Lead

[fraungie]

Do you think window lead is soft enough for casting round balls

 

[oldwood]

Stupid question.....What is "window lead?"........oldwood

 

[mooman76]

Should be, could be but who knows. Melt them down and check. Should be good enough to use. I use soft, range lead and WWs. They all work.

Old houses use to have counter weights for windows made of lead. I have some in my garage but unfortunately, mine are steel.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

I think he is either thinking of window sash weights or the lead used to make stained glass windows. The latter, yes; the former, it depends on what the weights were made of. But probably.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Carbon 6]

As far back as 150 years ago window ballasts were made of cast iron. I have never seen ones made of lead. A lead ballast would certainly be older and likely pure lead.
lead from stained glass windows or leaded glass windows would be pure lead as it needs to be pliable.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Lead sash ballasts (counterweights) were very common in SW Colorado in the areas of the mines.
Lead was mined and a major by-product of gold mining.
A man I worked with in the early 70's took every vacation to go into the mountains and dig around the old mining camps.
He has an extensive collection of lead sash and lead counterweights. (And old brass steam whistles used in the ore tugs...)

 

[Carbon 6]

Lead sash ballasts (counterweights) were very common in SW Colorado in the areas of the mines.

Thanks, I did not know that.

 

[mooman76]

The lead for stained glass windows is not pure lead, but it is very soft. Comparable to the stick on wheel weights. The joints are a little harder from the soldier they use. I got about 200# of it a few years back. Wish I could have gotten more and better yet, wish it was pure.

 

[eggwelder]

I have a number 31 sash weight. Might be 31 lbs but have never weighed it. Came out of a rivet factory in Gananoque, Ontario. Had it for a while, but I imagine i`ll melt that beast down eventually.
i also use wheel weights for RB plinking

 

[SDSmlf]

Helped replace windows in some houses built around 1900 years ago. Weights were soft, if not pure lead. Still have cast one pound ingots left. Maybe have half an old Canada Dry wooden soft drink box full. Cast iron would not melt on a Coleman stove nor get scratched with a fingernail.

 

[toot]

Should be, could be but who knows. Melt them down and check. Should be good enough to use. I use soft, range lead and WWs. They all work.

Old houses use to have counter weights for windows made of lead. I have some in my garage but unfortunately, mine are steel.

most all of SASH WEIGHTS were all made of CAST IRON back in the day.

 

[fraungie]

Do you think window lead is soft enough for casting round balls

Sorry I wasn't clearer. The lead I was talking about was used in making stained glass and leaded glass windows. It seems hard. I can scratch it with my fingernail, but barely. Thanks again to all.

 

[Griz44Mag]

So I took the time to dig out the box of stained glass tools and supplies that we inherited from my mother in law some 30 years ago to see what was really in there. The "lead" ribbon used to frame the glass pieces seems very very soft - probably very close to pure lead. The melting point of pure lead is higher than most alloy material. The solder used to solder it all together after framing is marked to be 70% tin and 25% lead - I have no idea what the other 5% is, it's not marked with that. The melting point of the solder is pretty low - well below the melting point of the lead. So my guess (and it is just a guess) that the stuff is pretty darn close to pure lead and should make some good projectiles for black powder shooting.

 

[Zonie]

At least one supplier of lead came for stained glass windows makes it from 99% pure lead + 1% alloy.

https://www.anythinginstainedglass.com/metals/came.html
IMO, that makes it about as pure as it can get. Of course, some other supplier might use lead with more alloy but I don't know why they would do that.

All of the joints in stained glass windows are soldered and as Griz44Mag points out, 70/30 lead/tin solder melts at a lower temperature than pure lead.
This is important because you don't want the lead came to melt while your soldering it.

 

[Griz44Mag]

At least one supplier of lead came for stained glass windows makes it from 99% pure lead + 1% alloy.

https://www.anythinginstainedglass.com/metals/came.html
IMO, that makes it about as pure as it can get. Of course, some other supplier might use lead with more alloy but I don't know why they would do that.

All of the joints in stained glass windows are soldered and as Griz44Mag points out, 70/30 lead/tin solder melts at a lower temperature than pure lead.
This is important because you don't want the lead came to melt while your soldering it.

YUP, that's the stuff.

 

[fraungie]

Thank you gentlemen so much.