Casting strangely shaped lumps of lead

I needed a curiously shaped lump of lead as ballast that had to fit into voids around various fixings, shafts and gears and even a coupling spring.

I measured up and made a mould out of 1/8" and 3/32" scrap balsa. I had one small leak, but the old screwdricver i was using to hold back the dross was enough to chill the spilt lead an block the leak. The result was excellent, with little flash and though the balsa charred it held its shape. The block dropped straight into place.

One warning, if you do this make sure you leave the mould to dry near a radiator or similar for several days to make sure there is absolutely no danger of a fizz-bang when the lead hits.

For smelting, I used am old milk pan (the domestic authorities made sure I bought a BETTER quality replacement first!) and my propane torch.

Neil

When I was in my last year at primary school I used to make lead flower holders, little lead blocks with brass nails sticking up, to hold flowers upright in a vase. I used to poke the nails through the bottom of a matchbox draw, then fill the draw with molten lead. In later years I made metal molds, with holes drilled for the nails, now theres a job, a couple of hundred 1/16" holes 1/2" through mild steel, I only broke one.

Wood or cardboard both seem OK for lead. Ian S C

I cast lead ballast weights for model gliders exactly the same way using balsa wood. As you say it chars the balsa a little but we're not talking mega heated metal.

Not specialy useful but sort of on topic.

If i remember correctly ..the first lighthouse on Langstone Rock was "cemented"

with molten lead.

And the tail tells of spmone(I think the inventor of the technique) looking up just as moltern lead dropped from above and an amount going down his throught.....now that would be odd shape casting

You often see lead in holes in walls to fix wrought iron railings, often where they were removed in the war as scrp (although i understand most of them were too poor quality to make a contribution).

neil

We had the same thing with iron fences in NZ, there are still places where you can see where the iron has been cut off flush with the concrete, the lead is still there. In WW1 the Germans gave it back to us, so we learned. In WW2 the Japanese gave it back to us, and proberbly did for years after the war. Now most of the scrap goes to China, although we do have our own steel mill. I remember seeing similar in the UK, it would have been to a greater degree than here.

If you need some lead, I'v got 200Kg or so out in the workshop. Ian S C

> If you need some lead, I'v got 200Kg or so out in the workshop. Ian S C

If you had that in the UK either you're stripping church roofs or you'd get burgeled tomorrow..

Neil

It came from various places, lead head nails, old waist pipes, roof flashing etc. Also a large number of wheel weights, still picking those up, one day I'll find out how to turn it into gold. On another thread I saw a vidio on making a lead weighted, aluminium flywheel, with a steel tire, the vidio is 5min, 20sec long, so on my dial up setup it took about an hour and twenty miniutes to load all but 20 seconds of it, the computor got a bit bored, and gave up, but I saw enough to see it was worth while. Ian S C

I'd love to buy your lead but fear the postage to the UK may be a tad out of my reach.

You pay the postage, its in 7.62 mm ammo boxes, about 50 Kg per box, I don't know what the value is in UK, but its hardly worth worrying about here, but if I keep it long enough, who knows. It might be like the collection of copper wire I had, that turned to gold.   ps; just had a look on google price London .9045 pounds sterling per Kg, $NZ 1 to $NZ1.75, about a third or less than other metals, can't see why the heck any one would bother nicking the stuff.   Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 07/04/2012 12:49:52

I've done a number of lead castings in the home foundry & used co2 sand for long case clock weights

& quite a few castings using ''petrobond'' sand & the beauty of petrobond is that the lead's not hot enough do any damage to the sand ie it's 100% reusable, unlike when you cast bronze/alloy etc you loose the burned sand in contact of the metal.

graham 't'

The b***rs even stole the lead flashing around a skylight on our education centre.

Neil

Not lead, but copper,a few years ago at a local Church someone came and nicked the down pipes one night, and loosened the spouting. Next night the constable lay in wait, and sure enough along comes the thief, wait for him to get on the roof, got 'em, thats the way it should work---It did that time! Ian S C

When smelting lead the clarifying agent is Beeswax.

When the lead is molten a small knob of beeswax thrown into the pot and stirred in will bring all the dross to the surface where it can be spooned off. The lead pot should then be stirred occasionally as you wait to cast your moulds.

Th size of the beeswax knob should be about the size of a hazel nut, the dross is possibly poisonous and should be discarded accordingly.

Lead acid batteries, the lead plates have arsenic in them to keep them hard so do not use lead acid battery plates.

Printers type is good for high detail casting as it has Antimony in it.

Some wheel wieghts are a composition of resin and lead so should be discarded.

Precision moulds (Bullet moulds and other metal moulds) should be at the same temperature as the lead when casting.

Crayon the insides of metal moulds with a very soft lead pencil which helps to stop sticking.

melted lead can be cast into ingots for storage by casting into the 'Frog' of a house brick. Make sure the brick is completely dry as any moisture will cause a lead explosion.

You do not want to be blinded by the splatter so eye protection is needed. casting should be done in a well ventilated place as the fumes from the beeswax and the lead can be nasty.

Clive

I've never smelted lead, only melted scrap, & the dross allways floats to the top of the melt without any flux but I might try beeswax next time as I used to keep bees & have lbs of it, I also have typemetal which as stated above gives good definition as it remains the same size when cool as when molten, I also have ''roses metal'' which expands on cooling we used it in the glass trade to secure armourplate doors before rubber gaskets & the hydraulic press was introduced.

graham ''t''

When melting lead, the lead is composed of various metals and includes silver and antimony and various other elements. As it melts it stratifies and unless you stir it you get various qualities of metal as you go further down the melted lead in the pot.

Lead smelting raw lead from imports has a fair amount of silver in it and this is tapped off in the smelting and gives the smelters a fair profit.

Enough to have 24 hour high security at the smelting plant!

Silver is now fetching a high price, dont worry, you will never get enough to make you rich!

Clive