X-ray machine lead

[pacecars]

I have a friend that is an x-ray machine technician. He just gave me several hundred pounds of lead sheeting in various shapes that were removed from the machines. Would the sheets be pure lead? I have usually used wheel weights or an alloy from rotometals. I am assuming I will need to add tin or antimony to the mix. Anyway I am extremely happy! I have used some of it to cast paper patch bullets for my .50-90 and they shot well with no leading

[echo154]

I was given several hundred pounds of lead shielding plates from the wall of an X-ray room. it was 99.5 lead. good stuff....great find!

[Sasquatch-1]

Even at my age I wish I knew someone to give me a score like that.

Being a swager and a patched round ball shooter it really hurts when people start talking about cutting their dead soft lead with harder leads.:cry:

[JoeJames]

X ray lead sheeting is supposed to be @ 99% pure. A cousin gave me a sheet or two of it. Wonderful stuff.

[sharps4590]

I bought 500 lbs. of it 20+ years ago for 20 cents a lb. and should have bought 1,000 lbs. Good stuff.

[lightman]

Nice Score! Thats a good friend.

[GregLaROCHE]

I bought some in ingots once. It was expensive!

[bangerjim]

Sheet x-ray lead is as close to pure as you can get. Treat it as such.

[RogerDat]

Sheet x-ray lead is as close to pure as you can get. Treat it as such.

The specs for how thick the shielding needed to be to shield for a given amount of xray are based on nearly pure and I believe virgin lead rather than recycled. You won't find a better lead except from a foundry.

If you are going to cut it for casting to have a harder alloy you might consider offering a WTT (wanted to trade) in the Swapping and Selling forum. I'm sure someone who shoots muzzle loaders and black powder may be very happy to trade you WW for your soft lead, or possibly some alloy that will help you make better use of the rest of your soft lead. Little linotype added to your soft lead makes a very sweet alloy. 50/50 lino and plain is hardball alloy. Which is essentially commercial cast bullet material. A little harder than needed for many uses but good stuff for sure.

[bangerjim]

I cut & leave it in 3½" wide x 12" long strips and feed it into my casting pot along with sweetening alloys to get to my normal 9-12 casting alloy. Why waste energy & time re-melting good clean Pb into ingots?