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Thread: X-ray machine lead

  1. #1
    Boolit Man
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    X-ray machine lead

    I have a friend that is an x-ray machine technician. He just gave me several hundred pounds of lead sheeting in various shapes that were removed from the machines. Would the sheets be pure lead? I have usually used wheel weights or an alloy from rotometals. I am assuming I will need to add tin or antimony to the mix. Anyway I am extremely happy! I have used some of it to cast paper patch bullets for my .50-90 and they shot well with no leading

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    I was given several hundred pounds of lead shielding plates from the wall of an X-ray room. it was 99.5 lead. good stuff....great find!
    Do I have a knife....Ive got my pants on don't I.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master Sasquatch-1's Avatar
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    Even at my age I wish I knew someone to give me a score like that.

    Being a swager and a patched round ball shooter it really hurts when people start talking about cutting their dead soft lead with harder leads.
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  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    JoeJames's Avatar
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    X ray lead sheeting is supposed to be @ 99% pure. A cousin gave me a sheet or two of it. Wonderful stuff.
    Britons shall never be slaves.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    I bought 500 lbs. of it 20+ years ago for 20 cents a lb. and should have bought 1,000 lbs. Good stuff.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Nice Score! Thats a good friend.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master


    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    I bought some in ingots once. It was expensive!

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master
    bangerjim's Avatar
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    Sheet x-ray lead is as close to pure as you can get. Treat it as such.

  9. #9
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    RogerDat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bangerjim View Post
    Sheet x-ray lead is as close to pure as you can get. Treat it as such.
    The specs for how thick the shielding needed to be to shield for a given amount of xray are based on nearly pure and I believe virgin lead rather than recycled. You won't find a better lead except from a foundry.

    If you are going to cut it for casting to have a harder alloy you might consider offering a WTT (wanted to trade) in the Swapping and Selling forum. I'm sure someone who shoots muzzle loaders and black powder may be very happy to trade you WW for your soft lead, or possibly some alloy that will help you make better use of the rest of your soft lead. Little linotype added to your soft lead makes a very sweet alloy. 50/50 lino and plain is hardball alloy. Which is essentially commercial cast bullet material. A little harder than needed for many uses but good stuff for sure.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

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  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master
    bangerjim's Avatar
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    I cut & leave it in 3½" wide x 12" long strips and feed it into my casting pot along with sweetening alloys to get to my normal 9-12 casting alloy. Why waste energy & time re-melting good clean Pb into ingots?

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check