X-ray Protective Bibs

[asp]

I was given 75lbs or so of x-ray protective bibs. Upon cutting the outer fabric off, they are not lead sheeting as I hoped. It appears that they are lead impregnated foam of sorts. I cut a small piece out with just my pocket knife, threw it in the smelting pot with a lid and let it sit for a while. Smoked like a sonofab for 20 minutes or so but didn't get any lead out. Has anyone successfully smelted these into shootable lead?

[bwgdog]

I have not. The powdered lead used in the makes it difficult-as you found-to salvage. I scrapped the aprons and gloves i had gotten. bwgdog

[runfiverun]

you'll have a lot of oxidized lead surface there to deal with.
fire will be your friend.

[asp]

The lots of oxidized lead surface makes sense. I'm not sure what you mean by fire helping me out though. Should I light the material on fire before the lead drops out? Or just heat the ever living hell out of it then light the dross on fire?

[km101]

The aprons that I got from the local hospital had a rubberized material in them. I tried burning it and got a lot of zmoke and ash, but no lead. Looking online, I found that many X-ray aprons now use a lead free liner, so I guess that's what it was. But there was no lead in the whole batch.

[asp]

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. I might have the same thing. At least they were free.

[sqlbullet]

The lead in them is not retrievable with the facilities we have at our disposal.

[asp]

I've accepted that these are probably lead free and are going in the trash, but if they did have lead in them, why do you say we couldn't do it? And as a follow-on, how could it be done, even if outside most people's means?