Scored some lead sheeting

[Ural Driver]

I am still gathering materials together in preparation to learning to melt and cast metals into projectiles. I am fortunate in that I have a real live scrap yard nearby. Having gone there for years to buy steel plate to use as hanging targets I have seen the bins of miscellaneous lead scrap but gave them no real thought as I had no need of that metal. But since I've decided to try my hand at bullet casting I will occasionally stop by the yard to see if they have anything that I can identify as lead. Most of the time I find old water/sewer pipe that is as much dirt as metal. But today, along with 4 divers weights, I think I found a treat. The bin was half full of what appears to be the trimmings from new lead sheeting.....very soft and very clean. The entire load totaled 140 pounds. I will be most likely be using this soft lead as starter materials while I learn the craft of melting metals.
Along with the lead I found a single bar of something marked as "Cerrotru Alloy" .... it has 281 degrees F stamped below that name.......don't really know what it is yet, but I took is also.
Anyway, I paid 75 cents a pound for the entire load which I my novice brain finds acceptable at this point. If my calculations are correct I have 80 pounds of Lyman #2 and about 200 pounds of lead scrap.
Still need to find a hotplate and some baking trays to use under the pot and as catch trays and figure out what type of thermometer to get. I have some ingot molds on the way. My plan is to melt this stuff down and form it into the much more manageable/stackable ingot shapes.
So, what say you? Is this a good find? Should I be going back down to the yard to get more?

[Scooby]

Just keep it separate when you melt it down. like sheet lead one batch and range lead another for instance. that way you can have it tested to see what you have. I am sure someone will chime in shortly about the cerrotru alloy. Also we like pictures. good haul.

[John in WYO]

Google is your friend


http://www.csalloys.com/products-cerrotu-alloy.html

[RogerDat]

I was just at Walmart and they had bread loaf pans for 88 cents each. No non-stick coating that needed to be burned off either. Heck I usually end up paying 50 cents at garage sales for them, those are heavier by a bit but not a huge amount.

Learned something that cost me a loaf pan. If you set a loaf pan on a good size propane burner to melt the "I was sitting on angle and your ingot is all crooked out of the ingot while still ingot is in the pan If it gets too hot the lead will bond with the pan, dumping the ingot will probably buckle the bottom of the pan since the ingot is stuck to the bottom of the pan and yanks on it when you are tapping it and dropping the pan upside down trying to get the ingot to fall out.

[Scooby]

"Cerrotru Alloy" .... it has 281 degrees F stamped below that name

42% Tin is awesome for 75 cents a pound.

Does anyone know what the bismuth will do to the alloy?

[bangerjim]

Bi hardnes like Sb. There is very little documentation out there because Bi is expensive....a lot more than Sb. I have many hundreds of pounds of a low temp melt (148F) that is 54% Bi 25% Sn. Just a little will take a pound of pure Pb to 10-11.

But I do not make boolits with it!

I use the stuff to cast antique molding and figures on the furniture and clocks I repair and make. Easy to cast in rubber or plastic molds. You can cast a spoon out of it, give it to someone to stir their coffee.....and the spoon MELTS!!!!! Strong coffee! Just like I like it.

Nice find, UD.

banger