Question about scrap lead

[Nordnecker]

I salvaged a bunch of nice soft lead flashing yesterday. The trouble is, it's got hundreds of tacks stuck in it. Many of these tacks are copper but at least half of them are galvanized steel.
My question is- will the zinc in the galvanized ones contaminate the lead? I've read that zinc will perminately contaminate your lead pot and everything else, causing all sorts of problems.

[Eric Krewson]

I understand zinc fumes are bad business, I would either pull or knock them out or cut the edges off where they are located.

[HelmutKutz]

Yes the zinc will contaminate the lead indeed.

[hanshi]

I agree; zinc is bad stuff.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Two things:  pull all the nails, and cut away any solder joints.  Solder joints will make your lead harder than you want for a muzzleloading rifle.

[Daryl]

We used to get out pure lead from telephone company until about the mid or late 1980's when they switched to plastic housings for their junctions.
The huge pure lead casings they used, had soldered ends which I cut off with an axe, keeping them for mixing for my handgun bullets.
the pure lead centre was perfect for balls for the ML.
If you are going to or have to shoot hardened lead as round balls in your ML, get a mould about .015" to .020" smaller than the barrel's bore size and
use a heavy, thick patch.
Trying to use a thin patch will result in burn-throughs, built up fouling and inaccuracy.

[Scota4570]

You have wonderful stuff there.  I cut my 1/4" sheet up with snips. 

Yes, zinc is poison to lead.  Even the tiniest amount will make it cast like cream of wheat cereal.

[Hungry Horse]

The best lead I ever got my hands on was some that came from a construction sight where they were building an X-ray room. The Sheetrock was stacked in the hospital parking lot uncovered. A freak rain storm ruined it for  X-ray room use. So a friend and I bid on it, and got it. It was hard to clean up, but you could almost press your fingerprints into it. I’ve never found any other lead that soft.

 Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

As I understand the X-ray room lead, it has to be as soft as possible to make lead sheets, as any alloys in the mix, will either not stop the radiation, or will hold hold it.
Perhaps that is incorrect just saying what I've seen penned.

[Nordnecker]

Yesterday morning, I cleaned all the tacks out of this lead. It took about 1 1/2 hrs. Hammer was useless. A pair of electrician's side cutting pliers was the tool of choice.

Probably 50 lbs or more!

[will payne]

I have a book on the table of elements and it says that zinc and lead is bad. Now there is still some zinc metal were you took the taks off, so if you have not already done this scrape off the lead that hade the zinc on it.

[457121]

I have a book on the table of elements and it says that zinc and lead is bad. Now there is still some zinc metal were you took the taks off, so if you have not already done this scrape off the lead that hade the zinc on it.

My neighbor is a roof contractor and he brings me all the lead flashing from his jobs for the past 10 years. I do remove any nails/ tar from the lead before melting but have never scraped the lead where the galvanized nails went through. Never had a problem with zinc contamination.

[Doc]

As I understand the X-ray room lead, it has to be as soft as possible to make lead sheets, as any alloys in the mix, will either not stop the radiation, or will hold hold it.
Perhaps that is incorrect just saying what I've seen penned.

Daryl,
You are right there.  The more pure it is, the more dense it is, and the better it stops the Xray's.

Doc

[Ross Dillion]

Don’t over think this. These heavy metals are bad but it doesn’t take much ventilation or common sense to negate the risk. My doctor said don’t eat it and wash your hands when I asked him about it.  The main problem would be if you got the lead to a point where it was boiling. You should be nowhere near that. Lead flashing is great stuff but it’s usually pretty dirty. Buy a new jar of flux.

[Daryl]

I like/prefer beeswax for fluxing.

[Ross Dillion]

I like beeswax also. Works as well or better than anything else I’ve used.

[sespe]

I lucked in to about 600 pounds of lead roof flashing about 8 years ago.  It was dirty and ugly, no nails but lots of spider egg sacks and such.  I found an old iron kettle in a thrift store and a couple muffin tins.

To avoid splashes, steam explosions, and such:  I would throw a bunch of flashing in the kettle (in the back yard using a propane burner) and let it melt down.  To flux I used a bunch of old candle stubs.  When it was melted and fairly clean I would fill the muffin tins.  After the pot was completely empty I would reload and do it again.  This way I was never adding cold lead with icky stuff to melted lead. 

Still using those muffin ingots to this day. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I was lucky enough to be given about 700 pounds of lead sheeting that had been salvaged from an x-ray room reno.  I rolled the sheets into tubes and cut them into0 chunks on my bandsaw (metal cutting blade), and then melted them in a large cast iron crucible designed for this purpose.  I set up eight concrete blocks, wired the top layer together and set up a propane tiger torch in the centre.  As the lead melted, I fluxed with candle wax and removed the dross.  Daryl and I have four Lyman ingot molds that we set up on my patio table on concrete slabs on a piece of plywood, and poured lead all day until all our sheet lead was reduced to ingots.  Here's a few pics that tell the story...
Daryll's lead as pictured was in thinner sheets than mine, and he simply tore it up with his hands and beat it into lumps that he melted in the crucible.

[Daryl]

LOL - just like seating a tightly patched round ball, but with gloves on.
It is very thin, easily torn and pounded into lumps for the pot.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I use a 12" steel wok and a turkey fryer. I welded up a support for the wok to sit on the fryer. I pour the clean lead into muffin pans to be used in my 20 pound Lee pot when needed