Sheet Lead

[GARCIA]

New guy to the forum so please bear with me.

Have roughly 230lbs of sheet lead that I plan on smelting down in the very near future. What I am wondering is if this will be suitable for handgun bullets or will I need to add something to the mix?

Thanks for the help!

[fryboy]

i cant really tell ya ...soz , some sheet lead is pure and would work great for muzzle loaders/shotgun slugs and some is chemical lead ,best thing i can tell u is to smelt at least one ingot and either smack it with a hammer or something and compare the ding or drop the ingot on some concrete and see if it rings or thuds,harder lead will ring ... i'd treat it as pure and mix it,it also depends upon what kind of handgun boolits ,low velocity wad cutters shouldnt be much of a problem properly sized but a mag at mag velocities prolly wouldnt be a good idea ,some guys like to cut ww's 50/50 with pure/scrap lead other's prefer the much harder stuff , i smelted some i got from a x-ray room once ( stunk ta high heaven ) the batch i did must of had a lil antimony in it as it was a wee bit harder than pure lead and i had to add a bit of tin to get decent fill out , i have a small roll of what i guess is roof flashing ( 10-11" x15+ feet long )it seems to be pure ( savin it for me frontstuffers)
btw - welcome to the forum ,i inadvertently lurked for a long time but there are some great guys here ! ( they gotta be if they put up with me lolz )

[osage]

I mixed mine 50/50 with wheel weights for use in 45acp, 38's and 30 carbine. I also use sheet lead for round balls and Lee R.E.A.L boolits.
Welcome aboard.

[sqlbullet]

Fryboy nailed it. You have to melt some and observe it's properties.

I got about 500 lbs of sheet lead a year ago or so. Expected it to be pure. It melted at about 500°F, and cast the prettiest shiny bullets I had seen. BHN was about 10.

When I had a bunch of my lead tested, this stuff tested as 95% lead, 2.5% antimony and 2.5% tin. I hoard it for a time that I may want bullets with more tin.

[GARCIA]

This sheet lead was used for nuclear shielding at a test facility. It came home with me when I retired from the military. Sure wish I would of gotten more of the stuff.

Then again the stuff has been sitting around in the garage for the last 16 years!

[sljacob]

my cousin brought me 80 lbs of sheet lead a couple of days ago, it came form an x-ray room in a hospital. i melted it down into ingots today and from all indications it must be pure soft lead.

[303Guy]

This sheet lead was used for nuclear shielding at a test facility.It should work like a bomb!:bigsmyl2:

What actually happens to lead as it absorbs radiation?

[lwknight]

Lead is dead. The ionizing radiation just fizzles out and the particles don't penetrate much in lead so they just become static charge and dwindle away.
Pure lead cannot be made radioactive.

[303Guy]

Aah Hah! Check this out.[smilie=1:

For practical purpose, lead can be considered stable. 98.6% of the lead ordinarily found in nature is of stable isotopes. 1.4% of lead is 104Pb, which is radioactive, but the half life is 140,000,000,000,000,000 years. There are traces of 210Pb found in nature, and its half life is 22.3 years, but the quantities are not significant. Like all elements, synthetic radioactive isotopes of lead exist. Notice how, with a little bit of high-lighting, the facts can be twisted? :twisted:

140,000,000,000,000,000 years is longer than the age of the universe!:mrgreen:

So, lead is used to attenuate gamma rays, which is electromagnetic in nature.

[deltaenterprizes]

303 Guy, where did you find that bit of info?

Any joints will be 50/50 solder. I just got a lead shower liner from an old house. It has some nice wiped jounts that should yield a few pounds of solder.
I save my soft lead to extrude lead wire for swaging.

[lwknight]

So, lead is used to attenuate gamma rays, which is electromagnetic in nature
Correctamundo dude.
Lead is one of the best gamma blockers around. 1/2" of lead will block 50% of whatever radiation levels exist. When we use the lead shielding blankets in nuclear power plants , it usually ends up being 3 to 4 layers over the piping. These 12" X 48" blankets weigh about 60 pounds each.

The result is the the exposure to workers can be cut to 10 or 15 percent of what it would be without shielding.
As a side note: The little Xray blanket that they use in the lab is a frigging JOKE!
That stupid thin little thing just shields you from about 25% or less. Its basically there to make ignorant people feel better. Like a placebo pill.

[deerslayer]

So instead of bullets I should save my lead for a fallout shelter?

[lwknight]

Lead does not have to be solid to be effective. Just fill the voids in your walls with boolits.

[Fly]

I,m always amazed at what I learn here.
Fly

[excess650]

I liked a mix of equal parts cable sheathing and WW with 2% tin added. Quenched, the bullets were about 15bhn and quite malleable.

[lwknight]

I wonder if harder lead works better to shield radiation? LOL!

[tepeecreeper]

I,m always amazed at what I learn here.
Fly
Me too! I'm in the process of removing all the tin foil on the headliner of my car. QUESTION: Will relining my car with 1/2'' lead require me to purchase larger gross weight licence plates?

[a.squibload]

Me too! I'm in the process of removing all the tin foil on the headliner of my car. QUESTION: Will relining my car with 1/2'' lead require me to purchase larger gross weight licence plates?

That's totally unnecessary. Just make a hat...

:kidding:

I found 65lbs of sheet lead at the old army surplus today, bends easy, thinking of using it for swaging into jackets BT-style,
so I don't break my press or somethin'.