Newbie and free lead...

[markX]

Hello all,
I’ve been lurking for awhile. Tons of info here.
I recently was given maybe a half or third 5gal bucket full of plumbers lead bars from a plumber friend. He says it’s pure lead from when he was learning the trade 25+ years ago.
In addition a coworker gave me 12lbs of mixed shotgun pellets. So that started a possible new hobbie.

I purchased some basic casting stuff: small lee pot, ladle, .54 rb mold for my flintlocks.

I want to keep this very simple as I am known (mostly by the wife) for over doing it initially on my (many many) hobbies lol.

All I want to accomplish right now is casting a few rb’s to shoot, possibly take a deer with and maybe some sinkers at some point.

Like many of you I have reloading setups, do minor gunsmithing, and the like.

So...
-What do I have here? Plumbers lead usually pure? Can I just melt this and cast a few balls.

-Do I need to “smelt” the bars or the shot?

-Should I mix some pellets with the bars?

-Any other suggestions? Remember SIMPLE is key. I was considering getting a small cast iron smelting pot to run on a camp stove.

-Thanks in advance. The only person I ever knew that cast just picked up wheel weights, melted then down, and poured into rb molds. No concern for content, purity, hardness, etc.

Thanks!
Joe (markX)

[Pipefitter]

Use the plumbers lead for the roundballs, save the shotgun pellets for the fishing sinkers. Melt the lead in the pot, drop a pea sized piece of beeswax in and stir well with a wooden paint stick. Skim the dross off the top and cast away.

[RogerDat]

Muzzle loaders RB or Minnie ball should generally be pure soft lead. Shotgun pellets can be used to harden lead or as a source of hard lead for modern smokeless bullet casting. Or pellets might even be traded for some COWW (clip on wheel weight) lead for modern bullets at a slight advantage. Pellets are worth more to a shotgun reloader than COWW lead bars. You are smart to start small, and I think round ball are the easiest to cast, seem like they drop out of the mold easier than bullets.

If you do a whole lot of scrap lead for bullets you may want to use a thrift store pot (or dutch oven from Harbor Freight if you go big :-) ) to melt it in, and a soup ladle with stout handle bent to ladle it into some molds. Molds can be a simple as a cup cake pan also from thrift store. Reason for separate pot is you really want "clean" lead going into your casting pot. Things like those pellets will have a shell like crust on them. People use sawdust to pull impurities out, all that stuff is better kept away from the pot you pour bullets from.

You can also buy clean COWW or other lead alloy in the forum swapping and selling area. That gets you lead, already clean and in ingots for a good price. Lot of alloys to choose from. Down the road it's worth looking into.

Should warn you it is a vicious cycle, really vicious. You cast so you can reload, reload so you can shoot, shooting means you have to cast so you can reload. Never ends, if you're lucky. And if you are really lucky you pick up some cool toys and gear along the way. Good luck.

[markX]

Thanks guys for the quick replies. This is exactly what I was looking for and hoping for (plumbers lead can essentially go right into rb’s).

I’ll pick up some beeswax and save the pellets for another day.

I’m building/putting together a .54 flint (since I don’t have enough of them already lol) w 32” rb twist barrel, upgraded trigger, rear peep, and a few small accoutrements. I have a name picked out for it already whenever it is done. The first of my castings will get run through this.

Thanks again!

[D Crockett]

what ever you do don't use clip on wheel weights to make RB for black powder they are almost imposable to get them down the barrel of your rifle . now the stick on ones will work ok . D Crockett

[dondiego]

I use round balls made from clip on wheel weights all of the time. They go down the barrel just as easily as a dead soft ball if they are the right size. COWW balls may cast a little larger than pure lead so I either go with a thinner patch or a few thousandths smaller mold. Don't try COWW with MAXI or REAL bullets or balls for cap and ball revolvers though.

Edit : When I do have soft lead on hand I use it for RB.

[lightman]

Thanks guys for the quick replies. This is exactly what I was looking for and hoping for (plumbers lead can essentially go right into rb’s).

I’ll pick up some beeswax and save the pellets for another day.

I’m building/putting together a .54 flint (since I don’t have enough of them already lol) w 32” rb twist barrel, upgraded trigger, rear peep, and a few small accoutrements. I have a name picked out for it already whenever it is done. The first of my castings will get run through this.

Thanks again!

Beeswax is nice but candle wax or paraffin will also work. Oh yeah, Welcome to the Hobby!

[markX]

Thanks guys!!!

[PerpetualStudent]

I got some old plumbing lead a while back and while it's lovely and soft but it is not clean. You might have some ingots or wire in which case cast away, but mine definitely needed a cleaning. If you put up a pic, you are sure to get some opinions on whether you need to "smelt" it.

A rusted cast iron skillet (3 bucks?) at a garage sale worked fine. This one I actually put among the embers of a fire, just to see how it would do rather than a camp stove. It melted down fine. I scraped out the impurities and "fluxed" it with wood chips. (lot of threads on this, it's not true flux but it probably helps clean up your lead) and cast some muffin tin ingots.

I would note about this method that pouring the ingots even with leather gloves is dicier. A relatively cool handle is far preferable to one that's just been sitting in the embers.

[markX]

I’m at work so no pics right now, but it looks to me like bars or ingots. Like one long bar of lead was cut into segments. Kinda looks like a triangle with a Flat base and a rounded top.

[slim1836]

If you can scratch the lead with your fingernail it is probably pure or close to it and should be fine for round ball. If not, it may be a combination of lead and tin.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy the wealth of knowledge here. It's free for the reading.

Slim

[RogerDat]

Free lead that starts you casting is sort of like a free puppy, if the puppy is a giant bull mastiff that has a huge appetite and likes lots of toys and knows how to order online. XD

[Rcmaveric]

All ready good advice. You will start simple and we all did. Then a few years and all that money you saved casting gets spent on special tools you "need" plus a little extra. Then you realize you really haven't saved that much money, but you shoot 5 times as much and get way more satisfaction when all that effort when it all aligns and you get sub MOA group. I use stick on wheel weights and what ever soft lead I can find for my muzzle loader.

[Drew P]

An easy lead test also is to drop pieces on concrete. Alloyed harder lead will ring, soft lead gives a thud sound that is clearly dead soft.

Why does everyone say use bees wax instead if any old wax? Is bees wax really different for our purposes? I’ve used both and haven’t really detected any advantage. And old half dead candles are a lot easier to source.

[RogerDat]

An easy lead test also is to drop pieces on concrete. Alloyed harder lead will ring, soft lead gives a thud sound that is clearly dead soft.

Why does everyone say use bees wax instead if any old wax? Is bees wax really different for our purposes? I’ve used both and haven’t really detected any advantage. And old half dead candles are a lot easier to source.

Bees wax has a cleaner burn off and ignites at a higher temperature but old candles or paraffin will also work. Candles and paraffin just more inclined to smoke and then ignite the fumes with a "whoosh" where bees wax just flows out over the alloy at that same temp. However with bees wax running $8 to $10 a pound and garage sale and thrift store candles running 10 cents to a quarter.... rather a significant difference in price.

I tend to use candle wax when smelting, and sometimes use bees wax when casting out of the melter. I ladle pour so not having an oxide layer on top is more significant than it is with a bottom pour melter. I will say I don't use the bees wax all that often when casting. Too expensive. But having a cloud of smoke go "whoosh" as it all ignites in a brief fireball is a touch unsettling.

PS Don't put a lid on the dutch oven to avoid the smoke. It super heats and as soon as you lift the lid and oxygen rushes in it goes off with a fairly impressive "whump" rather than "whoosh". Don't ask how I know, but you may find your shorts are in pretty bad shape after it happens.