What alloy did i get?

[DeadWood]

Wife and dad were hitting the local rummage sales the other weekend and scored a 30lb box of lead. Seller said factory he worked at made parts for the local nuclear plant that lead was used in?? Looks like it was a decent size sheet about 1/2" thick. Looks like seller at one point was cutting it up in strips, that a 3yr.old could bend in half.

Is there any way i can find out exactly what i have? Would like to be able to use for BP & .45-70 casting.

Oh yea only paid $10!!!

thanks

[runfiverun]

sheet lead is usually pure or really close to it.
melt some and watch for the melt temp.
if you can bend it super easy or dent it when you drop it it's soft.
also by dropping it on the cement you'll hear it go dud.

[sqlbullet]

For many years radiation shielding was pure lead. However, recently much of it is more like WW. The batch I had tested that was in sheets was 95% lead, 2.5% antimony and 2.5% tin. Most of the containers are 96/3/1.

Air cooled they are both around a 10-11 hardness.

[454PB]

The only way to determine EXACTLY what you have is a lab analysis, but from the ease of bending, it's probably pure or near pure lead.

I use a hardness tester or weight comparison when I try to determine what the alloy may be. I use a Lyman 429244 single cavity mould as the test vehicle, only because I know what that boolit weighs in all the typical alloys.

[Gelandangan]

Doest it glow in the dark? :kidding:

test for the hardness against a stick on ww or use the Pencil Hardness test.
you can usually derive the type of lead from the hardness.

[Piedmont]

Drop it on the concrete driveway or garage floor and do the same with some ingots you already have of things like wheel weight and pure lead. Antimony will make it ring more. Pure lead just thuds.

[KAF]

IF the material was to be used in a radiation containment room, it has to be certified pure lead. That being said even if certified it can contain very small amounts of silver and other small amounts of materials, VERY small being the key words.