Another trip to the scrap yard

[Ural Driver]

I went back to see if I had missed any of the monotype that I found a couple of weeks ago. Found maybe two more handfuls scattered around ...... and yes I collected them all. There was one overflowing bin that I had not searched thru yet.... because just looking at it made me tired. But, hoping to find more monotype that may have fallen to the bottom, I began to move about a ton (literally) of old roofing lead, standpipes and water pipe............from that bin into the empty one. As I was working I saw a couple of ingots way down deep. When I was finally able to reach them I saw more.......then more..... then more. Please remember, I have zero experience casting so these are rookie observations. There were some that looked pretty nice (very clean lines, not too shiny but with square edges) that had the number 9 written on the undersides in permanent marker. There were some that did not look as nice (very shiny but with wrinkles and wavy lines throughout) these were marked with the number 7. The last batch was sorta dark with sloppy edges, and no markings that I could find. As I dug around I could see some cast bullets on the very bottom of the bin. Lucky for me I decided to keep digging.......because at the very bottom, hidden under a sheet of lead were four boxes. Two 500 count boxes of Meister lubed bullets still in the plastic bags. These were marked 30/30 RN/FP 165gr. The third box had about a handful of Meister 45/70 405gr. with the bulk of those scattered all over the bottom of the bin.......that figures, because I could use those, right now...... The fourth box was from TruShot and was marked .30 cal 200 gr. and had gas checks installed and tho there was a tear in this bag it appeared to have the bulk of the 100 as was marked. I picked all the ingots and bullets (even the loose ones) along with a few very clean pieces of standpipe and sheet lead and what appears to be a couple of counterweights from a small tractor.

All told.... I got 366 lbs of lead at 60 cents a pound..........and yes, I stopped by and bought a lottery ticket on the way home.

The final tally was:
158 ingots marked "9"
24 ingots marked "7"
17 ingots unmarked

And approximately 1100 Meister ready-made lubed bullets along with some soft construction type lead.

How'd I do?

Photos forthcoming......



[ATTACH=CONFIG]166600[ATTACH]

[Hickory]

The softer lead maybe the bigger prize, buy all you can get!

[mfraser264]

Good for you, have a lot of metal to begin with. Suspect the inked numbers may be hardness. Drop the ingots, if it is thud then it is soft lead, hard lead has a ring to it. You found a yard that will sell to you, treasure that. Hopefully you did not pay a small fortune either.

[Ural Driver]

Good for you, have a lot of metal to begin with. Suspect the inked numbers may be hardness. Drop the ingots, if it is thud then it is soft lead, hard lead has a ring to it. You found a yard that will sell to you, treasure that. Hopefully you did not pay a small fortune either.

Yeah I'm feelin pretty lucky having this yard nearby. The boss told me that since I buy so much from them I can have it for .60 a pound. He also told me that if I have a question about composition he will send anything I need analyzed out on the next run up to the big recycler and have it shot for me. I plan on sending a sample from each of the ingot piles with him next time I get over there. I am thinking about buying a new house so am just stockpiling stuff right now until I see where I'm gonna end up.......gotta be someplace with more room......

[runfiverun]

measure the nose on that meister 165 I'm pretty sure you'll get 298-9.
that 405gr rnfp is a good copy of the government mold used in the trapdoors back in the day.
it probably measures out at 459.

[William Yanda]

Ya got me droolin'

[lightman]

You done good! The yards around here won't sell to the public. They won't even let you walk around an look while you're there selling stuff. You may want to consider buying a hardness tester as you continue buying scrap.

[MrWolf]

The stockpiling while waiting on a new house can bite ya. I now have to move over 1,500 lbs not counting all my ammo, components, etc.. That being said I will still grab more if available. Yup, it is a sickness but I love it.

[RogerDat]

Looks like a nice haul, and at a good price too.
I'm thinking the same as mfraser264 that the "9" and "7" are hardness. I have had WW lead come out with a BHN of 9 especially if tested right after casting before age hardening. I think people will typically use 12-13 for approx. WW BHN. I think lead of bullets reclaimed from the berm at a range might run around 9 BHN. And 50/50 mix of COWW and plain lead would give you around 9 So would some of the Stick on WW's or plain with a tiny amount of alloy would go around 7.

Looks like a casters supplies got dumped and you rescued them. All those ingots read Lyman so pretty good bet it was a caster. Of course since casters sometimes come up with their own WTH were you thinking? systems for marking ingots those numbers could have been batch 9 and batch 7. One argument for having good marking habits, someday someone besides yourself may want to know the content of those ingots.

TM A means type metal batch A but only to moi. If my wife or kids where selling it to you from my estate..... That is why they have the Sn/Sb amounts written on the blocks.

[Ural Driver]

OK, got the results back today. I will ask the experts (that's y'all) to tell me what I have.... and if I need to redo any of these into a composition that is more desirable.......

Ingots marked #7...............Ingots marked #9............Ingots unmarked
Pb (Lead) =....92.03.........................84.49.......... ..................90.71
Bi (Bismuth) = 4.73...........................3.79............... ...............4.87
Fe (Iron) =......1.11............................1.47....... .......................1.10
Sb (Antimony) = ................................6.63.............. .........................
Sn (Tin) = .........................................2.50..... .................................

[6622729]

OK, got the results back today. I will ask the experts (that's y'all) to tell me what I have.... and if I need to redo any of these into a composition that is more desirable.......

Ingots marked #7...............Ingots marked #9............Ingots unmarked
Pb (Lead) =....92.03.........................84.49.......... ..................90.71
Bi (Bismuth) = 4.73...........................3.79............... ...............4.87
Fe (Iron) =......1.11............................1.47....... .......................1.10
Sb (Antimony) = ................................6.63.............. .........................
Sn (Tin) = .........................................2.50..... .................................

Iron? Bismuth? I wonder what this lead was before it was ingotized.

[Ural Driver]

I'm still uncertain exactly what I have here.
Ref the two piles that show only lead, iron and bismuth....Am I correct in assuming that (when melted) I will be able to skim the lighter metals (iron and bismuth) off and be left with only lead?
Ref the #9 pile: does it appear that these all need to be totally redone or can I somehow correct them? If so, what else might be needed to bring it up to spec?
Yeah, I'm a noob at this alchemy stuff......

[Oklahoma Rebel]

well the steel clips from wheel weights float so I don't see why it wouldn't, unless it is just to dispersed ore mixed in the lead, if you know what im tryin to say.

[Nose Dive]

YOU DUN GUD!

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two

[triggerhappy243]

well if there really is iron in the ingots, remelt and sawdust the **** out of it. It should float out. I cant help you with the bizmuth.

[almostgone]

You made out like a champ. Sure wish I could find lead like that around here. It really does pay to be on Good terms with boss

[tds]

I have tested several hundred pounds of unknown alloys by XRF. If the XRF gun is slightly out of calibration it will have a difficult time distinguishing bismuth from lead. The spectro analysis the computer in the gun sees looks almost identical between the two materials. One time I was test some alloy and was getting about 25% bismuth. I tested the same alloy with a different XRF gun that had been recently calibrated/adjusted and the results no longer showed bismuth. My guess is the iron in the sample is just surface contamination from touching something containing iron.