.38 cal solder? In large 30# rolls

[RogerDat]

A caster that was no longer able to continue (vision almost gone) had his stash brought into the scrap yard. In it were these giant rolls labeled "Solder" I about wet myself, in looking for the what tin/pb ratio I found they were labeled Type "Lead" Size "38 caliber". Stuff is dead soft. I'm thinking this is swaging lead. Anyone else have any ideas?

I nabbed one of them that weighed 27 lbs. Figure once I know the weight per foot I will be able to cut off small pieces to adjust the weight of plain going into the pot.

I'll also put in a plug for labeling your stuff. Big plug. Get marker and go do this right now!

Bunch of Lyman ingots, plus some square ones. No idea what it was, figured WW's so only thing I bought was 4 foundry marked plain ingots, and some already cast HBWC in a box very faintly labeled 38 148 gr. Plus a few HPSWC in unlabeled box that were the same diameter. Couple partial rolls of 50/50 solder. Total of 31#.

No idea what the homemade ingots were or the other cast bullet calibers so decided not to purchase any of those unknown ingots.

When leaving I noticed a bar in the car I wanted gunned so I grabbed one of the square ingots from the pile to see what it was. It did seem a bit harder and less tarnished. Those square ingots were all LINOTYPE! Not labeled could well have led to walking away from 60# of high end linotype at 5/14/81. Unless it was gunned it could well have ended up going to waste. Ended up recycled as battery posts or some such. Printers lead best keep it in raw form or at least labeled, someone someday will thank you. Your heirs when they sell it, or some fellow caster when they find it in a scrap yard. Or yourself when the mind starts to slip the clutch a bit at times.

[bangerjim]

Most people from the old daze did not lable their ingots.

I have acquired many hundreds of pounds of 1# and 2# ingots of anything from dead soft to hardball to PURE lino to solder to COWW's.....all cast the same way......in the same SAECO mold or muffin tin! Totally unmarked. Only a visual inspection , weight comparison, AND a shoot with an x-ray gun told the difference.

People never think ahead!

I "steel letter stamp" all my ingots for permanent ID now.....and in the distant future. Sharpie's are no good for marking alloys.

bangerjim

[RogerDat]

I would have been delighted if anything was marked, in any way. At least a few markings would have survived to provide a clue. Those .38 HBWC were purchased from "Tippys Reloading" and that was the only thing labeled other than foundry stamped or small rolls of 50/50 solder. I already picked up a about 30# of loose 9mm cast thinking they were .38 once, learned from my mistake.

So Banger what do you think .38 caliber plain lead wire in rolls for swaging or for something else? Soldering with plain lead seems unlikely.

[bangerjim]

VERY difficult to solder with plain solder. Would need a lot of paste flux. And strength would not be there as with 50/50.

Definitely for boolet swagers! Should find someone on here that would want it. Don't melt it down.

I do not swage or I would be discussing with you!

Guess you could cut it off in hunks, PC, size and shoot them as 38 wad cutters?

banger

[NoZombies]

Guess you could cut it off in hunks, PC, size and shoot them as 38 wad cutters?


I'd imagine it's the right size for .38 caliber cores, so it would be a fair bit undersized for the bore. there are a number of swaggers on here that would likely be happy to take it off your hands and use it for it's intended purpose.

[country gent]

Lead wire for bullets is indersized to be formed to inside of jacket or into full caliber bullets. It is ussually very close to pure lead. A cutter is used to cut the wire to length and then formed with a small amount "sqirting out" to maintain consistency in wieght and size. Under heavy pressure lead will flow and form very accuratly. What the op has is probably lead wire for swaging bullets or into cores. Some wire sizes are used for several diffrent calibers at times.

[RogerDat]

Thanks for the info. I'll get a more precise measurement of the wire size, and see if roll will fit in what flat rate box. If it does fit for shipping I'll post it and a picture in swapping and selling. I can use sheet lead as easy as this stuff for my purposes. I don't mind passing a "find" on to where it will see better use. Not going to let it or any lead go to waste around here either so win/win.

The idea of swaging I get but the specifics is pretty much voodoo and mystery to me. With the cost of the swaging presses and dies I'm thinking it is like a really high priced call girl, something I'll never experience personally. Unless I get elected to Congress and can get the taxpayers to pay for it.... the presses and dies NOT the woman. Wrong part of the political spectrum for "my" voters to forgive when I get caught.

I think the suggestion to chop lead wire into crude wad cutters might belong over in the zombie apocalypse or prepper forum ;-)

[62chevy]

https://youtu.be/TC2Ad3k3kgg


Try this inexpensive way to swag bullets. And yes mannyCA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmK9-8rOjgNmf8ybzxOy-AA) is a member of this forum.

[RogerDat]

A member that swages sent me a PM about doing a little swapping and putting the lead wire to good use. I went back and picked up the other roll and a partial roll. I am posting pictures here both so folks that have not seen it before can see what this stuff looks like and so that the member that sent the PM can take a look. Interesting video you posted 62Chevy very creative way to make ammo on the cheap.

139051

The roll on the right and in front one is labeled 38 caliber, with a cheap slide caliper they both measure 7.5 mm the one on the left rear is labeled 44 caliber and measures at about 9mm. Between 40 and 50 lbs. of plain lead. The fullest one weighs 27 lbs.

139052

[Budzilla 19]

Rogerdat,you scored! And you helped someone else out! Banger Jim,better be careful about saying ,"plainly marking ingots"!, LOL,I posted on another thread about marking ,in plain English ,your ingots so there are no worries about remembering marks or some code known only to you! Boy,did I get my macadamias raked over the coals for that remark!!! got told if I could not remember "1,2,3, then maybe reloading in General was something I shouldn't undertake "!!!! Well,ok then! Hahaha! Seriously, if your ingots are marked in accepted nomenclature,known to all, then it's a lot easier on all involved. Just my .02 cents.

[RogerDat]

When I saw how steep the prices were on swage lead wire I figured it would be a waste for me to just melt it down. Hopefully the member that I shipped it to in trade will find it suitable and enjoy it. Funny how things work out, I saw "solder" and thought I had found something especially good for casting, member that swages had some solder to trade since they mostly swage rather than cast these days. In the end you might say I did find solder.

Some folks get cranky when they try to cut back on caffeine, this causes them to be hard on the macadamia nuts of others.

I look at it like this. If a member of the forum that was local was purchasing my lead stash from my widow it would be helpful to them if they knew what they were buying. Helpful to my widow in terms of getting a good fair price. I also suffer from CRS aka Can't Remember Stuff. So for all concerned that container of ingots labeled 27% Sn or bars labeled 10 Sn are covering all the bases. At least while my arms are long enough for me to read the difference between Sn or Sb and I can still hold the bars out far enough to read them. ;-)

[62chevy]

Rogerdat,you scored! And you helped someone else out! Banger Jim,better be careful about saying ,"plainly marking ingots"!, LOL,I posted on another thread about marking ,in plain English ,your ingots so there are no worries about remembering marks or some code known only to you! Boy,did I get my macadamias raked over the coals for that remark!!! got told if I could not remember "1,2,3, then maybe reloading in General was something I shouldn't undertake "!!!! Well,ok then! Hahaha! Seriously, if your ingots are marked in accepted nomenclature,known to all, then it's a lot easier on all involved. Just my .02 cents.

I had the same idea and figured that would be the responce. Just like the guy that wanted to make Zinc boolits got hounded till he stopped posting a real lose there. And it's like when Galileo said the Earth revolved around the Sun, He got tossed in prison lol. I find it fun to watch all the nay sayers hoot and holler than anything.

[Echo]

Great video on swaging. I did some years ago, but lost interest, and kept casting.