Lead, lead and more lead or maybe something else

[ok-22shooter]

Some times one might be at the right place and the right time. I have a line on 3,000 pounds +/- of "lead" from a manufacturing process. The shop thinks it has lead/tin in it. Borg steel tells me its pure lead but because it is in 40 to 50 pound chunks heaped into a bucket, they are lowballing any value. They would not let me look at the screen of the analysis gun to see the "trace" elements. Sending off a small sample to a guy on CastBoolits to get an analysis.

I made a rough calculation of the volume of one of the chunks. as pure lead it should weight over 100#. It weights 50#. It could have some voids due to it being poured cold but I would not think 50%. It melts with a small soldering iron so do not think it is zinc. Using lead pencils, it is in the H to F hardness range. Pure lead is 5B or softer so it is medium hard.

I have been watching the want adds for a old sailboat that is being scraped out. The lead keels typically have between 3% and 6% antimony. I have plenty of Lino and solder with tin. 1,000# of high antimony lead from a keel and I could stop looking for more lead.

It will take over a week to get the analysis back. it will be interesting as to what it is.

 

[swampratt]

That looks like the junk I scrape off the top of my dirty lead.
It could have all kinds of stuff in it.

But if it melts into ingots and makes bullets that shoot well then all is good.
I use different hardness for different weapons.
If you get it cheap enough it may be nice.

 

[ok-22shooter]

Well, it is not lead. Sample off to east coast and will be a week or so b4 I get an analysis. The guy usually tells you lead, tin, and antimony %. Not sure if he can pick up other metals. I smelted COWW in one pot and 22 bullets and stick on WW in another on Friday. Left less than a 1/2" of pure lead in the bottom of the pot, maybe 5 pounds, and added less than a pound of my scrap metal. Instant oatmeal texture. checked temperature and around 750 deg F. Zinc SG gets the mass to about the 50# range. Problem is Zinc is not listed to perform the job that the shop is using the metal for. Bismuth does do the job, would expect the weight to be a little heavier. To late to call Borg Steel when I got home. The search goes on.

 

[rickm]

If it is zinc you could always melt it down and make fishing weights out of it and sell to local fishermen. But i would use different equipment for other that im not going to use lead in.

 

[ok-22shooter]

Talked with the shop today. fishing weights with an eye of the material did not hold up. poured metal worked for crappie jigs with hooks and weight with copper wire as the eye. Their data sheet shows lead, tin, antimony, and trace arsenic. hope to have analysis later this week.

 

[ok-22shooter]

It has taken a little while to get my lead analysis back from BNE on CastBoolits. Not what you would want to cast from but pretty close to some of the Linotype alloys.

Sample #1 Lead POVE
Pb = 84.3%
Sb = 12.1%
Sn = 3.6%

I only tried one test of adding to pure lead, maybe a pound of the sample to 6# or 8# and at 750 deg F or so had oatmeal. I was sure it was Zinc but none in the analysis. out of town this week so it will be next weekend or week b4 I can try it again. over 2,000# of the above would mean I would probably need 500# of pure to reduce the Sb content.
Any one have any guess as to why the oatmeal. will also be asking on CB.

Mike

 

[ok-22shooter]

CastBoolits verify that the results I have seen are consistent with adding Linotype to lead. Anyone interested in 10# or so of the dirty lead for free to see what they can do with alloying? Local pick up in Tulsa, may be in NE OKC on Thursday Sept 18.

 

[swampratt]

I would like to give it a try.
If you are around Thursday or Wednesday as my math puts Thursday as the 19th.

 

[ok-22shooter]

Meet up with swapratt on Thursday and gave him 15# of "lead". Saturday morning, I had brought back one of my turkey fryer burners and a ingot mold and a few ladles from my buddies shop. bought a 8" diameter cast iron pot this week at a junk store. set up and started melting my free lead. at around 450 deg F the bottom started turning to liquid and the mass was settling lower. at around 625 F, I had oatmeal or something like it. a little warmer and added in a nickel size chunk of beeswax. stir, stir, stir. started getting liquid at the bottom, more wax, flame, and the grey fines started floating out of the oatmeal. 2" of lead in the bottom and 3/4" of fines on top. scrapped off fines, refluxed and poured 6 ingots that looked great. repeat, repeat, repeat. ended up with 16# of lead ingots and 8# of fines in the scrap pan. when I dumped the fines into a disposal box, there might have been 1# of lead that had run to the bottom of the pan. ingots ring hard and are in the range of H or 2H hardness. for sure not as easy as Linotype strips to add to a pot but I am building at least one 300# lead pot and expect to recover maybe 1,500# of hard lead form my new found lead source.