What do I have

[Royalwolf]

Ok looking to melt some lead for 45 acp and long colt.
I found some solid bars of lead they seem to be a foot long 4inchs wide and two inches thick. Would any of you know what kind of lead it might be. Also I found a 100 pounds of lead pipe and sheet metal along 100 pounds of wheel weights. What mix would any of you recommend to cast for some plinking loads.
Thanks

[RogerDat]

The ingots are just mystery lead unless you have them gunned or they have some sort of distinctive stamping on them that identifies them. Think about it, the question you ask on those bars of lead is like saying I found a book that is 6 inches tall 3 inches wide and 1 inch thick, is it any good?

If lead bars have a distinctive design or label then a picture might help. Otherwise you might want to check with a scrap yard to see if they can "gun" it for you with an XRF gun. Or send in a BB sized sample to one of the members in swapping and selling that will test and report to you in exchange for 1 lb. of any lead.

On the 45 ACP and Colt you might try 50/50 mix of wheel weight/lead pipe or sheet metal. Pipe and sheet lead is usually soft plain lead. You can confirm this using the hardness test with art pencils listed in a sticky in this forum. Art pencils are made to standard hardness so 2B or 3F pencils (and all the others) are a known hardness that can be used to confirm the lead hardness. 50/50 WW/Plain + 1% to 2% tin to aid fill out in the mold is sort of a go-to for pistol plinking bullets.

[Royalwolf]

Thanks for the info. The bars did not look like they had been re cast. Along with havinging a brite sheen to the lead. It almost looked like it had some tin in it.

[RogerDat]

I can't think of who the members are that will test lead for a 1# piece of any lead. Search in Swapping and Selling for XRF scan or post in Wanted to Buy that you want to swap 1# of lead for testing of a sample.

I forgot. Zinc will react by fizzing if you put muriatic acid on it. Lead won't fizz. That is one of the poor mans tests for "what is it". You can get the acid at big box stores, used to prep concrete or clean brick. Might try a true value or ace hardware also. I think one of the drain cleaners may also work.

You could get the pipe, sheet metal, and ingot tested by sending in 3 lbs. of lead pipe and a tiny chip of each metal for testing to at least a couple of members who will test for that exchange. There are a few ingot forms and foundry stamped ingots that are known alloys or known to be plumbers plain lead. I did not mean it harshly but there is just no way to identify ingots from dimensions or appearance. I have some nearly black bars that are actually 40% tin. Some shiny stuff I found that was in Lee ingots that seemed pretty hard and it turned out to be 1/2 WW's and 1/2 plain just age hardened. So less alloy than WW's. Or a big batch of solder bars that turned out to be only 10% tin. Thought they were really rich solder score. <sigh>

[Goose18557]

Typz2slo and BNE have helped me out with XRF

[RogerDat]

Typz2slo and BNE have helped me out with XRF Yep those are the guys!