hardness of lead pipes?

[mac266]

A guy from church recently re-plumbed his house and took all the old lead pipes out. Knowing me to be a boolit caster, he gave me the lead pipes.

I don't have a hardness tester. Are these generally going to be softer than WW lead?

[Duckdog]

Pipe is some really soft lead. Nice stuff. I get mine from the City crews when they rebuild streets. They usually just throw it down the hole when they replace it with copper pipe. The contractors usually require some barley pop in exchange. Well worth it. I would guess that it will be well under 8.

[Mike W1]

The lead pipe that I got tested about 8 BHN, definitely softer than WW's of which I have none.

[bangerjim]

All I have ever picked up I tread at soft lead 5-8 bhn. Normally nothing else in there, so you will need Sn & Sb to cast anything but BP RB's.

Think of the years and thousands gallons of water that passed thru those pipes and thru the family!!!!!!!

And now they worry about a lead ingot laying in a basement contaminating a family. Or "fumes" off melting it. Go figure. Lead is not that harmful except in it's oxide forms.


Lead is nice to find.....especially FREE!

banger

[JeffinNZ]

I treat sheet lead and lead pipe as 'pure'. Around any joints there will be solder however that will harden up the mix.

[mac266]

Thanks, guys. I have two different ingot moulds so I automatically recognize the relative hardness of each. My Lee, rectangular ingot mould is for almost-pure lead, which I use for roundballs. I use an old muffin tin (round ingots) for WW lead, which I use for pistol boolits. I have about 10 different pistol moulds and use WW lead for all of them. By having two different shapes of ingots I automatically know whether the ingot is soft or relatively hard before I put it into the pot; it helps me organize them and remember which is which.

I'm just now expanding my operation for rifle rounds. From talking with some folks on here, since I want to make a good hunting bullet (flat nose design) something a bit softer than WW lead will be needed, but harder than pure lead. So I'll probably mix the two together. Someone suggested I use half pure lead and half WW lead as a starting point, which I'm going to do.

[Old School Big Bore]

That's a smart way to organize. You're gonna need one or two more shapes or sizes as you go along, or a set of number/letter punches. Be aware that the wiped joints in some old plumbing have some component in them that will screw up your alloy - you may want to snip them out & smelt them separately to see if they flow well before adding them to your hardening stock. If they turn into 'oatmeal' they're only good for paperweights & doorstops.

[bangerjim]

I have so many ingots of so many alloys that I do not take time to hand stamp. I spray the ends of the ingots with tinting lacquer I use for antique finishing. Marks the ends with unique colors so they are easily discernible even at a distance without having to handle them! I use only one kind ingot, the standard rectangular trapezoid stackable kind (lee, rcbs, lyman). I melted all my "toe-breaker" muffins down. They do not stack well and fall over easily! And the stacks of little perfect ingots just look better than kitchenware-generated globs of metal.

banger

[MT Gianni]

Molly's method of a black sharpie stating alloy works for me.

[LCN]

Bangerjim is right in everything he said. (1) Lead pipe is very soft. It was used for may years by water companies to feed meters from the main line. All the crew had to do was clamp it down to change the meter and then round it out to get the water flowing again. Don't tell anyone but I believe that there is still some out there in the gound just waiting to be found and replaced. And lead is safe unless in the oxide form. And inless it is exposed to oxygen no oxide will form. I am an old radiator guy and running solder and casting boolits did not worry me a all. It was cleaning the old radiator parts that I had to be carefull doing.