Lead hardness

[Trader Vic]

Hi Guys, 1st question, does anybody know the hardness of dental x ray lead sheets? Is it as hard as WW? Should it be combined with other metals? I shoot low speed & pressue 9s, 38s & 45acp. This is all new to me so please be patient with all the questions I'm bound to come up with. This is a great sight, what a learning tool! Thanks NRA PATRON LIFE MEMBER

[bigborefan]

Trader Vic, Dental X-ray sheets are normally pure lead. You will need to add WW or Linotype to make suitable rifle or pistol bullets for smokeless powder. It is normally just used for blackpowder guns in its original state.

[cbrick]

Trader Vic, welcome to the forum and happy birthday.

WW alloy wil be right about 11-12 BHN and your dental lead would be about 5-6 BHN. You could shoot the dental lead if it really is low pressure/velocity. I use a 6 BHN alloy for 800 fps 45 ACP HP loads and it worked well. Proper boolit fit would be very important.

As bigborefan said, mixing with WW would make a better alloy. Mixing 50/50 or higher WW to pure would make a good low pressure pistol alloy.

Rick

[Sundogg1911]

Trader vic. if you have a small ingot or even a bullet cast from this I'd be happy to test it for ya. i'm quite certain it will be very soft. send me a PM if you want me to hardness test it for ya.

[Trader Vic]

Thanks Guys for info, it has been most helpfull. I'm sure there will be many more questions. NRA PATRON LIFE MENBER

[Shuz]

Trader Vic--I recently contacted the mfr of dental x-ray film(Kodak) and I was told that the composition is 98% lead, 1%tin amd 1% antimony.

[montana_charlie]

Hi Guys, 1st question, does anybody know the hardness of dental x ray lead sheets?

Trader Vic--I recently contacted the mfr of dental x-ray film(Kodak) and I was told that the composition is 98% lead, 1%tin amd 1% antimony.

Seems to me that this answer relates to a different material than the author was asking about.
CM

[idahoron]

I got 2 pounds from my dentist. I tested it with my Cabin tree and it says it is the same as wheel weight. In the past I thought it was soft but when I started to mix it with my soft lead my bullets would frost if it got too hot. I had my doubts before I got the tester. I know now, dental lead is not soft. Ron

[quack1]

The dental x-ray lead I have been getting for years is about half way between pure and wheel weight hardness, checked with my home made hardness tester. Maybe the manufacturers are using whatever lead they can find the cheapest and only worry about it being soft enough to be flexible.

[floodgate]

The 20+ lbs. of dental "lead" I got locally was also shiny,but quite a bit harder than pure lead. The question is now moot, since the dentist has gone over to digital imaging instead of film x-rays.

floodgate

[Lloyd Smale]

brother in law is a dentist and he said the printout on what he had was pure with 2 percent tin and one percent antimony. He switched to digital pictures now so doesnt use it anymore.