X-ray lead

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  • Last Post 23 July 2014
csparks1106 posted this 31 March 2014

I've got a friend who said he has a bunch of x-ray lead he was going to get rid of. Is it pure lead, or a mix?   Thanks. Charlie

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Brodie posted this 31 March 2014

X-Ray lead (lead shielding from around x-ray facilities) is plenty pure for our purposes, as is plumbers lead.  People get all excited because the reference is for “pure” lead. If you want it really pure -greater than 99.8%- you would have to buy REAGENT GRADE LEAD from a chemical supply house.  The cost would keep you from casting very many bullets.  Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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csparks1106 posted this 31 March 2014

Thanks Brodie. I guess that's what I meant. I'll be honest, I am just learning all this and haven't done any mixing of leads yet. Only used ww for 38 special loads so far. Just looking to dabble a little farther into this exciting new hobby that my wife rolls her eyes at.

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Brodie posted this 31 March 2014

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B.E.Brickey

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RicinYakima posted this 01 April 2014

You need to check what kind of “X-ray” lead this is. I got some from inside the sheetrocked walls and it was coated with zinc to resist corrosion. It is worthless for making bullets. Ric

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csparks1106 posted this 01 April 2014

Rick, how do I determine if it's got zinc? Thanks

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RicinYakima posted this 01 April 2014

First the stuff I had look like it had a galvanized surface where it had not been bent. Second, I melted a pound or so and tried to make bullets. Didn't work, so sold the rest for scrap. This stuff was about 1/8” think in 4 ft by 4 foot sheets. All of the bricks of X-ray shielding had been fine, but of varying composition, there are no standards for this. Nor have I had problems with the foot square “tiles” that are 1 inch thick. HTH, Ric

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Chargar posted this 01 April 2014

In 1983 I got two tons of that stuff dropped in my driveway by a architect friends who was remodeling a hospital. For quite some time I was the Lead Fairy of El Paso Texas giving it away to any bullet casters who wanted it. I did keep about 500 pounds and think I have about 50 pounds or so left. It worked just fine for casting bullets. I alloyed it with tin, or mixed with linotype. The stuff came in large sheets, It took me a while to fold it into bar like form for storage in my garage. I bought a three pound cross peen hammer for the job and when I got through I had arms like Popeye. :-)

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Tom Acheson posted this 01 April 2014

Similar story here....a friend knew a contractor who was tearing down an old x-ray room. The friend gave the accumulated lead “room liner” material to me. It was in about 24” long x 4"-6” wide strips and had paint on it that was flaking off in areas. When melting it down to be poured into 1-pound ingots it really stunk due to the paint's dislike of heat. When done it was over 300-ingots for the cost of electricity for the melting activity. It gets mixed with tin (16:1) for use in my Model 74 Sharps BPCR.

Tom

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csparks1106 posted this 12 May 2014

RicinYakima wrote: First the stuff I had look like it had a galvanized surface where it had not been bent. Second, I melted a pound or so and tried to make bullets. Didn't work, so sold the rest for scrap. This stuff was about 1/8” think in 4 ft by 4 foot sheets. All of the bricks of X-ray shielding had been fine, but of varying composition, there are no standards for this. Nor have I had problems with the foot square “tiles” that are 1 inch thick. HTH, RicHow does this look? I have these rolls that were given to me this weekend. They weighed 58.1 lbs. just a shade under 10 lbs per coil. These were used to cover the joints in X-ray walls.

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RicinYakima posted this 12 May 2014

They look good from what I can tell from the picture. However the proof is in the casting, so try a small sample first, IMHO. Ric

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csparks1106 posted this 12 May 2014

When I get a chance. FFA tonight, baseball Tuesday and Thursday night, gotta have one night to get my dirt bike ready for a race in St Louis this weekend. Leaving Friday after work for that. Oh yeah, I've got a glass shop to run also. I'll get around to it one of these days.

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grouch posted this 12 May 2014

I've got some lead shipping containers(I think) that cast o.k. but cast light. Any ideas what that might be? Grouch

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 12 May 2014

wonder if there is some relatively simple test to show zinc ... stronger ammonia ( from a pharmacy ) will react with zinc differently than lead ... that's the limit of my kitchen table inorganic knowledge ... but i do watch CSI !!

gotta make everything simple ... gotta make everything ...

ken

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LWesthoff posted this 13 May 2014

I have 20 or 30 lbs. of Dental X-Ray lead - not the stuff in the aprons they put on you when they are X-Raying your teeth, but in those little wafers with the film, that they stick in your mouth and tell you to bite down on. I ran a hardness test some time ago and don't remember exactly what I came up with, but it was a heck of a lot harder than “pure” (plumbers type) lead. The friend I got it from shot Bullseye Pistol only, and he used it for casting .45 acp bullets.

Anybody have any idea what the composition of this stuff might be?

Wes

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RicinYakima posted this 13 May 2014

grouch: all of the medical and industrial containers were basic “pig lead” that I got a chance to test.

Ken: The problem is that zinc at 0.001 % will round out bullet edges. I know, been there and done that, and had the test done. Too ashamed to wear the T-shirt though. There is no home test, I've been working on it off and on for about 18 years now, and there is nothing reliable yet.

Ric

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RicinYakima posted this 13 May 2014

Wes,

I too smelted down a 5 gallon bucket of those and ended up with only about 10 pounds, hope you did better. Mine ran about 10 on BH scale. I checked and there is no composition standard, only that it will stop the x-ray from penetration through the lead backing.

Ric

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csparks1106 posted this 20 June 2014

May get a chance to melt the X-ray lead next week. What's the best way to determine if its got zinc, run a little through my mold and see if it looks porous??? Thanks.

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badgeredd posted this 21 June 2014

One can check for zinc in an alloy by dropping a drop of sulphuric acid (which can be diluted) on an clean ingot. I use a bit of battery acid dropped from an eye dropper. If zinc is present the ingot will bubble at the the droplet location. To my knowledge, it is easiest way to check for zinc if one suspects zinc contamination.

Some time ago, I read that dental foil has about 1 1/2% antimony and tin mixed in to stiffen the lead. I'm not sure if the source was correct, but it seems to be pretty close as far as hardness/toughness of the bullets I cast from it.

Edd

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RicinYakima posted this 21 June 2014

Edd,

That method will work, but it is relative to the strength of the sulfuric acid. Hydrogen also off gases with antimony and tin with sulfuric reactions. Consider testing your batch of acid with known alloy without zinc and then do a side by side in good light. I think tin is only three steps away from zinc on the reactivity scale.

FWIW, Ric

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badgeredd posted this 22 June 2014

Thanks Ric. I'll test some ingots as you suggested. I know that the stuff I checked seemed to be fairly well contaminated and the reaction was quite easy to see. Perhaps I'll intentionally contaminate an ingot with zinc after testing a clean ingot so I can see that ingot with and without zinc. That should be a pretty good relative comparison.

Edd

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RicinYakima posted this 22 June 2014

Edd, Yes I would be a good process, so you have visual conformation with a known alloy. Plus you can mark and save those ingots and use then for reference in the future. Best wishes, Ric

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csparks1106 posted this 22 July 2014

Finally got a chance to melt down the lead strips. They are a lot shinier and smoother than the wheel weight ingots I've made. Even the stick on wheel weight ingots aren't this shiny and smooth. Took one of them next door to the service station and dripped a little battery acid onto the bottom of the ingot and saw no type of reaction, whatsoever. Seems like they are zinc free reasonably pure lead. Each roll weighs just under 10 lbs. I got 4 ingots from one roll. Approximately 2-2.5 lbs per ingot. Currently I am loading 158 grain SWC 38 special loads and making 230 grain TC 45 ACP for a friend. What is a safe blend of this to my clip on wheel weight ingots?  Thanks.

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LWesthoff posted this 23 July 2014

Ric:

Finally thought to weigh that dental x-ray lead. If I remember, it was pretty much a full 5 gal. bucket, and the ingots I got after getting rid of all the paper and junk and smelting them down, weighed twenty four pounds, including the coffee can they were in. I was too lazy to empty them out and weigh the coffee can by itself.

Wes

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