Soft lead?

[ikevinlu07]

I am going to purchase some soft lead (x-ray lead sheets) soon.
Since I have a flintlock pistol, I'm going to need pure soft lead only.
With 50 lbs of lead sheets and melting them down, do I need to add any flux?

I don't want to mix tin and antimony back in (I may also purchase wheel weights, clip on/stick on too) and that's what flux does - reduces (opposite of oxidizes) tin and antimony back into the lead.

I already have some clip on wheel weights, so I shouldn't have to flux right? They have a lot of antimony and tin in em.

Thanks!

[lightman]

I would flux your soft lead as that will clean it. If it has other alloy in it, then it pretty much is going to be in it. I would flux any wheelweights that you melt also. Most of us use a separate pot for smelting larger batches of lead so as to have only clean alloy in your casting pot. When smelting, I use pine sawdust followed by candle wax. I only put candle wax in my casting pot.

[Wayne Smith]

As long as you are using a patched ball there is no reason not to go harder. Terminal ballistics change for the worse, but for target shooting it really doesn't matter. It is the cap and ball revolvers that need pure.

[runfiverun]

fluxing and reducing are necessary evils only if you want clean lead.
I guess if you want a bunch of junk in your castings or a clogged spout you don't need to clean anything.

one thing about pure or near pure lead is it oxidizes like crazy and if you use a ladle it's worse.
you can just skim off 20 lbs of your 50lbs of alloy or you can return it back to the alloy by reducing with fire.
I usually skim mine then re-clean the skimmings and re-ingot that alloy.

[Grmps]

Welcome to the forum ikevinlu07,

You'll find a lot of wisdom here and probably some things you shouldn't do.
This is an open forum so you need to use common sense with everything posted and double check/verify anything that might be hazardous.
the way 1 member does something & works for him (her) may not be safe.

I like to smelt all the lead/ lead alloy's I get so I know it's all clean with no possible surprises, I don't put anything in my casting pot that I haven't smelted.

Like Wayne said, if you're patching you can shoot what you want, but I find
pure lead is easiest for me to source so I stick with that.

[ikevinlu07]

That makes sense. I'll go ahead and flux everything I got to remove the impurities. I suppose fluxing the lead sheets will not be a problem. Fluxing that wheel weights is also necessary. I don't really need tin or anything, I'm going for pure soft lead for my flintlock pistol. Oh well, I'll look to trading my clip on wheel weights.

Two more questions,
1) Do people tend to trade their soft lead for wheel weights (clip on)? I would like to but I don't know if people are willing to participate in such trades.

2) Do people prefer already casted wheel weight (clip on) ingots or can I just sell/trade them uncasted?

[lightman]

There are members here who trade lead, so a trade is possible. Check out the swapping and selling section. I expect most would want ingots in a trade although most prefer any printers type to be in original form.

[Springfield]

The X-ray lead is so pure I doubt you will need to flux it, assuming it doesn't have sheetrock stuck to the back. The WW will need a bit of fluxing, but the grease on them does a bit of it all by itself. The worst ever is roofing sheet lead, LOTSA of stuff in that, if you ever come across any. Makes nice pure lead balls, though.

[ikevinlu07]

Great, I just purchased 50 pounds of x-ray room lead sheets! I'll get to melting them down once I get my Lee Precision Pro 20 lb pot. Thanks everyone!

[Soundguy]

I picked up about 80# of xray sheet lead and smelted it. It's got to be real close to 6. It worked in cap in ball revolvers very nice so far.

I flux everything. more when smelting into ingots.. but even in t he pouring pot I'll use wax.

[RogerDat]

Great, I just purchased 50 pounds of x-ray room lead sheets! I'll get to melting them down once I get my Lee Precision Pro 20 lb pot. Thanks everyone! X-ray lead shielding has a government standard so will always be very close to pure, if not pure lead. I believe it wasn't allowed to be from scrap since the "shielding" per inch was based on pure lead.

You really don't want to melt scrap in your casting pot. You insure you will have crud in your bullets or clog a bottom pour pot. Instead go to thrift store, buy a STEEL or cast iron pot, never aluminum. Give preference to those with all metal handles, the black Bakelite stuff can break (don't ask how I know). Then use a 900 watt hot plate from Amazon or a big box store, a camp stove, with some extra bracing of the grill part if your doing big batches, search the site for camp stove reinforcement for ideas. A wood fire, the gas BBQ, a turkey or fish fryer (might find one on sale this time of year) Fish fryer from Walmart was ~$40 and at garage sales have seen them for $10 (after I bought one new for $40 of course) Last weekend at gun show saw propane 2 burner camp stove with adapter hose to connect to 20# tank for $10 and everyone of these will be better than putting scrap in your casting melter. Clean ingots go in melter, scrap goes in smelting pot.

If you get or have a bigger burner, check out the cast iron dutch oven at Harbor Freight. With 15 or 20 percent discount coupon comes in around $25 can hold around 100# if the stove or stand under it is up to the job.

Or contact the member D Crockett he makes the gear and both he and the gear he makes have a reputation as being plenty solid. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?12975-D-Crockett

You have nicest lead possible for muzzle loading and I have never really managed to completely clean a pot I smelt scrap in. At least not as clean as I want the pot I cast bullets from to be.

[ikevinlu07]

Oh, I see. So even though it's pretty pure soft lead sheets there'll still be crud when melting them down.. Then I'll go with a cast iron pot and a heat source. Thanks :)

[Soundguy]

Oh, I see. So even though it's pretty pure soft lead sheets there'll still be crud when melting them down.. Then I'll go with a cast iron pot and a heat source. Thanks :)

mine had a ton of glue and peeled off backing material on it. it made plenty of smoke and ash... and good lead.

[triggerhappy243]

my smelting/casting setup.

[Soundguy]

Looks just like mine including black fryer and white tank and CI pot. ;)

[merlin101]

Oh, I see. So even though it's pretty pure soft lead sheets there'll still be crud when melting them down.. Then I'll go with a cast iron pot and a heat source. Thanks :)

You'll probably be surprised at just how much crud really is in/on those sheets.
As far as trading some of your lead, that's always possible but you need to have a certain post count before you can list it, That helps keep out scammers.

[RedRiver]

I've never had any dirt in my xray lead. Sometimes there is a bit of sheetrock bit that floats like crazy.

Personally, I've never had to flux xray sheet or stick on. The paint burning in the xray lead and the adhesive on the stick ons burns real good.

Stick ons are the nastiest black smoke you'll ever see, but that black smoke bursts into a flame as soon as a lighter or torch touches it.

[Soundguy]

I'd still never smelt in my production pot, especially not a bottom pour.

[Three44s]

I'd still never smelt in my production pot, especially not a bottom pour.

Me neither!!

Three44s

[Geezer in NH]

Stuff that floats up in Pure lead is DIRT weather glue or sheetrock. Skim it off.

[RogerDat]

If the lead isn't shiny then it has oxides that form a black coating on the surface, or white powder if really oxidized. But just dealing with that black oxide layer by fluxing can help drive the oxides and any alloys back into the melt as opposed to skimming them off. As well as help pull any debris out. Handful of clean sawdust or wood shaving rodent bedding can only help, and certainly do no harm. Avoid sawdust that contains plywood, particle board, or treated wood sawdust. E.g. big box home improvement stores sawdust. Best stuff I have used is shavings from a planer, followed by clean lumber sawdust, and then wood chips from a chain saw.

X-ray sheeting, or blocks are great but I would expect to flux even clean ingots added to a batch if they have sat for a couple or few years in the garage. Worst stuff I ever dealt with was glued to wall using a notched trowel, so one side was covered in glue. When that smoke stack ignited it was pretty impressive (looked sort of like a rocket engine firing straight up) but there was a lot of sheet rock and assorted debris in the melt.

[Soundguy]

That's how my batch was trowled on glue and attached sheet rock