Lead supply

[mooman76]

Questionable lead I put on the pot while still cold so while it heats up, any little moisture can evaporate.

 

[FishDFly]

If you have an old type of hardware store you might ask them if they know of a local source for lead, i.e. retired plumber.

 

[bisleyjohn]

Went to a local scrap yard. Lady was very helpful. Told her it was for musket balls. Quick chat and thirty quid cash got me enough clean lead to last a years casting for rifle and pistol.

 

[tomm9903]

I bought mine from Roto Metals on Amazon just last month.

 

[nagantino]

Just yesterday I found two huge ingots in a friends garden. They came from his boat and are used as ballast. That’s another source. Old houses being demolished is a good source but you will have to pay the demo guys. The thing is, many guys use range lead which some people say is too soft and needs to be hardened...so if you mixed it with the Pure lead you have now I would imagine that the resulting alloy would be “soft” enough. Or you could just buy roofers lead but where’s the fun in that.

 

[bisleyjohn]

I used to use recovered lead shot and range lead, which I could collect free when I worked at Bisley. This was o.k. for my ROA with a hot load and for my repro Baker with a prb. I stress 'hot load' because the recovered lead was far too hard for my Enfield. Even with as much as 60gn of fff the base still wouldn't obturate properly. (Ihave the hardness figures somewhere but there was a huge difference)

I now use 'pure' lead and no antimony, I don't seem to get any problems with flow as some people do. (Cringers fossed!)

 

[nagantino]

Yes pure lead is best. This got me thinking about my lead supply and when I looked at the rolls and ingots of pure lead that I have I thought, I will never use all that. Then I thought of my friend Jim and his supply and I thought he will never, ever, never shoot that in his lifetime. You don’t need that much really to shoot ML and finding it is part of the hobby.

 

[AZbpBurner]

Metals recylcling places have it. Look for cable sheathing, sheet lead which some comes from roof flashing or X-Ray Rooms, and lead pipe. Most of those are close to pure. Also plumbers ingots and dive weights.

If you can hook up with any contractor that does demolition work, they usually run across quite a bit of it.

Roto Metals does have it at $2.99 a pound:

https://www.rotometals.com/lead-ingots-wire/
You can also find it being sold on Amazon.

Check with the Roto Metals website around most holidays such as 4th of July, Labor Day and Memorial Day. They usually have discount codes they send out if you have an e-mail account with them.

 

[user 31257]

My in-laws are masonry contractors, they save all their lead scraps and old lead flashing from chimneys. It tends to me messy, lots of tar and caulk but the price is right.

 

[mushka]

I have a source for wheel weights, and I pick up range lead. I've found that if it will melt at 750 or 780 degrees it can be well used in round ball casting for my rifles. I only cast .36 and .61 caliber balls and the rest goes for unmentionables.

 

[Archer 756]

Note that plumber lead is not pure soft it is a mix

 

[nightwolf1974]

Chilled lead shot.

 

[Scott]

Melted some diving weights the other day. Seemed to melt to easy. Is there a way to tell if they're lead or bismuth?

 

[Jaeger]

Melted some diving weights the other day. Seemed to melt to easy. Is there a way to tell if they're lead or bismuth?

I seriously doubt if any divers' weights are bismuth! Think Cheeeeeeeeeeap....

 

[TNGhost]

Melted some diving weights the other day. Seemed to melt to easy. Is there a way to tell if they're lead or bismuth?

Bismuth is hard and brittle and tends to crack when worked and won't take a fingernail scratch. Lead is softer and more malleable

Lead is also quite a bit heavier at 11.34 grams per cubic centimeter as opposed to Bismuth which is 9.80 GPCC.

Bismuth's brittleness is why it has to be alloyed with substantial amounts of tin to be useful as shot.

 

[TNGhost]

Note that plumber lead is not pure soft it is a mix

Plumbers lead that comes/came in ingot form, used in conjunction with oakum to caulk pipes is normally 99.9% pure soft lead.

Plumbers solder usually has an amount of tin and other metals in it, and these days is even lead free.

https://pureleadproducts.com/lead-ingots-caulking-lead/

 

[Troyfairweather]

I have a source for wheel weights, and I pick up range lead. I've found that if it will melt at 750 or 780 degrees it can be well used in round ball casting for my rifles. I only cast .36 and .61 caliber balls and the rest goes for unmentionables.

My good friend works in a busy tire shop he saves the lead ww, he only gets a small coffee can ever month. These are normally from our of state cars.

I'd have to try rb with ww is think there a bit hard but may hold up better for hunting

 

[Troyfairweather]

Note that plumber lead is not pure soft it is a mix

It seems softer then ww tho

 

[tomm9903]

I have a 2’x2’x2’ deep box Filled with play sand that I use to catch my lead, and about once a month sift the sand and recover the lead and replace the boards that the target hangs on. Has worked very well thus far.

 

[MC One Shot]

I seriously doubt if any divers' weights are bismuth! Think Cheeeeeeeeeeap....

A lot of diver weights these days have zinc wheels weights in them. As a diver I have access to !it's but do not use them unless they are really old weights.