Getting Pure Lead

[crockett]

I am under the impression you need pure lead or close to it for muzzleloading weapons. Why, I don't know unless hard lead wears out the bore( with PRB??) or doesn't obdurate properly(doesn't the patch do that?) In any event how do you melt down wheel weights, etc and get pure lead? Do you skim all the crud off the top? How do you know when only lead remains? :shocking:

 

Pure lead "takes" the patch weave "imprint" a liddle better than hard lead. In other words, the soft ball is "gripped" better by the patch.

You'll never git all the "tin" or other "stuff" out of w-w's. I jest melt'em down and skim off the crud on top, and pour into ingots.

When I cast,.... I remelt the ingots, bring tha temp up and add a "small" piece'a candle to the melt, stir good, then skim agin.

Although my balls ain't "pure" lead, I still git sub-2" groups at 100 yards. (thet's "good enuff" fer me, with open-iron sights :

YMHS
rollingb

 

[Slowpoke]

You will never be able to tell the difference between pure lead and hard lead when you shoot offhand. The main reason I use pure lead is because I shoot a .405 ball out of my 40 cal target rifle and it's easier to load. I bought 4 "pigs" of lead, so I have enough for my others rifles. I shoot wheel weight lead out of my shootbore. But I do my cleaning of lead not in my pot, but on the gas burner of my grill. Get a pan that you'll only us for this purpose and get to work. I like to use the grill because it really stick burning that stuff out.

SP

 

[Canuck Caster]

I, on the other hand, DO find a great deal of difference in pure lead and wheel weights. Pure lead is easier to get down the bore, I find, and is MUCH easier to load in a revolver. I also find pure lead shoots better. It's been my experience that pure lead is harder to come by though. Good sources for me include the stuff that is between panes of stained glass windows and the occasional hunk of plumbers lead. I also melt down those silly looking bullets that have the copper jacket on them that friends give me :youcrazy:--that's pure lead too, and I have no idea who on earth would have a use for those stupid things anyway ::. I melt it down and try a test ingot in my homemade Brinell Hardness tester, and I consider anything lower than about a 7 as pure lead. (Although the official number is about a 5) The old scratch the surface with yer thumbnail trick is good enough for a quick test though--if you can make a good gouge in it, it's soft enough for a frontloader, and I'm not talking about a little scratch here, a really deep gouge. (My thumbnails are hard and I can scratch linotype withem'!) Start by scratching the surface of a store bought ball for experience and a good feel for pure lead. (I had a box of them, once) :shocking: Also, keep your eyes open at garage sales and flea markets etc. for ANY caliber pure lead balls. You can always melt em down and cast the right sizes for you, just don't pay too muh for a bargain though! :redthumb:

 

[pepperbelly]

Can you melt shot for shotgun shells? I have seen bags of that stuff on sale now and then. Is it pure lead?
Jim

 

[Rebel]

No it has antimony in it to harden it. You should be able to get pure lead fairly cheap at your local scrap metal dealer. They get a lot of hospital x-ray shields and lead plumbing pipe.

 

[brushbuster]

like stumpy says you dont get all of the tin out of it .
when i am casting i skim and flux with bees wax until my lead starts taking on a bluish color.when it reaches that color you will have removed most of the dross and tin.cast a couple of balls and do the thumb nail test described if you can cut a good scratch in the ball it is soft enough.if not skim and flux some more.be careful when you use bees wax or candle wax when doing this because the lead is hot enough to flash and will give you a nasty burn if your not careful and wearing gloves :m2c:

 

[pepperbelly]

Back in the '60s when we started scuba diving my dad and I used to cast our own weights for our weight belts. I think the lead was pure- it was soft under a fingernail. A call to a dive shop might turn up some lead or at least a source.
Jim

 

[wtilenw]

I have a friend that supervises construction at the local hospital. When they tear out a radiolagy lab he saves the sheet lead for me. You might check that out. It may have some paper or glue on it but that comes off easily enough and what doesnt burns off upon melting. I cut it into strips about 4-6 " wide and roll them up like little burritos they fit in a large ladle or pot that way. I then flux and clean and cast them all into ingots to use in the casting pot. I find this keeps really clean lead for the casting pot .
Idaho PRB

 

[2172]

Idaho, that's my source, too. I find that if I soak the strips in what starts out as hot water and some dish detergent, the paper backing and the kinda "skin" under that comes off pretty easily....and, you're right, the rest burns off...Hank
to add to the topic, I've been using wheel weight lead added to my lead pot's content...seems to work ok..

 

[robinghewitt]

Look for opportunities, I got 70 lbs of old lead water pipe from a skip over the road from my front door. 1930's vintage and pure as can be.

When you start soldering electronics the newbie always stays too long on the joint, boils the tin out of the solder and ends up with a pasty mess of lead that doesn't really want to melt, doesn't want to stick and certainly doesn't want to co-operate ::

You can boil the tin out, but how much out I don't know.

 

make friends with a roofing company or someone who restores old houses. Lead water pipe or roof flashing is pure lead. Often a six pac of beer will get you a lot of pure lead.

 

[DMURPHY317]

You might also talk to your dentist if they still use the regular xray machine. My dentist has been collecting the lead strips from the bitewing xrays that are discarded for me and over the last 2 or 3 years have collected about 15 or 20 pounds of lead. It seems to be pure lead and is easy to melt down, clean and cast ingots with.

 

Wheelweights has no tin in it. It is lead with from about 3% to 6% antimony with some arsnic. Canadian weights are now much harder than US weights, and will run around 13 on the brinel scale.
: The smallest rifle I've had really good results with using WW is my .69. Groups with it are exactly the same with WW or pure lead, however the WW are much harder to load as they are very much resistant to allowing the lands to engrave them with the patch.
: I suspect that a .58 with shallow rifling or perhaps any shallow rifled barrel might be able to shoot these very hard WW just fine as long as a strong patch is used.
: They are hard enough to withstand the 2,000fps to 2,100fps I run in the .458's with smokeless loads & cast bullets. A 50/50 mix of pure lead and WW's, will lead-coat the bore severely at only 1,600fps, so there is a big difference in them. Pure lead does this at 1,500fps in the .458's,& at a much lower vel in smaller calibers.
: Up here, there is a HUGE difference in WW balls to pure lead balls. There is NO way I could load a WW ball with my combos in rifles up to .58 with .010" to .012" deep rifling.
: My bro tried WW in his .60 Getz and had to drop to such a thin pach that it was incinerated and accuracy was nonexistant.

 

[doverdog]

I don't see where anyone has yet mentioned the old standby, telephone cable sheathing. This stuff is pretty pure and I have shot many pounds of it. I live in a rather technologically depressed area and we still have a lot of copper wire phone lines, not having converted to fiber optics yet. Check with the maintenace building of the local phone company and see if they have any they would be willing to part with. My latest way to get lead is a dream come true and not likely duplicated anywhere else. I buy pre-cast and lubed pistol bullet from a retired guy that makes them as a sideline. He uses premixed lead held to a specific purity and content for his business. However, guys are always bringing him scrap lead thinking they are doing him a favor. He gives them $.10 a lb for it. He then cleans it up, melts in down and pours it into ingots and sells the ingots for.....$.10 a lb. I told him he was nuts and tried to give him $.15 a lb. Am I a wonderful human being or what? He refused, so I took advantage of the offer and now have about 450 lbs of ingots residing in the basement. Good luck on finding a deal like this, but don't count on it. ::

 

[jrdavis]

Old Telephone cables are coated with lead...you don't see it much but its good soft lead

 

[BLAHMAN]

I'm lucky...I often have to replace tiolet hubs and they have a band of lead around it. I also happen to come upon a bunch of old lead pipe. I think I have enough lead to last about ten years....now if only I can find some powder real cheap!

 

[brushbuster]

thats one great thing about being a plumber ,it's christmas time every time i have to remove a lead trap from an old house ,speaking of lead a lot of plumbing supply companys still carry soft lead ingots for lead pour joints on old cast iron pipe :thumbsup:

 

[waksupi]

Daryl, wheel weights do have tin in them, although only about 2%. I'll see if I can find my assay report from the East Helena mill.

 

[harryo]

No it has antimony in it to harden it. You should be able to get pure lead fairly cheap at your local scrap metal dealer. They get a lot of hospital x-ray shields and lead plumbing pipe.

Yep, I get mine from a local scrap yard. It runs 25-40 cents a pound. It is usually in the form of old lead pipe & drain traps and lead sheeting. The last time I went in, I hit the jackpot. Pure, clean lead pieces that were about 1" thick, 8" wide and 12" long. They were cut off pieces from something larger and I picked up 282 lbs for $72. I thought I had died and went to heaven.