100# Lead Ingot

  • 7.2K Views
  • Last Post 29 November 2010
wizzbang posted this 01 January 2009

I have in my collection of odds and ends a lead ingot that is almost 100 lbs. However I have no idea what type of alloy it is. Are there any thoughts on how to identify the alloy? Being a shooter with a short budget I would like to use it.

Attached Files

Order By: Standard | Newest | Votes
billwnr posted this 01 January 2009

Melt off a small enough portion to cast up a single bullet. “Squeeze” the bullet with a hardness tester.

Your hardest job is probably going to be getting the ingot small enough to fit in a pot.

Attached Files

CB posted this 01 January 2009

wizzbang wrote: Being a shooter with a short budget I would like to use it. Aren't all cb shooters that way?  If the ingot looks like this and says Doe Run on the top, it most likely is 99.9% Pb. If you can push your thumb nail into a corner of it and make a reasonable dent, it probably is pure lead. Like Bill says, you need to take a hardness test from the ingot...............Dan

Attached Files

Antietamgw posted this 04 January 2009

billwnr wrote: Melt off a small enough portion to cast up a single bullet. “Squeeze” the bullet with a hardness tester.

Your hardest job is probably going to be getting the ingot small enough to fit in a pot. A few years back I was in the shop trying different ways to break down a big chunck of lead into something I could work with. After banging on it with a hatchet for a while I sat down with my back against the oxy-ace. tanks. After bumping my head on the tank a couple times it came to me that heat might be the easiest way to break the big ingot down. It's a little sloppy, have a good size catch pan... Even if you don't have have a torch I'll bet the few bucks spend getting someone to do it for you will seem worthwhile . All you need arechunks you can get in the pot. BTW, you will likely need to harden that up and there's a guy with a heck of a deal on type metal in the classifieds :) 

Keep your plowshare and your sword. Know how and when to use them.

Attached Files

wizzbang posted this 05 January 2009

That's exactly what the ingot looks like. I'll have to look closer to see if there is a stamp on it. I am trying to gather together equipment to melt it now. Any ideas on good flux to use?

Attached Files

JetMech posted this 05 January 2009

Sawdust, motor oil, old candles, cat litter, old bullet lube, there's a thread here somewhere about what everyone is using. It's all good. My wife has amassed a large collection of candles so I just grab one every once in a while and use it. Started using sawdust also. That works well.

Here's the thread: http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_topic.php?id=1187&forum_id=9>http://www.castbulletassoc.org/viewtopic.php?id=1187&forumid=9

Attached Files

JimmyDee posted this 05 January 2009

Hatchets won't get it done -- but an ax will!  A 6# splitting maul busts linotype very nicely but I think lead is too soft to fracture -- you have to be able to swing the ax into the same cut if you want to avoid beavering it to pieces.

Would a cross cut saw work on lead?  I'm gonna go try it...

Works great!  Lead seems harder than pine and softer than oak.

Attached Files

Lillard posted this 05 January 2009

I seen a man cut lead with a sawzall it worked pretty good but I like the torch better.

Attached Files

CB posted this 05 January 2009

JimmyDee wrote: Would a cross cut saw work on lead?  I'm gonna go try it...

Lillard wrote: I seen a man cut lead with a sawzall it worked pretty good but I like the torch better.

A chainsaw works great!  AaarghPOWER! Use a sheet of plywood to catch the shavings from going out into the back forty. :shock:  

A torch has to be a big one, takes a lot of gas, and ya need a catch tray of somekind...................Dan

Attached Files

Pepe Ray posted this 06 January 2009

Be extra careful when using a torch on naked lead/alloy The temperatures get hot enough to vaporize the lead to toxic fumes which you DO NOT get when casting at casting temps. Pepe Ray PS I'd use the Sawzall w/course blade

Only in His name.

Attached Files

canalupo posted this 06 January 2009

Wizzbang "The density of lead is 11.34g per cubic centimetre. As there are 16.387 cubic centimetres in one cubic inch, one cubic inch of lead weighs 11.34 X 16.387 or 185.83grams. In ounces this is 6.55 (or just over 6 and a half) ounces."

Above numbers are from wiki answers.

If you can weigh it very close and find the cubic inches, the math will tell you if it is pure lead or an alloy. Tin and antimony are lighter therefore the ingot would be an alloy if it does not weigh what your math says it should. You may be able to get cubic inches by putting the ingot in a tub of water with a measuring guage.

Measure the water level then put ingot in and measure again. I hope you are good at math because you will need to calculate water displacement. Any big straight sided drum would probably work provided you can get accurate measurements.

This won't tell you what the ingot, is but will give you a good idea if it is pure lead.

Good luck humping that thing into a drum.

Bob D.

Attached Files

Lillard posted this 06 January 2009

Pepe Ray wrote: Be extra careful when using a torch on naked lead/alloy The temperatures get hot enough to vaporize the lead to toxic fumes which you DO NOT get when casting at casting temps. Good point I had not thought about that. I have two electric pots that were give to me they are full of lead and do not work anymore. The man that gave them to me has no way to get the lead out my plan was to use the torch I'm not sure about that now. I have melted lead with the torch before but had not thought about vaporizing it.

Attached Files

JetMech posted this 07 January 2009

Lillard, Maybe you can disassemble the pots, get the actual lead pot out and either put it in a larger gas fired pot or use the torch on the outside of the pot, melting the lead on the sides and remove the main chunk that way.

Attached Files

Lillard posted this 07 January 2009

That sounds like a better way to do it.

Thanks

Attached Files

hunterspistol posted this 06 February 2009

 Have used a horizontal band saw to cut lead, crosscut blades work but, collect the cuttings, they are small pieces of lead themselves.:coffee

Attached Files

CB posted this 09 February 2009

I have two ingots like Dan posted, used to have 4. I put on my respirator and eye protection, then use my circular saw with a coarse carbide tipped blade and cut right thru the ingots. I only need to cut these into four pieces, then I melt them down in dutch oven smelter.

As that lead is dense, ingots these sizes soak up a lot of heat for using a torch can be wasteful and occasionally dangerous.

I keep scales in the shops that can handle weight up to 100 pounds and then I know how much Tin and Antimoney that I need to mix in to get Lyman #2 alloy.

These ingots are pure as you can get lead, they are counter balance weights from tow motors and other medium sized lifters. The thumb nail is the best test when you find something like these ingots. When you get them home is the time you need to further test.

Jerry

Attached Files

Trap4570 posted this 26 July 2009

Here is what we did. Our club made runs to Doe Run to get our virgin lead. We did hatchets- sledge hammers-and it was a pain. Finally got the idea to drill a hole in one end and suspend the ingot from a tree limb so it could be lowered. Went downtown and bought a deep fat turkey cooker that uses propane. Used a iron pot and lowered the ingot into the pot and fired it up. As the lead melted the ingot was lowered. We dipped off the lead and poured it into 1lb bars. It's amazing what all you can do with a turkey cooker.

Attached Files

CB posted this 26 July 2009

Trap

I have a starting way to Test for alloy hardness. Cast a few bullets with the big stuff. Take some Cast of known hardness made from the same mold. Go over to your anvil with a big hammer long handle model. I use my surveyor hammer 40oz, a specific hammer weight is not so important but one with some weight on it works well. Lay one bullet on the anvil smash it with good intent counting your blows and set it aside. Now smash the other bullet same way. Now measure the flatness of each bullet this will tell how close or far away both alloys are.

Stephen Perry

Angeles BR:fire

Attached Files

jppr26 posted this 13 February 2010

i have 12 of those ingots, there not marked but i have checked them and they are pure lead, i use an oxy-propane set up with a rose-bud tip and let it drip into a 5gal bucket half full of water, it keeps all the dropplets sepprate, and they look kinda neat as well. I then drain the water, and only use what i need, and there is no large stack of unknown ingots laying arround just a bucket of lead drops

Attached Files

evergren posted this 29 November 2010

chain saw works really good couple swips with a file and your as sharp as ever. use a tarp to catch the chips.

Attached Files

fc60 posted this 29 November 2010

The local metal scrap yards have these hand held analyzers. My local yards offered to test my mystery metal for free. I insisted on paying him and we agreed to a box of doughnuts for the yard help.

Attached Files

Ed Harris posted this 29 November 2010

If you want a cheap home exercise program support your ingot across several saw horses and use a crosscut saw. Lubricate the blade every dozen or so strokes with Ivory soap suds and water pumped from a hand sprayer to keep the saw cool and to prevent the teeth from loading up.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

Attached Files

cityboy posted this 29 November 2010

wizzbang wrote: That's exactly what the ingot looks like. I'll have to look closer to see if there is a stamp on it. I am trying to gather together equipment to melt it now. Any ideas on good flux to use?

I have used a number of fluxes over the years and the one I use now works as well as any and is dirt cheep. Just shave thin slivers off a bar of Ivory soap. It does not leave a skum and smells ok.

Jim

Attached Files

Close