Best way to cut down large ingots?

[JesseCJC]

I got some old plumbers lead from my grandfather that is in huge circle ingots that are about 50lbs each and maybe 16in in diameter. Obviously these are a bit too large to fit in a 5qt dutch oven. Any methods you guys use to cut this down if you are limited on tools to do so?

[markinalpine]

If you can safely wrestle one over to your dutch oven and prop it over the top, you could use a propane torch to melt some of it into the pot, then nudge it around and keep melting, etc.
Mark

[ANeat]

I would use an axe, chop chop

[deerslayer]

Sawzall with 14 tpi blade would be my choice unless you have a bandsaw.

[R.C. Hatter]

If you have a good propane torch, you can prop the ingot up, clear of the required receptacle for the melted lead to run into, and cut it in half by melting. The resulting halves may be cut into quarters for use in your pot, as well as the runoff that you collected.

[StarMetal]

If you are careful, wear safety glasses, use the blade protector, lube the blade with either beeswax or WD40, I've cut ingots on my table saw. The narrower kerf carbide blade is what I used.

Oh yeah I swept up my lead sawdust too !!

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Once worked with a 1 ft. square piece of lead.

It was a counter balance for the off side of a large side mounted, rotary bank mover.

This unit hung on a tractor mounted boom so it could be extended down over road banks. HEAVY!!!

Sitting out over winter, water got into the square foot steel box I had made and then froze, shoving the mass of lead up and part way out of the box.

At some point, the use of the tractor changed, so I wanted to get the lead back in place and secured in the steel box, so the huge block of lead needed to be removed and repoured.

That block of pure lead ran out of the steel box like water , very hot water, when I applied heat from the oxy/acetalene torch.

If you can get ahold of this kind of torch, you can very quickly cut the lead blocks to usable pieces.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[7of7]

Circular saw, carbide tipped blade, 60-80 tooth if you have it... Much faster than the sawsall... no comparison to the axe...

[winelover]

AIR CHISEL

Winelover

[hoosierlogger]

chainsaw works. I have done it before. Do it on a large concrete floor or with a big tarp to reclaim up all of your lead. It makes quite a bit of lead chips and dust. So you should wear a respirator too.

[WHITETAIL]

I have tried using a table saw, and it works.
I also tried the hang it over the pot and use a torch.
Both have their good and bad points.
For my vote I would put a C clamp on it and
suspend it over the pot and use a torch.

[fryboy]

bandsaw works clogs up the blade if a fairly fine one tho ....sawzall works as well ( tip- works best if u can hold the foot against it and make sure it doesnt pinch and bind the blade )watch for clogging of the teeth tho ,anytime it gets hot it'll stick to the blade so always go slow , axe works ( watch ur toes) but my best has been propping it up and using a torch ,umm i didnt go around and around ,i split it in half a few times , the last is also less labor intensive ,havent tried the table saw but it should work as well

[geargnasher]

Oxy-Acetalyne torch if you have one.

Gear

[10 ga]

good information guys! I have found a 75# chunk that looks like it was cast in a tire test tank, like to test tires for air leaks. Have another "standard" ingot of 50# from the "shipyard". I don't think that Northrop Grumman will miss it. I will cast into muffin and Castboolits ingots. Going on a trip Monday and will stop at 3 goodwill stores in a search for "pewter". I love these forums! 10 ga

[bigmike13]

Wood splitter? never tried it, but I cant see why a huge hydraulic axe wouldn't do the trick.

[9.3X62AL]

Sawzall with 14 tpi blade would be my choice unless you have a bandsaw.

My wife's uncle used this method to fit cast 1" x 4" slabs of wheelweight metal into the hull of his puff-bucket (sailboat) he built. He had these cast in Tijuana--2,400# worth. I emerged from this project with two new insights--

1) Wheelweight sawdust makes a 5-gallon bucket VERY HEAVY in short order

2) 2,400# of wheelweight metal takes up very little space

The end scraps and sawdust did make good bullet alloy--about 250# of same.

[StarMetal]

My wife's uncle used this method to fit cast 1" x 4" slabs of wheelweight metal into the hull of his puff-bucket (sailboat) he built. He had these cast in Tijuana--2,400# worth. I emerged from this project with two new insights--

1) Wheelweight sawdust makes a 5-gallon bucket VERY HEAVY in short order

2) 2,400# of wheelweight metal takes up very little space

The end scraps and sawdust did make good bullet alloy--about 250# of same.

Good insights Allen. I might add #2400 of WW's would make many 30 caliber pistol bullets....that you got me addicted too!!! I like the lead sawdust & scraps, but wouldn't have expected anything less from a 30 cal pistol aficionado.

[JDFuchs]

If you decide to try and melt part of it to be able to fit it into your pot. be sure the pot is empty enough to hold the hole thing. The only time I had an axcident casting was trying to melt off corners of a just slightley to large ingot. Then the ingot got to hot to hold even with two sets of gloves on I had to slowley let it slip into the pot which spilled over.... I Knew a bad situation was happening fast so I chose a way to let it happen as safeley as posible. if i just jerked my hand back The lead would have flew all over.

[markshere2]

I just hacked up some elevator weights using a circular saw.

tips:
shallow incremental cuts, not one deep cut
wear eye protection
put the ingot on a block od wood
put the block of wood on a tarp to simplify cleanup
Don't let the blade get caught in the Kerf, it's a bitch to get out.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I too, have used a circle saw to cut a tractor wheelweight into 4 pieces.
I used a very thin carbide tip blade and cut slowly, that worked slick.
always take precautions like eye protection.
Jon