Casting lead

Last year I moved into a C19 house which, as the agents say, 'is in need of some modernisation'. Well, yes, true enough - I've so far stripped out maybe 20kg of lead gas-lamp piping which had been blasted-boarded over. I'd like to convert the lead into ingots for weighing down the bases of things I make. My questions are these: (a) Can I melt the stuff down in a cheapo stainless pan on my fire ( I can get the temperature, just worried if the lead will eat the steel) and (b) can I cast it in my wife's pressed steel loaf trays, which are the right size, and get away with it?

As a diffident poster on this site I apologise for any orthological irrectitudes, or annoying ambiguities (I've been reading another thread...)

Roibn.

hi robin,

yes you can melt it quite easily as you propose. alternatively you can sell it for scrap to pay for something else.

cheers,

julian

A stainless steel pan is fine for melting lead, provided that it is a dedicated workshop pan and won't be used afterwards in the kitchen. Don't use your wife's loaf tins for pouring the ingots, buy your own. Better still, use lengths of angle with the ends blocked off to cast smaller, lighter ingots that are easier to re-melt at a later date. I melt lead over a camping gas stove outside - partly because I am a little wary of the fumes but mainly from the safety point of view - spill a saucepan full of molten lead on the floor of the living room and you have a serious accident on your hands.

I've melted it on the stove in a saucepan without any problems and cast into wood which does cause a bit of smoke. The wood was dried out in an oven as any damp in it really wouldn't be a good idea at all. Just making small weights to insert in the butt of poorly balanced fishing rods.

John

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Steel cookware is fine, don't forget the pot handle gets hot and may melt, I made about a zillion fishing weights this way in my yoof

The only caveat is if you use water for cooling anything make sure its totally dry before you pour any molten lead into the mould or it will explode as any water droplets superheat into steam (not that I ever made that mistake of course)

Also, save a bit for making lead headed/faced hammers

Robin

PLEASE research the activity so you can make an educated decision. Lead casting can be performed safely but only under very controlled conditions. I suggest you read this for starters. **LINK** Many years ago I stopped casting lead bullets outside. When I became aware of the hazard to not only myself but also my loved ones, I sold my kit. The results of a Pb test recommended by my doctor at the time indicated that I had a very high level of lead in my blood, but at the time I was also shooting a lot of solid lead .38 bullets at a modern and well ventilated indoor military range. Interestingly enough that indoor range was condemned and demolished a few years ago after the area and adjacent surfaces were found to be coated in unacceptable levels of lead. While taking my degree in H&S, I was required to review case studies related to exposure to lead. Although most cases were related to industry, some were related to exposure in the home and some of those resulted from lead being unknowingly transported home on worker clothing. Some of those stories were very sad, especially when the lead exposure caused the death of young children (who are the most vulnerable).

This is not intended to be an anti-lead sermon. Make your own choice but please do so in an informed manner..

Cheers

Bill

Melting lead was on of the frightening things we did as kids, over a wood fire using any old container we found.

Poured in to old telephone insulators that lay around the old waste site, they made lovely "screws".

Grandma used to take them to the scrap man for us for pocket money.

Stern warning from Bill - as he says, know what you are doing. As kids (Like most of us of a certain age), we melted lead in tin cans etc. When you melt the lead, there will be a scum of debris and lead oxide which you can scrape off the molten lead with a piece of steel etc. Just remember that this scum is just as dangerous as the lead itself and could pose a problem for disposal. Wether it can go into the council metal scrap is a question as it is no different than chucking a lead pipe into the scrap bin!
Do make sure your moulds are perfectly dry, we used to cast heavy lead weights in flower pots which was OK until we used a damp one. The explosion was spectacular and the whole lot shot several feet into the air and then landed on top of my brother like a piece of metal armour. He was mainly OK, it just took ages to get the lead out of his new jumper before my aunt caught us. just as dangerous, we used a small petrol fuelled camp stove which in itself was OK except that we used to syphon petrol from my uncles car to fill it - Oh, I still remember the taste of it. However we all survived !
BobH

I too have melted lead for the same reason Bill did, cleanliness and cleaning of the lead in the melting pot is by stirring in beeswax, the stirring ensures the lead is mixed as various metals are involved like Antimony. A piece of beeswax about the size of a Hazlenut is dropped on the surface and then stir to bring up dirt and dross, skim off the dross. You may have to repeat this. have a piece of steel rod to stir with.

A good mould is the frog of a house brick and I emphasize that it must be dry and only used for this purpose and kept with the melting equipment. A piece of angle iron with the ends filled and welded also is good.

Cast iron lead melting pots and ladles are available. Look under reloading equipment. The name, 'LEE' springs to mind. Overall take care and avoid breathing in any fumes and wear a mask.

Clive

As kids, we used to melt lead to make fishing sinkers in a tin can on the electric stove. Bent a bit of a spout in the rim first. Of course, the food tins weren't plastic lined as they are now.

Like many of the people above, I must have cast many hundreds of sea fishing weights over the years. The best moulds are made of aluminium, its high heat conductivity presumably aiding rapid cooling. I've always done my casting outdoors, and whatever moulds you use they must be absolutely dry. Eye protection, heat-proof gloves, and a thick cotton boiler suit are highly recommended, just in case....

In the old days of hot metal newspaper production, I once worked for a publishing company which had a spectacular accident when a water pipe burst over a very big crucible used recycle press plates and other type metal items. The explosion was huge. I can't remember whether anyone was hurt, but I think about the incident every time I do any fishing weight casting.

You might find that your gas pipe is not ordinary lead but a special alloy containing tin. I can't remember what the trade name for it is but it is worth a lot more than ordinary roofing or water pipe lead!

Mark

As many others I have also cast lots of bullets .38 .45 & .577 mainly now I cast only lead jaws for my bench vice, still using my old RCBS melter and ingot mould plus home made vice jaw mould.

Most has been said but best to do the work outdoors and wear suitable protective clothing, a full face mask is a must! and be extremely careful to make sure there is no moisture in the moulds when casting. A dollop of plumbers tallow is good as a flux to clear the dross in the melter.

On lead pollution I wonder how many thousands of homes are still conected with lead water pipe to the mains ? As far as I am aware there has not been a program to replace lead pipes and I know for a fact that many of the Victorian houses in our village are still on lead pipe !

.

Broadly speaking, that would be Pewter

But even Pewter comes in [at least] two varieties ... The traditional version quickly acquires a dark grey patina, but the modern variety contains more Tin [less Lead], and stays 'metallic'.

MichaelG.

Edited http://www.pewterers.org.uk/pewter/aboutpewter.html

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 22/12/2015 10:33:55

Here the only lead pipe used in plumbing was the waist pipe from the sink etc, in those days water was in galvanised iron pipe, and I think most gas pipe was iron, but those who took water off the roof for tank supply usually had a corrugated iron roof held on with lead headed nails.

I used to have a bit of a side line making lead flower holders, these are small blocks of lead with rows of brass nails cast into it, the biggest job with the moulds was drilling about 130 1/16" holes to hold the nails. Lead flower holders are a bit out of fashion at the moment, so I have a couple of hundred kilos of lead not doing anything, and the scrap value is not high here.

Ian S C

Robin As everyone has said make sure everything is dry ie ladle mold etc

Roy

The worst source of lead in the environment was when it was added to petrol to boost the octane rating. I spent some time working in a lead acid battery factory - always melting and casting it and rolling balls of it around in huge high tech cement mixer type things to make the very fine oxides that are needed. Those from a health point of view are by far the worst - dust remains in the lungs and provides a constant feed of lead into people systems. Curiously oral intake does clear up. A few people did get that all down to such things as eating sandwiches after handling it and not washing their hands. Oxide powders in particular.

My recollection of monthly blood tests is that all people show a bit who ever they are etc. I think this was one of the reasons for concerns. The authorities monitored air quality at various places in and around the factory for rather a long time. No problems in or around the factory but there was near a fairly main road roughly 1/2 mile from the factory. One interesting aspect about that is that levels were not sufficient to cause classic lead poisoning symptoms - lines around gums. Lots is needed to do that. I think it was more a case of long term very low level exposure effects not really being understood.

They also sampled levels on roofs and in lofts. I understand there was some concern.

I suppose familiarity breeds contempt but given sense and not doing it all day casting a bit of lead now and again wouldn't really concern me. One thing I wouldn't do though is heat it more than needed. Like most metals fluidity increases with temperature. Casting fine section battery grids is one thing - weights etc another. If some one is going to do a lot of it - keeping it in sizeable electric lead melting pot for instance some extraction over that would be a good idea. It takes a pretty efficient expensive cyclonic filtering system to clean up what may be given off.

John

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Thanks Michael, I had not twigged pewter when I typed the post (and I have a couple of tankards made from the stuff). The name I am trying to remember is probably a tradesman "work" name but I still can't remember it!

The important part is the increase in value - anyone with tin should keep hold or get a "proper" price as it is semiprecious these days!

Mark