I'll be up in Bbracebridge more often in the fall
Lead salvaging
- Thread starter cXIII
- Start date
I'll be up in Bbracebridge more often in the fall
Bassmaster
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- WMU 48 - Whitetail country
What an awesome excuse for my annual visit to Epps.....if you're interested in selling a few hundred pounds
- Location
- Saskatchewan
I met a plumber who was contracted to change out the underground lead water pipes for a town. He had tons of pure lead pipe, perfect for casting soft bullets. I bought a lifetime supply for cheap.
When I want hard bullets I alloy them with the left over linotype that I purchased cheap from a small town printing press that never cleaned up their old stock when they switched to modern printing methods back in the 1980's. So plumbers and small town newspapers might be worth a look.
Batteries are very very toxic, the lead in them is oxidized and combined with other elements that makes them pretty much useless and dangerous so avoid smelting battery lead if you value your health. I would never use them as a source of lead for casting.
When I want hard bullets I alloy them with the left over linotype that I purchased cheap from a small town printing press that never cleaned up their old stock when they switched to modern printing methods back in the 1980's. So plumbers and small town newspapers might be worth a look.
Batteries are very very toxic, the lead in them is oxidized and combined with other elements that makes them pretty much useless and dangerous so avoid smelting battery lead if you value your health. I would never use them as a source of lead for casting.
Sealed "service-free" batteries have calcium, arsenic and other nasty additives. Do not even try using them! I learned from reclaiming range scrap that fluxing is important to avoid losing antimony and arsenic as you proceed. I have a bunch of slag I am going to try to reintroduce into some pure lead as an experiment... I have had no luck ever getting free lead myself. It bothers me but oh well, if a tire shop or whatever even says no to cash or treats then there isn't much to do.
Nah. It's forever toxic as you could imagine. Bad for your dies, your pot, your barrels, and the range.
Interesting! That could work for me since I have quite a lot of dross to deal with.
a few years back during the low water season on the fraser a friend of ours with a jet boat took us up to the gravel bars where the previous year's sockeye and spring fishery took place. Thousands of anglers flock to those gravel bars in years when the river is open. We used a chain and a steel grapping hook kinda deal and you wouldnt believe the amount of gear we would pull up. The common lead weights used are 2, 2.5, 3 and 4 ounce round balls and we recovered an uncountable number of them.
I still have a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of old lead pulled up from the fraser.
Right now I am getting ready to melt 20 or 30 pounds to pour 2.5 , 3 and 4 ounce round balls in anticipation for that same fishery to open this year...... maybe.
I also have a good 100 pounds of old fishing lead without any alloys in it that I'll save in case I decide to cast for my .303 one day.
I still have a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of old lead pulled up from the fraser.
Right now I am getting ready to melt 20 or 30 pounds to pour 2.5 , 3 and 4 ounce round balls in anticipation for that same fishery to open this year...... maybe.
I also have a good 100 pounds of old fishing lead without any alloys in it that I'll save in case I decide to cast for my .303 one day.
We just waded out after the water dropped 2 or 3 feet. We called it the Fraser River grope.
Pull up any piece of line you felt, especially around bigger rocks where the weights would get stuck and broken off.
We still have a couple of ice cream buckets of weights we salvaged.
I handcast 6000 to 8000 lbs/year.
About 8 yrs ago me and a buddy got a 1200lb lead keel from a sailboat...Cost was...we had to dispose of the boat and tear it apart. Great score...however severely underestimated how difficult it is to cut up a lead block form. Basically had to torch it down into moveable chunks, then pick up melted slag, and then repeat the process again at home to get it all sorted into 1lb ingots and muffin tins. Took about 4 weekends and 5 propane tanks to process it all.
Because it was pure lead, had to order Tin and Antimony ingots from Amazon for casting range rounds and hardness. I keep 150lbs of pure lead for round balls and buckshot molds
Because it was pure lead, had to order Tin and Antimony ingots from Amazon for casting range rounds and hardness. I keep 150lbs of pure lead for round balls and buckshot molds
Lots of youtube videos of how to neutralize acid with baking soda. I have done it a couple of times...but it is just not worth the effort (for me). However, it SHTF comes and lead sources get scare...there will be lots of batteries in abandoned cars.
Can't be said often enough
Yu will also get lots of other stuff in that. What I have dealt with is usually pretty dirty to deal with
- Location
- Van. Is. B.C.
A buddy of mine is getting out of casting and gave me a bunch of stuff he no longer needs. There was 32lb of ww ingots, about 1lb of pure tin, about 35lb of sorted wheel weights and this:
20lb of linotype.
He also threw in an almost full container of Marvelux flux. I'll probably cast and PC a bunch of .38's for him.
Auggie D.
20lb of linotype.
He also threw in an almost full container of Marvelux flux. I'll probably cast and PC a bunch of .38's for him.
Auggie D.
