where to buy lead

[Greg Blackburn]

1). Either I don't know much about this stuff OR

2). I learn something everyday!

I'm going to check at the local scrapyard tomorrow on lead....maybe I should cast my own balls.

Greg

 

[cynthialee]

1). Either I don't know much about this stuff OR

2). I learn something everyday!

I'm going to check at the local scrapyard tomorrow on lead....maybe I should cast my own balls.
Greg

It can be fun. I like it because I get in a zone and it turns out I have cast all the lead I can and then I am wondering where the time went.
(you know you got it bad when you are remelting perfectly good roundballs just so you can cast them again)

 

[8905c]

Try the nuclear medicine department at your local hospital. Isotopes that they use to dose patients come in lead. It is possible they may have some lead they will sell. This is soft lead.
8905c

 

[Greg Blackburn]

Now that I have an odd ball caliber (where I live) I guess the advice on making my own balls/bullets is pretty sound. The local dump charges 0.20 cents per pound of lead. Most of this lead will be from pipes and wheel weights. Is that good enough to cast for a TC muzzleloader or should I get something more pure?

 

[cynthialee]

Pure lead is best is what I have been told. Those wheel weights are not pure lead.

 

[necchi]

Go for the pipe.
Wheel Weights will work OK, but like Cynthia said is true, the softer the better.
20 cents is dirt cheap!!
It's a $1 or better around here.

 

[Greg Blackburn]

Ah, well, I best get down there and get that lead pipe!

Greg

 

[Idaho Ron]

If you get the pipe or shower pans DON'T melt the joints. The joints are soldered together. The joints will harden the overall mix. Depending on how many joints you have you can harden the lead a lot. Keep the joints and melt them separate. Ron

 

[geologist]

I have scrounged lead for years and a simple test I use is to scratch the surface with your finger nail. A nice deep groove means soft lead which generally means pure lead. Wheel weights are alloyed with antimony to get a sharper casting, use wheel weights for buckshot.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Scratching with a fingernail will tell nothing about the hardness of lead. I can scratch 18BHN lead. Dropping an ingot on cement will tell a little but the best way is a tester I found that out a long time ago. Ron

 

[leslie]

If you are near a shipyard that works on sailboats they are usually a good source of scrap lead,they use it in the keels and other places.Be prepared to handle large chunks usually the reason they like to get rid of it is they don't want to bother with it themselves.

 

[jamesthomas]

If this has'nt been said, you can call your local roofer or roofers and ask them to save the old roof jacks they do a roof job for somebody. I'm on the list with a couple of roofers since I can't find any at the scrap yards.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Scratching with a fingernail will tell nothing about the hardness of lead. I can scratch 18BHN lead.

There seem to be different interpretations of the thumbnail scratch test. Granted that this will never be as precise as a calibrated mechanical tester, but my in experience, scratch-testing pure lead, pipe, roof flashing, or shower liners was quite different from the depth-of-groove-for-pressure-exerted that I got with range scrap or clip-on wheel weights. Yes the latter scratched, but with noticeably more effort for a shallower groove. H#ll, I can even get a faint line in linotype. For me, it's a comparative rather than an absolute thing.

Regards,
Joel