need lead

[napolean]

Agree, small ROOFING companys especially. I would guess it would save them disposal costs to give it away. The old lead flashing around vents and chimneys is good lead after you melt it down to get the tar off.
Jon

 

[Rock Island]

Yes, when you cook roofing lead always do so outdoors and well away from the house. You should cook all lead outdoors, but some folks like to do it in a barn or under an overhang, tar makes a lot of smoke. I had a guy bring me a big roll of sheet lead, the thing must be 300 pounds, It seemed a little hard to me so I set it aside for the modern stuff, older, used sheet lead from 100+ year old roofs is soft as butter.

 

[napolean]

Yep, good advise, (that tar can flash) when I use roofing or old drain pipe ,I cut around the solder joints and put it aside for modern bullets.
Jon

 

[MSW]

it's been a while since i ran the numbers, but if i remember correctly, after the first four or five boxes of commercial (i.e. swaged) balls, you're ahead of the game if you cast. over and above that, it's fun; it keeps me out of the bars and sleazy strip clubs.

you should be able to get a decent melting pot for not too much, and if properly cared for it will last through several generations, as will moulds.

if you are heart set on swaging, you can in fact swage your lead balls. CoreBon makes all manner of swaging presses and dies, but they are quite pricey and desugned primarily for shooters who work at the zillion meter line. in all candor i must admit that my shooting isn't nearly good enough to tell the difference, so i just use cast balls as i have for many years. center the sprue and you'll be just fine.

if the sprue thingy makes you nuts, i've been told that putting them in a brass tumbler with no polishing media will remove the sprues (it mashes them back into the surface of the ball, i guess), but they don't bother me all that much so i've never tried it.

i agree that if you're shootng a brass framed revolver, you shouldn't crank up the load: you gain nothing and will eventually wear out your gun before its time.

good luck on you way to casting coolness, after which, go forth, and make good smoke!

 

[Idaho Ron]

Ron, just because you've found dentist lead to be harder, you shouldn't state it as a hard and fast rule. I've heard of many people who have found it to be very soft. It seems that it must vary on perhaps the dental film supplier.

If you have butter soft dental lead send me a small sample like a bullet. I will test it and we will see. Ron

 

[mazo kid]

I tried getting lead from my dentist (of many years) and he said he contracted it all out so no free lead there.

 

[necchi]

No dental lead here anymore either, it's been re-classified as "bio-hazard"