Pure lead or close to it?

[dieselrealtor]

Ran across some of this, trying to decide if I should move forward with buying some & what would be a fair price?

sheet lead


lead pipe

[Delkal]

It should be pure lead. I don't remember the numbers but I was disappointed in the final yield from the pipes. You get a lot of slag from the mineral deposits inside or the organic crud if it was a sewer pipe. Also be extremely careful melting them since they can still have water trapped inside.

Given a choice I would stick with the sheeting.

[Rickf1985]

That pipe is mostly cut off solder connections, GOLD MINE!!!!! that is a lot of tin right there. As Delkal stated it is messy but well worth it once done. Keep that pot of lead separated from the rest and mark it pipe solder joints.

[Dusty Bannister]

Being a bit careful with the propane torch, you should be able to melt the wiped solder joints into a catch pan. You might end up with something more than 30/70 solder (30% tin). Then melt that together and send a drip sample to member BNE to get it XRF scanned and know exactly what you have to work with. Or just add small pieces until you get good casting and move along.

Yes, be careful of trapped moisture as well as unknown chemicals that might be in the residue that makes life unpleasant. Good opportunity with either source. Check your local scrap dealers to see what they sell to the public for, or check the S&S ads to see the present selling prices these days. We can call this "pure" lead, but is most likely has at least 1% antimony needed for making the product.

[Delkal]

One more thing with the pipes. When you put more of the pipes into the melt make sure the back / open end of the pipe is not pointed towards you since lead and hot steam could shoot out at you.

It would be best to put the pipes in a pot and let them slowly melt while you are standing far away but I know no one does that.

[tinsnips]

Rickf1985 is 100 percent correct the joints are tin keep them separate . I was a plumber for 45 years I got alot of lead pipe free an of course joints aka tin. Good score!!

[dieselrealtor]

Thanks so much for the input, I will check into it further. Think it is worth $1.25 or more per pound as it sits?

[Rickf1985]

Yes

[243winxb]

Worth $1.25 The pipe will not want to melt. I had to grind* off the crud to bare metal , so it would. Just grind a small area, not the whole pipe. It was very soft, near pure.

[Delkal]

I would take all of the sheeting for $1.25 but would offer less for the pipe since there will be a lot of slag waste and nasty stuff to deal with. Try and get an estimation of the start and final ingot weight for both and let us know what you end up with.

[GhostHawk]

I was able to salvage a bunch of lead pipe water line when I had our house supply line replaced.
As Delkal said there is a lot of scale and corrosion that floats to the top. Not exactly free lead, as between the sewer and water it was 2k $ by the time I was done.
For maybe 150 lbs of lead.
Still if you can get it reasonable, its worth getting.

I always figure on stuff that has to be cleaned I cut the current lead price in half to pay for fuel etc.

COWW I figured 25 to 35 cents a pound when you could find them.R
Roofing tin or tub bases tend to be cleaner, so I would jack the price up for that.

[JimB..]

I’ve done pipe by loading up the pot and melting, have also use a chisel to cut it open and flatten it, this causes a high percentage of the dried just to just flake off before adding it to the melt.

[Dusty Bannister]

I would take all of the sheeting for $1.25 but would offer less for the pipe since there will be a lot of slag waste and nasty stuff to deal with. Try and get an estimation of the start and final ingot weight for both and let us know what you end up with.

Apparently you place no value on all those wiped solder joints in the photo. With things the way they are, I would purchase what you are comfortable with, especially if you can use the soft lead as is and not have to worry about adding tin or antimony to it. Well, with the wiped solder joints, the tin issue is moot.

[Delkal]

Apparently you place no value on all those wiped solder joints in the photo. With things the way they are, I would purchase what you are comfortable with, especially if you can use the soft lead as is and not have to worry about adding tin or antimony to it. Well, with the wiped solder joints, the tin issue is moot.

Tin does have some value that should be factored in but I don't think the OP will end up with the equivalent of 30/70 solder when melted. Even if he spends a lot of time cutting off the non soldered parts with lead dust and crud going everywhere. Plus there is lower lead recovery with pipes that also has to be figured into the price. Just my opinion though and of course I could be wrong so it would be interesting for him to let us know what he ends up with. You wouldn't even need to get it analyzed for a rough guess. With that much tin the smelted lead should be very hard around BHN 15.

It doesn't seem like I value tin as much as others here though. I have a number of thrift stores close by and I can almost always leave with something made of pewter for a few dollars. When I get home I weigh them and I am probably averaging around $4-5 a pound in what I melt. For me using $8 of pewter per hundred pounds lead isn't even a consideration since pewter is only 3x the cost of the lead I get around here.

[Dusty Bannister]

Well, I guess you read something other than my comments in post #4. I tried to be clear that if one melted off the solder leaving the lead one would end up with at least 30/70 solder. I suppose I should have been more clear. Pewter seems to be a regional thing. It as been much easier for me to obtain the solder from scrap dealers and other sources.

[Delkal]

Well, I guess you read something other than my comments in post #4. I tried to be clear that if one melted off the solder leaving the lead one would end up with at least 30/70 solder. I suppose I should have been more clear. Pewter seems to be a regional thing. It as been much easier for me to obtain the solder from scrap dealers and other sources.

Good point. Here in SE Pa scrap solder is much more expensive and harder to find then old pewter.

I edited my profile and added my location to help put things in context in the future. Thanks.

[Rickf1985]

I was able to salvage a bunch of lead pipe water line when I had our house supply line replaced.
As Delkal said there is a lot of scale and corrosion that floats to the top. Not exactly free lead, as between the sewer and water it was 2k $ by the time I was done.
For maybe 150 lbs of lead.
Still if you can get it reasonable, its worth getting.

I always figure on stuff that has to be cleaned I cut the current lead price in half to pay for fuel etc.

COWW I figured 25 to 35 cents a pound when you could find them.R
Roofing tin or tub bases tend to be cleaner, so I would jack the price up for that.

$2,000.00 for 150 lbs. of lead?!!! How in the world did you spend 2 grand on 150 lbs. of lead? It is 15.00 to fill a 20 lb. propane tank and you can melt a hell of lot more lead than that on a full tank.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Are you all sure that's Lead pipe?
Have you ever seen any lead pipe that is as small as it appears?
I can only guess it's around 1/2" OD pipe, Judging by the bucket it is in.
.
Years ago, I bought a large chunk of beer cooler line, the scrapper called it "block Tin." It was old, and was about 1/2" and had similar yellowish oxidation. Judging by my melt temp investigation, It was pure Tin.
.
Pure Lead usually has blue-grey oxidation.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

$2,000.00 for 150 lbs. of lead?!!! How in the world did you spend 2 grand on 150 lbs. of lead? It is 15.00 to fill a 20 lb. propane tank and you can melt a hell of lot more lead than that on a full tank.

LOL...I think he was saying $2K for the backhoe operator and Plumber/pipe fitter

[Bill M]

Years ago, I had a lot of friends bring me lead of all kinds, rooflashing, plumbing fittings, direct bury telephone cable, and the occasional linotype, or wheel weights. I had an auto repair shop, and during the summer we get a lot of folks from somewhere else, so I meet a lot of them with car trouble. We had a couple of folks in that really only needed a fuel filer, but the woman was complaining that while driving, the electricity from the fuse box would burn her leg, so she had covered it with aluminum foil "which helped, but still bothered her, was there something I could do?" I couldn't help it and laughed, they paid the bill and left, but later my hand came up with a sheet of roof flashing, said we were too honest, could have sold her a "lead electricity shield" and fixed her problem!