LEAD

B

BerdanSS

New member
Found 18 of these. 11# each on the nose. Roughly 8"x2.5"x1" easily scratched with a penny or cut with a razor knife.







 
Nice find there for sure. Just looking at the pics it sure looks like a WHOLE bunch of 146gr DEWC's or 45cal 200gr SWC's......:D
 
I'm a little green to casting. I want to cast for .45 colt 44 special 30-30 44-40 .395 and .490 roundballs. Anyone have a figure on how many .49 roundballs would come outta one of those bars?
 
Looks like what we had at my agency from some old radiation shielding.

I would want to harden it up for anything but round balls.
 
skizzums

Not yet, still in the process of collecting casting equipment......:(


But, the plan is to melt them couple at a time in a dutch oven and make small ingots.
 
casting equipment?!

my (equipment) is 10 dollar side burner from walmart and a 10 dollar aluminum pot from big lots, a big spoon and a muffin pan from under the stove

this is if course for ingot making only, i did upgrade to a 10 dollar lee ingot mold:cool:
 
my (equipment) is 10 dollar side burner from walmart and a 10 dollar aluminum pot from big lots, a big spoon and a muffin pan from under the stove
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Please find a steel pot to use. There's not enough difference between the melting points of lead and aluminum for that to really be safe. You should be able to find something at Goodwill or the Salvation Army store.
 
I agree. Find a cheap cast iron pot somewhere before that alluminum pot craters.
I've seen pictures and heard of BAD things happening.
 
:D skizzums

By "equipment" I mean a cast iron dutch oven, small iron pot to cast from with clean lead, hardness tester, lead thermometer, propane (turkey fryer) burner.
 
not tryin to be argumentative, or downplay the role of the right equipment, BUT I have melted close to 3/4 of a ton of WW and flashing etc through that same side burner and aluminum pot, soooooooo that's it, that's my point

I don't need anecdotal evidence of how it doesn't work
 
There's not enough difference between the melting points of lead and aluminum for that to really be safe.
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Could you explain this more? There is a about a 600 Deg difference. How much of a safety factor do you need?
 
Since it has been brought up.....

The safety factor is smaller, because the 600 degree difference is smaller than some realize. Water boils at 212, but we don't use tupperware to boil it in, even though tupperware melts at 278. The aluminum pot has to endure a temp of much more than 600 at the bottom to transfer a temp of 600+ all through 20-50# of alloy. The red coils of a hotplate on high are around 1250 degrees. All of that is not transferred to the aluminum due to loss from not having 100% perfect contact with the coils, the cooling of the lead on the other side of the aluminum and other lesser effects. The solidus point of aluminum is 1080F.... this is not the melting point (liquidus) of 1220F, but the point where it starts to get softer. It isn't going to go from having enough strength to hold a load of hot lead, to being liquid aluminum in the difference from 1219 to 1220 degrees.

I don't care if folks smelt in the palm of their hand, held over a weed burner. I just added this so that anybody finding it and reading it might be made more aware and can decide their own level of safety.:cool:

Who wants to live in a padded styrofoam bubble? Who's to say that an aluminum pot might not work as long as someone needs it to?
You decide your comfortable level of safety, make sure you are the only one at risk, and have fun and enjoy! :)

Now we can go back to admiring the OP's nice lead bricks. :D

The solidus is the highest temperature at which the metal is completely solid, that is, the temperature at which melting starts. The liquidus is the lowest temperature at which the metal is completely liquid, the temperature at which freezing starts.
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