xsquidgator
11-01-2007, 03:40 PM
I have a line on maybe 50 pounds or so lead sheet for free from the clinic I work with. This lead is in thin lead sheets, maybe 1/16" thick, that was used as radiation shielding for radioactive prostate implant seeds.
The problem I'm having is how to get this rubbery or plastic-y coating off of the lead that seems to have been glued on somehow. So far it's been impossible to tear off more than tiny little shreds of this coating, the stuff is so firmly glued on that when I can peel an edge of the coating up, it just tears instead of pulling off in a nice sheet.
I'm totally new to casting boolits, other than reading a little bit here and some other places. From your guys' experiences, is the kind of thing where maybe I could just throw it in the pot and let the heat burn this up, and then hopefully just skim it off the top? Even if I come up with a mechanical way to remove this covering, there will still be a sticky glue residue on the lead.
The only thing other thing I'm thinking of trying is to find some aggressive solvent like acetone, and see if I can find one that will eat off this coating.
Has anyone here ever used this as a source of lead and found a way to do it?
The good news for me is that I have another 50-100# of waste lead for free, that's much easier to harvest. (and a fairly steady supply of it in the future too!) This is the lead that's used to shield the radiation from small containers of radioactive seeds that come into the hospital- the seeds get used up and all this lead accumulates. Fortunately these containers usually just have a plastic shell that's easy to cut or chisel off, leaving a nice amount of solid clean lead underneath.
The problem I'm having is how to get this rubbery or plastic-y coating off of the lead that seems to have been glued on somehow. So far it's been impossible to tear off more than tiny little shreds of this coating, the stuff is so firmly glued on that when I can peel an edge of the coating up, it just tears instead of pulling off in a nice sheet.
I'm totally new to casting boolits, other than reading a little bit here and some other places. From your guys' experiences, is the kind of thing where maybe I could just throw it in the pot and let the heat burn this up, and then hopefully just skim it off the top? Even if I come up with a mechanical way to remove this covering, there will still be a sticky glue residue on the lead.
The only thing other thing I'm thinking of trying is to find some aggressive solvent like acetone, and see if I can find one that will eat off this coating.
Has anyone here ever used this as a source of lead and found a way to do it?
The good news for me is that I have another 50-100# of waste lead for free, that's much easier to harvest. (and a fairly steady supply of it in the future too!) This is the lead that's used to shield the radiation from small containers of radioactive seeds that come into the hospital- the seeds get used up and all this lead accumulates. Fortunately these containers usually just have a plastic shell that's easy to cut or chisel off, leaving a nice amount of solid clean lead underneath.