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melting lead and casting it into ingots.
The lead was an old shower drain-pan. It was given to me because the person on whose property it was knew I cast bullets.
I cut it up into smaller rectangles and then pounded them flatter with a 4 pound sledge.
I set up my cheapy hot plate under the Pecan tree and started. The hotplate had barely enough heat, but the wind was blowing so I had to help it out at times with my propane torch. This lead had a lot of dirt in/on it. I got 12 1/2 pounds of dirt and slag. But it made 45 pounds of ingots! I have a bunch of really hard alloy and with this pure lead I can made some nice bullets.
That’s pretty cool. With all of the Covid stuff this year, the horrific impact on my medical practice and its viability happening during the midst of an attempt to move to more affordable facilities, losing my lifelong friend due to the Covid, and now all the election fraud, I could really use a few days to relax...!
Unfortunately, life has given me one of those deals where you think you’re almost able to relax and then you see the coach says you’ve got to run 10 more laps....
At least the office is going to have enough exam rooms by next week hopefully. Maybe we can at least start breaking even if we can see all the patients who want seen. It’s very frustrating to turn people away when they simply want an office visit. But soon we will have space, and even Biden can’t destroy everything about healthcare and small businesses.
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It's 2025 - "Cutesy Time is OVER....!" [Dan Bongino]
I spent most of the day in front of this computer. But I am well past my billing quota for the year and I have two months left.
I'm not really sure why I continue to work like this. But tomorrow morning, I want to sit in a quiet spot and wait for a buck or hog to come close enough for me to blast it with my .45 Colt.
Whenever I hear " Pecan tree" I start to think about Lonesome Dove, we don't have Pecan Trees over here but they sound like good trees to sit under...
Nice job with the lead Jim..
Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
gamekeeper wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:47 pm
Whenever I hear " Pecan tree" I start to think about Lonesome Dove, we don't have Pecan Trees over here but they sound like good trees to sit under...
Nice job with the lead Jim..
The Pecan Tree ...
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Jim, putting up lead is nearly as comforting as putting up firewood in a place with cold winters.
Doc, sure wish you luck with the office improvements and other logistics during this time of stress.
Seventy miles to the south of here, El Paso is in crisis.
Nice way to spend an afternoon. My stash of soft lead is getting low but I am always on the lookout. Nice score on the shower basin. I didn't know that the used lead for those.
historicfirearms wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 8:09 am
Nice way to spend an afternoon. My stash of soft lead is getting low but I am always on the lookout. Nice score on the shower basin. I didn't know that the used lead for those.
This was from a remodel on an old house. Now days they use plastic or rubber I believe.
My largest single lead hall was a shower pan from an old building on the grounds of the state hospital. It was an eight head shower room! Had to load it with an excavator OH Happy Day! Was pretty expensive though...a case of Miller Lite.hehe
a Pennsylvanian who has been accused of clinging to my religion and my guns......Good assessment skills.
Last edited by COSteve on Sat Jan 16, 2021 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Steve 18 Years into My New Career; 'Gentleman at Leisure' Travel is Our Passion: 83 Countries and All 50 States Visited No Matter Where You Go, There You Are
Good to have a nice outside spot for melting the dirty stuff into ingots. And a pecan tree at that! My old Aunt Marj (died last year at 103) had several pecans in her back yard and used to fix me up with a full box of the nuts when I visited. My favorite nut for sure.
I don't have the contacts to get any plumber salvage and don't even know if they find such stuff around here. Last free lead I got was a couple years ago a friend brought over 4 half-full buckets of tire-shop wheelweight salvage. They ran about a third zinc/steel/mystery but we harvested many pounds of wheelweight ingots. The old turkey roaster makes reasonably short work of the melting chore when doing that sort of thing -- much faster than the old Coleman camp stove I used for years for that duty.
I've been buying "range salvage" for my soft stuff, but the last "range salvage" I bought was right up there with wheelweight for hardness. Don't know what kind of a range that came off of but couldn't have been a lot of jacketed lead in the mix.
The greatest patriot...
is he who heals the most gullies. Patrick Henry
I have tried to find a source of lead, but too many people around me have already got the market tied up.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
Jim, have to say, that's really cool stuff. Were you using an induction heating unit? In my limited experience in Ukraine, they burn much, much hotter than a conventional hot plate. Maybe even hotter than gas!!
I spent most of my day making Ukrainian borscht on my work bench outside on my covered back porch. My kitchen is too small to accommodate what I have to do, so I moved my cutting board and food processor and some paper plates and bowls outside.
It was actually quite pleasant to do so, it was a very lovely fall day here in Ukiah. Loaded up the stock pot, and brought it in for cooking and seasoning.
Hoping I have a batch suitable for our visiting Bishop and his 20 Ukrainians tomorrow but I think I nailed it.
Something to be said for doing things outside for sure. Was a pleasant day.
-Tutt
"It ain't dead! As long as there's ONE COWBOY taking care of ONE COW, it ain't dead!!!" (the Cowboy Way)
-Monte Walsh (Selleck version)
"These battered wings still kick up dust." -Peter Gabriel
Hey Tutt! No. Just an old cheap hot plate. Develops almost enough heat. Inside it works better. Outside when the wind is blowing I add heat with a propane torch. I don't do this kind of stuff much and the hot plate does OK. The Coleman propane camp stove works better but for some strange reason my family gets upset with lead splashes all over it. Strange obsession with them.
A suggestion for you. I use a plain hotplate like yours and a cast iron pot with a removable wood handle. What I did was to take 'aluminum flashing' and make a heat shield around that pot in order to retain the heat and reflect it back to the pot. It covers all the heating element circumference and taper to a rolled over upper edge at the top. My pot handles 10 - 15 lbs, which melt in about 15 mins from cold.
I ladle out of the pot to molds but never ever poured out of the pot. That will be the big difference in using my type of shield. I let my alloy cool and harden then drop the large disk out for storage. I only made small ingots when I first started casting.
BRS
Last edited by black river smith on Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Black River Smith! I thought about doing that but just used the propane torch instead. I have some tin and am thinking about making the heat shield like you described with it. I don't melt scrap lead too often because I am able to get fairly clean lead from the metal dealers here. I hauled a load of scrap iron in, sold it for $150 or so and then gave them the money back for a bunch of lead. Much of it was already cast into ingots and is on the order of linotype.
Great idea and one I had been thinking about .. so guess I better make it up and be prepared next time.
