Lead scrounging tools

[tomf52]

After several "pickups" of wheel weights from various automotive shops, I have come up with a list of must have items to have with me on these scouting trips. First, an ample supply of buckets. It's easier to break the 5 gal pail loads down into 1/2 pail loads (especially when you're 60!) Also, it's a nice gesture to leave the shop people with a fresh container for their convenience .-2- Heavy work gloves to dig through the buckets when you have to split loads.-3- A small hand held shovel or scoop so you can dump the bucket on the floor and then scoop up the weights into another bucket(much easier than trying to hand scoop some weights from one bucket to another).-4- Hand truck - self explanitory.-5- Small hand held wisk or shop brush to clean up any mess on the donor's floor. Leaving the place clean is just common sense and usually spurs an invite to come back. I keep these "tools" with me in the back of my pickup so I have them on the spur of the moment stops. Has really paid off for me. The shop I hit today gave me 12 gallons of weights and refused to take anything for them. Wouldn't even take any cash or beer. Told me to enjoy my hobby. There still are some nice people in this world! (in addition of course to you guys on this board!)

[Ed Barrett]

It sounds like you have it down to a science! I always seem to be without the proper tools when it comes to picking up lead. I got lucky the other day and was given 8 door counter weights. They are about 800 lbs each. They are inclosed in steel tubes with the end welded on one end. I'm planning on making a rig to hold the closed end about 16" in the air and building a wood fire underneath. I have a bunch of hedge and black locust logs and feed it air from a shop vac. Planning on making a mold in the ground with a spade. Ground is clay type and it's been dry as a cob so I shouldn't have to worry about trapped moisture.

Anyone have any better ideas?

[The Nyack Kid]

Ed
how about using a big angle grinder and a cold chisle to split the steel casing ? that would free up the lead breaking it in to manageable chunks is anouther problem.

[carpetman]

Ed Barrett---If you dig a full size hole you will have ingots too large to handle. You need to dig half a hole(Starmetal can give exact dimensions on half a hole). But digging sounds like too much work. Buy an old well and send it out to Buckshot and he can turn it down into sizeable holes for you. You can also come get some of my ants and they will dig you some holes that will form scuptures and priceless art work.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Another essential weight scroungiing tool is a Swiss Army knife. In my former urban days I walked a lot and naturally picked up a lot of weights on the streets. On Sundays when the tire shops were closed I checked their parking lots and also the piles of junk wheels by the dumpster. The bottle opener blade of a SA knife is a perfect WW remover. One of the most fun coups was a few years ago at the nevada Cast Bullet Shoot. There was a dumpster at the range with several old wheels on top. In a couple of minutes I liberated a double handful of weights right under the noses of a squad of boolit casters.

[OldBob]

Ed Barrett---If you dig a full size hole you will have ingots too large to handle. You need to dig half a hole(Starmetal can give exact dimensions on half a hole). But digging sounds like too much work. Buy an old well and send it out to Buckshot and he can turn it down into sizeable holes for you. You can also come get some of my ants and they will dig you some holes that will form scuptures and priceless art work.

Now thats funny ! Maybe you could buy a few postholes and cut them in half, that oughta be manageable size......

[castalott]

Just go to any interstate highway and you will see many trucks hauling loads of post holes. These are usually flat bed trucks and you can tell they are hauling post-holes because they 'look' empty... Just ask the driver to drop some off at your place...

[Ol'Scudder]

I discovered this handy little calculator awhile back when I needed to know the capacity, in hydraulic fluid, of a cylinder. This is similar to Carpetman's problem in figuring the dimensions of half a post-hole - should work perfectly. However, I would caution against squaring a very large number.

http://www.dodds1.com/Java/Jj.html

[D.Mack]

Ed BARRET---Consider this, iinstead of hanging them vertical, go horizonal, with a slight downward angle into an old cast iron sink. then with a long handled dipper, pour your lead onto a sheet of corragated tin roofing. this will make nice trapazoidal ingots as long as you want. Now if you happen to have a friend, with a big screw driver, stab these ingots just as they solidify, say every 8-10 inches. you will have manageable ingots for later use. Then with a couple of pair of vice grips you can flip the tin over to empty it out , and start a new pour. Just dont try to fill every channel, because thats a lot of weight. You can also spray the back with water to cool the tin. I did this about 20 years ago, and still have afew of those trapazoidal ingots in a box , some are just a few inches long, (they broke when we flipped the tin) and some are 16 inches, (we didnt stab fast enough).
Oh Ialmost forgot, you gotta plug the drain hole or the sink may not fill.
As for truck drivers carrying post holes, don't try toget any, because they all inventoried and numbered, and have to be accounted for. You might be able to dip a buckrt of sailboat fuel without anyone noticing,as it's weighed, and there always variations in wieght. DM

[Teach]

Get a few cast iron skillets about 6" in diameter, and keep swapping them out as they fill up from the melted lead dripping out of the pipe. They have a tapered inside shape, and the resulting round ingot will be the right size to re-melt by using one of the skillets as a melting pot.
Jerry

[carpetman]

Ed Barrett ----If you do dig a hole,put it to good use. Make a tape of the digging. Then when you want to hunt red foxes,just play the tape. Red foxes,I'm told have their hearing adapted to low frequencies so they can hear digging. The digging they are used to hearing is from mice and small critters. So if you dig with a shovel,you'll get some fairly large red foxes. Now if you want the Boone&Crockett size red foxes,you'll need to dig with a backhoe as a minimum.

[Ed Barrett]

I planned on digging V shaped trenches aboit 4" across and about the same deep. Then after it hardened cutting it into workable length with an air chisel. Since the cut lead will be a little dirty I was going to smelt in my 4 gallon cast inon pot and pour ingots out of this melt. These things are very heavy so I'm not getting too creative on how the are mounted over a fire.

The post hole stuff is just too deep for me. I tried to put postholes in a pot half full of water and could never pot enough in to get that pot full.

[Pepe Ray]

Hi Gents, My 2cts. DMack sounds like he's rigged a few cheap jobs. BUT,I'd be very leary of using ANYTHING with Galvanic coating for my hot alloy. This is ZINK and we all should know that Zink is deadly in bullet lead alloys.
I really like the idea of narrow trenches IF you've got really good clay earth and DRY.
WOW ,800 lb. door wgts!! I'm envious
Pepe Ray

[D.Mack]

Pepe Ray the lead won't be hot enough to affect the zinc.


Ed Barrett How about a sheet of aluminum foil in the trench, it may tear in places, but would still be cleaner than direct dirt contact. DM

[Pepe Ray]

HIya, D.Mack,
'Guess you've never spoiled a big pot of alloy. Believe me it's a heart breaker. You may be right about the temperature, but I dont even let questionable alloys into my bullet shack. I'm constantly on the prod for zink W-w. Descretion is the better pa-------. Oh well.
Pepe Ray

[Lead pot]

I use cast iron soil pipe for ingots. I like 2" cast iron pipe for my ingots. just burn out the tar before filling the pipe with your melt if it is coated with it. stick one end in the ground or plug it fill it and when set take a hammer and split the pipe.
Go to any Plumbing shop and ask for some scrap soil pipe. They might even give some unused pipe, it's not used much any more.
If you have a metal band saw cut the pipe in halve the length ways and cap the ends and you have a good mould for a large pour.
Kurt

[Ed Barrett]

I have a digital camera now. when we get setup for the "big melt" I'll take some pictures and post them. This is sort of a learning experience for me. Hopefully it will be a good learning expercience.

[Lead pot]

ED.
A word of caution! Take the word from this old plumber!
When you pour a large quantity of hot lead on the ground confined in a trench or hole the chances of you wearing a lead over coat are as good as you walking on 1” of ice and breaking through.
Hear is what will happen, even if the dirt looks dry, the hot lead will draw moisture and that moisture will make steam and steam in the confined molten lead will blow.
Use caution thinking with what you are about to do!!

LP.

[shooter575]

I got to agree with Leadpot. Not worth the remote chance of a lead volicano.Lead burns HURT....Bad,and I do not heal as fast as I used to!Trust me on this<G>
How about a piece of evestrough or a piece of angle iron to run that melt into.
The 1" ice I have also busted through.

[Blackwater]

Leadpot, I usta' work in a cast iron foundry before finishing college, and the "sand" they use is lightly oiled with whatever they use, and they test the sand as religiously as they do the metal, because of just what you're saying. It can't have any moisture, and IIRC, the oil they use is to give the sand enough "sticikiness" that it'll hold shape while the molten metal is being poured into it. Even the tiniest bits of moisture, at those temps, will make the moulds pop and throw glowing molten bits of lead quite a ways. None of the guys on the pouring line DIDN'T have many pock-marks from burning iron landing on arms, ankles, etc., despite all the safety precautions, and a man did NOT pour iron very long without getting a real "education" really QUICK about those lil' "pops," so they were all VERY mindful of every safety factor they could learn about and put into practice.

Molten iron at something like 1850 degrees F can cause some BIG explosionns, and I mean REALLY big! We once had to evacuate the whole plant, and were told to get ourselves in our vehicles and get at least 1/4 mile away from the plant, when there appeared to be a leak in one of the furnaces. The problem got fixed without incident, other than some real beady sweat on a few guys, but it doesn't take that big an explosion to hurt a fella' REAL bad.

That old adage abot familiarity breeding contempt is an apt one, and pouring molten lead isn't nearly as dangerous as pouring cast iron, but it'll do these days 'cause I just don't heal as quickly as I used to.

Casting DOES warrant care, and it won't take much "contempt" to get a VERY quick "reeducation." Don't ask me how I know this, OK? :???:

[Lead pot]

Blackwater,

Good to here from you agn. The reason I posted that is I been there and done that.
Another thing that will empty a lead pot is dipping a cold ladle or putting a cold ingot in the soup, by the time you feel that violent boil it's to late, you might have enough time to turn your head so you dont get it in your face.
I wore a lead over coat a few times :???:

LP.

[floodgate]

Blackwater:

A friend worked one summer in a small foundry. They had a big single-faced casting to run, and just tamped the pattern into the sand in a pit in the shop floor. When they poured, it seemed to take a lot more metal than they expected, then there was series of bangs outside, and they looked down the alley to see manhole covers flying up like tiddlywinks. Yup, they'd broken through into the sewer line that ran under the shop.

floodgate

[shooter575]

floodgate, That must of been fun to explain to the local utilties <G> Less to clean up though.