Help with lead type

[Krp68]

Can anyone tell me what I have here and is it's all lead?

[lightman]

I don't recognize what that was. A little info may help, like where you got it. I don't think its all lead because I think I see something inside of the bottom picture.

[Krp68]

Yea I want sure about what's inside. The outside is real soft and I think is pure lead. Got it from a friend that works at a scrap yard.

[Krp68]

I'll try and get a better pic of the inside. Stuff is heavy as heck. Probably got about 1500lbs of the stuff

[Krp68]

I looked at this a little closer. It looks like it's all pure lead and it has little glass bulbs screwed into the sockets. Here is a few more pics. The first is of the glass bulb and the second is inside the pipe.

[Dusty Bannister]

It almost looks like some kind of lead manifold that has been fabricated from sheet lead, lead pipe, and wiped solder joints. You might use a torch to gently heat the area around the circular holes which might be lead pipe and see if the "wiped solder" melts and leaves the sheet lead and the lead pipe. If those are wiped solder joints, then you will be recovering about 30/70 solder and still have the soft lead scrap to melt down and clean up. Kind of hard to really tell

[pworley1]

Congratulations on the score no matter it is.

[lightman]

1500# is enough to justify getting it analyzed. There is a member here that does this service for a # of lead per sample. Anything else is just a guess. There are ways to narrow the guessing part down. A hardness test will help a little. If you are already casting, cast a bullet with it and compare its weight to a bullet cast with a known alloy. If you have an exact way to melt it you can compare melting temps against a known alloy. All of this is still only a guess.

It does look like some kind of a manifold but I've never seen anything like it.

[Dusty Bannister]

Some of the photos are so close it is hard to tell scale. If you look at the first photos, what I at first thought was perhaps a flat sheet that had been fabricated into a channel or gutter probably is a larger round pipe. Not seeing the end of the piece, it is only guess work. But, look close at the three smaller tubes that are butted into that piece and you will clearly see wipe marks around the smaller tubes and there is a different color or sheen to suggest that a pipe of one material has been soldered in place with wiped solder joints. Perhaps a different view of the whole item might help visualize the purpose. Also, either it is covered in paint or white oxide, so if white oxide use care to avoid breathing the dust. Lead pipe was commonly used for drains for caustic/acid liquids so use some care for that kind of oxide when processing your material. A torch on the solder could provide a good bit of additional information as would a photo of the whole item with a tape to show relative size.

[Krp68]

Some of the photos are so close it is hard to tell scale. If you look at the first photos, what I at first thought was perhaps a flat sheet that had been fabricated into a channel or gutter probably is a larger round pipe. Not seeing the end of the piece, it is only guess work. But, look close at the three smaller tubes that are butted into that piece and you will clearly see wipe marks around the smaller tubes and there is a different color or sheen to suggest that a pipe of one material has been soldered in place with wiped solder joints. Perhaps a different view of the whole item might help visualize the purpose. Also, either it is covered in paint or white oxide, so if white oxide use care to avoid breathing the dust. Lead pipe was commonly used for drains for caustic/acid liquids so use some care for that kind of oxide when processing your material. A torch on the solder could provide a good bit of additional information as would a photo of the whole item with a tape to show relative size.

Thanks guys. I'll get a few more pics up. I haven't seen anything like it before myself.

[Krp68]

Here is a few more pics of this stuff. The last pic is stuff that came out of it.

[merlin101]

Possibly some kind of mixing chamber for caustic chemicals, I'd use caution when handling and melting also be careful with the sledge that comes out of it. I'd have it analyzed so you know for sure.

[BattleRife]

Lead has outstanding resistance to corrosion in several environments, and for that reason is used to make equipment to handle some very nasty things, including strong acids. I agree this may well be some kind of industrial chemical process apparatus. Care in handling of the material and any debris associated with it is in order. If it comes from a well run facility it should have been decontaminated before being scrapped, but you never know.

The grades of lead used for chemical applications are typically as close to pure as is commercially practical, usually 99.9% or better.

[RogerDat]

bne is the member that will analyze a pea sized drip of your lead for 1# of lead per sample. He has access to an XRF gun which will be very accurate. I would test a melted off joint and the body of the lead. Determine if you have some tin you can recover by melting the joints separate with a torch as was suggested.

Even regular lead plumbing is best smelted outside, hair clog might make excellent flux but not going to smell good. And mineral build up can trap moisture so always good to start with an empty or cold pot and not drop pieces into a melt.

1,500 lbs. of any lead that doesn't kill you when melting it into ingots is a good score no matter what sort of lead it is.