X ray lead

[lead collector]

Hello,

I am celebrating today!! Yesterday, I got into a deal on some lead from an X-ray room. Somewhere in the 350 pound quantity, before clean up.
There will be some loss, as there is some wood that is still glued to it from the removal process, and it will have to be cut up into workable pieces.
I was really happy, as it was a nice score, and the price was right. I ended up with about 30 cents a pound in the raw product.
Large rolled up pieces about 1/4 inch thick..

My question is this.. is this stuff appears to be just dead soft lead... probably mostly pure?
Is there anything special about this, or is it pretty much pure lead? Is there a standard mix or make up for this or can it just be any thing?
I plan to use it for mostly pistol bullets, and I have plenty on Tin mix solder to add to it. Maybe 30 - 1 lead tin mix with a little bit of lino to harden?

LC

[John Boy]

Test the Bhn of the x ray room lead ... dental x ray lead is 8.7. Pure lead is Bhn 5.0 or 5.1

[kevin c]

My understanding is that a lot of sheet lead has some Sb in it, but I guess it depends on the use. JB's suggestion on some kind of testing is sound.

ETA: congrats on a great score on both quantity and price!

[Targa]

That was a nice find lead collector.

[Bull-Moose]

I wouldn't of thought of an x-ray room for a source of lead. Good thinking.

[redhawk0]

Nice Score...now the work begins.

redhawk

[GregLaROCHE]

Don’t worry if there is a little wood when you go to melt it. The wood will act like flux and burn off.

[USSR]

Don’t worry if there is a little wood when you go to melt it. The wood will act like flux and burn off.

Oh, but if it were that simple. The wood is not the problem, the glue is. I smelted down a bunch of this this spring, and what a PITA. Still, you got it for an excellent price and it is basically pure lead.

Don

[Dvdmacdaddy]

I’ve built a few x-ray rooms in the past, the lead lined drywall and lead sheets we bought was 99.5% pure lead.

Those lead lined drywall sheets were not fun at all to hang. It was worse to glue the rolled lead to hung drywall.

[Winger Ed.]

I wouldn't of thought of an x-ray room for a source of lead. Good thinking.

Sheets of it almost 1/8' thick or so are behind the sheetrock in all X-Ray rooms.

[too many things]

lot of radiation in it glows at night when you shine a light on the melt, but you may not need cancer treatment

[Stewbaby]

What?! There’s no radiation concerns.

I recently picked up and melted some into ingots. I pressure washed the glue and sheet rock off. I had it PMI gun tested and it was 99.98% pure lead.

[Glenn54]

Congrats OP. I picked up some sheet lead from a dental office over 20 years ago, given to me by a friend. The stuff I got did not have any glue or wood on it but it does have a few nails. I assume it may have been nailed to the frame of the walls. Mine is less than 1/8" thick but is very easy to bend single layers. I would like to have it checked for hardness but not sure where to start.

[kimoleto]

My father is a Radiologist (he´s 93), x ray lead plates are pure lead, they wont get contaminated with radiation

[Vinne]

Pure lead like that makes a great base and what you add can allow you to cast any range of boolit hardness.

[lightman]

Lead Collector, that was a nice score. All of the sheet lead that I have gotten from X-Ray rooms has been dead soft and nearly pure. The glue, paper and sheetrock thats stuck to it will burn off or float to the top once its melted.

As others have said, it makes a good base for mixing alloys and it works great for Blackpowder. Good Score!

[yovinny]

I cleaned and turned into ingots just under 500lbs of xray room lead.
Besides being a pita to cut up and taking a long 10hr day,, it proved my 6- 2.5lb and 2- 4x1lb ingot moulds werent enough and was where the bottleneck was...
I would do it again in a heartbeat,, but I'd make more ingot moulds first.

I also found the BY FAR easiest way to cut it up was with the cutting torch...

[lightman]

Yes, when doing large quantities you need enough ingot molds to keep the process moving. I run 8 of the cast iron Lyman style molds when I'm melting scrap. Weather depending, I can usually do 4 or 5 cycles before I have to slow down and wait on them to cool. By then I'm ready to stretch the ole back!

[Vinne]

yovinny, 500 lbs is a nice haul. Should keep you stock for a little while.

[Texas Gun]

There is a billy bob joke here some place I just know it

Good lead for BP