X ray

[WHITETAIL]

the other day my dentist called.
And said he had some lead for me.
He said to stop at the office and
you could have it.
So the next day I went down to the office.
And there was a MR. Coffee box full of the
lead from teeth X rays. Someone must of been
saving them for along time.
I weigh the box and it came out to 35lbs.:holysheep

[LenH]

I just bought about 150# of dental foil lead. It really surprised me that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.5 to 14 BNH on a Cabine Tree tester.
I was told it had 2.5%± SB & about 1.5%±SN and should make some good bullets.

[Grmps]

A friend got a batch of dental x-ray lead that was alloyed with something that gummed/gunked up his pot.
Smelt it in a small, easy to clean container to be safe, Odds are that you have good clean lead but do you want to take the chance?

[RogerDat]

They can have a film of some sort maybe plastic? That can smell a bit when smelted. Don't want to do this in a casting pot, but then I always use a different pot for smelting than I do for casting. Melting scrap I a casting pot just puts a bunch of crud in the pot. Pots are cheap enough at Salvation Army store to get pot just for smelting.

[pete501]

I use it for a my Credit Card RFID Chip Protector. Simply enclose it in clear packing tape until you have enough to fold over your credit cards.

[bangerjim]

A fast fading soruce of Pb. Most dentist I know now use digital X-rays and can see them instantly.

Last dental Pb I found was well over 3 years ago. Average 12-13 hardness.

Be sure you melt ONLY the lead and not the plastic carriers on either side. That will make a mess! If they are stuck together.............good luck........may not be worth your time & effors for a few pounds of Pb.

And it DOES take a ton of X-rays to fill a coffee can.......usually several years!

Banger

[marek313]

So far i was lucky enough to get about 30lbs of it so far. First batch I used on handgun rounds because i was under the impression that it was close to pure lead but later realized how wrong I was and its actually around 12-13BHN with fair amount of tin in it and it casts great rifle bullets. So my second batch was used on Lee 312-155 for my 300 blackout and those turned out great.
My dentist still uses old xray along with new digital one so hopefully I get couple more loads from him. Funny part was when I asked him and he said that he used to give it to this old timer that used to cast "stuff" with it but unfortunately that caster passed away at some point. I have a theory on what that "stuff" was that he was casting :guntootsmiley: