Might have found some lead.

[Dave Bulla]

Stopped at a yard sale today and saw two small cast iron pots and a pretty big ladle that looked like casting gear.

The pots were empty but I asked if they had any lead and the lady said "No, my brother didn't come today. That's his stuff. He makes sinkers. He usually brings some lead in little bars that sell real quick but not today."

Since the pots and ladle weren't marked, she called him on the phone about a price on them. Ended up getting it all for $10. While she had him on the phone she told him I was looking for some lead too. Turns out he's an electrician (My guess is a lineman) and gets lead sheathing from wire cables. He said he makes 4# ingots and gets a dollar each for them. I left my number and told them I'd be interested in the lead regardless of if it was in ingots or still in it's raw form. Said I'd be interested in 100# or so. I didn't want to sound greedy or like someone buying it to resell but as far as I know I'm thinking I've seen lead going for $1.00 to $150 per pound.

Oh, and this is the point I have to explain that I'm not even set up to cast yet. I've got one mold for my 9.3x57 that has never been used. I used to go to a buddy's place and help him cast a few but it's been a while. Been coming on here for close to two years and got all worked up wanting to cast but financial obligations kept me from investing in the equipment. Getting turned around now and might be able to at least swing it "old school" style with a gas stove and the pots I picked up today. Maybe invest in a thermometer and a pouring ladle. Now, if I could just get lucky and get about 100 of this guys 4# ingots for a buck each....

Am I right that the cable sheathing is pure lead? He said it was REAL soft.

[I'll Make Mine]

Cable sheathing should be pretty close to pure -- they need it to be ductile and malleable, and pure lead is the best for that.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

sounds like you are going to be sitting pretty.

If I may offer a suggestion; the big sporting goods chains are always having sales on stuff. Look for a Turkey Cooker. You get a nice cast iron pot, frame, and propane tank and burner. Mine will hold nearly a hundred pounds of alloy, and the burner will melt it in 30 minutes or so.
Step over to the cast iron cooking section on your way out, and buy a couple of muffin tins. A good cast iron one will make nine ingots at a pour, with two you are set.

All that, and a careful shopper can get out to the pickup for a hundred dollars, +/-.

Rich
Sua Sponte

[hithard]

Most all of my lead is from cable sheathing. I do a 50/50 mix with WW for everything. Pure it really works nice with REAL boolits in your BP guns.

Good find, see if he'll cut a deal if you take it in sheats.

[Wayne Smith]

I'm sure you have read several of the posts on starting cheap if you have been reading here for two years. Keep all that in mind and make sure you have a place to do it. You WILL get little pieces of lead around you as you cast.

Go to thrift stores. Old muffin tins, old cast iron cornbread molds, old slotted spoons, etc. There is a lot that you can re-purpose. I still, after over 10 years, still use an old kitchen SS 1pt pot. Burned the handle off long ago.

[mold maker]

All the turkey/fish fryers I've seen, come with a 3-5 gal ALUMINUM pot. Don't even be tempted to use it for melting lead. Of course you've already read that in the last 2 years, but others may not have been doing all that reading.
For what ever reason it doesn't appear that lead sheathing is used around here anymore. You've made a good find on that. At that price, I'd fill my garage and let the truck sit in the rain.

[Dave Bulla]

Thanks for all the advice.

I haven't heard from the seller yet but I've got my fingers crossed. If I don't hear anything in a week or so I'll just stop back in one day when I'm coming home from work.

I guess technically, I'm already set for melting lead if I choose to use a gas stove. I've got several Coleman camping stoves, an old vintage cast iron "duck blind" stove with the stubby little legs that might be about perfect since I don't think I'd want to put 50 to 100 lbs of molten lead up on a long legged stove like my two burner propane camp stove has. I just don't have a commercial electric pot and I've had it in my head that I would need one al this time.

I'm a real big fan of cast iron for cooking so I've got a fair bit of it around the house and in the basement. I wouldn't sacrifice any of it for smelting though. Most of what I have is old Wagner and Griswold. Well, I take that back, I've got one smallish dutch oven that is brand new (not the good vintage stuff) and is some cheap version like American Camper or something similar. It's about 10" in diameter. That'd probably hold 70 or 80 lbs easy with room to stir. The two small cast iron pots I picked up yesterday I believe are vintage pots made specifically for melting lead and are big enough for casting but not for smelting. On the chance someone here will be familiar with them and can tell me more, I'll give some spec's.

The larger pot is marked on the bottom "ASCO 6". It stands 3 3/4" tall and is 6" in diameter outside to outside. Maybe that is what the "6" is for? It has a very heavy wire bail for it's size. Probably 1/4" wire which is why I assume it is a casting pot. Have to be able to pick it up and not rip the handle off.

The smaller pot is almost identical looking but smaller in every way including thickness of the cast and the bail. It stands 3 1/4" tall and is 5" in diameter outside to outside. There are no markings of any kind I can see.

The ladle is almost as big as the smaller pot at 4 3/4" across and 1 3/4" deep. It has a single pour spout on the left side and a 14" handle. The ladle appears to be cast iron too. It's all one piece handle and dipper. No wood on the handle at all. Hard to be sure but on the bottom of the handle down near the dipper it looks like the number 78000 cast into the metal.

If you all think it's worth it, I can post a pic.

As for muffin pans for ingots, I've heard that one but again, I'd rather make muffins in 'em than ingots. Especially if it's a nice old cast iron pan :)

I work industrial maintenance and have access to lots of scrap metal and a welder. I figure when the time comes I'll use some angle iron scrap to make ingot molds. Seems to me bars will stack neater than biscuits maybe?

p.s. Both of these pots have a sort of tanish white layer of crud inside. Almost like ash. I assume it is from impurities in the lead? Do I need to clean all that out before I use them or will it burn clean when I melt lead? Maybe it'll rise to the surface and I can skim it off? In the little bit of casting I've done, I've never seen a pot completely empty.

[Certaindeaf]

It's a "hazardous material" so they so often tell us. Require $2 a pound to take it off his hands.

[Jack Stanley]

Wait just a minute there fella !! ........ it took you two years to get worked up ???


Somethin' wrong here fer sure some guys it only takes a few hours of reading .


:kidding:Jack :smile:

[runfiverun]

the triangle ingots do stack much better than the muffins.
they stack better than the lyman and rcbs ingot's too.
make them about 6" long and from 1-1/2" angle iron unless you are gonna use a lee 20 lb pot then make them about 4" long.
they'll just fit in the pot that way and only cool the pot about 60-f.

[blackthorn]

For a good pot to melt down scrap, just cut the top off a 20 lb propane tank to sit on your turkey frier. It will hold way more than you want to pick up!!

[Dave Bulla]

Wait just a minute there fella !! ........ it took you two years to get worked up ???


Somethin' wrong here fer sure some guys it only takes a few hours of reading .


Nah, I got worked up real quick but had some cash poor times. Got in on a group buy for a 9.3 mold, managed to pay for that and like I said, spent some time helping a buddy cast some but reality got in the way of me spending money to start another hobby so I kinda fizzled after a while.

Honestly, I'm a bit unenthused after trying to work up loads for my 32-20 with lazercast 115 gainers and both unique and 2400. Accuracy has been mediocre at best. My 45-70 does a bit better but not all that great and my son's 35 rem is kinda poor too. Don't know if it's my expectations, my load recipe or my reloading process or what. I like the idea of shooting cheap boolits but so far I've bought all my boolits and they haven't been all that cheap.

I still want to do the home casting thing but not as bad as I did two years ago.

[mdevlin53]

Dave
I have a small ingot of mostly tin if you PM me your info i would send it to you to help you get started, might be enough to alloy 30-40 lbs of pure.
Michael

[Jack Stanley]

Check your groove diameter of your 32-20 . Once I found mine was .314" , I understood why my .311" bullets didn't want to work very well .

Jack

[HORNET]

Dave, Don't base your perception of cast boolit performance on what you get with those Lasercast things. They are WAY too hard for actual requirements in just about anything. Make sure the diameters that you're getting are correct for your barrels (slug the bores, go .002" over that as a starter). We do have a few vendors on here that will sell you correctly sized boolits cast out of the correct alloy and at the correct hardness for what you're trying to do. The cost might be slightly more than what you're paying for the Lasercast, but they WILL work. I don't think that I've EVER read a good performance report on this forum about Lasercast's products.

[Greg]

Dave-


I started casting at about 20 with a new wife and a baby on the way. I understand tight economics.

I cast thousands of boolits in a small cast iron pot and a dipper on top of a Coleman stove. one mould and no thermometer. Didn’t buy tin or a thermometer until I was 45 or so.

alloy the soft lead with wheel weights at 50:50 + maybe ¾-1 % tin.

or alloy with hard ball alloy at 2 parts soft lead and I part hard ball


I still enjoy casting with one and two cavity moulds and a dipper. I find it therapeutic, very relaxing and a return to the simple life.