More Free Lead today

[LAGS]

The roofers on my construction job gave me the scrap lead from the roof flashings today.
It totaled to 153Lb on the one building.
I have a second building that starts the roof on next monday, so it will be about two or three weeks before they install the lead flashings at the roof drains.
This is all New, Clean sheet lead flashings that is 4lb per square foot.
So I may end up with about the same amount at that time from the second building.
I think I have enough Tin and Antimony to turn the 150 lb into all Linotype.
Or all 300 lb into Hardball.
I better go down and get the propane bottle filled .

[lightman]

Thats a good score. Clean lead is about as good as it gets. All of my roof lead scores have had tar, paint and heavy oxidation on it. It still goes into the pot though!

[Beagle333]

Nice score! Almost all of the soft lead I have gotten lately has been old Xray shielding, so it comes with its own flux! :D (the little bits of wallpaper still stuck to it.)

[LAGS]

Get this.
I just recently sold my truck to a guy that lives the next street over.
He is a shooter also, wants a Custom Rifle Built, and works for an Abatement contractor wher he removes asbestos and Lead from buildings.
He said he does come across Lead sheeting from time to time in X-Ray rooms, and off Roofs as well as old Plumbing Joints.
He said they sell it for scrap when they get a large amount, but said he will save me the smaller amounts if I want them.
I told him I will pay you what the scrap metal yard pays for the lead if you want to sell it to my instead.

[lightman]

That sounds good. Networking and getting the word out really works.

[LAGS]

I like Horse trading.
So, scrap lead is being bought by the scrap yards for ten cents a pound.
So how many pounds of lead do you think I will end up with if I traded him for just the Labor on a custom Rifle ?

[RogerDat]

Nice score! Almost all of the soft lead I have gotten lately has been old Xray shielding, so it comes with its own flux! :D (the little bits of wallpaper still stuck to it.)

Yeah the paper for the drywall ain't bad but man when they used a notched trowel and adhesive to install it that can get a bit "interesting" shall we say when you melt it. Old construction adhesive, it doesn't just stink when it melts, it burns pretty good too! Dang where did I toss the lid when that fireball went up?

[bruce381]

I would figure $1 per for the lead so if you charge $50 per hour that would be 50Lbs lead per hour of work.

[LAGS]

I only work on guns for friends and not as a Business.
So I do not have a set rate.
But either way, I could end up with a pile of lead on a full on Custom Job.
Right now I am trying to work a trade with a painter , to paint my house for some of the rifles I already build and don't use any more.

[LAGS]

This is the 153 lb of roof flashing I got

[DW475]

Nice!!

[Nose Dive]

SaaaWeeeeet!!!

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

[LAGS]

I got 30 lb of it smelted into 5 lb Ingots yesterday before it started raining on me outside.
I am in no real hurry , except for the ingots are easier to stack and store.
First 30 lb will be made into Linotype, just to have a good Base Lead for other blends.

[LAGS]

The roofer started on the second building last week, so more lead will be coming.
They dilivered 400 lb of sheeting to the job for him to use.
But all I get is the scrap pieces that are left over.
On this project we have 4 more buildings that will be built in the next two years.
And the owner prefers Tar built up roofs that use lead flashings .
Most of our other projects use foam roofs that dont require lead flashings.
BTW.
We also have to tear down one building to build the next building.
I bet there is a bunch of lead on that roof I can probably get too.
But that would be the Used lead with the Tar and paint all over it.
It's Free, so I will still take it also.

[leebuilder]

Good haul Lags. Roofing lead is scrace here now. The stuff with tar is quite messy but found on the coldest of days it can be smashed with a hammer or thrown on the frozen ground and a good portion or the tar will part from the lead or just crumble, saves alot of mess and stink.
I scored 100# of submarine battery chinking lead the other day, much thicker than roofing lead, because its sheet it can be easily cut into usable chunks of exact weights for mixing.
Be safe

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I might wish this could happen again, or that I'd been smarter and saved back a bit of this huge find.

Was at the time working for the grounds department at Washing State University, and one day happened to be mowing the infield at the track and field location next to the universities field house.

The process of replacing the many years old sky lights that ran almost the entire length of this large building had been going on for quite awhile already but one of the contract workers installing the new Pella light weight sky lights happened to be on the ground as I mowed by.

Being a scrounger of such things as copper and lead, I ask the fellow if what he was bring to the ground was what I thought it was, to which he replied, "what do you think it is."

I replied, "lead."

Yep that was what it was, so of course the next question was, "has anyone spoken for it."

The answer, "take all you want, eat all you take."

Well that set me and soon a neighbor that was also a shooter and bullet caster to hauling loads of the scrap home.

The frame work of the sky lights was "T" steel all of which was wrapped in soft lead.

We figured we ended up with close to 5 tons of the scrap, a dump truck load of which went to a bullet maker in Montana while the rest was divided up between my friend and I and dispersed or used over the next few years.

Had I known that some years later I would be needing pure lead for my 45/70 - 50/50 wheel weight/lead bullet alloy, I'd saved back a stash instead of selling and trading it all off.

Da ------------ More recently I had to buy pure lead for my 45/70 alloy.

Too soon old and too late smart!

Today, the greenies would have probably been all over me!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[LAGS]

@ leebuilder.
Here in Arizona, we rarely have days where it would get cold enough to solidify the tar so it would Pop Off.
But I can set it in the sun most days, and the Tar gets softer so I can scrape most of it off with a putty knife.
On some days, i bet it would melt and just Run Off.
I was working on a roof one time when it was 123 degrees out here.
That is HOT, but not too much higher than our average summertime temperature of 112 to 114 degrees.
It is winter right now, and it has got down into the 70's during the day.
I am about to freeze to death when it is like that.

[leebuilder]

Lags i apologize for my ignorance. I know what heat is like servng in the gulf and it was brutal. In summer we rarly see temps up to 100, but we do endure humidity at times. 70 is tee shirt weather here.
Be well.

[LAGS]

It has been in the high 70's and low 80's last week and it rained on and off on two days.
Naturally, they can't do a roof in the rain, so my next big lead score is on hold for a couple of days.
Yea, I am Eyeballing the 400 lbs of sheet lead rolled up waiting to get put down, and wondering how much scrap there will be left for me.

[lightman]

Roofing lead is hard to find around here. We had a series of hail storms several years running and new residential roofs got the plastic roof jacks and galvanized sheet metal flashing. So, that source of lead is gone. But, when all of this work was going on I had a few small contractors bringing me stuff. It usually had decades of tar and caulk on it, but all of that stuff burned off and left nice shiny lead! The city tore down an old hospital building and I got to walk through it when I removed the electrical services from it. I was looking for an x-ray table or an x-ray room, buy no joy! It was too new to have lead pipes, so a total strikeout there, but you gotta look!

You have a good thing going, ride it for all its worth. You might see if any of those guys drink beer!

[chuckbuster]

Decided to chime in on this thread. Friend of mine is City Inspector, oversees the "Blight Reduction" program going on. Depends on which contractor gets the jobs but a couple of them keep an eye open for him. The result...
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/CBMJake/Pipe.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/CBMJake/media/Pipe.jpg.html)

About 2 foot square and 40" high or so and growing. Need to get busy with the smelter.
Kevin

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

chuckbuster,
Is that Lead or Tin ?
I ask because I got some piping that was about 3/4" in dia. at the scrapyard, sold to me as lead, but it turned out to be refrigeration tubing...and was pure Tin (or close to pure?).

[sparky45]

Looks to be roughly 1.5" old city water pipe. I had about half that much a couple of years ago and it was very close to pure Lead. A bit dangerous to melt down because of trapped moisture and expecially the Lead Oxides contained within. A lot of Purple and yellowish colors noticed when making ingots.

[chuckbuster]

Lead as Sparky says near pure. Going to sawzall it into short pieces to help alleviate the moisture issues.
Kevin

[LAGS]

Today the roofer who did the last roof for one of the projects that I managed stopped but to see if he can bid on the next project.
To stay in good favor, he offered to bring me all of the scrap lead off his other jobs.
I told him the company awards to the lowest bidder , and I have no pull in that department.
But he said, Well, i will still be bringing you some lead, because we like the way you run the jobs.

[LAGS]

Today they finished the roof on the second building on my project.
The roofer gave me 117 lb of the scrap lead flashing.
That was a smaller building than the first.
But still, the total off this one project is 270 Lb of for what it is worth, Pure Clean Lead.
I own now, 5 ML rifles and two BP pistols, so much of this will be cast up for them.
But I still have a Boat load of Antimony, Tin , Linotype ,Monotype and some Super Hard to make up some more ingots for my Smokeless rifles and pistols.
Heck, I may even try to turn some of this into Pewter for casting up parts for my Muzzle Loaders like Nose Caps and Patch Boxes.