Lead sheet/pipe bhn

[Wots]

Hi
Is it a good guess, that lead sheet and lead pipe have the same BHN?

If so what would the BHN be?

Smelt them both together?

Thanks

Disclaimer Tried search, did not find anything :p

[fryboy]

close .... but ..if u smelted them together it would all be the same when ur done ( whatever it turned out to be lolz ) to me there's more a problem with the pipe ...sometimes it's antimonal lead ( the sheet could be too but more often than not i found it softer ) and sometimes it's straight or almost straight , u have to recall that thru the years hundreds of companies have all made this stuff and every company was a law unto themselfs and quite often intended use mattered, i will state that bothshould be fairly soft , 'bout the only way to tell is melt a lil ingot of both separate and then test for hardness after a day or few

[Muddy Creek Sam]

If your looking to keep it as low as possible, Smelt the pipe joints seperate, it is full og tin.

Sam :D

[a.squibload]

I cut up a couple of types of lead pipe last night, and some sheet,
used a tree pruner (tip from other member here).
They both seemed soft, one was about 2" with around 1/8" wall thickness,
one was 1½" with about 1/4" wall.
Considering the thickness they both cut easily.
About the same with the sheet, some was thicker so of course was harder to cut,
but seemed about as soft.
After smelting antimony will make a difference (if there is any), might be a little harder than before smelting.
I'm not sure why the antimony doesn't make it hard to begin with, must be
related to how they process the stuff.

I think I'll try the "small sample" method, thanks Fryboy.

[idahoron]

I just ran that test my self. I have a cabintree tester. The pipes ran between .036 to .050 that is about 6 BHN and 8 BHN. The xray lead was .034 to .038 and a BHN of between 6 & 7.
Sam might have the answer. I melted a couple of different pieces. I didn't do anything with the joints. Maybe that is the reason for the spread in hardness. Thanks Sam for thinking to post that I will make note next time.
I ended up melting everything together pipes, xray wall lead, and roof flashing. It runs between .038 to .042 so it is a little more even. and that would run about 6 and 7 BHN.
ABout perfect for my ML bullets. Ron

[meeesterpaul]

Lead pipe ingots I smelted XRF scanned at .6%Sn and 3.5% SB. I put everything in together. I'll separate the joints out from the the next batch and XRF scan the joints and pipe separately.

[RogerDat]

With pipe joints being soldered and some having formed joints/ends which might call for harder lead pipe can vary, so can flashing, or even sheet lead in rolls is variable, underground cable sheathing too. X-Ray room liner is pretty darn consistent at dead soft. The other stuff varies. I have taken to carrying a spring loaded prick punch and have an idea of how much of a dimple it will put in different hardness of lead. Cheap, easy, and fast way to get a ball park idea of lead hardness, and zinc gets a lot less dimple.

Bought it at Harbor Freight. The spring makes it so the "snap" is consistent and it is easier to reach into a box and push punch against item until I get a snap, then look at the dimple. Soft is visibly larger than WW lead, and printers lead is pretty distinctly smaller than that. Won't know the alloy but will know how hard it is +/- a bit.

[dbosman]

Extruded pipe can be softer than other sources from work softening. The BHN might be 6 before melting and 8 afterwards. Or so.

[Sasquatch-1]

A quick test would be to melt a small amount and cast a couple of bullets from each. put them in a vice nose to nose and squeeze. If one crushes significantly more then the other you will know that one is harder then the other. You can also do a search for the art pencil hardness test system for a cheap way of getting approximate hardness.

[Bookworm]

I recently read an article about extruded lead (pipe). It stated that antimony was used in extruded lead, as it causes the lead to 'flow' better during extrusion. Up to 3% Sb.

Same process used for some HBWC, particularly Hornady.

The lead will still be soft, but can be water dropped to harden.