Lead roofing sheets

[Carrier]

I received about 30 lbs of it from a relative and am wondering what it would be in it. It’s very soft and I am just waiting for moulds and lead melting pot to come.
I melted some of it in a empty 9mm case and a Hornady 50 caliber musket ball in another.
Removed the slugs and the roof lead appeared to be about the same as the musket ball in color and using my thumb nail on it.
I will be casting for 45/70 trapdoor using the Lee 405 grain hollow base bullet mold. According to Wolf and others it is best to use only lead and tin between 20 to 40 lead to 1 tin. Not sure if the roofing lead has this or not.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Springfield]

Roofing sheet is very soft lead and great to use in BP guns. When melting you will probably get a decent amount of dross, the lead isn't that good a quality, compared to X-ray lead, as it only had to seal. Once melted it will be great, though.

[beagle]

Got a big batch from a roofer hunting buddy. These are the vent "boots". Pure lead except where they're attached and that's solder with very little tin. Got a batch that I'm saving in case I find someone with WW alloy to trade in the area. Pretty soft for regular bullets unless you alloy the heck out of it. Makes good buckshot though but you have to run it hot to get fill out./beagle

[robg]

i just add tin(lead free solder) and cast .

[DerekP Houston]

Most likely almost pure lead, just add some tin. My shower drainpan was the same soft bendable lead.

[RogerDat]

Good for muzzle loaders as is, can add 2.5% to 5% tin and have the early BP cartridge bullet (45 colt, 38 special, etc.) that will probably work with modest power loads just fine. Mixed 50/50 with WW lead is a pretty decent pistol alloy for modern calibers. Otherwise you have something to cut alloys such as printers letters or linotype to make them go further and not waste their high tin and antimony content alloys.

[Carrier]

So most are saying it’s probably close to pure lead. To get the 20 to 40 plus 1 tin I should be ok just adding the one part tin to it?
This is my first time melting and casting any bullets.
I bought a cheap Lee 10 lb production pot lV and waiting for the moulds to come from Wolf. I also bought 5 lbs of pure lead and 1 lb of tin. Plus the roof flashing I just got.
For now I’m only casting for my 1873 Springfield trapdoor.

[Drm50]

Roof flashing is about pure lead. XRay sheathing is the same as is sound proofing lead sheeting. The
only difference would be in the thickness. The containers for isatopes aren't pure lead. I cast 45/70
and Wadcutters from 32 to 45 with 20:1 lead /tin. My 45/70 loads are 322gr Gould Express at approx
1200fps and my WC loads are all under 1000fps. I cast muzzel loader balls 99% pure lead, the other
1% is just what may be present in lead I consider pure. 25/20&32/20 I cast 4:1 Lead/ WW.

[lightman]

Thats a nice score! A little tin will make it useable for what you want to do.

[Carrier]

I surely do appreciate all the advise on this. Like I said this is my first time casting and at 61 I have a lot of catching up to do. Pretty much have everything now to get started except waiting on the moulds to show up in the mail.

[Carrier]

Well my molds finally showed up and I’m getting ready to give casting a go tomorrow. I’m going to use 5 lbs of pure lead bars I bought and add from a pure tin bar to get the 20 to 1 ratio that Wolf suggested for the Lee 405 grain hollow base bullet for a 1873 trapdoor.
My question is do I need to add a flux such as beeswax to this as it’s supposed to be pure metal?
The pot I’m using is a Lee 10lb Production lV.
Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[lightman]

I would flux it with some wax. Any type will work. You don't need very much, maybe a piece the size of a pea. Drop it in, let it melt and stir. You can light the smoke and reduce the smoke and stink.

[Carrier]

Thanks lightman I appreciate that.

[Carrier]

Got around to melting the roof lead I have. There was very little dross in it as it is new. Is the purple colour normal for this type of lead? I poured the lead into some muffin moulds. What causes the bottom to have bubble looking holes in it? Thin mould, cold mould, lead too hot?
I would post some pictures but upload let’s me load some pictures and not others. Keep getting this.

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[lightman]

Yes, a rainbow of colors is common with soft lead. You might have gotten it a little hotter than needed. The bubbles are probably from the coating producing gas. Also pretty normal until its all gone.

[Carrier]

I was really surprised that a propane Coleman stove heated the 4 quart cast iron pot up as quickly as it did and to about 1100 degrees F before I got a temperature probe in it. Have 11 ingots weighing 35 lbs.
**** I though I was done going down rabbit holes with reloading but I seem to be well on my way down this casting hole as I’m already getting nervous about where I’m going to get more lead.

[PJEagle]

Usually the bubbles in the ingot surface are caused by a non-stick surface on your ingot mold. Your muffin pan is probably non-stick. I used some small bread pans and had to use a torch to burn the coating off before the ingot surface would come out smooth.

[Carrier]

Usually the bubbles in the ingot surface are caused by a non-stick surface on your ingot mold. Your muffin pan is probably non-stick. I used some small bread pans and had to use a torch to burn the coating off before the ingot surface would come out smooth.

Thanks I will try that before using them again.

[RogerDat]

That purple color on top is typical of plain lead. Dross on top is oxides. Tin oxidases faster than lead so if you have tin you tend to get a gray dross. No tin, no antimony and just plain lead you get the rainbow dross on top.

The pea sized piece of wax will drive the tin oxide back into the melt as tin which helps avoid cooking the tin out. In addition to clearing the dross on top so you are not pouring bullets out of dross. I have a regular table spoon with the bowl sides sort of rolled up a bit and tapered toward the tip that I use to skim dross off my casting pot with. Got them from an old caster. I also use a plain wood stick cut from scrap wood to sort of crush the dross against the side of the pot or skim the top surface to collect the dross in one spot for wax pea or scooping out with spoon. In ingot sized batches I use a paint stir stick. I should mention I ladle cast so my Lee pot the top needs to be clear when I'm making bullets. Bottom pour pots can probably just drop in the pea sized piece of wax and maybe skim after adding ingots to get any debris out.

The non-stick will off gas and make bubbles, a build up of spray or grease (brown burned on residue) used in the muffin or bread pan will off gas. I don't worry about it. Eventually most will have all the material that is producing gas bubbles burned off. Doesn't hurt anything to have bubbles in the ingots.

I think there is a size limit on the picture files that can be uploaded. I have file shrinking software that is part of texting or emailing an image that I use to reduce the image size and quality by sending to myself so the file isn't as large when I upload it. Modern camera phones are taking pretty high resolution pictures so the files are pretty large. I shrink to 1024 x 768 & medium quality when I email to self before uploading.

[John Boy]

Sheet Lead comes in 3 different grades: B - C - D but they all are 99.5 plus Pb
Grade B - Grade C - Grade D

[4] Element - percent - percent percent - maximum - maximum - maximum



Lead.............. [1] 99.50 [1] 99.90 [1] 99.85

Antimony, tin and arsenic (total).. 0.002 - 0.002

Iron.............. .002 - .002

Bismuth........... [2] - .025 - .025

Zinc.............. .001 - .001

Copper............[3]. 040 to .080[3] .040 to .080

Silver............ .02 .020

Tellurium.........[2] .085 to .060