AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: jamesthomas on April 28, 2015, 11:34:01 PM
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I thought I would put this out there for folks looking start casting there own round ball or bullets, or someone looking for a source of lead. I just called a few roofers that are in my area and one said he knew me and would start saving them for me, another said he had a whole bunch of them and would call me when he gathered them up (maybe by Friday or Saturday), I'm hoping for a 100lbs. or more. I offered him .50 cents a lb.
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If you live in an older city, ask utility company employees like Edison or the gas company. A lot of these cities used to have lead pipes which are dug up when laying new electric, gas or sewer lines. A friend who worked for Com Ed managed to salvage a couple of tons of it. Also, a lot of old electric lines are sheathed in lead.
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Try your dentist. If he, or she, use the old lead sheathed X-ray system, they throw that lead shielded packet away after the x-ray is developed. I get about five pounds every time I get my teeth cleaned. The lead is pure, and soft.They have to dispose of it with a hazmat contractor if they don't find a caster to take it.
Hungry Horse
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Be careful with the high voltage lead sheath power cables many have the insulation under the lead saturated with oil. Oil that can contain large concentrations of PCB's. It won't hurt you as long as you don't drink 55 gallons of it but the smoke from smelting it should be avoided. The really bad part is if the DEQ catches you with it. They will dig up and haul off everything in sight. Bob
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Try your dentist. If he, or she, use the old lead sheathed X-ray system, they throw that lead shielded packet away after the x-ray is developed. I get about five pounds every time I get my teeth cleaned. The lead is pure, and soft.They have to dispose of it with a hazmat contractor if they don't find a caster to take it.
Hungry Horse
My Dentist has gone all digital now.
Buddy of mine got lead X-ray sheaths from his wife's employer and found it contained either tin (probably) or antimony as it was not pure. Feels nice and soft when only 2 or 3 thou thick, but after melting, made good bullets for the handgun and .45cal. Sharps.
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My experience with dental lead parallels that of Daryl's friend. It was a lead alloy and quite brittle when cast in larger pieces.
Around here, dental x-ray has gone digital.
J.B.
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Or perhaps your next door neighbor is doing some plumbing:
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg903%2F1441%2F8yEfI0.jpg&hash=c4bd68f99b32c9216428e273af046f826d903fa5)
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James, I guess I'm just dense, but why would a roofer have lead?
Also, the roofer said he'd start saving 'them' for you... What are 'them'?
Curiously,
John
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Air vents on the roof from plumbing, as in toilets, bathtubs, sewers, etc. are usually lead.
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A while back, I came across a good bargain on lead from the demolition of an old X-Ray room at a clinic. 1/4" thick sheets of lead. Got a few hundred pounds of it.
Funny how big bore rifles will deplete a stockpile of lead really fast.
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"Try your dentist."
Those little x-ray foils are no longer available. It is now considered has-mat and is tracked. No more freebies, at least in California.
I found them a lot of trouble to disassemble for what I got.
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Roofer's lead is quite good stuff. I picked up over a hundred pounds of it a few years back. I've also used lead bottles that store radioactive isotopes. They're given a clean bill of health prior to being discarded. Very soft lead.
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Thanks Daryl.
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Most welcome John.
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James, I guess I'm just dense, but why would a roofer have lead?
Also, the roofer said he'd start saving 'them' for you... What are 'them'?
Curiously,
John
Yep, they are also called roof flashing or roof jacks they cover the vents on top of your roof from the bathroom, Kitchen, and laundry rooms. They are made of very soft lead.
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Well, I just scored around 55 to 58 lbs. of roof flashing from another roofer, It turns out these folks actually save their roof jacks because they melt them down for fishing weights. The best thing is that before I left the girl there said come back any time if you need more!! :) :). Also they weren't going to charge me but I gave her a 20.00 bill and she said that's enough. You just have to call around, these folks were about the 5th or 6th people I called.
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Well, I've been making ingots the last 2 days, so far its 32 ingots for 36 lbs. I also counted may stash today and so far I have 182 ingots for 206 lbs. with 20 lbs. of roof flashing to go. I'm looking to hit 300 lbs. by the end of the month. I have a couple of folks I want to help out in the lead department so they can cast up a bunch of RBs. where they live its tough to find roof flashing and other sources of lead.
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Well, I just finished up melting down the last of those roof jacks, out of 62 lbs. (buckets included), I got 54 lbs. of clean lead in 48 ingots, not too bad for a $20.00 bill :).
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That's a great score!
I actually had good luck putting want-to-buy ads on Craigslist. I have $150 in 650lbs of soft/pure lead through two scores off such ads. I had to sort through a lot of responses and had to be ready to jump when deals came, but I'm glad I did.
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That's a great score!
I actually had good luck putting want-to-buy ads on Craigslist. I have $150 in 650lbs of soft/pure lead through two scores off such ads. I had to sort through a lot of responses and had to be ready to jump when deals came, but I'm glad I did.
I did what you suggested and got a reply, they say they have 1,200 Lbs. of lead and just want someone to get it off their property. In what form it is in I don't know yet we shall see if I get a reply, I told them I could probably get 200 to 300 Lbs. of it.
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1200 pounds is 500 dollars worth of lead at the scrap yard. Not a bad days work. Scrap the bulk and keep the cleanest stuff for your self.
If you just offered to take part of the pile you might not hear back from them. Would not be hard to find the guy to come and take it all and leave the area clean. Reducing the pile just makes less incentive for the next guy to finish the job proper.
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Yep, go get it all. 1200lbs of lead wont take up much room and it wont sour before you can find a use for it. ;)
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Well, its been 3 days, no rely yet. I think its a fake Email.
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Well, no reply yet on the 1,200 lbs. But I have scored 90 Lbs. of sheet lead from a recycler, he has a whole X-Ray room in sheet lead, probably has a few hundred Lbs. of it. I'm going to get it all in the next few days. The only bad thing is he charges .70 cents a Lb. not tooo bad if you've been looking for quantity instead of a few pounds here a there like I've been getting.
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I just bought a 50 lb bar of lead from a mob called Consolidated Alloys, it is 99.97% BHP bar lead, $105 Australian33.91 got a price on antimony at $33.91 Au a 1 kg, tin at $22.70 a kg. the bar lead worked out at about $3.81 a kg, scrap lead is cheaper, but as I cast a lot of minnie ball I like to know what the lead purity is. I also have managed to get lead from a roofer mate of mine, but it is not quite so common now.
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Well, no reply yet on the 1,200 lbs. But I have scored 90 Lbs. of sheet lead from a recycler, he has a whole X-Ray room in sheet lead, probably has a few hundred Lbs. of it. I'm going to get it all in the next few days. The only bad thing is he charges .70 cents a Lb. not tooo bad if you've been looking for quantity instead of a few pounds here a there like I've been getting.
Well, I've been hitting the recycler up for more X-Ray lead, I got 258 Lbs. total, minus 15 lbs. for Bucket weight (6 Buckets worth at 2.5 lbs. a bucket) for 243 Lbs. that cost me $162.00 and got 244 Lbs. that are in 210 ingots, that makes it around .66 cents a pound not bad for weighing on rock using bathroom scales. I think my buckets are less than 2.5 Lbs. but it works in my favor. Btw, he still has 2 sheets of lead left that weigh around 40 Lbs. apiece, I'll get these next month :)
Makes it a total of about 400 lbs. of clean lead in 353 ingots, Still not as good as Mr. tddeangelo with his 350 lbs. for at what was it? .24 cents a pound? :o