Lead score!

[boatswainsmate]

A sample of the lead score I got today in the scrap yard's soft lead bin for 80 cents a pound! I felt bad at first but they should have known what they had.
Does anyone know what the lead at the top right of the pile is used for?
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn271/ericlee1971/DSCN0636_zpso6atuqy6.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/user/ericlee1971/media/DSCN0636_zpso6atuqy6.jpg.html)

[GRUMPA]

If your talking about the wound up stuff in almost a ball I would place my bet on it being for stained glass works. The Cerro Bend stuff is used for things other than casting chambers, so don't use it for casting chamber, or use it for casting boolits with either.

[Garyshome]

So maybe he paid scrap price for it and sold it to you for an extra $0.30/lb? So he "Scored" also

[boatswainsmate]

So maybe he paid scrap price for it and sold it to you for an extra $0.30/lb? So he "Scored" also
That's true. I was really happy to get the bar solder for a great price.

[boatswainsmate]

If your talking about the wound up stuff in almost a ball I would place my bet on it being for stained glass works. The Cerro Bend stuff is used for things other than casting chambers, so don't use it for casting chamber, or use it for casting boolits with either.
Thanks for the info on the cerro bend.

[ShooterAZ]

So maybe he paid scrap price for it and sold it to you for an extra $0.30/lb? So he "Scored" also

Yep....Scrap lead sells for .20/lb here. Raw wheelweights, roofing lead, etc. You can buy processed WW & pure on S&S for 1.00/lb shipped.

[JASON4X4]

Good find

[bangerjim]

Just be aware of the Cd in the CerroBend alloy!!!

Do a google search for what it is used for and it's MSDS info.

[mfraser264]

Careful on the Cero - many different alloys of Cero, especially the older blends contained Cadmium and that is toxic for sure. New Cero has eliminated the Cad but older stuff, especially without 100% ID is iffy. Suggest not casting with it.

[bangerjim]

You did not say how much Cerro you have in the batch. If a good bit, it would be worth having the yard you bought it from do an x-ray shoot of it! Just so you know fur sure.

I bought over 400# of a Cerro-like Bi/Sn/Pb/Sb alloy early last year that has absolutely ZERO Cd in it. (had the yard x-ray it B4 buying any.) It melts at 158F. Great stuff for making repros of antique clock trims when I am missing a piece. You can cast it in plastic or rubber molds. Just make sure there is NO Cd in there. That piece you have in the picture you posted looks old and may have Cd in there. Just be careful. It can be potentially poisonous.

banger

[fatelk]

Cerro-bend can be made into cerro-safe for chamber casting, with the very precisely calculated addition of an exact amount of pure lead. I've done it and it works well.

[bangerjim]

Please advise how adding just Pb to CerroBend eliminates the ~10% Cd?

Just curious.

[merlin101]

Please advise how adding just Pb to CerroBend eliminates the ~10% Cd?

Just curious.
So am I, but he never really said it removed the Cd. Perhaps he's talking about the 'newer' Cerrobend without Cd?

[Pee Wee]

Any follow up

[lightman]

Good Score! Looks like a nice mix of soft lead and solder. I like buying tin at scrap lead prices!

[thekidd76]

I got my first Lead score yesterday. A coworker was giving me a ride back to the auto shop to pick up my truck. Sitting at a red light i looked over and saw a massive wheel weight at the curb. Jumped out and grabbed it, had to be from a dump truck or something, as this thing weighs about a pound. When i got to the shop I put it on the counter while waiting to pay. The attendant asked me about it and what I was going to do with it. Then he offered me more from the back. This is the same shop I have asked 3 different people about weights in the past, only to be told they couldn't sell them due to EPA stuff. Well I ended up picking through a small bucket and walked away with maybe 5 pounds. Not a lot, but he told me to stop back by anytime and I could take what I wanted.

[boatswainsmate]

Thanks for all the information and reply's.

[RogerDat]

That balled up stuff on the upper right is Lead Came used for leaded glass windows. Generally very soft lead BUT it can sometimes have zinc in it as a stiffener. If it does it will fizz with pool acid or some drain cleaners. And melt at a higher temp and have an oatmeal like texture when melted. Just melt it first and on its own if you want to examine results and avoid contamination of the rest of your haul.

I have found melting the assorted scrap solder in a big batch and pouring small amount into muffin tins to make thick "coins" is a useful way to deal with all the mixed solder bars. I then take a coin (or two) from the big batch into the scrap yard to be gunned so they can tell me the exact tin content and I can then label all the coins. Over time I end up with baggies of coins that are 43% or 37% or 33% and 47% or.... whatever but still easy to plug into the alloy calculator and use to make a batch of casting alloy since I have a larger batch of several pounds to work with.

On the roll solder make sure you melt anything with an acid core in a separate pot. Use sawdust or gerbil/rat wood chip bedding to get the acid core flux out of the pot. Do not do in your casting pot.

I also will sometimes take the batches of "mystery" lead, do a hardness test and melt it into bigger batches based on common hardness. Those will also get gunned at scrap yard. I do not want to annoy the nice fellows with the $40k XRF gun by asking them to do every single type of ingot I find. Putting it into batches allows me to get known alloy in batches large enough to be worth casting with.

Nice haul and most scrap yards won't charge different for solder vs. lead vs. printers lead. Or if they do it is sporadic and not generally significant in smaller batches. Have paid a nickel or dime more for all solder from time to time. Or for large batches. Have to pay a premium for a large batch of printers lead or a full bucket of solder bars. Oddly enough I found one place that includes pewter as scrap lead. Don't see it often but am on it like a duck on a June bug when I see it there. There is also a yard that I have to point out I'm getting "plain" lead, they give me a good price (regular customer) but since I mostly troll for "good" stuff they charge full lead price for the alloy stuff. I don't mind. Nothing bad about solder at scrap lead price, nothing at all.

[boatswainsmate]

Here is the start of the pile I made today.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn271/ericlee1971/Pure%20lead_zpsduzdxt1g.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/user/ericlee1971/media/Pure%20lead_zpsduzdxt1g.jpg.html)

[bangerjim]

Nice pile but why do you cast your ingots all connected together?!?!?!?!? I and most others cast as individuals.

[boatswainsmate]

Nice pile but why do you cast your ingots all connected together?!?!?!?!? I and most others cast as individuals.
I find them easier to stack when there connected. I don't make them solid all the way across so I can break them apart easily.

[fatelk]

Please advise how adding just Pb to CerroBend eliminates the ~10% Cd?

Just curious.

It does not, of course. And no, I'm not talking about any more modern alloy similar to Cerrobend. I'm talking about Cerrobend 158, AKA Wood's metal. If it doesn't contain 10% cadmium then it's not Cerrobend, just something similar.

Cerrosafe is a slightly different alloy from Cerrobend but they both contain cadmium, tin, lead, and bismuth. Interestingly, the percentages of cadmium, tin, and bismuth relative to each other are the same in both alloys, so the very precise addition of pure lead to Cerrobend will make Cerrosafe. If you try it, be sure to do your calculation right or you'll mess it up permanently and end up with some weird worthless alloy. Good math and an accurate scale are vital!

Thought you were going to show me up for stupid, didn't you? :)

[fatelk]

Also, I would never use either alloy for boolits. Besides the cadmium danger, both metals are way to valuable to shoot.

[bangerjim]

Thought you were going to show me up for stupid, didn't you? :)


Not at all. I, like some others here, do not do things like that on this forum.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Now.............what IS that "good math" you refer to so we all can know for future encounters.


banger

[fatelk]

Sorry, I meant that more tongue in cheek. It's all good, hence the smilie. :)

I kept my notes from before. I had calculated how many grains of dead soft pure lead to add to Cerro-bend to make Cerro-safe. I'll see if I can find them when I get home.

[boatswainsmate]

End of the day picture from yesterday.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn271/ericlee1971/DSCN0642_zpsaajoblxb.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/user/ericlee1971/media/DSCN0642_zpsaajoblxb.jpg.html)

[RogerDat]

Nice days work but it does make my back a bit stiff and one hip ache a touch just looking at it. :-)
I have been known to leave those Lee ingots connected by just a little lead. Easy enough to break if I want a smaller quantity, much easier to handle one 3# block than the 4 small ingots.

Bet the metal table helps pull the heat out of those molds a touch faster than a wood table. I put a wood riser on my metal table to get at a better working height and I noticed the molds started cooling slower.

[fatelk]

Boatswainsmate, nice pile of ingots! Also, I hope I'm not contributing to too much thread drift on your thread by posting off topic. Since you had some cerrobend in your photo I thought you might be interested.

Speaking of cerrobend; guess what I found- my original thread on this topic from several years ago: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168554-Metallurgists-Cerrosafe-question

About all you ever wanted to know about turning Cerrobend into Cerrosafe! Some quotes from the thread:


if I add precisely 1,236 grains of pure lead to a pound of cerrobend, I should have cerrosafe
And:

Cerrobend is an alloy very similar to cerrosafe, except it doesn't shrink as it cools. Not good for chamber casts.

It seems it has a number of uses. The one I'm most familiar with is bending thin walled tubing such as in a lab. If you just bend the tube, it will kink. If you melt some cerrobend in hot water (melts at 158 degrees F) and fill the tube, you can bend it without kinking. Then you dip it in hot water and melt it out.

Another use is to make fixtures to machine odd-shaped parts that you wouldn't otherwise be able to clamp in a vice. You melt some cerrobend in a square pan, position your part in the molten metal, and allow it to harden. You then clamp the whole works in your vice to machine. When done, dip it in hot water to melt off the cerrobend.

I've run across it a couple times looking for boolit metal. It's reusable but sometimes gets scrapped. It's a little disconcerting when you go to melt down what you think is a big block of lead, and it just starts dribbling all over the place before the pot even starts to get close to temperature for lead.

It also contains cadmium, which is more toxic than lead. Not real scary, but something to consider when handling or storing it. Cerrobend is worth about ten times as much as lead.

If you do try this, you'll want to make certain that what you are starting with actually is real Cerro-bend and not just a similar metal, or it won't work.

...................bismuth.....lead.......tin..... ....cadmium
cerrobend.......50..........26.7......13.3........ .10
cerrosafe.......42.5.........37.7......11.3....... .8.5

[boatswainsmate]

I only got the one block of cerrobend. I think it will go back to the scrap yard unless I find someone local that wants it. Thanks for the info!

[imashooter2]

You should have no problem at all getting a ten dollar bill for that Cerrobend ingot in our swapping and selling section.