plumber treasure, what have I got

[bigbear]

I was approached by a friend of a friend a awhile back. he heard I hunted and wanted to talk with me about a recent trip. Turns out he was a plumber. I heard here about plumbers taking lead pipes out of old buildings or some such thing,so I jokingly asked him to drop off any lead he had kicking around. So a month later e drops off this bag with what looks like a 1/4" inch tick piece of grey soft metal sheeting. you can easily fold it up. I thanked him and yesterday he dropped off another bag with about 30lbs of this stuff. I didn't want to look too stupid so I didn't ask him what it was, I presume it is lead. What do have, how do I use it (mix with linotype?,use as is, though it seems really soft) Should I ask him if he has anymore? thanks.

[imashooter2]

Lead sheet is used to make shower pans and such. For our purposes, we can consider sheet lead "pure."

Should you ask for more? What is that, a trick question?

[arjacobson]

yeah it's good stuff. Basically pure. I get quite a bit from lead water lines and large water main pipe joints. Thinking maybe I will keep the pure seperated from ww and use it for trading stock.....

[2wheelDuke]

I personally won't turn down any lead. Pure can be cast for muzzle loaders, bore slugs, or alloyed with harder lead to suit the boolits you're going to pour.

If I get enough pure lead saved up, I may just have to buy some of that super hard alloy from Rotometals to make it more useful to me.

[jhrosier]

If you get a bunch of soft lead, you can often trade it with the muzzle loader guys for WW or other alloy.
Soft lead can be hard to find and the ML guys are usually eager to swap.

Jack

[home in oz]

Good Score!

Continue to go for it!

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I melted down some lead pipe and it sure looks purdy. I cast a few boolits and saved them for slugging. The rest I will cast for my PB revolver. It's good stuff. Very soft.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Several months back my neighbor`s son brought me a piece of lead pipe they uncovered while doing a road project. The piece was about 12` long and a bit over 1" dia. I chopped it into 1` lengths and smelted it down. I wound up with 35 lb. of pure lead, 8 lb. of dirt, rust and calicum scale. I told him I would take all the pieces he found.Robert

[a.squibload]

Bigbear, good stuff, need to buy him a beer once in a while.

My plumber's Mom lives down the street. He said he would drop off some lead pipe when he gets it,
as he usually just throws it away.

If it's not too thick you can cut that sheet (and pipe) with a tree trimmer/limb lopper.

[Nose Dive]

OK fellas... Here is the way we used to do it...

BELL AND SPIGOT PIPE.... Little end fit into the big end...

Pack the joint with hemp...Yup...not Mary J Wanna..but hemp...

Then tie out the ASBESTOS rope round the joint...

Melt the plubmmers lead in the pot....

Pour in into the joint...FILL IT UP... BINGO!!! Seal pipe joint!! No poop cooming out fo that!

Remove rope...go to next joint..do it again. I have 100LBS of lead from refinery
pipe project to replace old cast piping from offices....

BE CAREFUL while smelting...lots of water and poop from 50 year of service...

Nose Dive

[tactikel]

I too got some pure lead, sheathing for a buried electric cable, about 100 lbs. What is the cheapest way to bring it up to WW hardness (9 bhn) so I can cast some .45 acp wadcutters? I like rotometals products and they are sponsors. Any Ideas? Thanks!

[imashooter2]

I too got some pure lead, sheathing for a buried electric cable, about 100 lbs. What is the cheapest way to bring it up to WW hardness (9 bhn) so I can cast some .45 acp wadcutters? I like rotometals products and they are sponsors. Any Ideas? Thanks!

The cheapest way is to trade it for WW. Next cheapest would be to add scrounged Linotype about 4:1.

[a.squibload]

...BE CAREFUL while smelting...lots of water and poop from 50 year of service...
Nose Dive

What little plumber's pipe I've had got washed at the carwash before I brought it home, just in case!