put the lead end into that might work to speed things up. I'll have to file this one away. One never knows. Besides being another example of lead being the plastic of it's day. Except that it doesn't float out to the middle of the pacific and from a trash patch the size of Texas.

[D Crockett]

if I had a bunch of them to melt. I would put them in a smelting pot and take my weed burner light it and melt them that way. it would melt them real fast I melt roof flashing in a pot that way and it does not take long to get it all melted. D Crockett

[lightman]

A friend brought his weed burner over for our last big smelt. It speeded things up quite a bit, especially on the larger bulky chunks that did not contact the sides of the pot well. Something else that I need to buy!

[edp2k]

Except that it doesn't float out to the middle of the pacific and from a trash patch the size of Texas.

Fake News, do some real research. All the pics of a guy in a canoe in the trash pile are from somewhere else.

[D Crockett]

Lightman I got mine at a roofing supply store I think but not sure that Horbor freight has them D Crockettt

[bowfin]

A weed burner seems like it would speed things up, but I go low tech and drink coffee...

[RogerDat]

Coffee and a camp fire are good too.

[lightman]

Lightman I got mine at a roofing supply store I think but not sure that Horbor freight has them D Crockettt

I've been needing to buy one. I sponsor a Dove Hunt for selected friends. We hunt over a legally prepared field and part of the final prep is to burn the field.