lead cable sheathing

[Blkpwdrbuff]

Hi guys.
Just a couple of quick questions.
Just a couple of hours ago a friend of mine gave me 100+ lbs of lead cable seathing that someone at his work had stripped off a bunch of scrap copper wire.
Question 1: Is it pure lead?
Question 2: if it isn't pure lead, about how hard is it in BHN hardness??
It's great to have friends like this:smile:
Blkpwdrbuff:castmine:

[Buckshot]

..............The sheathing itself will be VERY close to pure. As with lead plumbing, any joints, connections, or unions will have a high tin content due to the solder.

.................Buckshot

[shotman]

buckshot is right it is pure old water pipe is about the same as WWs shotman

[imashooter2]

My Father was a Bell lineman. We shot literally tons of cable sheath from telephone cables. The Bell cables were made of arsenical lead. Alone it air cools same as pure. But alloyed the arsenic will aid in heat treating. The joints were 40/60 wiping solder.

[powderburnerr]

The stuff I use measures 5 to 5.5 brinnell with out the joints.....Dean

[Ricochet]

My old 1948 Metals Handbook says the cable sheathing has a tiny bit of calcium in it, which provides resistance against "creep." It's been used a great deal for boolits.

[Alvin in AZ]

My old 1948 Metals Handbook says the cable sheathing has a tiny bit of calcium
in it, which provides resistance against "creep." It's been used a great deal for boolits.


There it is! :)
Thanks for that one, Ric! :)

There is soooo much "metallurgy crap" out there it ain't funny! :/

Way back it might have had arsenic in it or may -never- had arsenic, but saying
so "sounds cool" and repeating it over and over for decades has made it "fact".

All-along -or- at some point before 1948 they made the switch to calcium. :)

"it has -->calcium<-- in it"

Some how that just doesn't have the same "zing" to it, does it? ;-)

Alvin finds truth more fun than fiction in AZ

[imashooter2]

There it is! :)
Thanks for that one, Ric! :)

There is soooo much "metallurgy crap" out there it ain't funny! :/

Way back it might have had arsenic in it or may -never- had arsenic, but saying
so "sounds cool" and repeating it over and over for decades has made it "fact".

All-along -or- at some point before 1948 they made the switch to calcium. :)

"it has -->calcium<-- in it"

Some how that just doesn't have the same "zing" to it, does it? ;-)

Alvin finds truth more fun than fiction in AZ

-sigh-

I don't doubt that there is also lead calcium sheath in use, but Arsenical lead cable sheath is still in use today.

http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheet.aspx?matguid=4286645557214706834cd32279a fbe77&ckck=1

And here's an article dated 1998:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel4/5629/15083/00694861.pdf?arnumber=694861

And the Materials Handbook 15th Edition:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vIhvSQLhhMEC&pg=PA526&lpg=PA526&dq=arsenical+lead+cable+sheathing&source=web&ots=ET-v4ecb-M&sig=IJckyupKgozEueyj3-EAS7uKifY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA525,M1

It was mighty classless to call me a liar without doing even the most cursory research.

[Ricochet]

I'm not suggesting anyone's a liar. I don't doubt there are alternative alloys with calcium and/or antimony in them. I only offered one reference, without going to the trouble of looking up the exact page, percentage of calcium and all that. Kinda short on time at the moment.

[imashooter2]

I know you aren't Ricochet. You simply offered additional information. I have no reason to doubt that lead calcium alloys have been used for cable sheath in the past and that such use continues to this day.

It's Alvin's post that has me torqued up.

[Alvin in AZ]

I'm not suggesting anyone's a liar. I don't doubt there are alternative alloys with
calcium and/or antimony in them. I only offered one reference, without going to
the trouble of looking up the exact page, percentage of calcium and all that. Kinda
short on time at the moment.

Whatever your name is, when I intend to call you a friggin liar I'll use the L word.

I'm wrong here. :)
Thanks for the links, Ima. :)

I've seen so much wrong metallurgy information that I've gone too far "to the
other side?" and jumped to conclusions! :/

Sorry about all that. :/

Alvin Johnston in AZ

BTW, it's hard to take any one serious that uses a funny handle instead of their
real name. YMMV

[GOPHER SLAYER]

When I went to work for the phone co. in 1956 they were still using cloth covered cable. This was cable used in the central office and we were told in had arsenic in the covering to prevent rats from chewing on it.I assume that applied to lead cable as well. I had no reason to doubt them then or now. Since I never ate without washing my hands after handling either one I didn't care then and I don't care now. I have a pile of cable sheating waiting it's turn to go in the pot even as I write this. I have melted countless pounds of it over the years with no apparent ill effect. I would like to caution all you good people to ware gloves when handling lead and was your mitts well before eating . I feel I am quaified to give advice since I am older than you, at least thats what my older brothers and sisters tell me.Besides we don't want any of are fellow shooters to get sick. We need all the friends we can find. Everyone have a great day.

[frank505]

The cable sheathing from the oil patch has been very close to pure lead, although very dirty.
Be careful with the old water pipe, it will spit molten lead out the end of the pipe even though it is dead dry.

[KCSO]

Bottom line, use it as you would pure lead. It makes great M/L ballls!