A question on Lead.

[Old 454]

I will try to make this short.

I was at work last night, and I work for a gas Utility.

The Electric utility called in a gas leak at one of there Vaults that they were going to work in. we cleared out the gas so they could do there work. Now here is the question.

They gave me a big piece of lead that they use to cover the connections that they make with there elctric cables. It looks like a long cylinder that is tapered on the ends to fit the cable that runs through it, I am thinking to keep water out of the connection.. They stated that it was all lead.

Are any of you familiar with this kind of lead ? Is it alloyed with any thing, it was soft but not real soft, the Electric guy stated it might have some tin in it. it weighted about 25 LBS.

He also gave me 4 bars of 65% lead 35% tin bars they use for soldering those joints.

[Mike / Tx]

OHHH MAN you need to get more call out's like that for sure.....

Yes cable sheathing. More or less pure but still a great deal for what you paid for it. Likewise the solder.

If you haven't found it yet, look over on the Castboolits site under the Lead and Alloys section. Look for a sticky called Alloy Calculators. Download the one from Bumpo, or if you want shoot me your email and I will send you a copy. It is an Excell spreadsheet, that allows you to pretty closely calculate known alloys in order to blend them together and come up with a new one.

So if you took your 25# of pure and added it in as that, then added say 1# of that solder you would end up with something like 2.42%tin 97.6% lead with an estimated hardness of 9.3 BHN. It isn't totally exact, but if you have known alloy to start with and use the formulas for them which are mostly listed you end up REALLY close to what your looking for.

Hope this helps.

[Old 454]

Thanks Mike, I hoping that this would be good for casting. They told none one in there company keeps them they throw them out, I going to go have a vist to one of there yards and raid there scrap bins

[kaylorinhi]

Mike TX, when you say "close enough" do you mean that for gas check v no gas check and such that the .08ish percentage's?

I am looking at casting for .357 in my Rossi M92. I have a very basic understanding of casting and am trying to learn more.

thanks for the info!

[dahermit]

Years ago (everything starts that way now), an acquaintance who worked for the telephone co. here in Michigan would give me similar lead alloy containers. They were of a general configuration of a SCUBA tank but only about 1/3 the size. they had a standard tire/bicycle type of air valve in them. They were being replaced by two-piece aluminum cylinders that were of a bolt-on construction. He was instructed to turn-in the containers when he swapped them out for the new aluminum ones, but he would save them for me in exchange for occasional hunks of deer meat. He explained that it was some kind of cable junction that at one time contained a gas.
The containers themselves appeared to be pure, or nearly pure lead with a high-tin content, single seam solder joint. When cut up and heated the seam would melt quite quickly... the rest of the container would melt slower, leading me to the belief it was pure lead. It made good bullets with the addition of more tin, albeit still somewhat soft.

[Mike / Tx]

Mike TX, when you say "close enough" do you mean that for gas check v no gas check and such that the .08ish percentage's?

I am looking at casting for .357 in my Rossi M92. I have a very basic understanding of casting and am trying to learn more.

thanks for the info!

Well I'm not real sure I understand just what your asking, but heck that never stopped me from trying to answer.

A couple of things on casting, velocity, pressure, and hardness.

First off once you start to shove lead down your barrel without the jacket on it, it becomes a balancing act so to speak. Your matching the bullets to the bore, the velocity and pressure to the alloy, and the hardness to all of the above.

It isn't real difficult, you simply have to look at it somewhat sideways compared to shooting jacketed bullets. With them you start at one point and move on to another with your powder charge. Nothing really changes that much except the pressure behind the bullet. Where as with cast, not only does the pressure effect the velocity, but it also can play havoc on the bullet as it get slammed into the rifling. Too soft and it skids to a start. Too hard and likewise. Sort of like three bowls of porridge. You want the one that's just right.

Luckily there have been many tons of lead flung downrange ahead of you and I so it is a LOT easier nowadays to figure it all out. Just going on what I have learned, if your wanting to load to run int he magnum class loads, you are going to need an alloy somewhere in the 12-15 BHN range for your rifle, possibly a touch more but not a whole lot. Also it can be a plain based or it can be a gas check if you want a bit of insurance from leading. That is not to say it will eliminate it entirely, but greatly reduce the chances and severity.

Also the lube which you use will go a LONG ways in both helping to prevent it from starting and keeping it from building up.

If you will take the time and spend a few hours reading through some of or more of what is posted over at this site, it will answer just about any questions you might have. LASC - Index to all Articles

While your there pay special attention to the listings by Glen Fryxell as well as the "Cast Bullet Notes".

I spent nearly a year and half reading, taking notes, printing stuff out, and saving a ton of it to my PC for reference. Then I started asking questions, and getting things together to start pouring my own. Once I hit the ground though I was off to the races. I've been loading my own ammo for right at 40 years, but I started very young under a VERY watchful eye. That said I have only been pouring my own bullets for about 2 years now. In those two years however I have not only learned a lot, but I have put a lot of what I learned into practice. Quite a bit was gathered from the above site, and another good bit was from over on Castboolits. It wasn't overly hard for me to put it together once I got it straight in my head, but believe me I am still learning something new with each new mold or alloy.

My best advice is to either locate a good source of lead first and gather up a bunch of it. Or if that isn't an option start looking for it in the classifieds. Look for folks who have sold before and have repeat customers, or have at least been around a while. Also try and stick with the basic types of lead like wheel weights, or pure. You will also need to locate some type of tin, whether it be solder or rounding up pewter at discount places and such. It will come in handy. If none of those are options you can purchase certified alloy from Rotometals, and know for a fact what your getting.

Also as I mentioned above if you will look for that calculator over on Castboolits, it is simply a spreadsheet, but it will help you get your known alloy softened, or hardened up with a pretty close and pretty easily repeatable formula that will also give you an approximate BHN of what it will end up as. Like I mentioned above, it might not be exact down to the last digit, but it is close enough to get you in the ball park and shooting with an alloy that you can easily replicate once you blend it up.

[Old 454]

What he said ^^^^ this place is a gold mine of info, all you have to do is ask or search it out. These guys here will help with most any thing you have to ask.