Ideas on cutting lead

[sfcairborne]

Ok gents, got a ? I've got a bar of lead that won't fit into my smelting pot so I need to cut it in half. Here are the demensons. 4 in thick, 5 inches wide and 20 inches long, what would you or how would you recommend I cut this in half to smelt. I believe this is pure lead. My father got it from the base of an old industrial press. Was used as a weight to hold it down.

Thank you

[oteroman]

Hacksaw

[R.Ph. 380]

Ax

Sent from here to there by me using smoke signals

[Baja_Traveler]

Ax works if you have one, otherwise use a cold chisel and small sledge. If you are going to saw, use the coarsest teeth you can - like a wood saw. I've used a sawzall with a coarse wood blade in the past. Using a hack saw will just cause frustration due to gummed up blade...

[country gent]

A saws all or band saw with chaulk to help keep blades from loading up. A lot of arm work for a chisel and hammer being 4" thick. A circular saw with carbide blade cut 2" from each side with kerosene or light oil to help lubricate the blade and cut. You need to have the block locked down good here you dont want it sliding around. Cut full rpm and slow easy feed. Cut from each side. Or melt into pot with a tourch, will be slow as that big of block will suck alot of heat. A cheap pot made from an old propane tank would hold it and allow it to be melted easily also. If you use a saw also use glasses and a face shield together. Those chips will be hot sharp and flying everywhere.

[Nueces]

You can make cutting it, by whatever means, easier if you drill a row of holes along your cut line. Lead machines a bit like brass, in that things go better with little tool rake, so the tool does not get pulled into the cut. You can stone a small flat on each cutting lip.

[sfcairborne]

Thanks guys, I thought about the saw but, I was sure it would gum up. I might try a torch to see if I cam melt it in half. Most of my tools are in storage, so my saws are a no go.

[reddog81]

I'd try a hammer. It worked for me on some stuff that was about 2"x3"x12". Just raise it on the sides and smack the lead bar in the middle. After it starts to bend flip it over and hit it again. Do this until it snaps in half. I was able to get my bars to break after half a dozen smacks once I got the technique down.

[Walter Laich]

I've cut blocks that fit exactly into SFRB with a wooden band saw (the band saw is for wood not made out of wood)

Put it on some wooden runners and slowly pushed through the blade--wasn't much waste either

[sharps4590]

A one inch wide cold chisel under a 2 to 4 lb. hammer will cut that with precious little work. I do it all the time.

[MT Gianni]

Put an eye bolt in the end, rig up a tripod and lower it into your smelting pot.

[longbow]

As mentioned, a circular saw and use WD40 or similar as a cutting oil on the blade. That works well. Band saw with coarse blade should also work well... if you have one.

A chainsaw will also work very well but creates a lot of waste in chips unless you can catch them on a tarp or something.

More low tech would be the ax or cold chisel and hammer. At 4" thick it might be a bit of work but should do the trick too.

Hacksaw would be my last choice.

Actually another low tech option is to melt the lead off with a propane torch. Somewhat wasteful of propane but also works. Just hang the end over your pot then melt off what you want and let it drip into the pot.

Lots of options.

Longbow

[M-Tecs]

a circular saw and use WD40 or similar as a cutting oil on the blade. That works well.

Best I have found

[Eddie2002]

Use an ax, whack it on one side then flip it over and whack it again. Once the two cuts are made support the ends and bend it back and forth with the blunt side of the ax till it breaks. I like axes, they are soooo much fun ;)

[gwpercle]

The easiest way is to get heavy gloves, stand the bar up in your pot and hold it as it melts. It melts a lot faster than you think and easy to do. I had several bars , too long to fit in the pot , sawing and chopping was hard , hard work , way to much effort for me . By just holding them upright in the pot , once things got hot they would melt in no time. I sat in a chair and was done much faster than trying to chop or saw those long bars.
Gary

[zubrato]

Propane torch is a no-go, man. One spot gets too hot and will vaporize lead. If you can do it by hand, the best saws are wood saws with big teeth, they shed the chips that otherwise gum up. Sawzall also a good option, just clamp lead down into something tight and catch the chips.
If it gets too hard or the blade starts to overheat put some thin chisels in there to hammer the sides apart, and spray wd40.

[spfd1903]

Roughly 160 lbs. Safer for you to cut than hanging or balancing the piece in or over a pot.

[longbow]

Propane torch works just fine. You don't have to heat the lead to its boiling point when vapours are produced, just enough to melt it. Also, I am assuming this is being done outside where fumes are dissipated (one shouldn't assume though).

I have been at this game for almost 50 years and never had a high blood lead count. I know because I worked at a large lead smelter and had my blood lead checked regularly. So not only do I cast boolits, and have for almost 50 years, I was surrounded by hundreds of tons of molten lead every day for many years.

You are more likely to get leaded from the dusty dross (lead oxides) that form on your melting pot if it blows around or if you get it on your hands and don't wash them before eating or smoking. And that actually applies to all methods discussed so far... wash your hands after handling lead ~ especially old lead with oxides on it!

The torch is probably the least effort of all but most wasteful energy wise.

Well, my opinion anyway.

Longbow

[Ia.redneck]

Air chisel works great if you have a friend at the muffler shop

[sfcairborne]

Thanks guys got some ideas now, gonna melt that bad boy this weekend along with 7 five gallon buckets of WW and Stickons. All separate of corse

[runfiverun]

knock a hole in one end and let it hang into the pot. [with some melted lead in it]
use the torch to help melt it down quicker.

[Stilly]

I got some sheets of lead from someone. They asked if I could use some lead I said sure and they gave me three sheets that are about 9x13 and about 1/2" thick. I can not just roll them up and I had thought of using a torch, but a hammer does sound like a better choice.

[Bullwolf]

Axe, (by hand) or hydraulic log splitter if you have one, makes short work of big ingots.

Chainsaw too, or reciprocating saws work fine. (skill saw) Use a tarp to catch your the chips and shavings it will add up quickly.

Then there's always the drill a hole in it, and hang/suspend it over the lead pot.

All of the above have worked for me.


- Bullwolf

[OS OK]

Just give it to a bunch of 6 year olds…it will be broke into pieces before you can say spit!

OS OK...:bigsmyl2:

[tunnug]

I had a chunk of pure lead I needed to cut down and I didn't want to make dust from a saw, I took a machete and a heavy hammer, slowly pounded the blade through the lead and ended up with two pieces and no dust, didn't have to hit it very hard to split it.

edit to say I set it on a stump so the blade didn't damage when it cut through.

[beagle]

I'll second the log splitter. Had a 2" X 14" X 14" chunk and the log splitter cut it up nicely./beagle


Axe, (by hand) or hydraulic log splitter if you have one, makes short work of big ingots.

Chainsaw too, or reciprocating saws work fine. (skill saw) Use a tarp to catch your the chips and shavings it will add up quickly.

Then there's always the drill a hole in it, and hang/suspend it over the lead pot.

All of the above have worked for me.


- Bullwolf

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Propane torch works just fine. You don't have to heat the lead to its boiling point when vapours are produced, just enough to melt it. Also, I am assuming this is being done outside where fumes are dissipated (one shouldn't assume though).

I have been at this game for almost 50 years and never had a high blood lead count. I know because I worked at a large lead smelter and had my blood lead checked regularly. So not only do I cast boolits, and have for almost 50 years, I was surrounded by hundreds of tons of molten lead every day for many years.

You are more likely to get leaded from the dusty dross (lead oxides) that form on your melting pot if it blows around or if you get it on your hands and don't wash them before eating or smoking. And that actually applies to all methods discussed so far... wash your hands after handling lead ~ especially old lead with oxides on it!

The torch is probably the least effort of all but most wasteful energy wise.

Well, my opinion anyway.

Longbow

This sounds pretty realistic to me. I have seen people recommending oxy-acetylene to cut lead, and I don't doubt that it would cut it extremely well, lead being a much worse conductor of heat than steel. But I think that would get lead up to vaporizing temperature, and I'm not sure that doing it outdoors is good enough. I would want to have good information from some responsible body before doing it.

The trick is to do this job, which you may do seldom or only once, without having to buy anything. Any of the techniques mentioned can be good. If it was the axe I would make one cut, starting by hammering the back with a heavy hammer, rather than hewing at it like a lumberjack. If it was the saw, a wood saw is indeed much better than a hacksaw, and lead can't damage it. Beeswax as the saw heats up should be a good lubricant.

[sw282]

l worked on shielding a ''Hi Rad'' waste line a few years back at the Savannah River Site. We used precast sections of pure lead around 15'' long and maybe 1.5'' thick. We used an electric chainsaw to do all the cutting and trimming these ''U'' shaped sections. The chips fell pretty close to the saw because they were so heavy.. Also the softer the material, the slower the cut.. Harder the material the faster the cut...The saw ,being electric, had more low end torque than a gas one. lt could cut slower and was more controllable.

Didn't worry about 'lead contamination' either.. We were dressed out in plastic suits with SCBA air respirators. Working inside a 'negative pressure' vinyl enclosure..Sadly, ALL waste and chips had to be accounted for :-(

[robg]

Hatchet

[Spug]

I've used a hydraulic firewood splitter to cut 5 pound ingots into pieces for easier melting.

[blikseme300]

A few years ago I was gifted a keel from a sail boat that yielded almost 5,000# of ingots. We used a chainsaw and oil to cut it up and melted the chunks in a crude pot over a turkey fryer. I have enough lead alloy to last me a while but I won't ever do this again.

[sfcairborne]

Hadn't thought about my log splitter, great idea, and I have one.

[badd0g]

I use a hilti electric jackhammer with a chisel tip just put it on the ground and hit it in three or four places in a line it'll bust right up

[2manygunz]

I have been "gifted" with about 200 pounds of lead in one chunk on a few occasions. I tried the axe, bandsaw, torch and camp-fire with a tin plate. In the end, the above mentioned electric chainsaw did the trick. I started with roughly 16x16x6 lead cube
and made "twinkie" sized chunks to further refine. Did this on a concrete floor so I could sweep up the 12 pounds of chips. There was nothing even approaching dust or anything finer. Nearly all the shavings were 30-40 grains each.
Like I said, It worked better than the other methods, but was still a job. That "free lead" carried a price in sweat.

[Budzilla 19]

Weed burner. it will get that baby reduced to a puddle right shortly! Been there, done that. (Will probably do it again, lol.) Just my .02. Good luck.

[44man]

I smelt under my barn overhang and had a 75# ingot. I drilled a hole in the end and hung it from a rafter with my deer hoist. Easy to lower into the pot and lift it out when the pot got full.

[scottfire1957]

Your local fire dept has people that need practice with the "jaws of life." Just call and ask.

[Toymaker]

Brick (Mason's) chisel and a sledge on the stump of a log. That's the way I cut mine.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I smelt under my barn overhang and had a 75# ingot. I drilled a hole in the end and hung it from a rafter with my deer hoist. Easy to lower into the pot and lift it out when the pot got full.

That should work, because lead is such a poor conductor that you would be heating the bottom end, rather than all of that large ingot. Conversely it is a reason why direct use of a gas torch, at least oxy-acetylene, is a bad idea. If you were heating up a large chunk of copper, moving the flame should ensure that no part gets much hotter than you want it all to get. But doing the same with lead would probably vaporize or oxidise the end of a mostly cool ingot.

[Big Dog]

when working aluminum extrusion the tail stretcher would cut the ends even w/ a saw w/ wax, it will work well w/ lead on a steady cut, keep a heavy coating of wax on the blade to keep it lubed, you won't believe how fast you can go thru 20' of non-heat treated aluminum extrusions

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/0e/0e1c04eb-90f6-412d-a2cf-00fbbd943882_400.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DP9SVDG6L._SY300_.jpg

http://toolmonger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/castrol-stick-wax.jpg

[bilco]

I can recommend a hacksaw if you have patience and time. It sure was a pain in the **** though.