50 lbs of (Not) pure lead chopped up

[ghh3rd]

I have a habit of asking people I don't know "have lead?", and someone I don't know from a different department at work said "yes, and you can have it - I'll bring it tomorrow". He showed up with this 50 lb slab. I propped it up with wood working clamps and each hole took a couple of minutes, since Wally World only had propane rather than Mapp gas today, but eventually it was in Lodge Pot size chunks, and is now in the shape of Lee ingots.

I hoped it might be pure as it seemed to scratch easily, but my Lee tester says it's 11.8 BHN. I am not complaining though - say, you wouldn't have a sailboat keel that you want to get rid of, would you?

[sthwestvictoria]

Nice work. Do you know where that sort of large sheet comes from? Race car ballast?

[ghh3rd]

I really have no idea of where it came from. The guy at work who gave it to me told me that his neighbor was very old, and had been holding onto it for many years. Apparently he lived through the depression, and when he found something that had value to it, he kept it regardless of whether he needed it or not. He was in bad health and passed it on to him, and told him that he should keep it . Apparently he was glad when someone asked out of the clear blue "got lead?"

Once when driving I passed over a perhaps 1x6x12? chunk of something that was right in the middle of the road. It just had that "look" to it so I turned around -- it was 33 lbs of lead! It had fasteners molded into it like this one did, so I figured it may have been a counter weight for a lift door on a truck or something.

[zuke]

I have 2 35lb piece's like that in the back of my jeep under the seat for winter traction.

[ghh3rd]

Move to Florida and you can make boolits with that lead!

[Animal]

Man, I'm going to have to start asking "got lead?" when I meet people!

[mdi]

I have 2 35lb piece's like that in the back of my jeep under the seat for winter traction.

I'll trade my fat ex-wife for the lead. She can sit in your back seat during the winter...

[AlaskanGuy]

at MDI.....

[ghh3rd]

At least it's his "ex"

[rockshooter]

lead that thin cuts easily with a sawmill with a 6-tpi "wood with nails" blade
Loren

[bangerjim]

OR for what you spent on all those blue cans of propane, you could have bought one of those double cut carbide rotary saws at Harbor Freight!!!!!!!

I have one to cut about anything (steel,brass,wood,plastic,aluminum) and it slices thru 2.4"+ thick lead like a warm knife cuts butter. No kickback and smooth straight cuts!

bangerjim

[Beagle333]

Nice find! No matter how you cut it up, it was the 'wrong' way.
Enjoy your haul!!!

[GSCSA]

I was shooing the breeze with a plumber we have on site doing a bathroom install. I happened to look in the back of his van and say a pile of ingots that were half round and connected in threes. I made a comment lik "Be still my beating heart" of something like that. anyways I explaind what I use it for and he reached in and grabbed one and said, "Here Enjoy!" Probably about 15+ lbs of pure. Will probably trade it to a buddy that shoots a lot of BP for some of his WW ingots.

[ghh3rd]

That's what I mean - you gotta ask before you get. Most people just don't realize that there are lead junkies amongst them that need a good lead fix now and then!

[CastingFool]

I worked for a plumbing co. for a while. The techs would bring in black iron pipe with lead joints and scrap them. Guess who got the lead joints.