What's the best way to cut this lead?

[b2riesel]

Here's the deal: I have a nice chunk of lead given to me. The person said it was probably a few hundred pounds...heh...it's over 600lbs. It is a lead roller used in the printing industry...or was way back in the day. It has a nice flat spot on one side where it was dropped and it is too heavy to put on a lathe to true up the roundness..and would probably make a mess.

The lead is 10" diameter...with a 1" inside diameter steel pipe in the middle that is 1/4" thick. The entire roller is several feet long....so it is very awkward. I know I can heat the pipe with a torch and pull the steel out...but I need to cut the lead down into chunks to be more manageable.

Would a bow saw used for cutting trees with the wide spacing for teeth work the best? I could saw it like roast beef into 10lb blocks or so and then break them by folding into quarters. I know I can just use a torch and melt a little here and there...but the piece is already laying on the ground and I have no real means of lifting it up now.

btw..I tried using the search function on the site and it just went to a blank page...so...if this subject is already asked...please forgive me.

[454PB]

This comes up every once-in-a-while. There's no easy way to wrestle a piece that big.

If I had it, I think I'd go after it with an axe. If it's pure lead (dead soft), it will chop up fairly easily. If it's alloyed for hardness, it could take a long time.

[b2riesel]

an axe sounds like a good method. I'll just heat the steel pipe and remove it...and chop at the soft lead with an axe. It's all going to melted into muffins eventually. Neatness isn't going to count in the process. I guess I can throw down a canvas tarp and go to town on it.

Only a year or so ago I was complaining that I couldn't find any lead...then I got in good with an indoor range and started buying range scrap lead really cheap...then I had people starting to bring me free lead when I showed them what I was making...and now this happens. I have 1000lbs here at home...another 4000+lbs in a friends garage...so 5000lbs processed...already in muffins. I've already used probably 2000lbs on top of that for making jacketed hollow point 40's out of 9mm brass and 45 ACP lead boolits. Now I plan on making 10,000 .224's out of 22lr brass and 10,000 or more .308's out of 5.7x28 brass....then I think...maybe...I will be able to relax a bit.

[imashooter2]

I think if you have enough torch to melt a pipe out of the center of a 600 pound heat sink, you might as well just melt it into a puddle. Then, let it cool, peel it up and bend / break it into pieces suitable for your smelting pot.

If you don't have a torch that big (and that would be a heck of a torch), build a wood fire on top of it. Let the fire burn out and then peel the lead out of the ashes as above.

[P.K.]

This comes up every once-in-a-while. There's no easy way to wrestle a piece that big.

If I had it, I think I'd go after it with an axe. If it's pure lead (dead soft), it will chop up fairly easily. If it's alloyed for hardness, it could take a long time.

X3!

If you are really in a rush a chain saw will do it quick. BUT do a search ,some info on that way of rendering a hunk into manigable pieces for smelting. In your search look for posts from "Duke in Maine" he's done quite a bit of high volume stuff. Another member to search for is a resident here and sponsor unless I'm off but th name is "captaint" (Those in the know, correct if wrong.)

Good Luck!

[b2riesel]

I think if you have enough torch to melt a pipe out of the center of a 600 pound heat sink, you might as well just melt it into a puddle. Then, let it cool, peel it up and bend / break it into pieces suitable for your smelting pot.

Hmm...sounds like a quick way as well...even at the expense of the gas. I believe I can get my oxy-acetylene to 5620F so the heat sink should turn to liquid pretty quick.

[Chill Wills]

I have done some very large ones in the past. I had one 500-600lb hunk of 1/2" sheet It was dead soft. Was able to use an axe.

BUT for a large diameter round shape a saw would be my choice.

I am not too sure about how to work around the steel in the center with out seeing it. That aside, a sawzall with a long - course bi-metal blade will go througt any thickness fast. No vapers, just chips.
I use my bandsaw for large sizes that I can handle on the saw table. Makes quick work of large peices. Lead cuts easy with even "wood" toothed saw blades. Just don't make the error of thinking that because lead is a metal you should use a fine toothed metal blade. Even a hand wood saw will cut it well but unless you are superman you will get tired of that fast.

Good luck, I wish we all had that problem with a 600lb chunk!

[imashooter2]

Hmm...sounds like a quick way as well...even at the expense of the gas. I believe I can get my oxy-acetylene to 5620F so the heat sink should turn to liquid pretty quick.

With a heat sink that large, it isn't about the temperature of the flame, it's how many btu it can throw. You have to transmit the heat the whole length of the pipe to get it to melt free. Maybe if you have a nice rose bud tip and play the flame down the center of the pipe... Certainly worth a try.

Obligatory safety caution: Lead vapor is dangerous. While that danger doesn't exist at casting temperatures, an oxy-acetylene torch can vaporize lead pretty easily. Be careful applying your torch directly to the lead.

[400short]

I wish i had your problem!

[zuke]

Tiger torch or a wood fire

[bslim]

X 2 with a sawzall and a very coarse , long blade. It does work.

[dragonrider]

x3 for the sawzall

[hornsurgeon]

i have used a woodsplitter for large chunks. i would use the splitter on both sides of the tube, then a hacksaw to cut the steel pipe in the middle.

[slim1836]

I hung a 3' section of lead pipe from a tree with a come along over my melting pot and lowered it as it melted so as not to allow the weight of the pipe to contact the melting pot. Worked great.

Slim

[milsurp mike]

I would build a fire around it just hot enough to melt the lead.When it cools take a Skilsaw or chainsaw and cut in to pcs you can handle.I have done this with a Sailboat Keel.I used pallets I get at work.Lay the pallets around the roller and get them started with charcoal starter.Want take long to do.Mike

[montana_charlie]

Before firing up a torch, I would have a go at driving that pipe out of the center with a 'punch' and sledgehammer. You never know ... once you move it a little it might come pretty easy.

With the steel out of the way, other options mutiply.
I especially like the idea of hanging it from a hoist and lowering one end into a hot pot.

CM

[Suo Gan]

********Try driving the pipe out like Charlie said first*********************


If no luck then:

You are going to have issues with the piece of steel in the middle. When you heat it, the lead will act as a heat sink and you will never be able to pull the piece of pipe out. If you use a chainsaw you will hit the steel and dull your blade. Sawzalls and axes will be futile. You will sit there and destroy a hundred dollars worth of blades and still not have the job done. Or you will beat your brains out with an axe.

Here is the easy and least punishing way.

What I think I would do is get a cheap weed burner from harbor freight, scrounge a piece of thin plate steel that is NOT coated with zinc galvanizing. The idea is to have it under your large piece of lead one side higher (the one under the lead, prop this end up with a couple cinder blocks or whatever) and the other lower and dammed up. You want a long skinny ingot that will be easy to work with later. I think I would bend the piece of plate to a V and dam up the far end. Melt the lead off the steel pipe. This will not take that long my guess is a half hour or so. Be careful as you can cook the lead off into vapor just go slow and steady. It will begin melting as soon as you touch it with the torch if you see it turning blue and purple the lead is getting too hot and lay off.

The poor mans or lazy mans way might be to just melt it with the weed burner where it sits and pick up the smaller pieces and smelt them into ingots later.

This will be waaaay easier than ANY method of cutting. If it did not have that piece of steel in there, I would chop it with the chainsaw and call it a day.

[geargnasher]

I have very serious doubts you will ever be able to get the steel pipe out of it. Certainly not with a torch. Lead has an extremely high specific heat, and there is no way you'll be able to melt the lead enough around the pipe for the whole length of the roller to pull it out. It's probably soldered to the pipe anyway from when it was made.

That pretty much leaves you with the sawzall option. Cut around the core with a long, coarse woodcutting blade, then finish the pipe with a steel cutting blade. Cut it in half first, then quarters, then eighths. Stand the sections on end in your smelting pot and melt them down.

Gear

[crabo]

I want to see a picture of this beast!

[white eagle]

try a log splitter ?

[Lizard333]

A pic would be nice.....

[Sonnypie]

Sawzall makes some excellent blades.
I have some called "The Ax". They are specifically for demolition work where cutting wood and nails together is needed.
And they are long enough to handle your chunk.
I used them for some remodeling work.

http://www.protoolreviews.com/reviews/hardware/accessories/milwaukees-new-sawzall-ax-blades/sawzall_bladebeauty.jpg

[geargnasher]

I need to try those, SP, thanks for posting!

Gear

[Sonnypie]

I need to try those, SP, thanks for posting!

Gear

I really like them.
But with a recip saw, one has to remember to keep that shoe tight to the work.
When I was working, we would occasionally cut up lead sheathed power cables with a Sawzall.
Some of the Apprentices were fun to watch. :lol:

[Chill Wills]

********Try driving the pipe out like Charlie said first*********************

If no luck then:

Sawzalls and axes will be futile. You will sit there and destroy a hundred dollars worth of blades and still not have the job done. Or you will beat your brains out with an axe.
Here is the easy and least punishing way.
.
With all due respect I think you have NO IDEA what I or a few others here can do with a Sawzalls -and in a heart beat too. Only “resistance is futile”;-) When it comes to extricating one thing from another, there are those that lack imagination.

[Reload3006]

if your just planning to melt it down anyway get a cheap pan to catch the drips and just blow it off with a propane torch. Thats the way I would do it any way.

[454PB]

I suspect that some of those that recommend melting this 600 pound chunk have never tried it.

A big wood fire might get it done with a lot of time and some mess, but any torch is going to take a long time to heat a mass of metal that big to over 600 degrees.

That is one BIG heat sink.

[imashooter2]

There's going to be a lot of time and mess in any way you choose. With a fire there's going to be a lot less work to go with the time and mess.

[Suo Gan]

Have ANY of you tried to use a weed burner? I have and they work extremely well. Droplets of molten lead appear on the surface of hundred pound chunks almost immediately. You can melt a roll of flashing in a couple of minutes. The only real problem is that it will get too hot, and you need to watch that. You can bring a pot of lead to a rolling boil if you want!

Anyway, try it before you think I do not know what I am talking about. Then tell me I am an idiot and should hack for a couple hours with a sawzall and $10 per blade. My guess is that you will be my convert. Heck you can even tell folks you thought of if it makes you feel better!

I have used one I got for $20 to aid in the melting of some huge chunks of lead.

This is one of those things that if you do the volume of lead that I do you cannot be without.

Take care.

[P.K.]

I suspect that some of those that recommend melting this 600 pound chunk have never tried it.

A big wood fire might get it done with a lot of time and some mess, but any torch is going to take a long time to heat a mass of metal that big to over 600 degrees.

That is one BIG heat sink.

Dunno about anyone else but I took a page from TV.....LMAO. Those durn moonshiners. If I set up a burner systen like that I could smelt ALOT!

[Greg5278]

I would go with the chainsaw and try to avoid hitting the steel. You will need a full faceshield plus safety glasses, and thick pants and a long shirt. You will need to put a Tarp under the lead to catch the large Shavings. If you can cut it lengthwise, paralell to the pipe, then you can cut the half round strip into pieces. Once you get both strips off, then you can whittle down the rest left on the pipe, or go the wood fire method.

Lead is gummy, and tends to stick to the blade of almost any Saw, it needs alot of tooth clearance.
Sometimes oil helps as a lubricant to keep the ship from packing up to the blade.
Greg