Riddle me this...

[koehlerrk]

Okay, gents, got a riddle here, with a bit of a story first.

Got given a bucket of misc. lead bits a few weeks ago. Finally had a chance to make ingots out of it. Here's what it were:

20lbs of lead hammer heads
10lbs of lead pipe
20lbs of lead roof flashing

All that melted down just fine. What was also in the bucket was about 10 lbs of old cable seals. Lead discs with two holes through from the edge. Ols-school security device. Figured they were pure lead to be soft enough to squash in a pair of pliers. Dropped some in with the lead pipe, and they float. Like almost 1/3 of their height floating abve the melt. And they don't seem to be melting either.

So I scoop them out and set them all aside. So what are they? Zinc is my guess, except they seem really soft. Can anyone give me a definitive test for lead vs zinc that I can do at home?

Thanks much!

Rick

[Bulldogger]

They could be pure lead as you guessed. That's my initial reaction. Zinc is tough, a pair of pliers would only mar it with difficulty.

Here's what happened to me, before I knew better: melted a bunch of wheel weights. I noticed the stick on ones melted when there was little melt in the pot, but wouldn't melt when the pot was good and full of alloy lead. What I now know is that stick ons are pure lead and pure lead melts at a higher temp than alloy. When the melt pot is low, the temperature is higher, specially if the heat is set high to get the melt going. When the pot is full of alloy, and I've backed off the heat, the gob of alloy is no longer hot enough to melt pure lead and it floats in small pieces.

So, either you've got alloy lead in the pot and your pure lead is now floating, or it is something else they are made of indeed.


If you think it's something else and don't want it, well, I'll reimburse you the flat rate shipping cost for you to send it all to me! That's what I think.

BDGR

[runfiverun]

the roof flashing is usually pure.
lead pipe can be pure to 5% antimony.
the hammer heads? whatever they had on hand to pure or a mix.

sometimes just oxidation or a coating will slow down a melting..
if somethng gives me problems in melting i pull it out and try it by itself.
if i can't make a guess at it...

10 lbs of problems now turns into 10 lbs of land fill.

[koehlerrk]

Thanks, guys. You got me headed in the right direction.

What happened is I was attempting to melt them into a mix to make some 20:1.
Mistake #1

When they floated and didn't melt, I thought they were zinc.
Mistake #2

The floated because these 1/2 inch diameter by 1/8 inch thick discs had an oval hole, about 1/32 x 3/32, through the disc, edge to edge, say 12:00 to 6:00.

They were pure lead, and the hole made them float. Doh!

Went back to the garage and they melted up just fine. I now have another 10lbs of pure lead ingots.[smilie=w:


Thanks again for getting this newbie back on track.

[a.squibload]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...tric+zinc+test

Pretty easy, solution of citric acid & salt in water makes bubbles on zinc.

[koehlerrk]

Thanks, Squib, I appreciate the info.

[fredj338]

the roof flashing is usually pure.
lead pipe can be pure to 5% antimony.
the hammer heads? whatever they had on hand to pure or a mix.

sometimes just oxidation or a coating will slow down a melting..
if somethng gives me problems in melting i pull it out and try it by itself.
if i can't make a guess at it...

10 lbs of problems now turns into 10 lbs of land fill.
+1 I see this when I get some led round balls out of the berm. They will be the last thing to melt in the pot. I don't know if it's a coating on the lead or that lead melts at a bit higher temp than the an alloy. IF it's sodt enough to bend or dent, it's probably useable in bullet casting.

[zuke]

drop them on a hard surface.
ping-ping-ping=zink