AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: Zachary on June 06, 2020, 04:25:50 AM
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I run a concrete crusher recycling concrete a good part of the summer. We recently did a pile that had some old building foundations in it. Sorted out a number of cast iron couplers still intact. Hit them with a hammer and bust them open and you can peel the lead out of the joint. I ended up with 60 pounds.
(https://i.ibb.co/HXVhXJ2/137-B36-AD-695-F-46-D5-A502-3-B730099-C63-B.jpg) (https://ibb.co/8X0YXhB)
(https://i.ibb.co/xfCdb0m/C540-C840-6167-40-D2-A25-F-966-CEB6-FB2-B4.jpg) (https://ibb.co/yYf7C1h)
(https://i.ibb.co/c1vqhFH/5521-E981-A7-FB-4674-92-E3-514-A383-D8-F0-F.jpg) (https://ibb.co/FKWp4wM)
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Did any of it smell like !$@! when you melted it down?
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A lot of it had some pitch or something on it that’s what you noticed the most. I did it outside and stayed up wind I didn’t want to breathe any of it.
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Lucky you. Congrats.
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Years ago I was able to dig up many old cast iron gas pipes (some up to 16-inch diameter). The bell joints had a large amount of lead which was pure with oakum rope. Lead stunk to high heaven like old manufactured gas from the late 1800's to early 1900's. Ended trading all of it to a gun builder for parts and builds.
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Yeah it don't smell to well and I saw a lot of oakum as well.
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Got mine from a roofer, the old lead roof vents. You sure can be aware of the fumes that come off the melting chunks. You wouldn't think it would absorb or be coated with anything being in the sun and weather all the time but it has a smell about it for sure.
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I wonder if the cast balls would also have a distinct odor about them ::) ;D
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Lead used to joint iron pipes is covered with solder. The solder will alloy your lead and make it harder than really desireable for round balls. So if you have a choice, save the coupling lead for your BPCR's, and find some pure lead for muzzle loading.
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"Lead used to joint iron pipes is covered with solder"
Not generally true. In the 60's-70s the commercial plumbers my dad worked with used pure lead poured over the oakum. I never saw them add solder to the melt in the large propane pot. And all the lead ingots they gave us where dead soft.
kw
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Then you are fortunate. I have only taken one of these apart, and the plumber had used solder to finish the mend. I stand corrected.
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The lead I've used over the years came from a bewildering variety of sources. It's always Christmas when you find lead.
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I’m no lead expert at all but you can easily scratch this stuff with your fingernail. An older friend of mine used to work on old cast iron gas lines. He said they had real fine lead wire they’d pound into the joint and it’d melt as they pounded it in. Know idea how accurate all that is but the stuff I’ve found seems soft to my fingernails anyway.
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There be no melting as they pounded it, but soft lead would certainly 'flow' under percussion, to fill all available crevices.
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great find! I have a lot of lead. I have large bars that got put in race cars for weighting down one side. I just gave a 5 gal. bucket of WW to a friend. what I like most is the floor pans from old showers. I have 2 of them, they are 5x5 sheets of pure lead. plus I have a hill at home on my range I have been shooting into for 30 years.
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I think I may still have about 500 pounds in Xray lead and a lot of them I cast in muffin moulds'and the rest are
in square blocks.Not sure what I will make from them right now.
Bob Roller
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What was used instead of pouring lead joints was lead wool. Looks like steel wool but is pure lead. I used it in the late 60's and 70's until lead joints went out of favor. The lead wool was pounded in the cast iron pipe hub over the oakum with the same tools used to drive the oakum in. When properly compressed it was just as solid as a poured joint.
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A friend of mine gave me about a 5 lb chunk of lead that had a wire loop in one end... Apparently it had been used as a weight for some kind of fishing setup... Trotline maybe.
I went to melt it down this afternoon and I was treated to the loveliest hot metal and lake mud smell coming out of the furnace.
But stinky or not, it's all in ingots now.
Mike
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Horsetrader that must be what my friend was talking about. I’ve seen some of the rings that the one edge wasn’t quite solid you could tell it had been lead wool.