perhaps a new source of lead?

[Griffin]

hi there.
i am a radiation physics man so i handle radiactive sources a lot and therefore also a great deal of lead.
i was given a great deal of lead recently from old lead cans that have housed sources but was going to be recycled. this lead is a bit harder tha soft lead, 10-13 BHN and do make lovely bullets. just a heads up for you others that cast with wheel weights, these lead cans are similar to WW, and work fine.
just so you know if you didnt already.
/Karl

[Bert2368]

A couple of others have sourced these, mainly from medical isotopes. "lead and happyness are wherever you can find them"

[Ugluk]

With lead ww on the way out (last haul was 1/2 zink-iron by volume), you might want to get all you can..

[sheepdog]

Problem is the xray labs around the US have been scared ****less by idiots by speakers at the conferences technicians go to. I went to a local hospital and kindly asked if they had any to spare only to get escorted out by armed police and a xray tech that threatened to call HLS on me for trying to collect "dangerous radioactive materials", as though radiation could impart its energy like a magnet does to steel. Scary the people that handle this stuff have no idea how radiation works.

[sqlbullet]

Hey, Griffin, any of these look familiar?

I have picked up about 7,000 lbs of this in the last year. Makes great bullets. As you can see, I have identified some (about 20%) as pure lead (for our purposes), and the rest as near WW alloy.

I recently had the opportunity to try out a x-ray florescence analyzer with a Si pin detector on some of the ingots I have made. The lead I thought was pure, was pure. The lead I thought was alloy like WW came out 1% tin and 3% antimony.

I also had some strips that tested 2.5% tin, 2.5% antimony.

Isotope lead is certainly a great source!

[abunaitoo]

Here they used to throw the lead canisters in the dumpster.
Not anymore.
Lead canisters have been classified as hazardous.
Records have to be turned in to show it was properly disposed if.
Another sorce gone.

[montana_charlie]

Hey, Griffin, any of these look familiar?

I have picked up about 7,000 lbs of this in the last year. Makes great bullets. As you can see, I have identified some (about 20%) as pure lead (for our purposes), and the rest as near WW alloy.

I keep a link to that Felling Family webpage as a reference for any isotope containers I happen to get.

From the way you worded your post (the bold part), I get the impression that you own that webpage. Is that true?

I can't remember why (right now) but I once spent several hours trying to figure out how to contact you.

CM

[Griffin]

Here they used to throw the lead canisters in the dumpster.
Not anymore.
Lead canisters have been classified as hazardous.
Records have to be turned in to show it was properly disposed if.
Another sorce gone.

not all gone. you can buy it sheap as scrap metal.

[Griffin]

Hey, Griffin, any of these look familiar?

I have picked up about 7,000 lbs of this in the last year. Makes great bullets. As you can see, I have identified some (about 20%) as pure lead (for our purposes), and the rest as near WW alloy.

I recently had the opportunity to try out a x-ray florescence analyzer with a Si pin detector on some of the ingots I have made. The lead I thought was pure, was pure. The lead I thought was alloy like WW came out 1% tin and 3% antimony.

I also had some strips that tested 2.5% tin, 2.5% antimony.

Isotope lead is certainly a great source!

they do! mine works lovely actually. well suited for hunting bullets too. now i know that others have found the source as well, thats good.
you seem to work in the same field as i, knowing about florenscence and all. we have a excange program for our lead in the hospital, but some bigger cans get dented for some reason and then they cant be recycled. oh, who would dent these cans on purpose?

well i picked up 400 pounds in the summer which are ingots now, and half of it went to my good friend peterB on this forum.
we also have 5000 kg of pure lead here for our systems, but i only save the contaminated lead bricks, a few ~30 of them, weighing around 10 pounds each.

well, the recycled lead is perfect for quenching too as you showed on the chart, mine get a bhn of 30 after 2 hours in 230 degrees celsius. a must for the high speed bullets in the 8x57js.
/Karl

[Wireman134]

hi there.
i am a radiation physics man so i handle radiactive sources a lot and therefore also a great deal of lead.
i was given a great deal of lead recently from old lead cans that have housed sources but was going to be recycled. this lead is a bit harder tha soft lead, 10-13 BHN and do make lovely bullets. just a heads up for you others that cast with wheel weights, these lead cans are similar to WW, and work fine.
just so you know if you didnt already.
/Karl

That wouldn't be rad waste, that lead shielding you have? I heard someone got pinched selling radioactive tools on Ebay by the NRC a while back. Does that shielding absorb any of that radiation? Nuke worker here, got to watch out for those "HOT" bootit's flying around...LOL

[sqlbullet]

Montana_charlie, those pages are indeed served off my webserver. PM sent with my email address. Look forward to hearing from you.

Griffin, my background is in Mechanical Engineering. Even though I haven't actually used it professionally, I paid attention in my physics and chem classes in college enough to keep up.

One of my shooting buddies is a pharmacist who deals exclusively with radio pharmaceuticals. Between him and the sales guy with the XFR, I got the low-down on how they work.

Wireman134, no, they don't absorb radiation. The stuff I get has to have a count lower than the background count of the Rocky mountains. You will get more radiation driving through the canyons than you will get off the lead shielding.

[sheepdog]

Here they used to throw the lead canisters in the dumpster.
Not anymore.
Lead canisters have been classified as hazardous.
Records have to be turned in to show it was properly disposed if.
Another sorce gone.

Welcome to the nanny state. Population: <classified>